DON'T BE SEDUCED by vendors not approved by TDF
Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 11:12 am
All reputable vendors will want to be approved by TDF for the reason that TDF's vetting procedure looks to see that the vendor is operating the business with customer service in mind and sourcing dolls from the reputable manufacturers.
Vendors who don't want to go through that process . . . well . . . why not?
Vendors who fail to meet the criteria laid down by TDF . . . represent hazards to buyers.
I've just come through a difficult negotiation in relation to someone who bought a doll from an external site and the doll didn't arrive. The non-approved vendor had made no provision in his business plan for funding or negotiating a replacement from the supplier and this caused him to be difficult until he saw good reasons for his arm to be twisted to cooperate. He might have learned a lesson and turn out to be a good vendor in the end, but to date his non-approved business practices have been hazardous.
It was thanks to the generosity of WM and to loans to the let-down customer from both TDF approved vendor Phil at https://www.the-doll-house.com/ and myself that a solution was found to get a replacement doll for the victim of the lost doll.
Neither Phil nor I nor Sam at WM want to be put to the time, trouble and effor nor financial risks associated with making a loan on a charitable basis again.
For these reasons there are significant risks buying from non-approved vendors.
The non-approved vendor disclosed his source to me. The lady in China was genuine, although there were one or two anomalies about things on her website, and both she as supplier and the non-approved vendor were giving prices without any margin to fund replacement or other appropriate customer service and I knew this from my knowledge of a few behind the scenes factory-gate prices.
The prices given by suppliers to reputable vendors are a little higher than the factory gate prices so as to be able to fund customer service and it's worth paying for.
Sites with prices that are cheap are either
- selling fakes
- not showing transport in their prices
- not showing import duties or taxes or VAT in their prices
so buying from them exposes customers either to buying fakes or to ending up without backup should disaster happen and at a cost which when taking into account transport and tax is the same as buying from a reputable TDF approved vendor.
Sandro for instance relates the situation with some non-approved vendors in Germany http://dollforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=227&t=80363 who sell dolls using YL photos and which are much cheaper than the YL dolls he sources from YL: the dolls sold by those sellers are most certainly not made by YL.
TDF approval is a matter of approval for a reason.
In bailing out the victim in the recent case both Phil at The Doll House https://www.the-doll-house.com/ and Doug at Passion Dolls https://www.passiondolls.com/ as well as Sam at WM have been particularly helpful and generous spirited. We don't want to have to man the lifeboats too often again.
So please don't get seduced.
Best wishes
Harem
Vendors who don't want to go through that process . . . well . . . why not?
Vendors who fail to meet the criteria laid down by TDF . . . represent hazards to buyers.
I've just come through a difficult negotiation in relation to someone who bought a doll from an external site and the doll didn't arrive. The non-approved vendor had made no provision in his business plan for funding or negotiating a replacement from the supplier and this caused him to be difficult until he saw good reasons for his arm to be twisted to cooperate. He might have learned a lesson and turn out to be a good vendor in the end, but to date his non-approved business practices have been hazardous.
It was thanks to the generosity of WM and to loans to the let-down customer from both TDF approved vendor Phil at https://www.the-doll-house.com/ and myself that a solution was found to get a replacement doll for the victim of the lost doll.
Neither Phil nor I nor Sam at WM want to be put to the time, trouble and effor nor financial risks associated with making a loan on a charitable basis again.
For these reasons there are significant risks buying from non-approved vendors.
The non-approved vendor disclosed his source to me. The lady in China was genuine, although there were one or two anomalies about things on her website, and both she as supplier and the non-approved vendor were giving prices without any margin to fund replacement or other appropriate customer service and I knew this from my knowledge of a few behind the scenes factory-gate prices.
The prices given by suppliers to reputable vendors are a little higher than the factory gate prices so as to be able to fund customer service and it's worth paying for.
Sites with prices that are cheap are either
- selling fakes
- not showing transport in their prices
- not showing import duties or taxes or VAT in their prices
so buying from them exposes customers either to buying fakes or to ending up without backup should disaster happen and at a cost which when taking into account transport and tax is the same as buying from a reputable TDF approved vendor.
Sandro for instance relates the situation with some non-approved vendors in Germany http://dollforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=227&t=80363 who sell dolls using YL photos and which are much cheaper than the YL dolls he sources from YL: the dolls sold by those sellers are most certainly not made by YL.
TDF approval is a matter of approval for a reason.
In bailing out the victim in the recent case both Phil at The Doll House https://www.the-doll-house.com/ and Doug at Passion Dolls https://www.passiondolls.com/ as well as Sam at WM have been particularly helpful and generous spirited. We don't want to have to man the lifeboats too often again.
So please don't get seduced.
Best wishes
Harem
Please can you try better to protect me from temptation.