(no subject)

[snapesgirl34.livejournal.com]

My little sister commissioned someone to paint her dollfie head for her since she had a lot of good feed back from other dollfie owners. She mailed the head out to be painted, along with a description of what she wanted, and the artist sent her a preview picture of the painted head. My sister asked for a few changes (the lips to be darkened, the eyebrows changed), which the artist agreed to do, and sent her a final preview pic. However, the last pic was so blurry it was hard to tell if the changes had been made (it appreaded that they had been), and when the painted head finally arrived it seemed that the artist had not in fact made any of the changes she asked for. My sister doesn’t want to leave any negative feedback for the artist since it seems all her other customers have been satisfied, and she doesn’t want to complain to her. However she’s also very unhappy with the dollfie head. I suggested sending it back to be repainted, but she doesn’t seem to want to do that either because she’s afraid the same thing will happen again, and she’ll be out of even more money.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this situation?

Comments

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Leave negative feedback.

I honestly am starting to get more and more ticked off at people who leave positive feedback when they've had a negative experience. Who cares what everybody else says! For all she knows everybody else could be in exactly the same boat and just don't want to say so.

And what does everyone else being happy have to do with anything anyhow? Your sister is unhappy. If she posts and says that everything was peachy, she'll be lying. Have a little backbone and a little integrity.

Warn people. If she leaves a positive feedback, and somebody gets their doll ruined by this very unprofessional person, it will be at least partly her fault for not warning future customers.

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

Oh dolfies!
Not often we get non-furry related stuff on here.
If i were her I'd take pictures of the doll in question and send them to the person mentioning how I had requested these changes, and forward them the email where the artist said they were made. Point out polietly it seems that this is not the case, and see where it goes from there. If anything leave neutral feed back (can you do that) about how all the changes were not made as she had requested.

However after emailing the artist, she might offer to do them.
I know dolfie heads are expensive (what like 200 or so bucks), so I don't blame you for not wanting to send it back, but if the artist offers to make the changes just document everything carefully, and be sure to keep good records. And I assume there is a forum that you can post about this person should anything go wrong
But there's my two cents

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

Starting out with a calm, well-documented, polite email to the artist is a wonderful suggestion. I think that would be a great way to begin, since leaving negative feedback can seriously hurt someone's business who may otherwise be willing to fix the situation.

[snapesgirl34.livejournal.com]

That's a very good point.

[snapesgirl34.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, crap, she already removed the eyebrows and lips as she was pissed at the time. She could still send a polite email though. Thanks for the suggestion. :)

Yeah, I don't think I've seen another dolfie post on here. XD

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

Yikes! Next piece of advice: Never alter the product you receive if you are anyway unhappy with it prior to complaining.

This complicates things I'm afraid, as the artist could just say "I made those changes, she just messed them up"

Gah, good luck to you

[snapesgirl34.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I don't think it's the move I would have made either, but my sister's only 14 and not used to commissions gone wrong. ^_^;

Thanks!

[thrivis.livejournal.com]

As a general comment, though I'm sure you already know this: Next time someone gets photos that are ambiguous, don't be afraid to ask for better photos and be honest if you can't distinctly see the product's important parts. That seems a little fishy that the person would just send you less-than-honest photos.

I was going to suggest maybe taking a picture of the doll head you got back and when you email the artist about it, compare the your photo with the artist's photo of alterations for documenting the changes (or lack of). Keep track of changes and who said what about them. But your sister already stripped the changes. ^^; Oh dear!

[snapesgirl34.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I probably would have been suspicious of blurry photos as well, but I guess since all the artist's reviews were full of praise my sister thought it would be fine. Doh! And yeah, stripping the head was not the smartest thing to do, hopefully she'll be more careful in the future...

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

Unfortunatly on dollfie sites (like Den Of Angels) it seems leaving negative feedback is somehow a nono. DO IT ANYWAYS! If they didn't do their job? Then say so, they learn NOTHING if people go on circle jerking about their work. I know how it goes, and honestly I wouldn't send the head back...

I'd be afraid the artist would take some unseen revenge out on the resin, to be honest.

[theredwolf.livejournal.com]

I gotta ask - Whats a dollfie? Link?

Just curious :D

[snapesgirl34.livejournal.com]

A super expensive Japanese jointed doll. Here's the Wikipedia article about them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollfie or the encyclopedia drammatica version if you prefer: http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Dollfie (which is surprisingly more informative). Here's volks: http://www.volksusa.com/ They make a lot of dollfies.

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

You can't find one for under 500 dollars. Really big in the anime fandom

[snapesgirl34.livejournal.com]

The one I bought for my sister last Christmas was a SD and was about $600, which was a really good deal as I managed to get the head, eyes eyelashes, and wig on ebay and the body through someone on Den of Angles who didn't want hers anymore, and was trying to get rid of it. The one with painted face is a second, smaller dollfie she purchased who was about $400 total.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Talk to them about it and explain the situation. Be calm, be polite, but also stand your ground; see if you can work the whole thing out. If yes, great; if no, you can still leave negative feedback, at least (and you should - others' experiences shouldn't influence how you rate yours).

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Leave negative feedback.

Maybe artist has been scamming people in a similar manner for ages but people like your sister are the reason he doesn't have any negative feedback.

[uneide.livejournal.com]

Leave feedback. Is she on a site like DoA? I know I've been guilty of not leaving negative feedback once, and seeing people not get what they paid for even a year later, I really wish I had. At Featherfall the first thing we look at when hiring new faceup artists ( or artisans in general)is their feedback -- its important for others to know that SHE wasn't satisfied.

Now -- I'm wanting to ask who it is, simply because there are faceup artists who are not that nuts about doing changes. I can recommend a couple we'd work with in the past, but it seems sad for her to have to get a complete new one if the changes were minor -- still, if she's very unhappy with the head, maybe they're not so minor after all?

Ack, just read she made changes after receiving it -- never a good idea. Did she take pictures of it, when it first arrived? Sounds like she'll have to get a new one. :(

Bottom line - she paid for a CUSTOM FACE UP - -i.e., for exactly what she wanted ( as opposed to one of the factory ones). If she didnt' get that, then she has every grounds to complain.

[snapesgirl34.livejournal.com]

Yep, she's on DoA. I don't know who the artist is as she won't tell me because she's scared of getting her in trouble. All I know is that she lives in Hawaii.

Nope she didn't get photos. Doh!

If she decides to try and get another face up maybe I should ask you who you recommend.