Karla M.

I hope the readers can see how difficult this customer was to deal with. She sent so many emails within a couple of hours, bouncing all over the place with her complaints. It is incredibly difficult to deal with this sort of barrage from one customer. ONE polite message is much easier to handle.

My husband, Richard, handles the shipping. I'm sure he was trying to save money on shipping expense. Our markups are low and every expense takes away from anything we'd have left over in the end. Nothing in the order was damaged! We charged less for shipping than it cost us. We don't refund outbound shipping in buyer's remorse cases. We don't know of a single store that will refund your gas or time to come buy or to return items. And it is very important to understand that ''free shipping'' is not free for the seller. A nice website doesn't mean we are a big box store!

This customer returned the items wrapped in toilet paper! I promise Lovvbugg will NEVER send items to you wrapped in toilet paper!

I am adding the following because it needs to be said somewhere! American customers just don't seem to understand:
From the small retailer's view--There are tons of time and expense before the sale. We have provided photos of the items, making it possible for the customer to inspect them carefully before buying. We try not to sell low-quality items. Please understand that we are in the business of making kids and collectors happy while SAVING them a ton of money! We have gone to considerable time and EXPENSE to:
1. FIND items, 2. PAID for them, 3. PAID to have them shipped to us, 4. Provided a HEAT/COOLED building to STORE them in, 5. Bought COMPUTERS and 6. CAMERA made PHOTOS, 7. Paid for a WEBSITE, 8. Put them ONLINE for sale, 9. Paid selling COMMISSIONS to website where item sold, 10. Paid to RECEIVE the money electronically, 11. SHIPPED the item(s) using SHIPPING MATERIALS (boxes-most are not free to us, envelopes, bubble pack), 12. REFUNDED the items. There are NO REFUNDS to us for any of those twelve expenses we PAID. We are not paid for our time. Most years we don't even turn a profit. Lovvbugg is just a big bunch of stuff that carries itself along, barely.

Almost all American retailers of physical products, whether online or walk-in, are facing possible failure because customer expectations have gotten to be unreasonable. Remember Toys-R-Us? And they probably didn't even own their inventory. Imagine their expenses! The biggest reason American retail is in trouble is that the internet has made it possible for customers to buy directly from the manufacturer, cutting out the retailer in the product's journey to the end user. Amazon is a perfect example of that.

At Lovvbugg, we are doing the best we can! The doll clothes and accessories business is dependent on foreign imports. No one in America will work for the low wages it takes to get this many hand-made items to the customer. Doll shoes are a great example. It takes a lot of good, expensive machinery and experienced hands to make the great shoes we have. American workers won't do that sort of thing so they come from overseas. We have purchased most styles in very large numbers. BUT beginning a couple of years ago the foreign factories began selling single items directly to American buyers for ridiculously low prices, lower than what we paid for them to be made for us in large numbers. And sewing, when I can find the time, is worth about $2 per hour. Foreign factories turn out millions of basic yoke, sleeveless doll dresses in many different fabrics by people on high-speed machines. Those workers were paid about 25 cents an hour a few years ago (I haven't kept up with it). Their postal system is providing them ''free shipping'' and our USPS delivers the packages!

Let's face it, kids' toys just are not considered important by most people. However, everyone wants a good/great deal. When our children were growing up I was surprised to learn most of the parents want to buy (what I consider to be) cheaply-priced junk toys because they will throw them away in a few years. A few discriminating parents will appreciate the fact that i try to supply items to please everyone--bargains for people who want cheap, disposable toys and bargains for people who are creating a real collection and won't throw it away because it WILL be an heirloom. It is the customer's responsibility to USE the pictures and descriptions to choose which items they prefer.