So I just got Rochelle...

[zannid]

There is also a mark on the bottom of the box when you're looking in the store. My first Rochelle had a super hard head and her replacement (she had factory errors) has a super light head and fluffy hair so it's really hit or miss.

I do have some girls with hard heads/made in Indonesia that haven't had seeping problems so it's not a guaranteed thing. I suspect it's a mixture of the tacky glue and the holes made by the plastic punch that causes them to leak so badly.

I'm not necessarily recommending this, but with the boxes you can open and re-close them, so if you get a doll and the back of the cardboard has a large grease stain on it, you can always return it for another one. The dolls do have a lot of good qualities but there are a lot of factory errors too. Best bet is to notify Mattel of any issues your having, though specify if you don't want a replacement. They've sent me one randomly before. They gave us CAM torsos, maybe they'll give us better quality control.

[ShortyBoo]

My Rochelle's head is only squishy in the front though, like her face. Under where her hair is, it's rock hard. So I'm guessing she has a lot of glue. I didn't check the mark on her back, though because after I washed her hair I had a really hard time getting her top to stay down (it kept curling up at the edge) long enough so I could tuck it into the skirt and close it. I did check Draculaura and she says "Made in China".

I did notice a couple more issues with Rochelle now that I've looked her over a bit more thoroughly. She has a scratch going from just below the top of her eye to the bottom (height-wise) on the bridge of her nose. The other thing is her right lower leg won't turn at all. The left one turns, just barely, but the right leg will not budge. It kind of limits how I can pose her. I was also messing with her head some more and I can't even force it to move forward so it's likely a problem with the neck connector thing and not because of the weight of her hair. Maybe I'm just being too picky, but I don't ever remember having issues with the hundreds of Barbie dolls I had as a child, and most of them didn't cost as much as these MH dolls.

I want to contact Mattel, but I'm just afraid they'll make me send her back and replace her with one that has even more (or worse) flaws. They don't do the Hasbro thing where they replace with another random item from the same line, do they? Maybe I can just contact them as a general complaint to maybe help with the QC for future dolls. Where do I contact them, anyway?

[pukunui]

First of all, Barbie dolls aren't detailed and don't have as much articulation.

Anyway, Mattel USA tries to replace like for like. They did send me a Roller Maze Frankie as a replacement for my broken wave 2 Frankie. Mostly they just give you a voucher if they don't have the right doll, though. Whether or not they'll ask you to return your defective one is rather hit-or-miss. They never asked me to return anything until just recently, when I contacted them about my GR Frankie. As for how to contact them, you can e-mail them via support.mattel.com.

[ShortyBoo]

Well, I sent them an email. I guess I'll see what happens. Her bangs are bothering me, but I don't want to do anything to try and fix them just in case I need to send her back. I really hope I won't have to, though. I'm just scared the replacement won't have as nice of a face up. Though mine has a splatter of white paint on her chin. It probably wouldn't be as noticeable if she could tilt her head forward a bit.

Post Merge: October 04, 2012, 07:46:06 AM

I decided to take some pics of my Rochelle and I've noticed more issues that I didn't before. It's actually fairly bright out today (it's been rainy and overcast) so I was able to get a good look at her today for the first time since I got her. She doesn't just have one scratch on her nose, she has two. Both of them are about a quarter inch long. Then I noticed the paint on her eyes looks pretty bad. Not quite as bad as the others in the store, but still... Anyway, on to the pics:

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You can see how her head is tilted back here. While my Draculaura looks straight ahead, Rochelle looks up like that and it bugs me.

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Here's a pic from the side showing how far it's tilted back. I can't tilt her head forward at all. I can tilt it sideways to the left or right a bit, but not any further forward or backward.

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Here you can see how uneven her hair looks. The right side didn't look so bad in the box because the hair was glued together. It wasn't until I brushed it and chunks started to fall out, that I noticed it had been cut so far over.

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See how faint the black paint is on her lashes? It looks like when a stamp is about out of ink. The white triangle shine in her eye is quite faint as well. You can also see the scratch on her nose in this pic.

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Now this eye has better paint, but there's a bit of the light pink missing. You can see the second scratch in this pic.

Am I just being way too picky? My Draculaura has her left eye painted too close to her nose which really bothers me as well, but I didn't notice it at all until I redid her pigtails and went to take pics of her. I'm not sure how I missed it when I bought her. But once I saw it, I can't unsee it. I think I was just worried about looking odd staring at dolls so closely in the store, so in the end, I just grabbed one. I think Rochelle's issues are worse, though, especially the head tilt and the lower leg that doesn't rotate because it makes it really hard to pose her. And I had planned on using my MH dolls to practice taking pics with my digital camera.

[Keelee_von_Cupcake]

I'm sorry your Rochelle has so many troubles! If it were possible I'd take her back to the store. These days I hold on to the box, or keep a new doll in said box until I've looked her over a few times and am absolutely sure I am happy with her. Certain flaws prevent me from bonding with them, which is no fun. So I think it's worth the hassle of returning. Hopefully Mattel sends you a replacement.

[zannid]

Mattel has never asked me to send back a doll when getting a replacement and I know a few others who they've shipped replacements to without asking for the original to be shipped back.

I don't mean to be disheartening, but flaws like the ones you've mentioned are pretty par for the course with MH dolls. Many of my girls have required some clean up after they've been purchased and they were the best of the ones in the store.

Rochelle does have a defect with her neck/head anchor that I know a lot of people have had trouble with and because of the texture in her plastic some people have had to deal with air bubbles. Everything else though? Is something you can find in most dolls.

Just personally, I've seen extra paint on face, missing paint on face, smeared paint, wonky eye, bad neck movement, glue on face, oily hair, loose joints, stiff joints, hair that needs a trim, hair color missing (Rochelle's side streaks), foreign matter in plastic, crimped hair, and ill fitting stands.

I've gotten used to having to fix my girls up after I get them. While they do have issues, they also have so much detail to them. They're one of the few dolls that come even close to the detail and articulation in BJD and at 12-25 dollars vs $200+, I enjoy them.

Best thing I can recommend is to stand in the aisle and compare the dolls side by side. Don't worry about looking loony. If you can't find a doll in store and you're picky? Try and find someone who will scout out and pick you up the best looking doll in their area.

[pukunui]

Mattel has never asked me to send back a doll when getting a replacement and I know a few others who they've shipped replacements to without asking for the original to be shipped back.

My luck has run out. They want me to return my GR Frankie so they can "review the quality issues" before sending me a replacement. I tried sending them some pictures, but they said they can't accept e-mail attachments for security reasons.

Rochelle does have a defect with her neck/head anchor that I know a lot of people have had trouble with and because of the texture in her plastic some people have had to deal with air bubbles. Everything else though? Is something you can find in most dolls.

I have yet to see a Rochelle who doesn't have a slightly smaller right eye (so her eyelashes end up being shorter).

Just personally, I've seen extra paint on face, missing paint on face, smeared paint, wonky eye, bad neck movement, glue on face, oily hair, loose joints, stiff joints, hair that needs a trim, hair color missing (Rochelle's side streaks), foreign matter in plastic, crimped hair, and ill fitting stands.

Reminds me of the terrible haircut my Jackson had when I first got him. He was also covered in little bits of hair. I remember joking at the time that he needed to find a better barber!

[Icicle]

Mattel has never asked me to send back a doll when getting a replacement and I know a few others who they've shipped replacements to without asking for the original to be shipped back.

My luck has run out. They want me to return my GR Frankie so they can "review the quality issues" before sending me a replacement. I tried sending them some pictures, but they said they can't accept e-mail attachments for security reasons.

Wonder if that's a new policy then... they allowed me to send an image of my re-issue Draculaura because they couldn't figure out what one I was explaining (despite giving in great detail what she comes with) and so I can show them the factory damage to her lip.. and they made it very clear they had seen it when they issued me a voucher (as they were going to give me for THEIR retail price of $18 when I paid $21 for her).

[pukunui]

Wonder if that's a new policy then... they allowed me to send an image of my re-issue Draculaura because they couldn't figure out what one I was explaining (despite giving in great detail what she comes with) and so I can show them the factory damage to her lip.. and they made it very clear they had seen it when they issued me a voucher (as they were going to give me for THEIR retail price of $18 when I paid $21 for her).

Weird. Their policies seem pretty inconsistent. It's almost like they work on a case-by-case basis. I wonder if they're beginning to think I'm trying to scam them or something. I have contacted them quite a few times about defective dolls (although I have never asked for replacements).

I posted the pics to my photobucket and sent them the link. I'm half expecting to get a reply saying they can't accept hyperlinks due to security reasons as well ... LOL.

[ShortyBoo]

Ok, their customer service is awesome! When I emailed them about Rochelle's issues, I didn't ask for a replacement. I simply told them about all her issues because I figured that the more people tell them, the more likely they can prevent them in the future. Ok, I know it's not that likely, but well, you know how Hasbro tries to say they're not aware of QC issues? Maybe it's because not enough people tell them. So I figure maybe Mattel just assumes most of the dolls are perfect since only a small percentage of the dolls sold have people complaining about them. So anyway, I checked my email and I had this waiting for me:

I'm so glad you contacted us!

I am sorry to hear that your Rochelle Goyle Doll was scratched up and had her hair falling out.  I'll send a replacement right away. You should have her within 7 business days.

Thanks,
Donna D.
Mattel Consumer Relations Team

I told them about more issues than that, but at least they actually read my complaint. Anyway, that's awesome that they're sending me a new one just like that. And they responded to the email so quickly, too. Usually when I contact any company, they take several days to respond and most of the time it seems like they didn't even read the email I sent them.

Returning my Rochelle isn't really an option since I threw out her box (lesson learned, I'll keep the box longer next time) so I guess what I'll do is try to fix her hair by cutting the bangs on the other side to even them out and see how she looks. I would try to fix the paint on her eye, but I'm not so good with paint brushes (I can draw just fine with markers, pens, etc, but I'm awful with paint brushes) so it would probably look much worse.

[pukunui]

Yay!

Hopefully the new one will be much more to your liking. I don't think anyone at Mattel bothers to make sure the replacement is perfect, though, as the replacement Venus I received recently has a scratch on her eye and a hole in her lipstick, and the piercing in her left ear is higher than it should be. I'm still trying to make up my mind whether I want to keep the original or the replacement. 


I have to say, as an aside, that I think Mad Science Lagoona had the most QC issues of any doll I've seen so far. I've had two myself and I've looked at heaps of them in the shops and online, and pretty much every single one of them has something glaringly obviously wrong with it, whether it's mispierced ears (with my first one, one of the piercings was higher than the other and they were both in front of her ears; the second one's face is fine, but her hair's a bit thin on top), wonky eyes, messed up freckles, messed up hair, etc etc.

[Mandy85]

Glad to hear they came through for you ShortyBoo!

As far as their return policies typically go, they are a bit inconsistent. Sometimes they will request that you send the doll back, other times they won't. Sometimes they'll send out a new doll (same or equal value), while other times they'll just send out a voucher. It probably depends on who you speak with, the nature of the complaint, how they were instructed to handle cases like this, how many times you've had cases on file, et cetera.

Mattel sent me a new Nefera right away when I told them that the arm broke right out of the packaging on my first one earlier this year.  They asked me various questions about my receipt and numbers on the box before proceeding and informed me that I could just keep the broken doll when I offered to send it back, however three months ago when I had an issue with another one of their dolls they did initially ask for the doll back.

The doll in question was a Robecca I had purchased sight-unseen (Which isn't typical for me, I usually buy from fellow collectors if I purchase anything online - Lesson learned) with smeared paint and really bad eye wonk. We're talking one eyebrow printed up over the bolts on her forehead and crooked lips like the machine had been lined up on an angle when everything was applied. I had tried sending them a photo of the doll's face, along with a post-it attached to the front of the box with my name and email so I could prove I had it on my person but I was told that they could not accept photos. They told me it was going to be their new policy to have the defective dolls sent back before replacing them from now on and to wait for a shipping label to be emailed to me to print out. They also informed me at the time that I would need to pay for return shipping.

Well, two days go by and they still had yet to send me a label. I was getting ready to email them to ask what was up if I didn't hear back from them by the end of the day, only to check the mail and find a new Robecca on my doorstep. I contacted them and explained the situation and they told me to just keep both. I thought it was a bit strange because the person I spoke with was very insistent that I had to return the doll before they could do anything for me.

So those are my two experiences with receiving replacement dolls. I had also written to them months ago to inform them of the glue seepage issues I was experiencing with some of my older dolls and how I thought it was something they should be aware of, explicitly stating in my letter that I didn't want replacements and just wanted to inform them of the problem, and they still offered equal value replacements anyway (which I didn't take them up on because I'd rather keep my dolls).

Just yesterday I contacted them again because I realized, upon opening the package of the 2.0 Clawdeen I had purchased on a whim the night before, that she was missing half her stand. It was the quickest and easiest complaint I've ever made to Mattel. The rep put in an order to send me a new stand right away and was very pleasant to speak to.

[ShortyBoo]

I trimmed the other side of Rochelle's hair to even her out and it looks much better. Now I just need to use boiling water to straighten out the kinks in her hair. I did finally get her lower leg to turn. I had to kind of force it, but it does move, though it's very stiff.

[pukunui]

They told me it was going to be their new policy to have the defective dolls sent back before replacing them from now on and to wait for a shipping label to be emailed to me to print out.

I'd heard that from other people too, but they still sent me a replacement Venus (who really needs replacing herself) without asking for me to return the original even after people started reporting that that was their new policy.

It was only when I complained about my GR Frankie (her right eye is misaligned and her mesh top has several holes and runs in it) that I finally got asked to return the doll. Also, they sent me a prepaid shipping label straight away.

Well, two days go by and they still had yet to send me a label. I was getting ready to email them to ask what was up if I didn't hear back from them by the end of the day, only to check the mail and find a new Robecca on my doorstep. I contacted them and explained the situation and they told me to just keep both. I thought it was a bit strange because the person I spoke with was very insistent that I had to return the doll before they could do anything for me.

That's funny! I had a similar experience with the much less communicative Mattel Australia. I sent them an e-mail saying the stand that came with one of my Frankies was missing the clasp part. Never heard anything back, but one day a new stand showed up in the mail!

I trimmed the other side of Rochelle's hair to even her out and it looks much better. Now I just need to use boiling water to straighten out the kinks in her hair. I did finally get her lower leg to turn. I had to kind of force it, but it does move, though it's very stiff.

Which leg is it? I just remembered that my Rochelle's right knee is fairy stiff. I can bend it fine, but it doesn't like to twist like the left one does. I can make it twist, though. I had a Frankie with a knee joint that was totally busted though. It wouldn't move at all, and when I tried to force it, it looked like it was going to pull the lower leg out of the upper leg, so I stopped. Mattel replaced that Frankie for me without asking me to send that one back.

[saply]

I wouldn't recommend being too rough, but the more you twist and move her leg the looser it'll become. The plastic joints just need a chance to smooth themselves out.

I'm with zannid on the quality control thing. The dolls have their problems, but not many that can't at least be somewhat fixed. They also do not retail for a lot I think (1/10th of a bjd!), considering how detailed their outfits and accessories are. I find that little flaws can become endearing after awhile, sort of like how human faces aren't naturally perfectly symmetrical either. It makes them unique!

Still, I'm glad customer service was so sweet and are sending you a replacement. <3