I have posted my story on Doll Fan and other doll art forums. According to the tons of responses I've received on DF as well as a couple of phone calls from other artists who have been hurt by Secrist Dolls and Pat Secrist, this is just how he is????? He really needs to go read the thread on Doll Fan and see what everyone thinks of him. It's not pretty. I did not realize so many people don't like him or won't buy from him. Others said they were banned by him too for sending back faulty product. I simply can't believe the level of customer service! I sent his wife an email last night and I haven't heard from them so, at this point, I figure he gave the instruction to ban me and simply doesn't care. Here is a detailed account of what happened...

I ordered in February and the doll head had droopy lashes and eyes so I sent it back for a refund. The baby looked drunk. RETURN #1

Then a few weeks ago I placed an order for 4 dolls. Here is what I got... doll #1 came with black limbs and a white head + it had white glue dried all over the eye balls. The other 3 heads all looked drunk again with sagging lashes so I called to return these pieces. ***** explained that they've had several complaints about the lashes latley and the lashes are getting too hot during transit and melting. I personally think that's baloney since I've never had my customers complain of my reborns lashes melting on the way but whatever. I told her to just send the lashes on the side and I'd glue them myself. She said that'd be great. (less work for them!) I also told her that the paint on the gluey eyed baby's face was really thick and only half of the lip was painted. She then said they've had problems with the paint due to heat and humidity this time of year so I asked her to check my babies painting before she sent them back out htis time and she said she would. I don't send my customers junk, therefore, they can't send me junk. I didn't say that to her, I'm just saying this to you. We continued to chit chat about doll manufacturing and we had a long and friendly phone call. and oh yes, a few years ago they sold tons of kits to the reborners that began to leak oil. They ruined our work. The only compensation they offered was to give us a new kit. Our work was our loss. The baby Jack you see below became an oily kit. I had them send a new one to me unpainted as I thought I would reborn it one day since this is my son. Well it has sat in my closet all this time so while we were on the phone this day I asked her if I could return this kit as well in exchange for a painted one like the original kit I bought that went oily. She said yes (again their fault for selling faulty kits. UPS came to my house the next day & picked them up and they sent out replacements. That was RETURN #2. When I received the new shipment, the baby that had originally been sent with black limbs and glue covered eyes came back with the wrong color eyes. He was ordered with chocolate eyes and they sent him with victorian blue so I called again for an exchange of his head. I let her know his painting was beautiful but the eyes were wrong. Again, UPS came & picked him up and they sent a replacement. That was RETURN #3. I received this package last week.

Now follow me here.... I called to place an order on Wednesday of this week for Tika. I wanted a specialty eye color (china blue) so I called to ask if I could do this and was told yes but ***** told me that my customer would be unhappy with the color because Tika looks ethnic and the light blue it would not look good on an ethnic face. I told her I would call my customer and make sure she wanted it. I called her and she still wanted that color so I called ***** back to tell her the lady demanded that color and promised she wouldn't return it and ***** asked me to place the order online. I told her I did not know how to do it because I needed items from Secrist and AV in this one order so she told me how and we hung up. When I tried to log in the computer kept saying I was entering the wrong info so I reset my password and it still wouldn't work so I called her back again. She looked at my account and said "oh, that's because the last time you placed an order by phone someone didn't enter your information correctly so our system wasn't recognizing you" (their fault) and she fixed it and I got off the phone and ordered online. In the comment section I let her know to put the china blue eyes in and to please paint her with light caucasion colors so she would look right. I did not want ethnic colors with the blue eyes. Maybe I aggravated her this day by calling a few times to get my account straightened out and by ordering this baby she apparently doesn't like??? Well, the next day, Thursday, which was yesterday, I sat down to finally put these 4 AV dolls together that had previously been exchanged. The limb packs had been sent factory sealed with the bodies inside. Low and behold, when I opened them and pulled the bodies out, they had sent me tiny bodies (6 inches from neck to crotch) for 19 inch newborn dolls. So I called them again for RETURN #4, talked to Diana, and this time she acted aggravated that I was calling back with another problem. She told me they don't send out the wrong bodies and I told her I am sitting here staring at them so she said she'd need to check the rest of their stock to see if they were all bagged that way and she'd call me back. About 5 minutes passed, she called back, said she was sending new bodies and asked me not to order again. She said they couldn't afford to keep sending trucks back and forth to my house to pick up merchandise! She said I expected too much and that my standards were too high! They cut me off as a customer because they couldn't get my order right! You make your own opinion.

I AM NO LONGER MAKING THESE DOLLS
Here is the story of why I no longer offer these babies. This is what the Secrist Doll Company has done to me...
Kool Kid Jack!

Kool Kid Samantha!

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Kool Kid Dakota!

A little girls best friend is her dolly!

Kool Kid Kaiden!

Click the images to enlarge them

Kool Kid Preslie!

Remember them the way they were!

Kool Kid Orlando!

Our fondest memories are of childhood!

Kool Kid EJ! Edward Jacob Anthony Wagner. Boy doll made to look like his little mommy!

Kool Kid Sophia! Sister to Julianna!

Kool Kid Julianna! Sister to Sophia!

"You don't stop playing with dolls because you grow old, you grow old because you stop playing with dolls."

Karen's Personal Kool Kid Collection