Wait times. . .the sands of time. . .

How long is an acceptable wait to you after you pre-order a doll from a retailer or manufacturer?

I'm a rather patient person when I know my order is being processed and the whole waiting for doll thing made me even more so. Hitting the 2 month mark with the wait for my Luke and only now have I asked DoD if it's likely I'll have him before I go on vacation. I always assume I'll have to wait longer than they tell me so I tend to check waiting threads for the average waiting time and just go by that. I think 2 months for a doll is decent, longer if it's a special issue and you know the company is heavily backlogged. I wouldn't wait more than 6 months though. For me it would be an unreasonable timespan simply because I cannot forsee or even guess what the hell I'm up to by then. Would the doll even fit in after 6 months?

Does it make a difference if you know the manufacturer is an inidividual artist, as opposed to a firm like Luts or SOOM for example?

Not really. If you run a business you'll have to know how many orders you can process in a timespan. If you're an individual artist you can manage less, so your waiting times are longer. That's obvious. But I would not accept a 3 month delay from a company without decent reason and neither would I from an individual artist. If you run a business you're responsible for timely handling of your orders wheter it's one person at work or twenty.

What is your reaction to delays in the process? (Recent examples of delays include the French resin shortage, the injury of a doll face up artist in a car accident, the annual rainy season.)

It can't be helped. If it's outside influences hindering the delay you can't blame anyone. You sigh and wait longer.

Do you expect to be notified of a delay, or do you see this as part of the nature of the industry?

Hmmmmmmmmm. When it's outside influences like the resin shortage and stuff, then yes. And they will post it on their site probably because it's an indefinite delay mostly. When it's a general delay, I'd like to be but I'm not gonna count on being notified. DoD apologized for the delay when I asked but they're obviously not gonna email everyone to say their dolls are delayed for a week or 2. I guess it's a downside to the doll industry, you just have to count on delays. And what's another 2 weeks after 2 months?

 

Every day is like a torture for me, because it's my first doll and I'm not a very patient person ;_;

But I understand that I have to wait nearly 2 months, even it's hard for me *making a cross in her calendar every day* Dx

 

I ordered my MSD Benetia on June 9th. I am so anxious it is ridiculous. I feel like that 5 year old who cannot go to sleep Christmas eve night. It is now July 3rd. I am coming up on a month. I know a month isn't a long time but it is when its your first one. Plus I am trying to pull together the cash to buy her a mate. He will be 6 weeks from ordering to get. Yikes!! Six weeks!!
Once they are both here what am I gonna obsess on!!!

 

I don't like being told 30-45 days and it goes past that. The last faceupped doll I bought took 2 months to arrive, over 60 days. The one after that, blank, took just as long! People with faceups were getting theirs before I was!

Right now I am waiting on Volks Dolpa 19 Maki and since there is no way for me to check on his status, I am much more relaxed about it. I want him now, but don't seem all that anxious for him.

Individiual artists, I would like updates please! I was told once 2 weeks on something and it took 4 months! If I had known beforehand it was to be so slow, I would have been fine. But since I was told 2 weeks, I was wanting just some updates!

 

How long is an acceptable wait to you after you pre-order a doll from a retailer or manufacturer?
As long as it takes.
But I expect a company to keep their part of agreement. If I can make a payment on time I also expect my order to be shipped on time. Simple as that.
I can totally understand delay when something unexpected happens but as Dezarii have written, "I greatly dislike delays for reasons I consider stupid. The rainy season comes every year, they should be prepared and tell people in advance if orders will take longer". Same goes for any other "disaster" that average client can predict while company is always surprised with it..

Does it make a difference if you know the manufacturer is an inidividual artist, as opposed to a firm like Luts or SOOM for example?
I see no difference here.
If I work with someone who wish to be called a professional, doesn't matter if it's an artist or a company, I expect them to know their limits and I expect at least basic planning skills. When time frame ends client should be notified about possible delay and informed about progress. Lack of information and lack of progress after time frame ends I find totally unacceptable and unprofessional.

What is your reaction to delays in the process? (Recent examples of delays include the French resin shortage, the injury of a doll face up artist in a car accident, the annual rainy season.)Do you expect to be notified of a delay, or do you see this as part of the nature of the industry?
I think that many delays can be prevented with a bit of planning. And I really dislike situations when delays could have been avoided.
If there is nothing that could have been done, as much as it disapoints me, I have to get over it and I see no big problem here.
Yet I wish to be informed about reasons of delay. It doesn't have to be private mail, notice on site is enough.

 

How long is an acceptable wait to you after you pre-order a doll from a retailer or manufacturer?

ANY wait is acceptable by me if its stated on their website and WHEN i pay for it, MEANS I agree to wait. kapish?
BUT..........if time after time...my orders and what is stated on the website dont jive then......


Does it make a difference if you know the manufacturer is an inidividual artist, as opposed to a firm like Luts or SOOM for example?

NO, because all orders are taken AFTER payment, and its not as if dolls are greatly discounted just because one person or an entire manufacturer is making them. IN fact manufacturers all have artists looking after the molds, and dolls.Artists to mold them, Artists to faceup for them.

What is your reaction to delays in the process? (Recent examples of delays include the French resin shortage, the injury of a doll face up artist in a car accident, the annual rainy season.)Do you expect to be notified of a delay, or do you see this as part of the nature of the industry?

The nature of ANY industry is "shit happens", ok,. UNDERSTOOD. but be upfront and dont stinge on the cost needed to get the information to customers for whatever reason and ignore emails for weeks until more customers come forth and blows up.
Dont let the customers chase you for answers to why delays. Company should be proactive and be forthcoming on why there are delays. AT least notify the customer on the website, if not emails..not some forum where they try to do damage control! and customers have to search through post after post to find out whats up...
that is so unprofessional, as if the only reason they are responding is damage control.

All of us live lives, we all got stuff going on, we fall sick, we run short of money, we win lottery (ok not me yet) but the point is STUFF goes on be it a customer or a seller or an agent but its one thing to state 4-8 weeks when previous order that were not shortages were not even 8 weeks and orders after there were NO longer shortages.... were 6 months (all paid in full, no layways)

I dont take kindly to being shoved around after spending thousands.
Tell me the wait time, I either choose to buy or dont buy.

Dont tell me customers want 24hr customer service when the company dont reply emails for weeks after having thousands of my money for example and few months of no updates.

One more thing i see no difference in terms of "getting answers" between an agent and the company who makes them, an agent is responsible for the company who makes the doll and answerable to any enquiries because they make the money by being the go between.

 

I am curious... those who said they don't mind waiting for however long it takes, is it a real life experience? Or is it hypothetically speaking?

Back to the questions:

How long is an acceptable wait to you after you pre-order a doll from a retailer or manufacturer?

It depends. I mean, if I really like the doll, and the preorder page states it takes xx months to make it, and if I think it worth the wait, I'll go for it.

Does it make a difference if you know the manufacturer is an inidividual artist, as opposed to a firm like Luts or SOOM for example?

No, because at the end, the dolls are still done by individual, not mass produced by machines.

What is your reaction to delays in the process? (Recent examples of delays include the French resin shortage, the injury of a doll face up artist in a car accident, the annual rainy season.)

As long as it is reasonable I will accept it. Sometimes things happen beyond our control. So it is unreasonable to get upset with rainy days, and cruel to be upset when someone has a car accident.

Do you expect to be notified of a delay, or do you see this as part of the nature of the industry?

So everything boils down to this question. I think it's common business sense to notify customer when there is a delay, state the reason, and forecast a new schedule.

 

I just ordered my first doll, and though I'm hating the waiting- I can't even check my progress on the site yet, but it's been literally three days and that's just me being impatient- I'd be prepared to wait much, much longer than the projected 20 days. If it's a big doll or a rare doll I'd be prepared to wait many, many months. I've got plenty to do besides wring my hands in waiting for my next doll.
Delays in the process are natural and if it's due to a natural event or an accident my first reaction, i hope, will be to hope the people are ok, rather than agonise over when my doll's getting here.

 

I've got a pretty laid-back attitude about doll wait times... I know that they're artists and even many of the companies we think of as "big companies" are still relatively small. I understand that delays can happen, too.

I still have that little "omg I'm so excited, I can't wait until my new doll's here!" feeling... but I don't bother the company or complain about the wait time in public. I feel like there's a big difference between someone saying "40 days, almost there!" and "40 days?? Why hasn't my doll shipped yet?"

I knew there would be long wait times in the hobby, and I just feel like that's one of the aspects of the trade-off... getting a beautiful doll you love may just take a while.

I don't think there's any real set amount of time that's an appropriate wait... a lot of it does depend on the company and their previous history. For example, when you order an Unoa the standard wait time is 6 to 8 months, so a buyer should be prepared for a wait time approximately that long. DoD averages anywhere from 3-8 weeks, so I was prepared for a 2-month wait for my DoT. It's all about expectations and sticking as closely as possible to the standard time, but I also feel that customers should be understanding when there are delays like the rainy season or a resin shortage.

I waited 8 weeks for my DoD girl to ship, and I'm currently at almost three months for my Soom Beryl. Admittedly, Beryl is on layaway and isn't even fully paid off yet, but even if I had paid in full I know they are super-busy with the monthly dolls and I would understand.

 

Mostly hypothetical. I have waited a year for something and did go through a period where I thought "oh bugger it I can't be bothered anymore!" but as the date got closer I found myself gaining interest again thinking of all the things I would be able to do!(lol I was waiting to go Anime North 07 and I started getting really excited within a week of AN 06! So I had a year to wait til the next one came! XD It was my first anime con so...ha ha)

 

I have never met any waiting-estimate in real life or online that was accurate, so I don't wear a watch & try not to look at the calendar. When I am waiting for a doll, especially an LE, especially a popular LE, especially a popular LE released during the winter, I know I am not gonna see that thing for months.

That way, when it arrives on time, or (gawd forbid) early, then I am pleasantly surprised.

I do email them when it's close to/past the original promised due date & there's no news yet... But it's usually just to gently ask them if there's a new ETA they "kinda accidentally forgot to tell us about". If they say Keep Waiting, then I keep waiting.

Real life, bebeh. That Doll Family list in my profile is as long as my arm, and I had to wait for almost every damn one of em. Soom = order in March, get doll in June. Volks = lottery pre-order at Christmas, get doll in early March. Iplehouse = order at Christmas, get doll in April (this last has happened 3 times in 3 years). Sometimes they notify me, sometimes they put up a general 'delay' notice in their news pod, sometimes they just let me wait. And wait. And...

I have learnt SO much Zen deep breathing over the past few years.
*ohmmmmm*

But really I don't mind. I would much rather have them do it up right, than have them do a rush-job & send me stuff that's wrong, badly-assembled, broken, hastily-painted, or missing.

 

Although I have waited as long as a month without any real explanation for a pre-owned doll as well, when all that needed to be done was to seal a box and take it to the post office.

My first experiences with ordering through U.S. dealers set a precedent for inconsistent service, so when I finally ordered for the first time directly from an overseas company, I was used to the wait, and knew what to expect. My first doll, a Soah from the first Elfdoll basic release, was ordered from an American dealer who was promising she'd have them in ten days. Not so, and I found out only afterwards how long it really took. I finally got her after almost three months. My biggest beef with the dealer was not that I waited so long, but that she promised something she could not hope to deliver. This was repeated to a lesser degree with another U.S. dealer when I ordered my second and third Elfdolls. (Neither dealer is in business representing Elfdoll anymore.)

I guess I'm in tune with those others here who have said that a wait becomes too long when it exceeds the longest estimate given by the company. When the company's communication is lacking (i.e., they don't let you know what's going on or even that they are running behind at all), that exacerbates the problem.

I can't say how long is the longest I would be willing to wait. I would have been willing to wait 6-9 months for a Bermann, but alas, I was never "chosen" to become an owner. The longest I've waited to this day (except for a doll I put on layaway where the wait was my idea) is still that nearly three months for my very first BJD, my Elfdoll Soah. But she was worth the wait.

 

Well... the only doll I've ever ordered from the actual company was a Limhwa Limho, the first time in french resin and the second in tan. The first time sucked because he was my first doll and I wanted him asap... but I knew it was going to take a while because of what I had read. With Limhwa though you get technically 4 waiting periods; waiting for the pre-order to open, waiting for the pre-order to close, the actual making/painting, then the shipping from Limhwa to Catrina to you. Usually a very long 2 months (give or take due to weather). The hardest thing ever was when I checked my number and saw that he was just in the next town over. Talk about the longest day in my life~ Oh but it was a joyous day to be woken up to the sound of, "You've got a really heavy package here! Now wake up!" ^^

I think the wait is definitely worth it, just knowing that you're the first person who actually gets to pick them up and say welcome home is well worth it to me. Even with the few dolls that I bought second hand I didn't mind the wait, but I also had a lot of things to distract myself with. Just like now with my current waiting time for the Tan Limho, its hard, but I'm making it~

 

oh my god the rain in China is killing me. I know that there is a long waiting period but when you know your little love is out there you just want it home with you. I think that in today's instant gratification society that it is hard for a lot of people to waite for things.

But with my boy(who I am waiting for at this very moment) I am giving the wait period some slack, because the face up artist is so brilliant.

The lasion to the company, from who I purcahsed my doll from, posted on her site that there will be delays becasue of all the rain and that she is going on vacation. which is a whole lot better than just waiting and not knowing why.

But still... I really want him now.

 

For me it depends..
If I KNOW before hand it's going to take a while, I am ready to wait. Like I just Ordered a Shoyo Catgirl on layaway. I know it takes 50 days, so I can gage that.

When company gives me no update on shipping... I tend to get antsy...

But some company will tell you an amount of time... then not respect it. AND NOT TELL YOU ABOUT IT. That I find offensive. If you advertised that you should wait 2 weeks for your doll and it turns into a month and a half, then I get rather pissed off.and they never tell you you have to pester them on a message board and wait for an answer.

If they malied you a letter saying, we are terribly sorry but due to some problems your doll will be delayed to this dateé Then I am forgiving, but leaving me in Limbo, I hate that.

 

I think I agree with most of the poeple above. I'm quite willing to wait for whatever wait time the manufacturer has posted on the site. Once my wait passes that mark, I'll go looking for reasons on the delay.

I do like to know reasons for the delay because sometimes I can say something doesn't matter. I'm pretty sure there was a company recently that had a quality issue with some wigs for an LE set or a full set. They let the customers pick if they wanted to keep waiting or just have a random wig (if I got the story right). Other times, it's just reassuring to know that the company knows they're running a bit late.

 

If they say it'll take 4 weeks then I expect the doll in 4 weeks. If it goes a day over then I'll make their life a misery my every waking second until I get my doll. XD

 

most of the time i would quote an estimated time from the seller in my enquiries about the dolls and such and add in about a week or two to it.

but if i was quoted 1-2 month and it comes after 6-8 months after the quoted time i will be furious. anything half a year after is dragging it a little far for my tiny patience.

and worst is, the seller refuse to reply or give you a reason for the delay.

 

How long is an acceptable wait to you after you pre-order a doll from a retailer or manufacturer? I think the most I waited was 2 months, but I understand stuff happens, and if its a really awesome doll I might wait longer. (but if its a bad enough I would probably look to buy second hand, or from a dealer with one in stock)

Does it make a difference if you know the manufacturer is an inidividual artist, as opposed to a firm like Luts or SOOM for example?
If its an individual artist, or smaller company it would be reasonable to take longer if they have a lot of orders. I would think a larger company would have more molds and more employees to make more dolls at a time.

Do you expect to be notified of a delay, or do you see this as part of the nature of the industry?
I do believe it should be common courtesy to keep communication open and notify customers of an unexpected delay (such as car accident or resin shortage). A simple mass email to waiting customers, or if its not possible at least post notice and appology for the delay on the website.
Also from a sellers perspective it may help prevent chargebacks from newer buyers worried they have been ripped off.

The annual rainy season is probably not unexpected to the company, but buyers might not know about it, so its smartest for the company to post it on their website so buyers can know about the longer wait time before ordering.