The What's What About Wait Times and Refunds
It's usually around this time of year when we start noticing some weird issues with wait times. We've been receiving multiple emails inquiring what's happening, so we thought we would make a handy little post talking about the inevitable pain of the BJD hobby: long wait times. So what's this all important knowledge we have to bestow?
The truth is, the majority of the time we have no idea what is up! Doesn't that just bolster you confidence in us? There's more to it, obviously, but the general point to take from this is wait times aren't an exact science. We talk to the companies, we keep track of the order times, we understand the doll-making process, but there will always be a variable to completely throw an average wait time out the window. Some of these variables include:
Changes in staffing: There's a high turn around for employees at doll companies. When new employees enter a company, they have to be trained how to work with the dolls.
Events and High Volume Orders: A lot of dolls being ordered at once, a lot of time needed to make them all.
Devil's in the Details: While resin needs to take time to cure, most of the longer wait times occur when fullsets are ordered. The clothing, wigs, and face-ups sometime come from outside of the BJD company, so time is spent outsourcing all of the pieces.
Different Business Practices: The Asian market has different customer service standards than the American/European market. We see the biggest difference in providing “updates”.
The “X” Factor: A butterfly flapped its wings, someone sneezed, the dolls decided to unionize and riot, any completely random thing can and will find a way to cause a delay. It must be Murphy's Law.
So what all can you do as a customer waiting on a doll? Accept your fate to be in waiting limbo forever. No, we do have some things to keep in mind when you place an order:
Place separate orders for each doll brand: We allow customers to order as many standard orders as they need and up to three layaways. When you order something from Angell-Studio and then order something from a company like Ringdoll, your order won't ship out until ALL of your items arrive. So if you don't want to wait 40 weeks and instead get your items as soon as they arrive to us, we highly recommend placing separate orders.
Layaway is your friend: Many of our customers use layaway as a means to cope with long wait times. It's really just a mind trick, but making payments is like a countdown system for your dolls.
Ask us what's up: We can't provide you with status updates because we don't get them, but we do keep track of average wait times. We can tell you if one brand is taking longer than another so you don't have to put them all on the same order. When in doubt, just ask. We're here to put your mind at ease. (Just please don't ask us every day or week how things are going. @_@ We don't know anything new, we swear!)
The problem with wait times stems from the worry your doll won't arrive when you had hoped or at all. We want to assure you that we have your back in those situations. We trust the BJD companies to work within the time constraints we say on our listings. If they exceed these wait times or if they fail to communicate with us, we will offer refunds.
Full refunds will happen in two specific cases. The first one is up to our customers to decide if they would like to use. The other one is issued by us if we do not receive a product. Here's some examples of what happens in these circumstances:
Doll Company “A” forgot to process our order. They tell us they are now making the dolls, but they have no idea how soon they’ll be complete. We know A is a good company and will honor their word to make the dolls. However, because the doll is taking longer than the maximum wait time, customers can request a refund. They may decide not to take the refund because they trust A will send the doll. Or they may decide they rather have their money back. Both of these options are entirely up to the customer to choose as long as the wait time has exceeded the maximum amount. Customers need to request these refunds, though, otherwise we'll assume they're cool with waiting longer.
And then there is Doll Company “B”. Well, B decided to take all of our money and go on vacation and not make any dolls. We email them, Skype them, and then accept the fact B was just a big jerk-face that won't be making the dolls at all. This really sucks, but it happens. In those cases, we will refund the customer their money, even at our loss. This is a bit of an extreme example, but anytime we do not expect to receive a product, you will get a refund.
What you can gather from all of this is: the waiting part sucks, but we've got your back. If you have concerns, we will let you know as much as we know. Patience may be a mandatory thing in this hobby, but you don’t have to wait alone! :D
