I just ordered kyle!

Baby Talk
22

You did a great job in painting his ear structure in! I will be using your picture for a reference if you wouldn’t mind? That really looks good!

I haven’t checked here for a while and notice that BB responded to my post. I am glad to see that they read our boards frequently.

As to the incident with the Sugar leg, let me say that you only saw one of the threads that was posted on the subject. There was another somehow that got seperated. The lady with the bad leg had written you BB, and was told there were none in stock. She put herself on the waiting list. But, then someone on the forum she was on had Donna’s email and offered to ask her for help. It was Donna who then wrote you and you responded to her. I am curious why you couldn’t have responded to the first lady with the problem, but oh well!
You guys are great to deal with , hands down! But, sometimes when we write and ask questions we are given curt, erroneous or “canned” answers. I wrote one time asking about the use of the Rose Ink you carry…and the first response I got was…we don’t carry such products. So, I re wrote and asked again and pointed to the item in the catalog and was told that no one knew how to use it so I was basically on my own, except to say that it should not be baked, but applied after the doll was done with bakings. Because it would just disappear during the baking process. OK…but I found out much later when I had to strip the baby I used the ink on because of my incompetence in painting discovered that the ink is NON STRIPPABLE!!! lol…it is there forever and ever. I even got my blue out, but not the rose ink…actually when I was done stripping the kit looked so much nicer with just the rose ink than it had with my painting that I entertained the thought of just leaving it as is and dressing the baby! I am not at all upset by this, but it does seem that when a product is carried that the person who is in customer relations who answers questions about the products should at least know #1 that they are sold by your company, and #2 have a basic dos and don’ts for the customer. I had the same experience after purchasing some bodies on clearance. I wrote and asked for the size of the baby they were originally intended for and was told that you had never sold such an item at BB. So, again I had to point out my invoice number etc. and then another person told me that the reason they sold them was that no one knew how to use them either! And had no idea what size baby they would be good on!
So, the lady with the leg issue tried to contact you, and got a canned response. It took a note from Donna to you to elicit an email with good info and a solution for the gal’s problem.
that worries me…if the only way we can get GOOD reliable info is thru a third party then why even bother having a customer service department?
I love your babies, I love their affordability and your shipping, seriously is to die for as far as speed goes! Your shipping prices are a little high at times, but I think that is the actual problem with the carriers not your company’s policies.
Another woman on this thread is the one who was upset about not having the artist’s name on the sculpt, I was just echoing her concern. I, for one , would like to have it all on the neck of the baby. That is the way it was done in the old days of extraordinary doll making…the name, the mold # and the other pertinent info. I do not like it when the stamp is in the actual head of the doll…we have just had that issue with another firm and artist on another forum. But, all in all I think that having it the way you do it is fine with me…It helps so much when a grandchild has been busy in a room where he wasn’t supposed to be and I found all my kits seperated and in piles on the floor. Legs, in one pile, heads in another…you get the idea. He had great organizational skills…but I had a terrible time matching them all back together! The names really helped!
I am still a little overwhelmed with the skill I will need to paint these ears…and do wonder why they were not sculpted in the style that this artist usually does her work. But, it is under the bridge now and I will have to grow my skill, not all bad.
I wrote this so that we can be on the same page with our concerns and answers. Thankyou for responding to them, and I hope you will go back and realize that your answer did not reflect the whole story … but your actions and your response etc were super! Beyond what was ever considered necessary. You did not have to replace the leg of course. But, it would have been nice if your spokesperson could have conveyed the message first without having to get a third party involved. That makes me feel that I have to know someone who knows someone to get my concerns addressed.
thanks so much for your company, and your goal for good kits at good prices I appreciate that very much.
Joy Franklin
Nana’s Joyful Babies

23

— Begin quote from “joy”

I haven’t checked here for a while and notice that BB responded to my post. I am glad to see that they read our boards frequently.

As to the incident with the Sugar leg, let me say that you only saw one of the threads that was posted on the subject. There was another somehow that got seperated. The lady with the bad leg had written you BB, and was told there were none in stock. She put herself on the waiting list. But, then someone on the forum she was on had Donna’s email and offered to ask her for help. It was Donna who then wrote you and you responded to her. I am curious why you couldn’t have responded to the first lady with the problem, but oh well!..So, the lady with the leg issue tried to contact you, and got a canned response. It took a note from Donna to you to elicit an email with good info and a solution for the gal’s problem.

— End quote

This is Nevin (the CEO of Bountiful Baby). No, we don’t follow the forum frequently. But we do follow it somewhat.

We also have about 6 different people that respond to the customer service emails, but it was my daughter, Jessica, who responded to that particular one (about the Sugar leg), and reported that we don’t have any Sugar legs in stock. She gave that response because our computer didn’t show any in stock, plus she hadn’t seen any around for a long time. So she responded that we didn’t have any, and also told in the response when we were expecting to have more, in an attempt to be as helpful as possible.

But then about an hour or so later, she happened to discover a Sugar leg in our warehouse (our warehouse is over 10,000 square feet, so there’s lots of places for something to get “lost” in it), and immediately wrote back to the original person asking what color she needed. And, it happened to be the same color that she found. And so Jessica sent one, for free, even though it hadn’t been us it was originally purchased from, or us who damaged the original one.

And, Jessica didn’t know anything about an email from Donna. I presume somebody here knew about a Donna email, but it wasn’t Jessica. Thus, there was no “third party” involved in Jessica’s response, nor in her service. She did what she thought was best, just as I’ve given her the authority to do.

I also presume that whoever knew about Donna’s email would have simply told Donna to ask the person to send us an email directly, because that is our policy. It is contrary to established company policy to allow or otherwise encourage 3rd parties to come between us and any customer support issues, so I’m sure Donna, as the “third party”, would have simply been told to please have the other party email us directly, and not worked through, answered, or otherwise handled via Donna at all. And then the email from Donna would have simply have been marked as “answered”, and nobody else here likely would have even looked at it. We handle all support requests coming from intermediaries in that manner, so Donna’s would not have been any different, if it was determined that she was an intermediary on the topic. And the policy has to be that way, for a lot of different reasons.

Regarding our “Old Rose” ink, it is a product we are discontinuing, and in fact ran out of. But then our purchasing person (“Katie”) mistakenly bought more. So it came back into stock, unbeknown to most of the rest of the staff. I also talked to Katie to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Katie is an exceptionally good and valuable employee, but everybody makes mistakes sometimes.

And, you are right that nobody here (except probably my wife, Denise) knows how to use the Old Rose ink (as well as the old Delta Stencil creams used back then, which we also phased out long ago). It is not in any of our current instructions, but it was at one time-- back in the old days when Berenguer dolls were popular for reborning.

I just now spent a few minutes to try to find our old instructions, and I found at least the part that talks about Old Rose:

http://www.bountifulbaby.us/inventory/blushing.html
That page in turn links to a few other pages. But, none of those pages are currently linked in anywhere on our website (at least, I don’t think they are). So they are all orphan pages that none of our staff here even knows about.

There are also a lot of old bodies that have been phased out, and none of the staff here even knows about. We manufacture our own bodies, and we only manufacture bodies that fit our own kits. It is coincidence if such a body also fits somebody else’s kit. And, if an old “phased out” body doesn’t fit any of our kits, the staff here isn’t going to know what kits they fit. That’s exactly why they were sold on clearance.

Nevin

EDITED TO ADD: I just looked up the “answered emails” record, and found the email below was sent to Donna on 8/25/10 at 5:35 PM Utah time. So Donna’s email was indeed handled in the way I knew it would have been. We would not have allowed Donna to become an intermediary on a product support issue, just as the email indicates:

*Hi Donna

Just have Carolyn email any product support questions to this email address, “sales@bountifulbaby.com”.

Hope this helps!

Bountiful Baby*

24

Dear Nevin
It was certainly a surprise to see an answer from you for my post! Thankyou for taking the time to answer it.
I am thrilled that you keep your hands into the running of your business on many levels and that you know the names of the people who work for you, other than your daughterJessica and your wife Denise! lol But that says volumes about how you run and how you want to run your corporation.
You have answered all the Ifs ands and buts that were part of the “leg saga”. and I applaud your diligence in this. The spin that was given on the other site where this was all discussed was slightly different. and of course the conclusions reached were perhaps not quite the same,but BB came out WAY on top!!!
As for all the little petty things that I brought up…thanks for the answers. May not be what I want to hear, but have no reason to doubt your answers. I do love the Rose Ink. At least the color of it…could you work on coming up with a color like that in GHSP that would give the same soft, rosy pink accents that the ink did? A shame more people dont’ realize how pretty it is.
I will still be a little over the top about the ear on Kyle…that is my right. And, as we have stated here above, there are already solutions being shared as to how to get around this
This is good…we will learn how to do something new and refreshing and get us that one step closer to the reality baby we are all striving for.
Thanks again for answering. I am not surprised that our boards are monitored. They should be. Where else will you hear what we want? What we need from you? and How you are either meeting our needs? or NOT?
Thanks again…
Joy Franklin

25

— Begin quote from “joy”

You did a great job in painting his ear structure in! I will be using your picture for a reference if you wouldn’t mind? That really looks good!

— End quote

I am shocked and pleased to no end! I am still very new at this but if you’d like I’ll take another picture of the other ear, too! lol

— Begin quote from “joy”

Another woman on this thread is the one who was upset about not having the artist’s name on the sculpt, I was just echoing her concern.

— End quote

That was me but I wasn’t really upset, I just stated it would have been nice to have her name. After all, it’s my first Pat Moulton kit I’ve done.

— Begin quote from “joy”

I am still a little overwhelmed with the skill I will need to paint these ears…and do wonder why they were not sculpted in the style that this artist usually does her work. But, it is under the bridge now and I will have to grow my skill, not all bad.

— End quote

Do not be overwhelmed with it because the entire structure is there. I only added a bit of extra blushing in the bottom of his ear, but I rather do that on all babies. Its the BB pictures that don’t do it justice and we all know sometimes we just have bad camera days. When I looked at the head in my kit, it did appear at first to be lacking structure but as I blushed the ear following the natural curves of the existing ear, it all came out fine.

— Begin quote from “BountifulBaby”

This is Nevin (the CEO of Bountiful Baby). No, we don’t follow the forum frequently. But we do follow it somewhat.

— End quote

You should, or at least have some trusted Moderators. It’s just comforting for participants to know someone of authority is online should the need for them arise.

— Begin quote from “BountifulBaby”

We also have about 6 different people that respond to the customer service emails…
Nevin

— End quote

I am a Certified Customer Service Expert. My experience and expertise comes from phone, email and live support through the web page. If you would like to use my expertise, I’ll be happy to take my pay in kits and supplies! winks

26

I was so happy to see how this thread turned out. Joy your last post was refreshing and mature, making the entire incident end amicably, thank you. On other forums, I have seen too many of this type of thread turn into a nightmare that I won’t even continuing reading.

In regard to detail and BB sculpts, it really must be the sculptor, since even the tiny ten inch sculpts from BB seem to have incredible detail. Guess Kyle makes up for his deficits in pure cuteness.

27

Gosh, I am sorry to have sort of started a tempest, I never meant to. But, there were a few inaccuracies that needed to be straightened out before they got too out of control. This is what happens when things from one board get carried to another and then no one knows what anyone is really talking about.

Thankyou for the compliment I think! LOL…Since I never was at all really emotionally upset at anything it was not hard to do. But, after raising the large family I have, and after a career of making sure doctors and nurses and parents and paramedics are all on the same page with the same story, it seems important to me to make sure that we at least are all on the same page.

I really am impressed with how closely BB listens to us. An example are these new releases. If my memory is accurate we had many discussions over the last few months since the RuBert business was acquired, as to what we wanted to see in the new sculpts that would come out. We, or the majority of us, wanted to continue to have babies, but bigger ones, and happier ones. We didn’t want sculpts that looked like dolls or porcelains, but real babies. And, if these latest releases are an example of what is in the future then WOW we were listened to!!! I wish husbands could listen that well!!! LOL

I am a person who hates change, but when it comes I usually run head first to embrace it! Doesn’t make sense but that is the way I have been since a baby. So, I had a lot of trepidation about the merger and about the new kits. But, boy am I now running toward them! They are really really cute! I think we are all going to have fun in the next period of our reborning lives.

Well, I am done now. I have to go do Kyle. I am in a swap and he was the one my swap partner wanted. So, I think I better get him in the works. No more excuses, since he is under my worktable all ready to go! LOL
hugs
joy

28

Joy, I’m posting more pictures of what I’ve done so far, this time in a more natural lighting and clothed-sort of- also in female and male clothing! I’m about to post the thread now…lol

30

BB is a great company to deal with. I don’t think I have had any real problems with them, just a couple of annoyances, but hey…nothing is perfect in life, and they are really easy to do business with.

I am almost done with my Kyle, and I did nothing special with his ears. they just seemed to naturally pop up right when the pain went on. But, when I first looked at them I was really taken aback as they had looked so plain, but like I said I did nothing special to them, no extra shading or anything, and they turned out beautiful.
I really have enjoyed Kyle. My only peeve now is that I didn’t get myself one, and as I am now in Dolly Debt with the new releases from other places coming out in the next few weeks, it will be a bit before I get my own Kyle.
Good luck with yours. I think you will love working on him.
hugs
Joy

31

Joy, just break down and put one of your finished babies on ebay. You might just be surprised.

32

Karen I don’t have the nerve!
If it wouldn’t sell I would hide under the bed forever…oops…can’t…bed is not open underneath. So…guess I would have to hide in the closet in the corner with the dust bunnies.
Someday I will get up enough nerve. And, after doing KYle I think that day is coming sooner than later. He was such fun to do.
Your Kyle’s ears looked really good in the pictures and I was going to copy them but when I was done with the first two coats there was no reason to…they had all the definition I could want. Maybe an angel helped…stranger things have happened!
hugs
Joy

33

— Begin quote from “joy”

Karen I don’t have the nerve!
If it wouldn’t sell I would hide under the bed forever…oops…can’t…bed is not open underneath. So…guess I would have to hide in the closet in the corner with the dust bunnies.
Someday I will get up enough nerve. And, after doing KYle I think that day is coming sooner than later. He was such fun to do.
Your Kyle’s ears looked really good in the pictures and I was going to copy them but when I was done with the first two coats there was no reason to…they had all the definition I could want. Maybe an angel helped…stranger things have happened!
hugs
Joy

— End quote

Don’t think your hubby would like that! Kyle’s ears had no problem to them. I added just a wee bit of shading in an area where I noticed NONE of the kits give depth in the sculpt itself so I just do it with paint! Don’t be surprised one day if I put a cleft chin on one!! Oh and Joy? I’ve seen your work, you are quite capable. If you don’t believe me, ask others!!