So a few days ago I had a lady contact me about a payment plan on an Ashley I have listed. I told her that as long as she made monthly payments and kept in contact with me I was happy to do it.
She sent 70$ right away
I sent her new photos of Ashley and everything was fine. She was set to make monthly payments.
Then she sends me a message a few days later with some sob story about her hours being cut and she can only send 20$ every month.
Why do people do this?
They wouldn’t put something on layaway at a store and expect the store to be ok with stupidly small payments.
I have flat out told some people they wouldn’t expect stores to cater to them, therefore they should expect us to either. And I’ve told them asking for a discounted or free doll is the same as asking someone to sign their paycheck over to them. Usually I just ignore them. But sometimes they catch me when I’m not in the mood to ignore their crazy requests. And you’re in a position where you can’t ignore this crazy request. If you aren’t willing to take $20 a month, just tell her she needs to stick with the previous agreement or you can refund the down payment.
Personally, I have had a couple who needed long layaways. But they have been easy to deal with. So I don’t mind. You do what works best for you. Don’t let a customer ruin this hobby for you.
If someone agreed to reasonable payments and started in with this $20 a month stuff, I would actually just refund her and sell to someone else. I don’t have the time or patience for stuff like this.
I sent her a message.
I’m going to follow through with it as long as she makes steady monthly payments. But I did say this.
"As long as you continue payments I will allow it. However you should be aware of how unfair it is to expect an artist to take such small payments.
In the future I suggest that you save for the doll you want and buy it outright.
Its only fair as us artists put our own time and money into the dolls and should be fairly compensated for it. I don’t mean to be rude but if money is so tight for you perhaps you shouldn’t be buying dolls. They are luxury items after all.
Again tho, I will complete the transaction this time."
I don’t understand refunding her. When someone commits to buying, you pull you doll off the market. If we did this, maybe they would be extra sure before they committed to a purchase.
In my case, I only like to paint. I have no desire to send out payment requests every month, sitting around waiting to see if they pay or not, then having to send a reminder ect. I doubt I’m even organized enough for this. Lol Plus my dolly room is small and I have a lot of stuff crammed in there, so the last thing I need is a stack of dolls taking up room.
100% agree with you, @taylorsgirl. If money is that tight, the last thing anyone should be worried about is spending hundreds of dollars on a reborn doll. There are less expensive options.
Paying $20 a month on something that costs hundreds is going to take forever. Plus this one has a past history of things going sideways. I’d cut the cord on this deal right now.
Maybe reborn artists who allow payments should be like the credit card companies and charge interest on extended payments…3 months interest free and after that interest on the balance of about 30 percent! If they want the reborn they’ll pay faster that way.
Actually I hate to take payments because I always think that if they don’t have the money to pay outright then they are buying something they probably really can’t afford. We sell “wants” not “needs” and a lot of people have trouble seeing there’s a difference.
When I sell a reborn, I want it gone and I likely need the money to keep making more. We shouldn’t have to wait to be paid and have to keep a doll in storage for months when there’s probably someone else out there who would buy it and pay immediately!
I could be wrong but I think she was saying she shouldn’t get a refund because deposits should be non refundable. If she can’t make the payments that were agreed upon she should forfit the deposit money. Which was kinda my thought too but then again I don’t think it would be worth the headache and the negativity they would probably spread about you.
Definitely understand this. And technically you would not be wrong for keeping it because it is a non-refundable deposit that we charge… It’s just me. I do whatever is necessary to get rid of difficult people, including sending back their deposit. I guess I’ve been through too much, and now that my life is calm, I do anything to keep it that way.
I’ve heard a lot of people say that. And I get it. One of the times I lost my drive to paint was after dealing with a very difficult customer who irritated me to a point where I just wanted to hurry and ship her doll off so I never had to deal with her again. Of course she had her PayPal address wrong, so the doll got returned to me and I had to repeat the entire process, but I digress.
The fact of the matter is that I paint because I love to. I just no longer deal with difficult people. The minute I sense that they are going to cause problems, I refund them and move on. It works beautifully.
