Will they have a black Friday sale?

Dare we hope?

The answer is yes!

It says there's 35% off "last holiday price". I'm really confused as to what that means though. Making a basket and putting a random makie in it doesn't seem to change the price at all, despite it saying "35% off".

So I'm a bit confused as to what it actually is. XD

In fact, it seems to imply that the price makies are currently (£49.99) is a sale price, after which they'll go back up to the "previous price". This surely can't be right given the big move to IM and a lower price point, but that's what the order page implies. Weird.

Is it that they're 35% cheaper than they were last Christmas?

There's also free shipping on everything! [I think so anyway..]

I'm confused...what exactly is on sale?

that is a bit misleading.. I am assuming "35% off last holiday price" is a really baffling way of saying "now £49:99" but it's really misleading because it implies a sale but there isn't one. Hmmm.
They do however have free shipping which looks to be global, so those outside the us and uk may be delighted with that saving.

Have you noticed they now do gift cards in multiple denominations? that's kinda cool.

I did maths, 35% off £69 is £45 thereabouts.
So... that's confusing.

They had a sale on last holiday too, everything was I think 20% off anyway. It's why I bought 3 rather than just 1... ahem.

The free shipping is to the UK, US, and Canada only.

Yeah I can't really tell what this sale is actually supposed to be, but there's the possiblity we keep checking the site as they're updating it live. I've noticed a few times that announcements on the front page are often initially worded confusingly, then updated to be better clarified in a few hours or so. Maybe they check here or facebook to see if there's any confusion and fix things accordingly?

So today I tried ordering a bunch of shoes, the photographer set, and a new Makie. First it turned out that my Makies I designed were in the Great Britain version of the website. So my makie was there and my other stuff was on the United States version of the website. I ended up making a new Makie on the US version by copying the Makie on the GB version, feature by feature. Then it kept losing the stuff in my shopping cart. Finally, it started to save my order and my Makie is included. Great. Then I went to buy them. It sends me to a screen full of UNIX code. Server side error messages. Bottom line is I can't buy anything. I wrote to them and send a screen shot of the UNIX coding. I hope they will answer or resolve this soon. Has anyone else tried to order? Did it work?

Oh dear, sounds like the problems go deeper than we thought. i expect there's much hair pulling over at the lab today. I wonder what's gone so horribly wrong, this server switch seems to have totally borked everything. Bloody gremlins.
Well, if they can't get it fixed they'll just have to extend their sale plans right? heh. If they actually have a sale in the first place.

Just got the email from them about this "sale", it's not.
It says:


Happy Black Friday, everyone!  We've been introducing new fashions and new accessories all-week long and now it's time to shop 'til you drop!  

Save up to 35% off Makies (currently $74.99, formerly $115)!



So... "previously £69, now £49:99 like they have been for the past couple of months, what a deal!"


I'm not impressed, it's super deceptive and honestly really dodgy imo. I'm actually quite mad they'd try to pull such a con on people, tricking them into thinking they're getting a bargain when nothing is actually reduced. That's just really not on.
Super unimpressed by the lab this week, still waiting on support to get back to me and now they're messing with us about fake sales. tisk... this doesn't bode well.



I don't think anyone can buy stuff anyway, the site is so borked. Saved makies don't show up, any you make disappear from the cart unless  you add something else to the cart and then they magically reappear,  all saved address info is gone, prices are bouncing from £ to $ with each click. it's a mess.

Purple_Monkfish wrote:Just got the email from them about this "sale", it's not.
It says:


Happy Black Friday, everyone!  We've been introducing new fashions and new accessories all-week long and now it's time to shop 'til you drop!  

Save up to 35% off Makies (currently $74.99, formerly $115)!



So... "previously £69, now £49:99 like they have been for the past couple of months, what a deal!"


I'm not impressed, it's super deceptive and honestly really dodgy imo. I'm actually quite mad they'd try to pull such a con on people, tricking them into thinking they're getting a bargain when nothing is actually reduced. That's just really not on.
Super unimpressed by the lab this week, still waiting on support to get back to me and now they're messing with us about fake sales. tisk... this doesn't bode well.



I don't think anyone can buy stuff anyway, the site is so borked. Saved makies don't show up, any you make disappear from the cart unless  you add something else to the cart and then they magically reappear,  all saved address info is gone, prices are bouncing from £ to $ with each click. it's a mess.

Yeah it seems really shady, I'm a bit shocked that they'd do something like that. "Come buy in our non-existant sale!"

I had a suspicion this would be the case - that the 35% off was actually just referring to the existing price.

I wonder if that means makies will go back up in price afterwards?

I'm trying to withhold judgement because I realise everything is much harder as a smaller company, one that is still emerging from it's startup, but this isn't something I would let fly with a larger company. It is indeed very dodgy. The one thing stopping me from judging as much as maybe I should do is just through sympathy of being a very very small business myself, and knowing there are times I have to make pricing decisions that must feel unfair on consumers. However, I think that kind of thing should be handled transparently though, because it's only fair to be upfront with people buying your product. This is all a little bit... hmm.

I also wouldn't be happy if the price returned to what it was previously, but the 3DP bodies didn't return.

Still can't order and it's Black Friday. This could really hurt the company big time. Some folks will be discouraged from ordering altogether I'm sure and it's a peak season for sales. Lots of bad decisions and bad timing. Why didn't they try out everything on the new website before going public? Right now I'm very thankful (influenced by Thanksgiving) that this isn't my business. Unfortunately, I have been waiting to order since my October birthday.

Just got this response:
Hi Kathy,
so sorry for this! We're checking into the issue at this end and will get back to you asap. Thanks so much for your patience!
Best wishes,
Emma
Team MakieLab
What's new is that I now need to log in with my new password, where yesterday it opened up automatically with my old username (not email). So they are probably going wild trying to fix the many glitches that Purple_Monkfish mentioned.

They seem to have been struggling for a while now - it kind of matches up with the changeover to IM bodies, but I suspect it's not caused by that so much as that being one of a few changes they made at once.

The "deal" really does make me think less of them though. They don't have to hold a Black Friday sale, but to pretend they are when prices are the same as last week is very deceptive. The wording is careful enough that they wouldn't get dinged by Trading Standards or anything, but it also seems designed to mislead. There is a fine line between marketing and deliberately fibbing to customers.

Between that and the massive drop in quality, it does make me wonder what's going on with them. And I hope they can fix things, because they were awesome before.

I finally heard from support too, phew. They're printing me a new body  for my broken doll which is a relief. Gonna be a macabre parcel to arrive lol, just this torso in a box.

Don't you worry guys, i'm not so forgiving so i'm given em heck on facebook. I dunno, I know they're a small company but when you do something bad you need to be told you did bad. Like... rolled up newspaper on nose "bad Makies, BAD, go back over there, fix your website and stop making up sales" lol.
I'm sure they're already sick of me, but i've been saying that since I started buying heh.
I'm that person customer services dread, the bored housewife with too much time on her hands and a monomaniacal passion for your product. Pretty sure Mattel and MGA already have me blacklisted bwhahahaha. I don't mean to be all rargh I just happen to buy a LOT of dolls so by the very nature of chance that makes me more likely to encounter a problem with one every so often.

I've had really poor luck with Makies though, any problem to be had i've ended up with lol. I've had gift boxes missing the code card, i've had the wrong doll sent, i've had doll being left off print run and thus delayed, i've had broken eye mechs, a broken shoulder and now a broken neck too.
But I think it says a lot about Makies that I keep coming back, because they do tend to make things right. That and their product is awesome and addictive.

Re the quality issues? I have to say, my new boy, ignoring the print flaw with his torso which I think is just one of those things, is beautiful. He has a small bubble near one lip but flaws in the print surface are part of the charm of 3dp toys. His body is actually pretty good, there's some seams around the fingers, I trimmed those but the leg and arm seams don't look too bad to my eye, his hands and feet actually stay ON and his eye mech didn't break, which considering my last two's did, is progress.
Also the colour match is pretty good, and he's cocoa which is the colour we were all most concerned about. I have to say, i'm pretty pleased with the colour match and the IM  parts don't bother me as much as I thought they might. He fits in fine, and the advantage of the im hands is that I can actually fit fingerless dolly gloves on him ahahaha. The 3dp fingers had zero give so you weren't squeezing fabric over them, but the im ones have a teeny bit of give so you can put gloves on, squeeze tighter stuff onto their feet and so on. I like that, it gives me some more options.

Well, I just sent Customer Support an email, pointing out that their Black Friday sale announcements are a "bit confusing".

I asked them if the sale price was supposed to be 35% off of the current price of $74.99, or off of $115.00, the old price that was for Makies that were completely 3D printed?

I pointed out that my understanding was that $74.99 was to be the new standard price for Makies since they now come with the cheaper IM body instead of a 3D printed one. (I remember seeing several statements from MakieLabs to that effect.)

I then said, that if $74.99 is also the Black Friday sale price, then it really isn't a sale, is it? Unless of course their plan is to raise the price back up to $115.00 after the sale ends. Even though the Makies now have cheaper IM bodies.

Finally, I told them that I just wanted to know two things, even though I probably wouldn't receive the answers until after the sale ended:

One, is it supposed to be 35% off of $74.99 or 35% off of $115.00?
and
Two, are they planning on raising the price of the Makies back up $115.00, even though they now come with IM bodies, once the Black Friday sale is over?

When and if I hear back from them, I'll let you know their response.

p_m, I'm glad to hear that the Lab got back to you, and that they are printing you a new torso for your boy.

Lol, I guess my frustrations with not being able to access all my old virtual Makies, and not being able to save any new Makies I create, has made me a just a bit ticky, a little bit confrontational.

I kept reading the Black Friday Sale doublespeak in their announcements, and thinking about how I wouldn't really be able take advantage of their non-sale sale anyway, if it actually had been a real sale, since I can't access my Makies....

And then I started wondering just what that doublespeak might actually mean.... Until I couldn't stand it, and I just had to message them about it.

Ah well, at least I stayed civil, and I doubt any of the caustic sarcasm of my thoughts came through in my typed words.

hehehe, I think we're all a bit miffed, this time of year frays tempers and makes us all stressy and cranky right?
I know what you mean though, had they actually had a sale we'd have had to make an entirely new Makie, but they disappear if you don't add them to your cart and even if you do add, the cart claims it's empty unless you go to the store and add something else to it, then magically everything pops up. Still not sure checkout can actually work though, a few people reported they couldn't check out plus we have two people who's payments have been put in limbo by paypal so... hmmm.
So many issues and so little info about what's going on. I'm sure they're working hard on it, but they really should stop sending out "buy stuff!" emails till they have the site actually working.

I wonder if this strange wording might be because 3DP bodies will come back in some form?
That might just be me being hopeful, but the backlash over the IM bodies seems large. The makies instagram can barely post one picture without complaints about the new skin in the comments. Considering how many people have 'swore off' makies since the switch, I wonder if it's actually a serious problem.

Not sure, i don't mind the IM bodies tbh, they look better irl than in photos. not as shiny or different in tone.
I wonder though, I mean, it's a big investment to switch to IM, Im ain't cheap to make moulds etc so it would be a fairly costly mistake. Maybe a two tier system where you can "upgrade" to full 3dp bodies would be the best way to do it, so there's a cheaper option for parents who don't want to pay £70.

I noticed all the clothing and accessories now have "customise and buy" buttons rather than just "buy", then lists each individual item. Will we at some point be able to pick what colour we want things from a short list? that'd be really nice I have to admit, or being able to mix and match leggings with tops. Just seems strange to have a customise button but no option to do so, like.. what's that all about?

I wondered about that as well, although I really don't think they would totally abandon the IM body.  Like p_m said, it's a rather large initial investment to just toss it by the wayside.

I think we might eventually see 3DP bodies being offered again, possibly as an upgrade option, or perhaps as a special once a year ordering event, where you have a chance to get that special Makie completely 3D printed.

Especially, if we all continue to ask for the totally 3DP Makies to return, and let them know we are willing to pay the higher costs.

I'm not sure however, that I would be willing to pay $115.00 for a Makie with a IM body, if that is what MakieLabs is intending after this sale.  Which could also explain the odd reference to the old $115.00 price.

I'm with you p_m, on having the option to mix and match the different clothing tops and bottoms, with some decent looking long pants included in the choices!

I'd also like to be able to choose what colors I want for the accessories, like the shoe sets, for example.  Plus, I would be way more likely to buy multiples of a shoe set if I can pick different colors each time. ^_~

Another nice option to have would be to be able to select from, say four or five choices, the animal you want with your Veterinarian set, or which musical instrument you want with your Musician set. ^_^

For right now though I'd just be happy if they would get all these problems with the new website fixed soon, and give me back all my Virtual Makies!

Yeah i'd like to access my virtual makies, particularly as a new Makie idea has crept into my head and is starting to take roost. Bah.

nattherat wrote:I had a suspicion this would be the case - that the 35% off was actually just referring to the existing price.

I wonder if that means makies will go back up in price afterwards?

I'm trying to withhold judgement because I realise everything is much harder as a smaller company, one that is still emerging from it's startup, but this isn't something I would let fly with a larger company. It is indeed very dodgy. The one thing stopping me from judging as much as maybe I should do is just through sympathy of being a very very small business myself, and knowing there are times I have to make pricing decisions that must feel unfair on consumers. However, I think that kind of thing should be handled transparently though, because it's only fair to be upfront with people buying your product. This is all a little bit... hmm.

I also wouldn't be happy if the price returned to what it was previously, but the 3DP bodies didn't return.

If they go back up in price, I am going to be seriously irritated. I thought the whole point of the IM bodies was to drop the price.