The Facebook debacle & other issues

54 minutes ago, RobynnDoesStuff said:

 the ig thread, including danny's responses

Thanks for the link. I'll have to look into it some more later when I have free time. 

2 hours ago, RobynnDoesStuff said:

 the ig thread, including danny's responses

For easier reference to those reading the IG thread from the start, here is the link to the specific photo that the OP refers to in their first post (re:times and dates):

https://www.instagram.com/p/BweTh7WgIKV/

Let's not overlook the fact that he appears to have lied to and manipulated people into giving him the information he used to ban them.

Edited April 30, 2019 by BeyondTime

56 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Let's not overlook the fact that he clearly lied to and manipulated people into giving him the information he used to ban them.

This is really a new low for him compared to other things I'm aware of.

Kitsooni is a friend of mine and she was not happy with how this whole thing went down. On one of her posts, Danny accused her of being a Nazi (in reference to the picture the the ADMIN posted) and criticized her grammar insinuating thing that she clearly did not say. Kitsooni has three Smartdolls and was planning on buying more but obviously she can't do that now because he black listed her from the company. Further more, she has been trying to message him on Instagram and he replied in an extremely childish manner. 

I've said this before and I will say it again (though it will probably never happen) Danny needs a PR and a Social Media management team! He is incredibly thin skinned and can not handle criticisms whats so ever. For a man who claims to be business savvy and insightful, he sure is a hypocrite and is not making decisions that best fit his brand and its image. I had to leave the Smartdoll Lovers Facebook group because the amount of hate and misinformation that people were spreading was sickening. What was even more ridiculous was that if I had said anything at all, I would have swiftly been bullied and eventually kicked from the group anyways. 

The ONE AND ONLY thing I will be purchasing from Danny is a Cocoa Cortex due to the unfortunate circumstances that other doll companies don't make a doll that comes close to my own skintone. 

I hope he realizes that he his alienating some of the very people that helped create his brand. If its weren't for us customers, he wouldn't have Smartdoll at all! 

Edited April 22, 2019 by MaKayla_Panda

26 minutes ago, MaKayla_Panda said:

The ONE AND ONLY thing I will be purchasing from Danny is a Cocoa Cortex due to the unfortunate circumstances that other doll companies don't make a doll that comes close to my own skintone.

It's not like it would be really hard for Volks to add a few skin tones to the vinyl and resin lines, but even "tan" has never become a standard option in spite of the demand. They have a slightly larger range for their SD, but nothing even close to cocoa.

 

6 hours ago, Zaliayn said:

For easier reference to those reading the IG thread from the start, here is the link to the specific photo that the OP refers to in their first post (re:times and dates):

https://www.instagram.com/p/BweTh7WgIKV/

Thanks, it embedded it automatically and couldn't turn it back ^^"

To get it to be a link instead of embedded, use the little chain/link icon at the top of the editor which gives you a window to paste the link into and then it won't change it.

Oh thanks!

I just spent my morning reading this (as well as the stuff on insta) with a cup of coffee and all I can say is “wow”. This pretty much cements my resolve to not shop from his business period. This is no way to treat your customer or fans. I’m glad I left the cultish group on fb months ago (back during the whole Volks fiasco). I thought the bullying had reached its peak then. 

I'm sorry to hear that you've been affected by this, Baldylox. I know how much you like Smart Dolls and have promoted Danny in the past. So I truly hope that you two can talk it out and that you're not blacklisted.

I think that everyone can agree that the Nazi banner was in very poor taste. It crossed a line and I'm glad to hear that members of that group thought so too, which resulted in the banner being removed. 

Having said that, I kinda feel that both sides hold some responsibility in this drama. 

The group is called "Smartdoll fans who don't worship Danny Choo" and your group description is "I initially made this group for lovers of all vinyl/anime doll brands but given the recent circumstances of the current tyranny of a more, ahem, "popular" smartdoll "cult", I thought it would be good to redesign the purpose of this group to act as a safe haven overflow for those who appreciate or own smartdolls but have been shunned by the current community for having the gaul to *gasp* criticize the creator, his conduct, his prices and/or his business practices. Above all we value truth, honesty and open discussion. There is no Kool-Aid for you to drink here, in other words, unlike other groups, we dont protect the interests of certain brands while sacrificing the integrity of our voices. In simple terms, we think its bull$#%t to ban someone for having an opinion that doesnt involve blind fanaticism. I believe it is entirely possible to love a product or a company while still calling them out on bad behavior, criticizing business practice or disliking aspects of the product. No one here will be silenced for their legitimate criticism or opinion, and debates will not be shut down simply to avoid disagreement. That said, dont be nasty or make it personal and remember the point of the group: SOLIDARITY. We are all consumers who love the same hobby: Our beautiful vinyl dolls! I say "vinyl dolls" because we equally welcome Dollfie Dreams & other vinyl/anime aesthetic dolls here too. Please feel free to share your Photos, thoughts, comments, questions, etc! Please also make a pit-stop to read the group rules. Thanks for being a part of our community! -Blair "

So in your group description, you're calling Danny a "tyrant" and his followers a "Kool-aid drinking cult". Not exactly subtle. If you simply wanted a vinyl doll group that is open to critical discussion of Smart Dolls, the group could've kept the previous name "Vinyl Doll Alliance". It's a well-known fact that Danny doesn't tolerate criticism. So what did you think would happen when he found out about this group? You might as well have waved a red flag in front of a bull.

If I was a company, I would *NOT* be amused with such a group name and description. Add the Nazi banner to that and well, to be frank, I wouldn't want to do business with people who think *that* lowly of me either. 

Do I think that Danny handled this situation well? Absolutely not. I don't approve at all of the fact that he basically lied to Kitsooni (and presumably other people) to get their info to ban them. I would understand if he banned the admin of that group from making further purchases since she made that banner. But banning a whole group of people is overkill, especially when it became clear that the offending banner no longer exists and that Kitsooni and other group members were unaware of its existence. The punishment doesn't fit the crime. Unfortunately, he reacted like he always does which reinforces the point that he really, really needs someone else to handle his social media accounts. 

1 hour ago, Eiko82 said:

I'm sorry to hear that you've been affected by this, Baldylox. I know how much you like Smart Dolls and have promoted Danny in the past. So I truly hope that you two can talk it out and that you're not blacklisted.

I think that everyone can agree that the Nazi banner was in very poor taste. It crossed a line and I'm glad to hear that members of that group thought so too, which resulted in the banner being removed. 

Having said that, I kinda feel that both sides hold some responsibility in this drama. 

The group is called "Smartdoll fans who don't worship Danny Choo" and your group description is "I initially made this group for lovers of all vinyl/anime doll brands but given the recent circumstances of the current tyranny of a more, ahem, "popular" smartdoll "cult", I thought it would be good to redesign the purpose of this group to act as a safe haven overflow for those who appreciate or own smartdolls but have been shunned by the current community for having the gaul to *gasp* criticize the creator, his conduct, his prices and/or his business practices. Above all we value truth, honesty and open discussion. There is no Kool-Aid for you to drink here, in other words, unlike other groups, we dont protect the interests of certain brands while sacrificing the integrity of our voices. In simple terms, we think its bull$#%t to ban someone for having an opinion that doesnt involve blind fanaticism. I believe it is entirely possible to love a product or a company while still calling them out on bad behavior, criticizing business practice or disliking aspects of the product. No one here will be silenced for their legitimate criticism or opinion, and debates will not be shut down simply to avoid disagreement. That said, dont be nasty or make it personal and remember the point of the group: SOLIDARITY. We are all consumers who love the same hobby: Our beautiful vinyl dolls! I say "vinyl dolls" because we equally welcome Dollfie Dreams & other vinyl/anime aesthetic dolls here too. Please feel free to share your Photos, thoughts, comments, questions, etc! Please also make a pit-stop to read the group rules. Thanks for being a part of our community! -Blair "

So in your group description, you're calling Danny a "tyrant" and his followers a "Kool-aid drinking cult". Not exactly subtle. If you simply wanted a vinyl doll group that is open to critical discussion of Smart Dolls, the group could've kept the previous name "Vinyl Doll Alliance". It's a well-known fact that Danny doesn't tolerate criticism. So what did you think would happen when he found out about this group? You might as well have waved a red flag in front of a bull.

If I was a company, I would *NOT* be amused with such a group name and description. Add the Nazi banner to that and well, to be frank, I wouldn't want to do business with people who think *that* lowly of me either. 

Do I think that Danny handled this situation well? Absolutely not. I don't approve at all of the fact that he basically lied to Kitsooni (and presumably other people) to get their info to ban them. I would understand if he banned the admin of that group from making further purchases since she made that banner. But banning a whole group of people is overkill, especially when it became clear that the offending banner no longer exists and that Kitsooni and other group members were unaware of its existence. The punishment doesn't fit the crime. Unfortunately, he reacted like he always does which reinforces the point that he really, really needs someone else to handle his social media accounts. 

 

So if you were a company and you saw a group titled "for those who don't worship *your company*" your first reaction would be offence instead of wondering what actions lead to that title in the first place? I would be floored if someone thought of me like that, I'd look in the mirror right away. Unless I knew what I was doing and knew how I was acting and didn't care.

Regardless of what side anyone is on the bottom line is that Danny isn't a wonderful person and really needs to hand his social media to someone else. Or at least he needs some sort of business partner, something, because he is handling all of this alone and when you have that much responsibility over something yeah you're gonna get defensive like an over protective crazy parent. 

That being said, Danny says he's a busy person yet has time for all of this. I know this is mean, but I always thought his SMD back stories "sounded like they were written on the spot on a flight" like some mid-flight introspection. But I wonder if he does the same thing with this drama as well. Either that or he just sits on social media and takes credit for how busy he is when the jobs are being delegated to other workers instead, which sounds likely tbh with how he speaks and his past actions. 

At this point I don't have much more to comment that won't delve into meaningless rants. But I will say that Danny's social media presence is going to come back around to kick him if he doesn't be more careful. It's okay to want to give Danny more chances and to not want whatever rosy image of him you had ruined, that sucks and our brains are hard wired to go against that anyway, but I think it's important the community really understands that this isn't okay by any means, regardless of how you feel on either side. Danny needs to be nicer and grow up a little.

Edited April 22, 2019 by littlebirdzoom

Especially considering the licensing he's getting, he's currently teasing a collaboration with Mattel (He-Man) and there's a SuperGirl doll in the BG of one of his recent photos (that he teases in the comments) so that's a collaboration with DC, along with his previous major collaborations, along with what he does with the Japanese government. Smart Doll is a major company now; you think he'd start acting a little more professional if only to keep those licenses and gain others. I'm not so naive to think that a major company would pull out over some social media drama, but it definitely doesn't look good on his resume and it's a huge turnoff for consumers including me.

This is all honestly baffling to me, he gets so annoyed over even the tiniest criticism. I remember he got catty when people were upset about Haruka's height and hair color, and then the Volks debacle, and now this? Like? It's just unfathomable that any person would act like this, especially the owner of such a major brand.  

Edited April 22, 2019 by Serena-Hime

This is such a cluster...heck. I'm catching up on it all and it's exhausting and disheartening in equal measure- I love so much about Smart Dolls as a product, but the showrunner is... like that. I can't support the good when the bad is so overwhelmingly negative, but the worst part is how much I've seen this go down in other arenas.

I have a background in pet sites (i.e. Neopets, Subeta, Flight Rising, things like that.) And on my name the number one sinker-of-ships in that realm is Admin Drama. You can have the best team working under you in the world, and you can have a truly solid, innovative, desirable product to go with them both, but if you don't step back and LISTEN to the people you hired to handle your affairs, they're going to be powerless to save you from yourself. Danny needs a public relations department like the rest of this forum needs air, but I... I don't think he can handle stepping back from the spotlight. 

I hate speaking badly of him like this! A lot of what he's had to say in his blog posts and his company ethos I do like, genuinely! Man has some good ideas, seems to be okay, I'm sure he's never kicked a puppy, but... when something gets under his skin, all bets are off. And you have to have thicker skin than that to handle any consumer-facing position, especially as CEO of a major brand. Even in a niche industry, if you're going to deal directly with public, you have to hold yourself to a certain standard of behavior. I think Danny would say that that's asking him to kowtow to the customer, but that isn't what I mean at all. It isn't a black-and-white issue of "the customer is always right" or "Danny Choo is always right," it's so much more about the tone of how you interact with your customers, the decisions you make. 

It's not necessarily about behaving like someone in the hospitality industry, it's just literally about paying respect to the people throwing you money. I know I'm preaching to the choir over here, but...

I've been wondering what's Up with Danny for a while honestly. He's been... escalating his behavior for a while now, it seems; it's as if the pressure of running Culture Japan now that it's grown so large is really starting to wear him down. I think people would be understanding even now if he came out and explained why he's acting with such vitriol and tried to be sincere with an apology... and tried to change his behavior, too. But I've said this many times before, and it so-often goes unheard. 

More than anything customers want communication when things go sideways. They want to understand why things went wrong, how it will be dealt with, and what steps will be taken to make sure it doesn't happen again. I think Danny needs to take a step back from fronting the company- he can still have his blog, talking about travel on instagram and his lunches and his life and so many other positive aspects of his experience- to focus on the important things, to decompress from the pressure he's mostly put himself under. And I think he needs to apologize, personally, without malice or minimization, to the people he's hurt- let them buy their sh!t, sir- with a genuine effort to not anger his entire customer base in the future for literally no gain, not even to himself. Hiring someone experienced with PR would be a godsend. He can't do all of this on his own and trying is how we got to this point.

At the end of the day... I'm so sad. I've been so excited to get Oceana and to have more options for darker-skinned dolls that are actually readily available (lookin at you, Volks tan.) It's so hard to justify getting more dolls in spite of all of this, at least directly from Culture Japan- but it's not right to bury my head in the sand, either.

I hate so much that one man's ego is going to destroy something beloved by so many, especially when it was that same man who gave us such wonderful things to start with.

I hope that things will improve from here, but I'm not hopeful.

2 hours ago, Mothiraffe said:

This is such a cluster...heck. I'm catching up on it all and it's exhausting and disheartening in equal measure- I love so much about Smart Dolls as a product, but the showrunner is... like that. I can't support the good when the bad is so overwhelmingly negative, but the worst part is how much I've seen this go down in other arenas.

I have a background in pet sites (i.e. Neopets, Subeta, Flight Rising, things like that.) And on my name the number one sinker-of-ships in that realm is Admin Drama. You can have the best team working under you in the world, and you can have a truly solid, innovative, desirable product to go with them both, but if you don't step back and LISTEN to the people you hired to handle your affairs, they're going to be powerless to save you from yourself. Danny needs a public relations department like the rest of this forum needs air, but I... I don't think he can handle stepping back from the spotlight. 

I hate speaking badly of him like this! A lot of what he's had to say in his blog posts and his company ethos I do like, genuinely! Man has some good ideas, seems to be okay, I'm sure he's never kicked a puppy, but... when something gets under his skin, all bets are off. And you have to have thicker skin than that to handle any consumer-facing position, especially as CEO of a major brand. Even in a niche industry, if you're going to deal directly with public, you have to hold yourself to a certain standard of behavior. I think Danny would say that that's asking him to kowtow to the customer, but that isn't what I mean at all. It isn't a black-and-white issue of "the customer is always right" or "Danny Choo is always right," it's so much more about the tone of how you interact with your customers, the decisions you make. 

It's not necessarily about behaving like someone in the hospitality industry, it's just literally about paying respect to the people throwing you money. I know I'm preaching to the choir over here, but...

I've been wondering what's Up with Danny for a while honestly. He's been... escalating his behavior for a while now, it seems; it's as if the pressure of running Culture Japan now that it's grown so large is really starting to wear him down. I think people would be understanding even now if he came out and explained why he's acting with such vitriol and tried to be sincere with an apology... and tried to change his behavior, too. But I've said this many times before, and it so-often goes unheard. 

More than anything customers want communication when things go sideways. They want to understand why things went wrong, how it will be dealt with, and what steps will be taken to make sure it doesn't happen again. I think Danny needs to take a step back from fronting the company- he can still have his blog, talking about travel on instagram and his lunches and his life and so many other positive aspects of his experience- to focus on the important things, to decompress from the pressure he's mostly put himself under. And I think he needs to apologize, personally, without malice or minimization, to the people he's hurt- let them buy their sh!t, sir- with a genuine effort to not anger his entire customer base in the future for literally no gain, not even to himself. Hiring someone experienced with PR would be a godsend. He can't do all of this on his own and trying is how we got to this point.

At the end of the day... I'm so sad. I've been so excited to get Oceana and to have more options for darker-skinned dolls that are actually readily available (lookin at you, Volks tan.) It's so hard to justify getting more dolls in spite of all of this, at least directly from Culture Japan- but it's not right to bury my head in the sand, either.

I hate so much that one man's ego is going to destroy something beloved by so many, especially when it was that same man who gave us such wonderful things to start with.

I hope that things will improve from here, but I'm not hopeful.

Wow. You definitely brought up some amazing points! I could not agree with you more! There are definitely some people who are capable of running their own brand and being the face of it and are able to handle criticism. However, not everyone can do that and thats 100% okay. Someone really really needs to tell Danny that he is not one of those people. The amount of stress that he is under is probably enormous and having to manage various social medias is not helping with his mental state. Hopefully he will come to realize that not every criticism is for th sole purpose of hurting him or is brand and it mostly just constructive. Now all of Danny's employees may suffer because people can't support his brand anymore. I think he's forgotten that though he is the creator of Smartdoll, he's not the only one who works there! He wouldn't be anywhere without his employees or his customers. 

For his sake I hope he issues a sincere apolagy. Cause like you, I would also like to have a dark skinned doll, but this means I have to support someone I don't agree with...

Edited April 22, 2019 by MaKayla_Panda

Some great points are being brought up and I agree, I think he needs to start looking at his business as a whole and remember other people are there. Also, I’m not sure how many people keep up on SmD Twitter news, or if this is relevant to the Facebook situation, but one of the admins involved started a hashtag titled”#my smartdoll family”. When I checked their twitter the tweets were protected.( sorry if that’s worded weirdly, I don’t know how twitter works lol) 

 

Edited April 22, 2019 by Mame

@MaKayla_Panda thank you for your kind words! I just... I've seen similar things happen and it's never pretty. I just don't want things to go down in flames, I guess. I genuinely love Smart Dolls as a brand and a product! Justice is (don't tell the others) probably my favorite doll! But... I can't get more when things are like this, at least not directly from Culture Japan.

And you hit the nail on the head for that matter. It isn't just Danny's company anymore. For all his talk of wanting to support Japanese businesses and the people who make them run, he's now put them all in jeopardy for an ounce of petty self-satisfaction. That's a harsh thing to say, but I MUST say it, because it's worth keeping in mind that for all of the work Danny did to make Smart Dolls a reality -- and I have to give him credit, he did get this idea off the ground! -- Culture Japan is so much more than Danny Choo. And I think it would be healthy to acknowledge that on his end. Another small-scale company I follow, Josh's Frogs, has a newsletter they send out, and now and again they have a feature on one of their employees and all the amazing things they've done to help the business, their areas of interest and passions as people. If... Danny wants things to feel less personal, maybe it's time to make it less personal.

That's a lot to ask though... I'm rambling at this point. I just don't want this company to fizzle out because of one man when it's just about to open a new and frankly exciting chapter. It doesn't have to be like this... 

I really hope it doesn't end like this!

Quote

Cause like you, I would also like to have a dark skinned doll, but this means I have to support someone I don't agree with...

If it's any consolation, they come up on Mandarake/Y!JA/Ebay sometimes. I got Justice used. FOLLOW YOUR HEART AND A PRETTY DOLL SHALL FIND YOU 8D

Depending on how this plays out, there might be more used dolls available if people decide to dump stuff over this behavior. I know I can be like that, just because this kind of behavior can taint things I've already bought.

1 hour ago, Mothiraffe said:

Justice is (don't tell the others) probably my favorite doll! But... I can't get more when things are like this, at least not directly from Culture Japan

If it's any consolation, they come up on Mandarake/Y!JA/Ebay sometimes. I got Justice used. FOLLOW YOUR HEART AND A PRETTY DOLL SHALL FIND YOU 8D

Ruby is definitley my favorite Cocoa girl, but Justice is also very pretty too! Also, I completely forgot about the 2nd hand market. Thanks for letting me know, I may check around to see if I can find a Ruby...

1 hour ago, cfx said:

Depending on how this plays out, there might be more used dolls available if people decide to dump stuff over this behavior. I know I can be like that, just because this kind of behavior can taint things I've already bought.

I've seen this scenario play out on Instagram. A few people who were part of the whole "Other Group" fiasco are advertising posts for people who are selling their Smartdolls because of how upset they are. I don't blame them at all. 

The admin of the other group has also created two hashtags in hopes of getting Danny's attention and letting him know just how much damage he has caused with his not-so-great social media presence. 

In her words gotten from her story:

"If you refer directly to this situation (regarding the banning/blacklisting, et.) use the hashtag #smdgate"

"When talking about your own bad experiences with Dannyn Choo, when you want your voice to be heard so that maybe it sinks in that this is the result of years worth of his bad behavoir, use the hashtag #wakeupdannychoo"

Hopefully if people are respectul in their posts with this hashtag, Danny may reconsider his current and past actions. Obviously the best avenues to use these hashtags are on Instagram and Twitter. 

Considering there are a lot of drama since his blog and figure fm days(best example would be otacool) , these won't surprise me at all.... never expect he would banned people around like in figure fm days

I was looking at Mika's page and noticed this disclaimer that I don't remember seeing before, which is...well. Take a look for yourself.

Quote

ABOUT FRAUD FILTERING We process thousands of orders on a regular basis but in order to do so we need to use automated risk assessment tools to flag orders which have a high risk of being fraudulent. Any decision to cancel an order is final and we reserve the right to not reinstate the order or disclose details/reason for cancelation.

So reading between the lines, this sounds like an easy excuse to use if anyone complains about orders being cancelled for petty reasons. All I can see here is 'I can and will cancel your order and not let you order again won't even tell you why.' Was it because of legitimate card fraud? Was it because of some innocent bank error or bug? Or was it because you spoke to someone who is friends with someone who was in a facebook group of people who don't like Choo? Too bad! You're not allowed to know.
Is this the first time this disclaimer has appeared on the site? Because the timing seems too much to be a coincidence. Is it just me?

Edited April 23, 2019 by Monty

3 hours ago, Monty said:

All I can see here is 'I can and will cancel your order and not let you order again won't even tell you why.' Was it because of legitimate card fraud? Was it because of some innocent bank error or bug? Or was it because you spoke to someone who is friends with someone who was in a facebook group of people who don't like Choo? Too bad! You're not allowed to know.
Is this the first time this disclaimer has appeared on the site? Because the timing seems too much to be a coincidence. Is it just me?

I think that is reaching a bit. They have the right to protect themselves from fraud, and are upfront about it.
Yeah, the timing is a bit bad. But going around with pitchforks looking for issues, well... you'll find them in anything.

15 minutes ago, Yumeiro said:

I think that is reaching a bit. They have the right to protect themselves from fraud, and are upfront about it.
Yeah, the timing is a bit bad. But going around with pitchforks looking for issues, well... you'll find them in anything.

I think that Monty would be one of the last people to ever hold a pitch fork. I also don't really think it's reaching that far. I've seen plenty of people and businesses do this in the past. It's really not that much of a reach given how much it's been happening (ie orders being canceled, including the story I stated before) and how he's acting and timing with this issue. And on the subject of timing, HE is the one stating the policy and HE is the one who is involved with all this drama so he is fully aware of the timing and what he's doing. Of course companies have the right to protect their businesses but the time line and his recent building attitude about it doesn't line up, not to mention this entire thread explaining how he isn't using it as fraud protection at all... and not even giving someone a reason and permanently banning them is ridiculous on so many levels for his business. Or maybe it sound legitimate but he's abusing his own rules. Either way, all evidence points to it not really being that far of a reach. Of course, the disclaimer on Monty's post and mine now as well is we just don't know. But regardless there's no pitch forks.

Edited April 23, 2019 by littlebirdzoom

I don't know if that was just added to Mika's page as I didn't read it fully, carefully, before. The page has been updated though as the 5/20 date wasn't there originally.

What I do know is that particular message isn't on Gourai's page which was updated with her resale info for earlier this year:

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/products/smart-doll-gourai

Nor is it on Nami's page:

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/collections/nami

Nor on the pages for Prowess and Valiant, so I'm pretty certain it's very new.

As far as seeing things with a new scrutiny, he has brought that scrutiny on himself by behaving as he has been. And no, the policy isn't reasonable. He has the right to do actual fraud protection, but as a reasonable customer service policy he also should tell people why their orders are rejected and why they're banned. Of course, he is free to do whatever he wants, just as customers are free to take their business elsewhere and we are free here to express our opinion on his behavior.

I took a look at the Mika page myself. Without the backdrop of the recent dumpster fire, I would read the fraud filtering policy and think, "OK... That sounds unnecessarily aggressive". It gives off a rather unfriendly tone and if my card was falsely flagged, I would be rather upset not just by the false positive but there being no chance of resolving the issue. I've had instances of my card being falsely flagged by other merchants in the past so I can see where this policy could go. I repeat, this would all be without the dumpster fire backdrop.

If the credit card fraud issue noted on any given web site was really about credit card fraud, a competently run company would word the policy something like this:

"Due to a high number of credit card fraud instances compared to in years past, we had a need to implement a rather aggressive automated fraud protection system. If you are caught by the system and feel you have been falsely flagged, we will do what we can to help you complete your order."

Whether the order can be completed is beside the point. The idea here is to make shoppers feel welcome instead of taking a confrontational tone and then drive them away.

Someone who runs a business certainly does not agree with me.