In the past, Mattel has simply sent a new doll to replace the doll without asking for the other doll to be returned first (at least, not that I know of). With my recent email about Maddie came a response about returning the doll to get a new one.
Tagging all known Mattel…
I don’t recommend emailing at ALL. I’d call them, early in the am (pacific time 8am -2pm). Emailing them has gotten some weird, form letter responses. When i called them, they’ve replaced things or sent a voucher…
How does the voucher work?
Do you take it back to the store (TRU, Target, Walmart) to have them replace the doll?They basically give you a $20 GC for any Mattel toy…which is great! .. as long as the one you want is still in stores (mine wasn’t, so they just replaced the doll and told me to keep the voucher, too)The first time I emailed support was when my Basic Operetta had the worst box hair you could imagine. It was beyond un-fixable. The thing I love about Basic Operetta is her really cool, really involved hairstyle, and I wanted the doll to retain it. Anyway, the hair was terrible, and they sent me a replacement without having to return the original doll I purchased. This was probably about a year ago, more or less, when I was first getting into MH fandom.
When I got my Skelita, about eight months ago or so, she also had major issues. Her hand was defective from the rubber bands in the box, her hair was a terrible mess, her eyes were badly misprinted, and her knees wouldn’t bend. (I know that other people had similar problems w/ Skelita when she first came out.) I was rather upset, because up to that point, Skelita had been impossible to find in my area, and I was really looking forward to owning her. Of course I emailed Mattel again since the doll was not well-made, and instead of just outright sending a replacement, they emailed me a return label so I could send the defective Skelita back to them. About a month later, I got a new Skelita who was perfect.
I am happy with the way that Mattel handled both issues. I think as MH fandom in particular grew, the incidence of complaints went through the roof. I know when I was getting into the MH fandom here, there were always a lot of posts about emailing Mattel *expecting* replacements or vouchers for minor defects in dolls. Luckily, out of the 50+ dolls I have ordered, I have only ever had those two issues that needed to be resolved, and Mattel handled them very well.
My Lagoona looked like she’d been manhandled and was missing leg fins, earrings, stickers, parts from the locker etc. When I emailed, they basically said she didn’t come with leg fins cause of her shoes and they’d give me a $5 voucher (like, for… what?), When I called they apologized and replaced her within like, a week.
I can’t help but wondering if there were SO MANY people realizing that they did this and then asking for dolls, that they didn’t start requiring people to send the defective doll back. The only time I thought this was rediculous was when someone complained about their SDCC Scarah cause obviously, it wasn’t going to be possible to replace.
My other theory is that they were trying to pinpoint WHAT exactly was going on with the dolls that they were getting so many complaints, so they asked for evidence.. Just what I think.