The Doll Forum
Trouble with Doll Forum Is…
You can’t join TDF even if you try
Or at least so is our experience so far. For quite a while now we’ve had our followers suggesting that we should be joining TDF. As you would imagine, here at AmericanSexDolls.com we listen to all our customers carefully and never take our fans suggestions lightly. So we applied. We’ve been following TDF for some time, obviously it being the largest forum of this type, you can’t miss it, you can’t ignore it.
For those who are not familiar; TDF or Doll Forum, is a community of sex doll fans from all over the world. An interesting blend of the originals, doll lovers from back in the day, and all the new doll fans, plus a generous mix of manufacturers and vendors. At the forum, you can share opinions, tips, ask questions, post about new products and share photos etc. Recently there is also a new thread called 2018 TDF Doll Awards, where members can make nomination in various categories. We thought it would be great to join the forum and maybe give our fans a chance to nominate AmericanSexDolls.com in the Best Doll Vendor Category. It was a nice thought anyways. AmericanSexDolls.com being nominated for the 2018 TDF Doll Awards as Best Doll Vendor. Well, dream on…
Doll Forum vendors
Doll Forum management team claims that they control the new vendor application process for the sake of members - apparently “TDF is a customer-oriented forum, so it’s about member contributions -we don’t want the forum to be mainly vendors”. Okay, aren’t the vendors also contributing members though? In their thread titled Doll Vendors, TDF states: Authorized sales agents who do not manufacture (the majority of) the product they sell. Right, sounds like us, doesn’t it? You wish. When asked about the process of selecting and approving new vendor members, one of the management team members told us:
”Our criteria are twofold. First, most important is that all listed manufacturers and vendors provide clear and accurate information to our members, sell quality products, which are also safe, and have good customer support and services in place. Second, there should be place to add another manufacturer of vendor. TDF is a customer-oriented forum, so it’s about member contributions -we don’t want the forum to be mainly vendors. Also, the market for love dolls is saturated, therefore we only consider sellers that offer exclusive dolls or really distinguished services.
Although we haven’t checked your details, we are positive and will consider your request. Right now we are discussing our requirements for new vendors. We expect to have them renewed early next year. If you contact us again by the mid of January, we will let you know and if we feel there’s place we will send you our detailed requirements. In the meantime, please know that only listed sellers are allowed to post at TDF. Therefore we can’t allow you to register an account right now.”
Doll Forum Catch 22
If you read Joseph Heller’s classic you know the drill. You can’t win.
“There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, that specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane, he had to fly them. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of the clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed. “
That’s pretty much the case with Doll Forum and AmericanSexDolls.com today. We apply as a vendor member, but get rejected, because we applied. When we try to join as individuals, we get banned and our accounts are deleted, because we asked questions about joining as a vendor. That’s some catch indeed.
Sex Doll Investigation
We had some more questions after we got the initial rejection earlier on this year. We wanted answers. We’ve turned to our Investigation Chief Officer - Rita Premium 6Ye Love Doll for help. Rita did some digging, she asked around, she investigated a number of witnesses. She suggested we spoke with TDF support. And so we did. Here’s the leaked transcript:
“Hi Erik,
only vendors and manufacturers that are already approved as such at TDF are allowed to advertise at TDF so right now you can´t advertise. I checked your website and as far as I can tell after a quick look you sell TPE dolls. We are very reluctant to approve new vendors who offer only TPE dolls as that market is quite saturated already. At least one of the dolls looks underage to me which we don’t tolerate at TDF. I understand that you haven’t started to produce custom dolls yet. Once you do that we may offer you to become an approved manufacturer. Please be aware though that producing custom dolls looking like celebrities or porn stars is legally complicated regarding possible copyright issues as will sure know.
Best regards
Brigittes hubbie”
That was it. Clear perfectly formed rejection that might have as well bean signed by Washington Irving or Irving Washington. We pushed for more answers. We called Rita again. She was now intrigued but advised to wait. So we did.
Does AmericanSexDolls.Com offer distinguished service?
We thought we would try applying again just recently. After all we thought: AmericanSexDolls.com is a USA vendor, we’re a legit, well established business, a well respected brand and a trusted love doll vendor with over 9 thousand followers. We sell original dolls from reliable, respected vendors who also happen to be listed and approved on the Doll Forum. We are constantly looking for new quality products and are working hard to build up local stock, and soon hope to open a Sex Doll Showroom in California. We do travel to China to make sure we can control quality of our suppliers’ production process and also have a local representative in Hong Kong.
We like to think that there are five major reason why you should buy your sex doll (love doll) with us:
1. Customer service quality; we are professional, friendly, reliable, discreet, flexible and open minded.
2. Best dolls, handpicked and vetted. Period.
3. Fair pricing - a super low price might be a sign of a great deal, or may be a sign of a cheap substitute, beware, actually TDF is a good place to read about it.
4. Quality control and technical support.
5. Innovative approach.
We applied and got rejected. No wonder. But we wanted to find out why. So we brought in the big guns. We asked Amy who is our brave Sales Manager (not a doll, she’s a real person) to give it a spin. So she did:
“Hi Nescio50,
Thank you for your email. I have to say this is quite intriguing because we have already applied once, were told to maybe add more silicone dolls and come back - that was back in March. Now you're telling us there are so many quality vendors that we need to wait another month or so... What I don't really understand is what are the criteria for selecting those vendors - and who has the final say?
We were always under the impression TDF is an open democratic quality forum - we offer nothing but quality and are a legit and by now well respected vendor. I can't really see why we would not qualify while some others vendors might - could you please explain in some more detail? If this is the question of paid advertising we are willing to take that route, we've actually already inquired about that too. Interestingly enough, I've tried creating a profile but it was unsuccessful - could not add any details - tried many times.
That doesn't sound transparent at all... customer-oriented forum yet you won't let meet a new quality vendor... or even let us join the conversation... and you well know not one vendor is able to offer an exclusive product... that's funny. And as for distinguished service - what does that mean? It's very peculiar to run BEST OF awards and handpick vendors present on the forum = allowing more exposure to some more than others... I don't know, it just doesn't seem right and I think it doesn't reflect well on the forum management - we've been asked multiple times by our customers about us joining the forum... what do we tell them? Very very interesting and strange form of democracy indeed. We would really like to become a member of the community - please let us know what else if required and how should we approach this.”
As you can see, Amy really had gone for it. We thought: ‘Hey, that’s all in a good cause, maybe some other vendors struggle with the same issue here’. But we hit the wall again:
“Hi Amy,
Please understand that we receive requests to be listed at TDF each and every day. If we allow all those sellers on TDF, we’re sure that members will leave and we’re ending up with only sellers.When adding new sellers, we prefer those having exclusive dolls. Some vendors do have exclusive dolls, designed themselves, or copies of porn stars (with legal approval), some have specific services like local presence and stock, importing services, quality checks. If it is just the same dolls already on TDF and drop-shipping from China, we are not interested. If you are still interested to become a listed vendor at TDF, please let us know and we will consider this early next year.”
Amy hit back:
“Yeah, still not convinced... name a few vendors who:
- don't offer just the same dolls already on TDF and drop-shipping from China - honestly...
- exclusive dolls, designed themselves, or copies of porn stars (with legal approval)
- some have specific services like local presence and stock, importing services, quality checks. = so importing services from where to where?
Yeah, I don't think we will ever be able to qualify... Although FYI we are about to begin to work with PIB (Patrick) and will continue to build local stock and local presence... How about you ask your members what do THEY WANT?”
Nescio countered:
“Why should I need to convince you? But okay … I was expecting that you knew the market. Some vendors do the import and then ship to the customer, instead of drop-shipping from China. Some do local quality checks. About exclusive porn star dolls, RealDoll, 1AM, Crafty do them. This is just an example of exclusive dolls. Some vendors have their own exclusive designs produced by an OEM manufacturer, or only exclusive heads. What we are asking is to tell us what you are able to add to TDF that is different from other vendors. The reason we take time to have this discussion is that a US-based vendor might be welcome. We like vendors that are present where the customers are, like US or EU. But not if it is just dropshipping the same dolls.”
Amy:
“I really appreciate you trying and yes, we are aware of how the market works, we travel to China frequently and constantly search for local US or EU manufacturing options but as you may now even Patrick had to yield here recently... So please, show me someone who's doing something we are not?
And confusing a Vendor with Manufacturer - that's like sex doll market 1 on 1 - RealDoll is I'm guessing the latter... We will discuss this internally and try to come back to you with an application outlining our 'added value' - but I really can't see how are we different from most of your VENDORS... Btw- since you guys call yourself the Management - what is the formal structure of the forum anyways? how do members know it is not a Vendor controlled operation?
Just curious about how it all works...”
And so on and so forth…
Why are we ‘fighting’ TDF?
We’re not. It was never our goal. But in the land of freedom and free speech something doesn’t quite feel right here. Like: okay, so you own a doll forum, ask us anything, make us work for it but don’t just dismiss us. What’s the point and where’s the value in keeping a close knit community where some mythical Management Figures run the show. Come on, guy. Never in the history of mankind has this ended well. You either grow or you fade away. Purdue University researchers discovered that ‘small populations tend to lose genetic diversity more quickly than large populations due to stochastic sampling error (i.e., genetic drift). This is because some versions of a gene can be lost due to random chance, and this is more likely to occur when populations are small.’ There you have it.
So, we really do hope to join TDF some day. And maybe one beautiful day, in a galaxy far, far away we will read: AmericanSexDolls.com voted 2018 TDF Doll Awards Best Doll Vendor. What an honor would that be.
Until then we will put in our best work, keep working on bringing to life our own design and our first Original Silicone American Sex Doll and open a cozy little showroom somewhere in California. Sometimes rejection is best motivation.