Buyer Beware!!!

34 Replies

In September of this year, I ordered two handmade Waldorf dolls with complete wardrobes from a company in China. Here are the order details for one of the dolls:

And here are the photos of the doll and wardrobe I ordered:

 

Adorable, and I thought a good buy for $40, including shipping, so I decided to order the same doll to be sent to me here in Mexico, thinking I would wait until I found a little girl here to give it to. But, when two months later I still hadn’t received my doll and my great granddaughter Riley in Arizona hadn’t received hers, I decided to contact both the seller and Paypal for a refund. The company then said they’d sent the dolls, and a few weeks later, Riley received this junky little doll that looks like a prize in a ringtoss at a carnival. With no clothes, other than a twist of nylon net, it was a completely different little doll than the one I’d ordered.   Needless to say, I was furious. Finally, when it went into Paypal arbitration, the company agreed to repay the cost of the doll but not the postage. Meanwhile, they said my doll had been mailed to Mexico. I got it last week and no surprise, it was the same cheap little doll that Riley had received in the states. Beware this company. Much as I hate to support a monopoly, after this I order only from Amazon. This example of bait and switch is outrageous.
The only good news is that reports are that Riley loves her little doll and carries it everywhere with her. I was so looking forward to giving a very special doll to her and to some little as-of-yet unmet girl, but looks as though there are no guaranteed “good deals” when it comes to dealing with a fraudulent company.  Buyer beware.

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About lifelessons

My blog, which started out to be about overcoming grief, quickly grew into a blog about celebrating life. I post daily: poems, photographs, essays or stories. I've lived in countries all around the globe but have finally come to rest in Mexico, where I've lived since 2001. My books may be found on Amazon in Kindle and print format, my art in local Ajijic galleries. Hope to see you at my blog.

34 thoughts on “Buyer Beware!!!”

    1. lifelessons Post author

      But it was actually $80 because I ordered two. How could they think they’d get away with it? It’s such a pain to go through the process of trying to get a refund that I almost gave up, but then a stubborn side of my nature kicked in.

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  3. slmret

    China is not our friend — they think nothing of doing this type of thing! I’m sorry you didn’t get what you ordered — but it’s good that little Riley is too young to understand quality issues, and can love the doll anyway.

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  4. SAM VOELKER

    Oh, well here I go again,,,,tomorrow I am going to pull some of my Dolls out and photograph them for you~! Yes I have made Porcelain Dolls too, but most of the ones I have here were either made my my mother or my sisters. My whole family was into crafts and art, especially my mother, and I never could pass up anything that someone else could do, so always had to try it too~! I made one of two just to say that I could~! Not very good on the sewing though~!

    I may not be the best, but I do try, isn’t that what counts~? I have been giving some of the dolls away to friends and family over the past few Christmas, but not to children though, these are collector items, not meant to be played with~!

    My brother showed his talent by rebuilding antique cars, farm tractors and equipment to perfection and it became a nice profitable leisure pursuit when he retired~! I have done the same with household items, such as chairs, furniture, clocks, guns, swords, etc, but I never have tried to make money doing any of this or my jewelry, I am afraid that it might take the fun out of it, if I was depending on this for a livelihood~!
    SAM

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    1. lifelessons Post author

      Can’t imagine making porcelain dolls. Did they have their own kiln? I made porcelain jewelry as well as clay, silver and copper jewelry but to make a porcelain doll would have been a tricky business. Yes, do publish their photos and send a link.

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      1. SAM VOELKER

        Yes among many other much too large things I have in my shop and no longer use is a kiln large enough to fire porcelain dolls etc, one of the things I must give to a friend who has the space but a bad kiln. I also have a small burnout kiln for burning out lost wax impressions and firing small objects such as jewelry, I have done fine painted porcelain broaches, which come out really nice but a lot of work, requiring several firings between colors but the little kiln works fine for this. I have also “slumped” glass in it, a fun thing to do~! Trying to cut back to have more room to work~!!!

        My mother would get old Sears catalogues and other very old books with photos and copy the dresses making patterns then sewing, by hand, the cloths for the dolls. My sisters did the same, but not as well. I liked to fire unusual things and once did a complete set of standing pigs dressed (ceramic painted) as cops for the police force in Pasadena Texas. I wonder if they still have them~?

        One more surprise for you, I have also done a lot of stained glass work, and I am working on a window for my son’s bathroom right now. I have several old windows removed from old houses taken down, and I will repair and resize one of them for him. A stained glass window there beats those frosted things. I have done several, mostly use lead came, as it is faster than taping with copper foil, which I have done on lamp shades, but it is just too much work for little “better” results~! I love to renew old broken “stuff”, it is like putting yourself in the hands of someone who originally made these fine things with their hands so long ago.

        See I told you we were a lot alike, and I did not mean in looks, I really just meant we were both type A …..But I have a little more B in me, than thee, don’t you see~? However my lamps, jewelry, household items, clocks, and other stuff are not like yours which have a “modern” touch, I go more for improving on the old, as you will see in the dolls. But I like your things as well. You will notice that my plants and animals tend to be wild as nature (God) made them rather than as man tried to improve them.

        Now if my sore knees will let me kneel, I will go dig under that bed in the guest bedroom, I am going to get out some of those dolls as soon as I put all this other stuff back into my safe~!

        Tomorrow, let’s get back to poetry~! I had another dream last night and suddenly waking up, I was thinking that I needed to call the loved one I had just dreamed about, but then when my mind cleared, I realized that she is dead. This put me into a terrible sad mood and I cried for her memory, so I must put this to rhyme while it is still in my mind. See I am not an old mean bear after all, actually a soft cuddly teddy bear (after one of those dreams)~!

        I do not get my second eye done until after Christmas but before New Years; confusing right now, my bad eye still needs to be fixed and my fixed eye is now good, but I am trying to read with glasses…..I close one eye then the other trying to keep the writing from blurring. Ha~!

        So you know I Can’t stop yet~!!

        PS: Another old “Ponjue story”, about the fact that it is not just the Chinese who get to us. Way back in the 30’s Boll Weevils were very bad in our “Cotton Country” They ate the cotton flowers and the buds (bolls, ruining the cotton.

        A salesman came through the area, selling a sure fire way of exterminating them. All the farmers paid in advance for the way to get rid of boll weevils, and after a few weeks it arrived in the mail for every farmer in the Parish. Inside the box was a little block of wood, a wooden mallet, and the instructions… “put boll weevil on block and strike with mallet.

        I told you that I liked to rebuild old music instruments, so here is a TRUE story for your part of the country and I have proof of this one. There was a musical instrument, which looks much like an auto harp, It came with a bow and you both plucked it and strummed it between the tuning lugs with the bow. The salesmen came through the Dakotas, Montana, etc selling those things to the house wives.

        Well he would play a beautiful tune on it for the lady of the house while their husbands were out working with the live stock, She would pay for the instrument in advance, and it was for real. They then would get a nice instrument in the mail. However it was so complex that it took a real expert of long standing to get any real music out of it, and so many of them ended up in a closet never much used. You probably have seen them in antique stores up there. I have three of them in perfect unused condition that I bought in my time up there. (did your mom have one~?)
        SAM

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        1. lifelessons Post author

          Nope, but she bought a stauffer machine..that was supposed to exercise you. You laid on it and put your bottom on the center portion jiggled back and forth. You put a sandbag over your stomach and this was supposed to exercise you without having to do any labor yourself. It sat in our basement for years after a few initial sessions. And it was very expensive. Have to check on the spelling. Haven’t thought of it in years.

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  5. XingfuMama

    How frustrating. It seems like no mere coincidence that nothing was received until a few weeks after you complained. It does seem prudent to work with companies that have enough clout to deal with dishonest dealers, yet so sad that there isn’t a safe way to find and do business with decent smaller outfits. It is nice that Riley likes her doll.

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  6. Anonymous

    Same for me: the chain saw was a chain; the recycle bin was a little plastic container; the phone arm holder has a small pocket for change only, no place for phone; phone telescope ridiculous…

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  11. Marilyn Armstrong

    I have a very short list of place with which I’ll do business. LL Bean, Land’s End, J-Jill, Amazon, as well as some specialty companies that sell car parts or jars with lids. Like you, I learned the hard way to not order from any place that doesn’t have good customer service, If you want dolls, I WILL SEND YOU AS MANY AS YOU LIKE, CLOTHING AND ALL. I have a lot of them and I really would love to see them go to someone who will enjoy them — like girls! Seriously. I really have a LOT of dolls and the price is whatever it costs for shipping.

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    1. lifelessons Post author

      That is sweet of you Marilyn. I’ve been buying dolls I love and carrying them in my car and when I see a little girl who looks like her family can’t afford to buy her dolls, I give her one.. It is so fun. This one I bought because it was so gorgeous and I loved the clothes and wanted to see what it looked like in “person.” I was so disappointed when Riley’s mom sent me the photo of her with that cheap little doll. But she loves it and that is what counts.

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  12. Pingback: I Won!!!!! | lifelessons – a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown

  14. gc

    COVID has certainly brought out the creepy crawlers. Many people I know were also targets of this type of bait and switch practice. Sometimes when something looks too good to be true it usually isn’t. Happy New Year. All the best in 2021. Buyer Beware.

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