How long does a made-to-order sex doll take to arrive?

Production commonly runs 4 to 12 weeks before shipping, because most dolls are built to the configuration you ordered rather than picked from stock. A shop offering every option in stock at factory prices is describing something that is not made to order. Get the lead time in writing at the point of ordering, because it is also the date your dispute clocks are measured from.

What are factory photos and should I insist on them?

Factory photos are photographs of your actual doll, taken before dispatch, which you approve before it ships. Insist on them. It is the only checkpoint during production at which a wrong head, wrong skin tone or wrong configuration can be corrected without becoming a dispute — and once the doll has shipped, correcting it means return freight on a 30 to 60 lb crate.

When does the chargeback clock start on a made-to-order doll?

The Financial Ombudsman Service says the window is usually around 120 days, running either from the date you expected the goods and did not receive them, or from the date you received goods that were defective or not as described — not necessarily from the date you paid. That distinction matters most in this category, because production can consume 4 to 12 weeks before anything is visibly wrong.

What should I check in the first hour after a doll arrives?

Configuration against your written order first — head, skin tone, cup, skeleton options — because that is what a not-as-described claim rests on. Then physical condition: joint movement, seams, fingers, and any staining or discolouration. Photograph anything wrong before handling it further, and report it in writing the same day.

You paid. Now there are 4–12 weeks of nothing.

Every guide in this category stops at checkout, as though the purchase ends when the money moves. It does not. The doll is built after you pay, ships from overseas, and arrives in a crate weeks later — and the two moments where you still have real leverage are both inside that window.

The one thing to do today: write down the delivery date the vendor promised you. The Financial Ombudsman Service says a chargeback window usually runs around 120 days from the date goods were expected and not provided — not necessarily from the date you paid. In a category where production alone can consume 4–12 weeks, that distinction decides whether you still have a route when something goes wrong.

Day 0–1 · you still have leverage

Get it in writing, before it becomes a memory

Vendors answer questions before payment far more readily than after. Use that window. Ask for written confirmation of four things, and keep the reply:

The exact configuration. Head, skin tone, cup, skeleton options, standing feet — every option you selected, listed back to you. This is what a "not as described" claim is later measured against, and a screenshot of a checkout page is weaker evidence than a written confirmation.
The lead time. A date, not "4–8 weeks". You are going to need a date.
DDP or DDU — whether import charges are prepaid or land on you at the border. See what your country charges; the US currently has no duty-free allowance at all.
The position if you cancel before production starts. Made-to-order changes the refund picture, and vendors differ. Ask now.

Weeks 1–8 · the quiet part

Silence is normal. Unanswered questions are not.

Hearing nothing for weeks is how made-to-order production feels, and it is not by itself a warning sign. What matters is what happens when you ask.

A vendor who answers a direct question with a direct answer during the wait is behaving the way they will behave if something goes wrong. A vendor who stops replying, or answers a specific question with reassurance, is showing you the same thing in the other direction — and poor responsiveness after a complaint is the recurring criticism in this category, including of the vendor we ourselves earn from.

If replies have stopped entirely and the promised date has passed, do not wait politely. Read what recourse you still have while the window is open rather than after it closes.

Before dispatch · the checkpoint you control

Factory photos: the last point where "wrong" is cheap

This is the single most protective step in the entire purchase, and it exists only in this window.

Require photographs of your actual doll before it ships, and approve them in writing. Not catalogue photos, not a photo of "the same model" — yours, in the factory, before it is crated.

The reason is arithmetic. A wrong head or wrong skin tone caught at this point is a production correction. The same error caught after delivery means return freight on a 30–60 lb crate across international borders, plus a dispute in which the vendor will observe that you approved dispatch. One of those is an inconvenience; the other is why people write angry reviews.

Photo-versus-reality gap is one of the most repeated complaints in this category. This checkpoint is the defence against it, and it costs nothing.

Delivery day · one chance

Film first, open second

Start recording before you touch the crate and do not stop until the doll is unwrapped. Continuously — a set of photos taken after the fact can be argued with; an unbroken recording from sealed crate to unwrapped product cannot.

Note visible crate damage with the courier at delivery if you can. That note is independent evidence you cannot create later.
Keep the crate until you are certain nothing is being returned. Return shipping without the original crate is materially worse.
Expect a large plain box. What that looks like to neighbours, and what the label says, is covered in discreet shipping.

First hour · while the evidence is fresh

Check configuration before condition

Most people check for damage first. Check what you ordered first, because that is the claim with the clearest evidence behind it — you have the written confirmation from day 0.

Configuration against the written order: head, skin tone, cup, skeleton options, any extras.
Joints and skeleton: move each limb through its range. Loose finger wires are common and minor; a joint that will not hold position is not.
Seams and skin: look along the mould lines and inside the limb joins.
Staining or discolouration, especially where the doll contacted packing material in transit.

Photograph anything wrong before handling it further, and report it in writing the same day. A same-day written report with photographs is a different kind of document from an email sent a fortnight later.

Do not accept a partial refund in exchange for changing or removing a negative review. That trade removes your leverage, and it is common enough in this category to have a name.

If it went wrong

The clocks, and which one you are on

Two different mechanisms, two different natures, and people routinely confuse them:

Chargeback is a card-scheme process, not a legal right — the Financial Ombudsman says plainly that a bank does not have to raise one. Usually around 120 days, measured from expected or actual delivery.
Section 75 (UK, credit card) is statute, and has no equivalent 120-day limit. It also runs on the item's cash price rather than the amount you put on the card — so a deposit still covers the doll.

The recourse checker works out which applies to your order, sourced from the statute and the Ombudsman's guidance rather than forum advice. It carries no affiliate links, deliberately.

Haven't ordered yet?

Then you are at the point where all of this is cheapest to prevent. Run the shop through the 10-point Scam-Check, price the real first-year total with the calculator, and check what the price bands actually are — a full-size doll advertised under $1,000 is in a band that was empty across every listing we recorded.

Sources for the dated claims on this page: the Financial Ombudsman Service's guidance (chargeback window and its discretionary nature) and the Consumer Credit Act 1974, s.75, both read in full. Lead times and complaint patterns are drawn from vendor-published terms and public review records — we have not independently timed a production run, so treat "4–12 weeks" as the range vendors advertise rather than a measurement of ours.