Should you have to return your broken doll part when you are paying for a replacement

How is it UNfair? They're doing you a favor selling you a replacement part. Some doll companies won't do that or don't have the parts on hand.

They may want the original part back to see how it broke and analyze how they can make the part stronger again in the future, or maybe to see if you did something to it (like sanded it or filed it). As long as they're willing to sell you a replacement part anyway I don't see what the big deal is with them asking you to send back a small part. It's not like they asked you to pay to return an entire doll, or a valuable limited edition head.

Edited to add, selling individual parts is also a hassle for doll companies (it's costly) and in the case of Volks, as others have noted, they might also be concerned about people selling parts on the secondary market as there is a demand for them.

I might ask once if I could keep the broken part, but if they said NO I'd assume No means No and I wouldn't argue with them about it. They're within their rights to ask me to ship back the thing I want the replacement for. If I don't want to do that then I can complain all I want but I don't get a replacement. Sure, you have to pay a little extra shipping, but like I said the doll company is doing you a favor even selling you a replacement part and not making you buy a whole new body for the thing.

Overall, seems like a reasonable request to me.

 

Why do you even want a piece that is broken? I could understand if it's a head; you could use it to practice on or mod it in some way, but what use is a random broken doll part?

 

I would assume that they ask for the piece back so they have proof themselves that it has actually been broken.

I haven't dug around many doll sites to look for their "breakage" policies (specifically breakage, rather than just returns or refunds). It would be nice to know what individual policies are before the horrible happens: your doll sustains a breakage, and you don't know what the company is going to say and/or do about it... if anything

Lily, my DG Noella, arrived with a chipped foot, although DollGa did not ask for her foot back, they just shipped out a new one in like, a week, after I'd sent them photographic proof. (I loved DollGa. Come back, DollGa!!!)

 

I agree with this post wholly. I would actually be inclined to send the piece back - some companies are notorious for ever-changing resin batches, I would want them to be able to match it. They're not really under any obligation to replace it for you - there are bodies available, if you were so frustrated you could buy a new body and sell the broken one to someone who might like to repair is. Either way you'll be out a bit of money.

 

It sounds like they're pretty set in their policies, but you could try this. Ask whether if you send it to them to verify it being broken, or match resin, or whatever, if they would send it back with the replacement piece. If they truly know it's broken, and that you still want it, what use would it be to them to keep it?
It might be worth a shot.

 

Maybe it's too keep people from getting extra parts out of them without paying for them...

After years of delivering and then REdelivering "messed up" pizzas to parties where folks are eating the bad ones, I've become a little cynical about customer claims

 

Dolls aren't shoes.

In fact, BJDs aren't really the same as a lot of other consumer products, and the issue of flooding the market with spare parts is actually a serious one.

And I don't think Volks is keeping 'detailed records' of you, so they would have no idea if you were claiming parts were broken just to sell spares.

Here's a question - why do you want so much to keep the broken part? Is it really that useful to you? Is the 6$ or so it costs to mail a package for the USPS international flat rate that big a deal?

 

A new pair of shoes is a complete pair of shoes, not me asking for a replacement strap for a pair of shoes because the strap broke off in my hand. Also, shoes are a poor comparison because there are shoe repair shops that can likely take care of my problem. They're usually not a unique collector's item that can only be replaced by the original manufacturer.

That to me only means they have to give reasonable customer service, such as if you got the doll, took it out of the box and it was broken you could exchange or get a new one within like a week or two. It doesn't mean they're on the hook to replace broken parts of the doll for its lifespan. They could just as easily tell you "No, sorry, we're not going to sell you a part, it's costly to us to sell parts. You'll have to either repair yours or buy a whole new body."

Well, obviously you and I differ on that, and you and the doll company differ on that also. So maybe in the future you only want to deal with doll companies that will not ask for the broken part back, such as the ones listed in this thread.

Put it this way, if you asked for a part because yours was broken, and they replaced it, and then 100 other people did the same thing, then I think they would have a hard time keeping "detailed records" of all that. It seems like they don't want to set a policy of just replacing parts that people say are broken because it could easily snowball into a lot of people asking for or scamming such parts, and it would get very hard to keep track of, very fast.

You certainly can ask further questions, but it sounds to me like you aren't just asking to find out about policy, you're trying to make an argument that what they're doing is wrong and bad service and they should do what YOU want instead, when they really don't have any obligation to do that. You're arguing with me right now basically that your position is the correct one and "good customer service" means they will let you keep the part and send you the replacement. If you were similarly arguing with the doll company and trying to convince them to do it your way, then that's different from just saying "I see. May I please ask why?"

 

I think it depends on when the piece broke. If its when you first open your doll up and it has a broken hand, chipped parts or something along those lines, I think it should be required of the company to replace that part with out needing the broken part returned, since you paid for an undamaged doll. So for that kind of situation I think a photo of the piece should be enough. Iv done this with fantasy doll when I ordered a body from them. Got it and the left hand's thumb was broken clean off. So I took a picture, showed it to the company and they sent me a new hand, no charge to me and I didnt have to send the part back.

If it is later on, like several months later, then I dont know.. I dont think it should be necasary to send the part back, since your paying for the new part and shipping for that part AND it costs money to send the broken part back, that is most likely going to be discarded anyway. So it really doesnt make much sense to me that they would want the broken part. I think the word of the customer and a photo should be proof enough.. although why they need proof to begin with confuses me when they are getting paid for a new part.

So no, I dont think you should have to send the broken part back when you are paying for a new one. It doesnt make sense at all.

Although! I just thought of this reason. They may have a special way of discarding broken parts, they may not want resin going into a landfill if its merely thrown away. Im not sure if resin will degrade over time, so it might be one of those things. And it is toxic so they may not want it going into the environment. So if thats the reason, then yes, I would have no problem sending a broken part back to be melted down or discarded cleanly.

 

I can understand how this might seem 'unfair' if you just received the doll, brand new, but it had gotten damaged during shipping/packing (or whatever), so you aren't at fault for the damage. In that case, I wouldn't accept anything but a free replacement from the doll company I bought from. If they wanted the broken part back, I would send it back to them, but again, I'd expect them to refund the shipping for me (in store credit if they have that).

However, if the doll isn't brand new and I, myself, broke part of the doll... I don't think it's unreasonable that the company would ask me to ship the part back to them. I'd probably be a bit reluctant to part with the component if it was something like a limited edition head that is no longer produced - in which case, I would think most doll companies would be against supplying you with a brand new limited edition head because... well, it would kind of defy the whole 'limited edition' thing, wouldn't it?

Other body parts though? I don't see why not. I don't quite understand why you would want to keep a broken part anyway? While it's true that when you paid for the doll, you paid for every part of it, including the part that broke, therefore you should technically be allowed to keep it. I understand what you're saying and to an extent I do agree with you, but I just don't really understand why would you want to keep a part that's broken

If it's company policy that they require you to send back broken doll parts before they'll sell you replacement parts, there's not a lot you can really do. And if it's about the cost of having to ship it back to the doll company, I think it shouldn't cost that much to ship a single doll part to Korea/China (or whichever country the doll company belongs to). In the end, you'll be out a few dollars sending them the broken part, plus paying the cost of buying the replacement part, AND paying for shipping for the replacement part to be sent to you... but I think as long you get a replacement and you're happy, your doll is happy too, does it matter if you didn't get to keep the broken part?

 

If it were not a second-hand doll, I would say this was out of line.

However, it is a second-hand doll, these are not parts that are normally available, and they are completely within their rights to ask for whatever they want since they are actually allowing you to purchase something that is not normally something they would sell.

I would just be thanking my lucky stars that they WERE going to sell me a replacement, and send them flowers and candy on top of broken parts to get it.

 

It seems odd and unfair, however... If that's their requirements, then you have the choice of either doing what they say or not getting a replacement part! Not everything has to seem fair to everyone, after all. You can complain, but you don't get the part unless you follow their policy.

If the part is really broken, then they may want to veryify that. They may wonder what you are up to in wanting to keep a broken part. Maybe you'll fix the part and sell it as new and then the other person will claim they have a defective part and so on? Or maybe they have NO good reason at all. They can sell things as they please. You don't have to buy from them.

I would be annoyed... Mostly because of the extra expense and bother of shipping something back. But I'd probably just do it anyway, if I really wanted the replacement part.

 

Perhaps they might want to be sure to send you the correct replacement part, especially something like a forearm where the left and right are very similar but not identical and could have been strung on the wrong side.

 

I think Volks has a very strict policy of only replacing broken parts, and they require absolute proof that the part in question was broken -- and the only absolute proof out there is to actually give them the broken part. Photos can be manipulated or faked.

And even if the part really is broken, you could take a photo of the broken part, get your replacement, re-break the originally broken part or just take a photo of it at a different angle, claim the replacement broken, and get another part... I'm not saying that you would, but that you could, and Volks obviously wants to protect against this kind of behavior.

I think Volks isn't asking for anything unreasonable. Just return the part, get your replacement, and let it be. If you don't want to return the broken part, then don't return it -- and understand you won't get a replacement part, either. Arguing with Volks is not going to fix the problem.

 

humm, odd sitty-ation. I think you should be able to keep the old part so you have something to chew on =3

 

While resin is non-toxic when set, I don't know how much that carries over to EATING the stuff, given that sanding it can be very bad for your lungs... perhaps you were just joking but I'd consider it a bad idea to chew on resin so I hope nobody goes around chewing on spare parts. O_O

 

The only thing I can think of as a reason they want the damaged part is for proof that it is infact damaged. You know there are so many scammers and counterfiters out there. If I were the owner of a doll company I'd want to have the damaged part back as well. After all there's nothing stoping someone from saying they have a damaged arm and then just getting one for free, then asking again later down the line under another person's name for a second etc. ...People do all sorts of crap and because of the distance and the potential that someone might be trying to be sneaky about body parts, I really don't blame them. After all if you want a replacement then you'll send in a part to prove it was damaged and be willing to accept some of the cost. You know if it were a computer that was damaged you'd be asked under warrante you'd send the damaged part at cost to you for shipping and handling. In some cases you'd also pay for return shipping.

Christal

 

Ah well excuse me for that, you see, I was suffering from an uncontrollable bout of randomness. as I am currently being tutored by a great man named Murdock, I think it can be somewhat excuseable....but anyhow, it is not good to chew on resin or vinyl/plastic products. It is detrimental to the teeth, and if swallowed, can obstruct digestion and cause internal injury. Sorry. I'm weird, and although many embrace that, more are befuddled by it. lol.

 

Strangely, I was actually looking through some old emails from Volks today and noticed some from a few years ago when I had written them about the knee on one of my dolls breaking. It was less than six months after I had purchased her directly from Volks, yet they still expected me to return the part and pay for a replacement. I thought that it was unfair at first, but when I thought about it, I guess that they just required physical proof that the part was actually broken. It seems unlikely, but I guess that some unscrupulous person could try to build an entire doll from "broken" parts. Anyway, while they sent me a replacement lower leg after I sent the broken one back to them, they never charged me for the new one, which maked me think even more that they just wanting to avoid being cheated.