Mini Doll broken spine repair

mahoro · Post by **mahoro** » Tue May 31, 2016 4:00 pm

Well I am one of the unfortunate people who received there Mini Dolls with a broken spine which was very upsetting when she arrived as you can imagine but John at DS has been great and sent me out the repair parts as soon as I sent him some photo's and a video so he could identify the joint.

This photo shows the joint trying to poke out through her back and it turned out that the joint had broken off after tilting back at a 45 degree angle so I had to at leased try to repair her as the joint would have eventually pushed through the silicone on her back.

Here is a link to the video that John at DS sent me showing how to do the repair which was a great help and definitely worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYO6e2VVrtw

Now when I opened my doll up my repair wasn't this easy in fact it turned out to be a bit of a nightmare as the plastic screw in joint had snapped off flush with the torso so the only way to remove it was to drill it out which meant I had to drill vertically up into the torso and this is where it gets tricky as my Eve is so tiny and even when I stuck protection tape around the incision into the silicone and twisted the doll to gain better access to the broken joint the drill was just way to big to use without causing possible damage to the doll so at this point I thought I've gone this far I may as well just go for it which took me about 10 to 15 minutes to get the plastic thread out as I was trying to be as careful as I could and the thread in the torso still looked fairly intact and the joint did screw into it using an adjustable spanner and appeared to rotate ok and then I just followed the rest of the instructions as per the DS repair video using Silpoxy to seal her up.

This photo shows the broken joint and what was left of the thread after I had managed to drill it out.

Here are two photo's that Nick posted up after he cut is Mini Doll open showing the same joint breakage as my doll had apart from my joint broke of flush.

Here's my Mini Doll post repair after her bath and powder and she looks to have come through it ok apart from the joint i srcewed into the torso appears to be very tight which is probably due to the threads in the torso possibly being burred up when I did the drilling and I am not prepared to take a chance on trying to use excessive force to twist her waist as i am just happy that she can tilt side to side and back and forth.

And here is the minor damage she sustained when doing the drilling as to get the correct angle into the torso the drill had to be pressed against the side of the doll and it appears that the chuck on the drill ripped through the tape and scuffed up the silicone.

I am glad I carried out the repair as she does look so cute now that she can hold a pose unaided and I've decided to name her Lara after one of my favorite female adventurers Lara Croft as she to has picked up some battle scars over the years and still manages to look petty hot.

Hope this has been helpful to anyone considering doing this repair.

Mahoro

Post by **Swan** » Tue May 31, 2016 4:25 pm

Excellent work Mahoro!

Wow! I would've been so pissed off at DS. Please tell me they refunded at least half your money

If you're happy that's all that matters

mahoro · Post by **mahoro** » Tue May 31, 2016 4:53 pm

Swan wrote:Excellent work Mahoro!

Wow! I would've been so pissed off at DS. Please tell me they refunded at least half your money

If you're happy that's all that matters

Thanks Swan

Yes I was totally gutted when I lifted her out of her box and actually put her straight back in it and put the lid back on but I soon got over it once I spoke to John at DS as I've had dolls from them before and the customer service has always been great and they offered me some options one of which was a replacement Eve doll if I was to pay the shipping and processing fee's which I accepted and they also sent me out the repair parts by DHL as soon as they had identified what had broken and they turned up at my door 4 days later so I have no complaints about the service I've received from them so far.

Mahoro

samara78 · Post by **samara78** » Tue May 31, 2016 4:54 pm

Way to go mohoro! Excellent work you have done. She is a stunning girl indeed

mahoro · Post by **mahoro** » Tue May 31, 2016 5:08 pm

samara78 wrote:Way to go mohoro! Excellent work you have done. She is a stunning girl indeed

Thanks samara78

My Lara is one happy girl now she's recovered from her operation and she's been getting plenty of TLC

Mahoro

Karrot · Post by **Karrot** » Tue May 31, 2016 5:37 pm

That Sir, is an excellent closure, the seam repair is perfect. Congratulations. The scuffing from the drill sounds unavoidable really unless you had 4+ hands available or prehensile feet.

Karrot

haremlover · Post by **haremlover** » Tue May 31, 2016 5:39 pm

Brilliant work! And full credit to DS for all that they do looking after their ladies. They really do consider each of their girls to be one of their daughters.

I reckon that you might spread Permatex Flowable Silicone over the scarring and cover it with clingfilm to create a smooth surface.

Best wishes

Harem

Ddwyerstar · Post by **Ddwyerstar** » Tue May 31, 2016 6:58 pm

Why would you guys accept a broken doll upon arrival, why did you not return it? I hear all this praising of John for sending repair parts when he should have replaced her. This is crazy talk!!!!!

DarkOne · Post by **DarkOne** » Tue May 31, 2016 7:03 pm

Ddwyerstar wrote:Why would you guys accept a broken doll upon arrival, why did you not return it? I hear all this praising of John for sending repair parts when he should have replaced her. This is crazy talk!!!!!

I kinda have to agree that damaged on arrival dolls really should be replaced, especially when the shipping costs should be so much lower for such a small doll.

DS can have a scratch and dent sale or sell them to local chinese market as refurbished for the returned dolls.

Its not like these spines snapped *after* someone had sex with the doll, they are still 'virgin' when they arrive with broken spines and such.

However, I would like to take the time to praise DS for already reinforcing the spine on this doll for future dolls. Most other companies it takes months for them to fix designs, if they ever do (Doll makers with wire wrists, im looking at you)

Begog · Post by **Begog** » Tue May 31, 2016 7:12 pm

Ddwyerstar wrote:Why would you guys accept a broken doll upon arrival, why did you not return it? I hear all this praising of John for sending repair parts when he should have replaced her. This is crazy talk!!!!!

I have to agree. This is a manufacturer's defect, reported on opening. The buyer has already paid for shipping and processing, and should not have to do that again on a defective product. If the item was damaged in transit, insurance should cover it.

DarkOne · Post by **DarkOne** » Tue May 31, 2016 7:17 pm

Begog wrote:
Ddwyerstar wrote:Why would you guys accept a broken doll upon arrival, why did you not return it? I hear all this praising of John for sending repair parts when he should have replaced her. This is crazy talk!!!!!
I have to agree. This is a manufacturer's defect, reported on opening. The buyer has already paid for shipping and processing, and should not have to do that again on a defective product. If the item was damaged in transit, insurance should cover it.

Doll companies keep claiming that shippers refuse to pay for insurance claims to cover it.

IMO they should either:

A: Form a class action suit against these shipping companies for every doll damaged in the past N years and not paid up. I am sure there would be a lot more companies willing to join in (Any company that sells things made of glass for example).

No idea if they would actually recover more then the lawyers cost, but then hopefully the cost of the lawyers for the shipping companies would cost more then just paying the insurance claims in the future. Right now shipping companies have nothing to lose by not compensating for shipping damages because what are you going to do, go to one of the 2 other companies who does the exact same thing? They need to be sued before policies will change.

B: Hire a 3rd party insurance corporation instead (Bad idea, See C)

C: Suck it up and just pay for the losses themselves, roll the additional costs into the costs of every doll. Because you know damn well an insurance corporation is not going to pay out more then they receive in the long run so the costs of dolls would be less if they insured them themselves, since they are not sending the odd high value package but hundreds of them.

kruiser · Post by **kruiser** » Tue May 31, 2016 9:39 pm

If you receive a broken item, regardless of what it is, you are entitled to a refund or replacement. No way would I of gone through all that to make a repair which was not my fault. These dolls are damn expensive and people save up for months or even years to buy them, I would demand a replacement.

Ddwyerstar · Post by **Ddwyerstar** » Tue May 31, 2016 9:43 pm

Now that's sensible talk, when Takata produced those defective airbags, they had to "eat it". Reputation is so important in todays business community, perhaps companies in China operate on a different set of business ethics. Regardless, bad customer service is bad customer service, I personally will NOT buy one of these dolls. Take that, DS. I suggest leaving BAD reviews if satisfaction is not met.

Xephyr · Post by **Xephyr** » Tue May 31, 2016 9:58 pm

That looked... so painful.....

linux_tyro · Post by **linux_tyro** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 1:34 am

I can say that in my case I don't have the time or space to do a repair and agree with others that a new doll should be shipped for free or I should receive a full refund. I even offered to send the doll back if they sent me a prepaid shipping label.

It is not DS Doll policy to pay for shipping in any circumstances. I was offered a partial refund if I keep the doll. A larger refund if I paid to ship it back. I could wait to see if the shipper offered to pay the shipping for the same larger refund. No full refund offer was made.

I'm not willing to pay for the shipping so I am going to accept a partial refund and a replacement part. Perhaps in the future I will perform the repairs.

Not real happy with the outcome or my options.

# edited to change small to partial and added "No full refund offer was made".