Volks after event

If only that was the sole reason to buy from scalpers. After waiting forever on line to do an in-person preorder at Dolpa and then spending 3 weeks watching what seems like dozens of people on DoA receive that same doll from scalpers (not blaming them, the only alternative for overseas buyers is this online mess) when I have 3 more MONTHS to go, I've concluded that there are other reasons why people may prefer scalpers to Volks. Call it a "rush delivery" fee. I wonder how many people rejected the 4-month preorder in favor of scalpers who could send the doll the next day?

I've been trying to be patient about this but I'm very unhappy about the distribution. This is the first and last time I'm buying a limited from Volks unless they change the system.

 

There are no numbers that's the problem. They release as many as they like, the volks variation of the words LE seems to mean "only available at certain times". IMHO it is very misleading and benefits only scalpers, but maybe it's the whole translation of japanese into english.

And I know that they care, you can not look at their dolls and say that they do not care. It seems like they are just stuck doing things "the way they have always done". It looks like it's very difficult for them to grow as a company and reach new markets and that might be the reason why, I don't know.

I still do not understand why they went out of their way to promote their dolls in such major publications and yet knowing fully well that they can not even make their existing customer base happy. Maybe they were just overjoyed to share or/and thought everyone would ignore?

krambear:
I did not bash, I offered some thoughts and suggestions (obviously volks would never read it, but I said it was a rant)

And I was speaking strictly of the management of new releases and limited edition dolls. No company is perfect, but they can try to get better, no? DOD, Luts, and CH try and fix errors when they occur. I sincerely hope Volks figures out this whole dollpa ordeal and that is why I voiced some suggestions. It seems to be a heartache for both us and them. A heartache for me too, because I love their dolls, afterall.

 

Ok, here is my problem - I sympathize with both sides. Someone (sorry I forget who) pointed out how the information in Haute Doll has skyrocketed the demand. I think Volks hoped for an increase in demand but did not anticipate HOW MUCH it has increased. I think they have to do something quickly to fix the problem and although the lottery was frustrating in some ways it was much better than the server crash and burn.

I think that if they are giving vouchers for September for some of the dolls, they must be having a hard time with supply, may have to rethink how often to have Dolpas until they get ramped up or come up with something else. I think they are a good company in a bad spot right now. And I think the other companies are trying their best too. I was frustrated with the last Dolpa After Event - but I got a Cyndy by paying a bit more. And I wanted her bad enough to do it.

Tough situation for both sides of the argument.

 

Volks isn't in the business of keeping everyone happy 100% of the time. This is impossible for any business. If you don't like how they offer their products, buy elsewhere. They are not a perfect company, but no company is, and unlike some other doll manufacturers, they have maintain their rigorously high standard even in light of their growing popularity. (I haven't seen any Volks dolls with terrible resin pits. Have you?)

These dolls are luxury goods, and they are sold as such. Volks is not capable of offering literally dozens and dozens of headmolds for general sale year-round. No other company does this; I don't see anyone complaining that Luts only has a small number of heads (3 girls, 3 boys!) or that DOD almost never releases new dolls, and yet people feel free to criticize Volks for reliably releasing several new dolls three times a year simply because they aren't available in unlimited quantities! You can't have it both ways, and it's not the end of the world if one slips through your fingers. I would *much* rather have the Volks model than a whole bunch of brands who only offer a few heads and never mix it up and release LEs or new molds or the huge range of styles that Volks has, with everything from Madoka to Hisui.

Not to mention, most brands don't even have retail stores, let alone host events like Dolpa. Volks, of course, has both, and has at least three annual, huge dolpa. Comparing an internet-only, no-real-LEs company like Luts (I do not count Elf Lishe, etc, as they are only minor modifications of exisiting heads) is comparing apples and oranges.

The anti-Volks sentiment here is really rampant. If you don't like their dolls, fine, don't buy them. The fact remains, however, that Volks is releasing the largest number of dolls of the highest quality, with the widest variety of choices (no other brand has anything even remotely similar to FCS, after all), with reliable and frequent improvements and innovations. They are not perfect, but if one is looking for something that is reliably easy to get without the hassle of 3-minute sellouts and dolpa exclusives, collect Barbies.

 

That was really well said Kiwiflowers! There's no way any of us can know what it's like to be Volks and know what decisions they make and choices they face each day. Maybe if we were in their shoes, we'd do the same thing!
However, there's nothing wrong with voicing opinions and complaints. It is hard to get a hold of limiteds, and even standards. Personally, I think they overextend themselves with too many Dolpas per year. It must be next to impossible to come out with so many limiteds while trying to maintain their supply of standards. Plus they have all those FCS orders. Honestly, I'd be happier if they slowed down on all the limiteds so they had time to refine their system. But heck, it sure leads to a lot of excitement!
No matter what I love Volks and their dolls. Nobody's sculpts pull at my heart like theirs do!

 

THANK YOU kiwiflowers. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Volks definitely needs to improve their system. But calling them "disrespectful" and saying they don't care is going way too far. You don't know how they feel or what they are thinking. And like I have pointed out before, there is only ONE person that manages the english side of the site. If they don't happen to be on hand to update it with new info at the moment then it doesn't get updated. Maybe they need more translators. *shrugs*

And really no company is without fault. Every company has issues. It's amazing how no one complains when other companies do LEs that sellout in two seconds, but when Volks does them and can't offer everyone interested a doll, people complain. They are limited. That means not everyone is going to get one! Like it or not, that's the truth of the matter. Even if you don't know the exact numbers, by knowing it is a LE you should know there is a chance you might not get one.

Oh and on another note...let me say waiting a month or two for a specially customized FCS doll is not bad at all. I don't see how anyone can even think this. These dolls are made to your specifications, each piece hand casted and the doll's faceup done according to the owner's wishes. Plus sanding and coating if you wish. You're lucky it doesn't take LONGER. O_O

 

Here here!!
I couldn't agree more.
Perfectly said.....after all, Volks is the gold standard for this breed.
Life may be tough with them, but it would be a heck of a lot tougher *without* them!

Michelle

 

That's pretty much what I wanted to say (but shouldn't have said anything at all I guess).

It worries me, I know Volks takes a lot of pride and care into organizing these events and for them to completely panic and fold like that, it must have hit them completely unawares.

I hope (and I know) that they are looking over their strategy and will come out with a winning one that doesn't tax the companies wellbeing so much.

 

Yeah, that's probably their main problem. Too many events and too many limiteds at once. I adore their limiteds and it's always exciting waiting to see the new dolls, but if it's putting so much pressure on them then maybe they should slow down a bit.

 

A couple things:

Positive:
First, FCS taking a month isn't really so unreasonable, is it? For standard dolls, most online companies say that manufacture time is 4 weeks. That's before they ship it to you. With FCS, they make your doll specifically for you. Even if you think "Well, they just have to pour them" - they require the pieces cast in the right skin tone and part numbers, wig and eyes selected... and then it's shipped to whatever Volks you ordered from. In four weeks. Not so bad, right?

After Event at the stores. At my local Volks, the staff told me that there were people lined up at obscenely early hours. I went the day before because I needed some things for a project, and I had the torture of seeing all of the new products laid out but unable to be purchased. I was unable to go until after work the next day, about an hour before close. At my local Volks, we were able to pick up the last Rengemaru... and we could have gotten 9 or 10 Heaths if we wanted. While all the clothes and glasses were sold out (*cries*), I was very surprised by the number of Heaths available still. From what it sounded like, many people at the shops were very excited and happy by the things they could get. Many people were disappointed, too, but they'll try for something else or watch Yahoo!Japan.

Volks does allow and invite customizers to do special dolls - one offs. Having a variety of different sculptors doing their heads might cause their dolls to lose that uniquely "Volks" look. Heath seems to be less popular than past LEs because he doesn't really have the same "look" as other Volks dolls.

Negative:
In defending Volks, some people have been bashing other doll companies. That hardly seems fair, does it? Luts and Customhouse aren't strictly online-only. From my understanding, there are physical stores for both of them in Korea, and Customhouse will be having an anniversary event next month.

Volks operates in many ways like a small company, even though they are quite big. They often lose opportunities to sell things because their dolls aren't available - like many people who can't get Rengemaru will either buy him from a scalper (which doesn't generate any new revenue for Volks) or buy from another company. That's not very sound marketing.

Volks' priority isn't the international market. It's really difficult to go international.... and going international from a very specific market to a much broader, bigger market is very difficult. People speak of "fairness" in very Western terms. Volks is a Japanese company. They do not operate the way an American company operates, and they don't view their clients the way a Western company does. And "first come first served" isn't unfair here... it shows what you are willing to do for your doll. If you're willing to do more, well, doesn't it seem more fair that you should get it?

That said, it seems foolish how much they underestimated the strain that would be placed on their server by an online afterevent...

Ah, gotta go to work...

 

unfortunately this is extremely similar to the discussion after the last dolpa event, which wasn't that long ago (if you need a rehash: http://www.denofangels.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15878&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=90 )

There's no way for any of us to know if Volks really cares, or why things are hard for us right now, all of us can only guess. All I can say is to repeat what I've said many times, which is, when I visited Volks, I really got the feeling that they honestly cared VERY much for doll owners, Japanese AND international. I'm sure that Japanese customers are their priority, yes, but I do think they are making an effort to make things better for international fans.

I don't think that they anticipated such a huge response to the after events. I think it's pretty obvious that they were actually shocked by the amount of load that was put on the server. Remember that the last Dolpa was only a month or two ago at the most. (and the server didn't crash that bad that time...) and right before that was the Tenshi No Sato Anniversary... For all we know they've added more servers since then, but even if they haven't they've been very busy setting up for the next dolpa and creating and producing all those new dolls. I can't imagine how busy they must be. Also, in that meantime, more doll magazines in USA and other countries have written ABJD articles, bringing in more people... ABJD is just getting more and more popular...!

Again, IMHO, Volks is bigger than many ABJD companies, but maybe not as big as we think they are? They still aren't Mattel, you know? Perhaps it's not possible for them to just say "Oh! Well I'll just make tons more dolls and buy tons more servers for my website, no problem!"

Personally, I think that Volks should do less Dolpas,... I think it's putting a lot of strain on them, because not only do they have to organize all the events of the Dolpa, but they DESIGN whole new head molds for almost every dolpa, and not just headmolds but new clothes,... and then they have to also produce all those new dolls to have enough stock (obviously not enough to some's taste though! heh...!)

If you compare all of this, and think about how often (or now NOT OFTEN) other companies release new dolls, and how many they release at a time, and whether they have limited outfits, etc, etc,... whether they organize a whole dolpa often... I think it's a lot easier to understand what's going on here.

I was really bummed that I could not even LOOK at the Volks site during the after event. The server crashed before I could even considering buying something. Obviously, that's a problem... No one is happy about this or saying that this is a good situation... but I think that they realize that it's really "that bad" otherwise they would not have canceled it like this. IMHO, they're going to try to find another way to do this, one that they can handle. But who knows. I'm just some doll-lover on the internet, just like the rest of you, and again, none of us can claim to know the inner workings of Volks.

They are going through a big transitional period right now, IMHO, they are going from Japanese sales only, to attempting to branch out and do international sales on a wide-scale. They don't have a hang of it yet, things aren't right yet, but I think that they are making a big effort to try to make these dolls available to us.

you cant make something out of nothing, the dolls and the servers, and the work, and the dolpas, all of this has to come from somewhere. It takes time and money, and none of us know how much of that Volks has to spare. Something has to give somewhere. again, I think it would be nice if they did less "new dolls" for Dolpas (or just less dolpas in general) and focused more on keeping up with a smaller amount. (ie keeping servers up, keeping "stock" dolls in stock, and making limiteds easier to get at dolpas... all of this it seems like would be easier if there were less dolpas.)

but who knows. not me.

 

I'm sorry, but Volks being the leader and the largest maker of the dolls, I'd expect much better marketing/sales decisions.

It's probably a combination of frustration and disappointment that's making a number of us more harsh than usual at the moment, but the fact remains that this After Event was handled pretty wretchedly.

My greatest frustration stems from the fact that we're not all on a level playing field. I can accept that as international customers we can't get to Dollpas. Volks is a Japanese company that first and foremost serves Japan. I can understand that. However, if we try the online after event, we're at the mercy of a server which has NEVER been able to handle after event traffic. Volks says one thing - "Sorry this doll is sold out" - only to restock it hours later with no warning. One person manages to get several - hey, more power to ya for having the fortitude to sit there that long - while others watch their shopping cart time out again and again. They allow their American agent to take pre-orders, but don't give him any idea of the number he's getting or when. Even those in Japan encounter problems: someone is told first come, first serve at 7am, only to have them declare a lottery at 9am.

I don't think they're being disrespectful or that they don't care. They are wonderful dollmakers, evidenced by the high demand for their product. They are simply suffering from bad decision making at the moment (sales-wise), and I would rather see them slow down and re-examine how they send their products to market, instead of increasing the number of dolls they release and Dollpas they hold in a single year.

IMHO, go back to a lottery system. At least then no one's losing sleep or pulling their hair out because the system keeps throwing back "Server Too Busy" messages.

 

Yeah, the lottery system did seem to be the most fair. And like I said, they do need to slow down and have less events. They are overdoing it and they simply aren't large enough to handle all of this. Of course, if they have less events I'm sure there will be people complaining about that too.

 

Not trying to bash Volks or anything, but if their products are selling well, there is no motivation for them to fix up their servers or improve anything.

And kiwiflowers, to me there is a difference between liking Volks dolls and disliking the way they are being sold.

Not liking one Kylie song does not mean I hate her. I adore her. Y'know what I mean?

 

I have to agree with the less dolpas thing, it seems better for their sake...why not go to every other one or something?

 

I agree, it just seems like the two go hand in hand a lot of times. (For me, personally, I can't find a single bad thing to say about my Volks dolls, but the way they were sold is more open to criticism.)

And it's true -- if their dolls are selling out in minutes and they're making as many as they can while still maintaining quality, then perhaps fixing the crashing issue isn't tip-top on the list of priorities. I do think they care, though, and are presumably working to figure out how best to run sales and production, just like every other doll company. After all, they're all very young companies.

I wonder what is putting the most strain on the company, though. I know it takes a very long time for any doll to be designed and approved. Perhaps if the same LEs were offered at all three dolpa for a given year? I'm unsure if that would solve anything, though. Maybe just having one Tokyo dollpa and one smaller Kyoto dolpa? Although on the flipside I don't know if simply making more of a given LE is either what Volks should or what would help the company. (The point of LEs, after all, is that they are limited.)

Also, perhaps I am in the minority, but I prefer first-come first-served, even if it means I miss out on something. It can be frustrating, but at the same time a lottery is more random and frustrating for me, personally. Of course when the website completely crashes and the aftersale is canceled that is an issue, but I don't think the first-come first served is necessarily an unfair way to do it.

I may be overly generous, but I don't think Volks has major issues, just minor ones that need to be tweaked. In all likelihood, supply will never meet demand because of how labor intensive these dolls are, and it's a lot easier for someone to plunk down some money than it is for someone else to make an entire doll. And, at the end of the day, Volks still sells standards and FCS. I think the best to hope for is an ever-increasing list of FCS options (which is realisitic in the upcoming years.)

 

I just noticed this new message on the Volks English home page:

Various inquiries
A notice to every fan that joined Online Dolls Party After Event.

Thank you very much for visiting Volks web site.

We apologizes the inconvenience of our web pages and shopping service due to overload access to Online Dolls Party After Event from 10:00 AM on May 21, 2005.

The rearranged date of Online Dolls Party After Event will be announced later on our web site.

We are very sorry for every fan that was looking forward to this event.Please wait for a while and keep visiting our web site.

 

Hopfully the next online event will be in 2 weeks so I can afford Rengemaru lol

 

I'm glad they put the notice up, so that now we know for sure!

remember too that Volks only has one person working on translating everything for the English website, so... yeah... ...

I wonder what the reschedule will consist of?

 

I think the idea of fewer Dolpas sounds like a good one, because it does seem as if Volks resources are being stretched a bit thin. I've been into dolls my whole life, and started collecting antiques and higher end fashion dolls about 20 years ago, and yes, some of them are indeed Barbies. But believe me, Mattel has had their share of problems too...some of you might remember the whole "Pink Anger" movement. But I digress...

The waiting to get a doll doesn't phase me, as I recently recieved a hand carved Hitty that I'd waited four years for the artist to complete. The fact that some dolls sell out very quickly, isn't what upset me, as I've been to numerous doll convention and trade show salesrooms, where limiteds were sold. I've watched dolls sell out right in front of me as I waited in line for my number to be called, but that's how it goes sometimes.

I guess my major disappointment with Volks was with the fact that their website crashed...again...and that I felt this problem should've been rectified before they ever tried to hold another online event, as their site had exhibited this same problem in the past. I don't really bear Volks any malice, I think the dolls they make are beautiful, or I wouldn't own one and been trying to buy another. I also think that there are beautiful dolls been made by other companies, but how they stock their product or handle their customers, is not my concern at this time. I haven't tried to purchase anything from any other BJD company, other than Volks, so won't make any comparisons. (Blue Fairy doesn't count as never had the Pocket Fairys in stock that I wanted when I visited their US site while they were still selling there.) In my opinion, I really feel that Volks needs to rethink how to better serve their International customers, if they wish to continue to sell to us directly...but this is in no way a criticism of their products.

Its often been said that you can't please everybody, and perhaps thats part of Volks dilemma right now...they are trying to please on too many fronts. They seem to want to throw Dolpas, yet they want to thrill everyone with unveiling new dolls. And they've realized that the people need clothes and accessories for the dolls...so the stores need stock. Then they find out they have fans all over the world, so they "throw us Internationals a bone" with the After Party...and there in lies the rub...website big bada boom! But I still don't understand why dolls like Heath would show up in Volks stores for After Party sale, if DOA members that went to the actual Dolpa came away with only vouchers for Heath, and were lucky to get that. It seems like disorganized marketing to me, and that makes for frustrated customers everywhere...in Japan and abroad. Yes, I understand the idea of supply and demand. But Volks may have inadvertently done what the TY company did on purpose with Beanie Babies in the mid 1990's. TY created false shortages by releasing and retiring characters with no notice to their retailers or collectors that resulted in nearly constant consumer frenzy to get the latest characters, and out of control price mark-up in both the primary and secondary markets. More fuel was added to this fire by retailers never knowing what characters or quantities they would receive in shipment. Eventually fans got sick of all the hoopla and many stopped enjoying the little critters, ceased buying them, and this resulted in plunging company profits for TY. I guess what I'm really getting at is feeling that the joy is lessened in the whole experience of getting a new doll, outfit, or accessory, if it turn into a battle every time. Maybe I'm better off just sticking with buying from fellow DOA members, that's been nothing but positive! :wink: Again, my sincere congrats to all here who did score the dolls or accessories that they hoped to.

Hugs, Juli DC