Frustration with a somewhat resolved ending . . .

Like many Breyer collectors, I have been so excited for the release of the new fjord mold as a regular run. It's a wonderful little sculpt, if very different from Breyer's original fjord in style, proportion, and type. She was on backorder pretty quickly when she released in June, so I placed an order and waited. I got her July 1st, the first new Breyer I purchased since last December!
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But ALAS, she arrived with three warped legs. The front two were bent at the cannon which seemed like it would be doable, but the back leg was really weird. The hoof was flat, but the hock was bent inward, meaning not only were the two thickest parts of the leg (hock and gaskin) warped, but if I didn't straighten it correctly, the hoof wouldn't be flat anymore. I had to somehow bring the hock outward without changing the position of the hoof. I was not confident in my ability to do any of these things, unfortunately, and I was really bummed that my brand new horse had three pretty significant problems. I know to a lot of collectors, these are minor problems easily fixed, but I've not had success up to this point and it was frustrating to face it on a brand new horse I'd just spent $60 on.
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So first, I tried to return her, either for a replacement or a refund. I never did hear back from Breyer, though, and I expect everyone on my Facebook group was right--that they wouldn't accept her as a return because she was opened. Which made sense, so I thought I'd give straightening those legs a try. First attempt had no result. I was too nervous to heat for very long and very unsure what I was supposed to be doing. After gathering a little more information, I tried again. This time I started with the thin portions which did turn out to be pretty simple. I am pretty confident I got them where they  ought to be, though I wish I had a correct one in hand to compare! The back leg was less successful. I heated for over 20 minutes and all I got was a fraction of movement, so I went with that. She isn't as tippy anymore which is a success, and I don't think her leg looks too out of whack. You can still tell from the front, but it's not an S curve anymore.
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All in all, very excited to have this model at last and glad I was able to do at least marginal repair, but all the same bummed that I needed to at all. She's really lovely, though! Looking forward to seeing her in other colors!

Emboldened by my small success, I tried to fix Le Fire's leg, but his bend must be in a spot that is just too thick. I heated forever, like over 30 minutes, and no budge. Oh well.
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At least you're satisified with the final result. I understand your initial frustration, it is not easy to accept after an investment of this importance. This Fjord is wonderful and I suspect it is one of the most popular Breyer sculpts of the last years.

In the UK under consumer rights you have every right to get a full refund for this Jill. I'm not sure if America adopts the same stringent consumer rights as over here? I hope so!

And in regards to the company ignoring you - that is unacceptable. That lack of customer care is not acceptable at any standard, let alone a model that is not as described (and not fit for sale).

If you have problems contacting them, over here in the UK we can go thru Citizens Advice Bureau and ofcourse - calling them out on fb and twitter. Find the CEO of Breyer's twitter account and ask why no-one has responded to your complaint. You spent $60 plus postage, so you deserve a reply from them, a response to your problem and a suitable resolution. Just because a company is this large gives it no right to ignore a paying customer with a defect purchased item.

Ages ago I was locked out of my seller account (of an online selling platform I use, not ebay), and it took tweeting a message on the CEOs twitter account to get a resolution. Apparently shaming the CEO (not him directly! only the service of the business) had greater power than trying to receive a reply from their inadequate customer services.
Twitter seems to have more power when getting things accounted for.

Even though you've done some legs, you should still contact them. And in regards to opening the box- if you couldn't tell that the legs were bent before opening the box, then opening the box and finding the item 'broken/not as described' is still within your purchasing rights. It should never have passed quality control.

Is there no comeback on this? It's clearly a fault with your model so they really shouldn't ignore you. That's unacceptable treating of a customer!
Where I am, you would have a legal right to refund, replacement or repair, and if you still get no satisfaction, there's something called a small claims court that would take over and sort this out for a customer. I'm shocked the company ignored you...not good....

I appreciate the advice and support! But I don't think I have any legal recourse with Breyer on this, nor do I think it would really be worth it to try to pursue it if I do.

There's every chance that I still WILL hear from Breyer. I got the canned case number email back, and it has only been 8 days and they are notoriously slow, and it's Breyerfest like next week. Kind of like contacting them on a holiday. More people have better luck calling than email, but still have to call multiple times sometimes to see an issue fully resolved (though I have heard they are very nice to talk to). By the time I learned that I should have called, however, she was open and tinkered with, which would make it much harder to resolve anything in my favor.

Possibly it's true that it's Breyer's obligation to replace or refund a damaged product regardless, and many companies do I suppose, but the overwhelming response I got from other collectors was that Breyer only refunds or replaces for what they consider really significant damage like breaks, and most people try for this on the club models (who don't arrive in package like regular runs, but loose in a box and are extremely expensive). Once a horse is removed from the regular run box, I have no way to "prove" I didn't do something to cause the damage.

Could I have continued to wait or called? Certainly. But my other problem was that a refund was most likely, and I had free shipping on this order because I also bought a stablemate. I'd get a refund on the flat cost of the horse and would then have to pay about $15 more than I did the first time to get the same model. Not the end of the world, but when I weighed trying to straighten the legs myself against the headaches of calling or waiting for the email, plus the fact that I have a four day weekend right now which gave me time to try it that I usually don't have, I just went with the easiest (if more disappointing) route. Maybe I should not have, maybe I could have gotten a replacement with a little more persistence or at least a phone call or two. I believed everyone else's experiences, though, and the repeated assurances that these were easy fixes. Mostly they were right, though I think no one could really see how weird the back leg really was in photos. Oops.

Small claims court would be far more hassle than it's worth at this point, and I would also really have to have a case before I could take it there. Like I'd have to have tried way more than I did to get them to do something and have them ignore me or something, I'm not sure. I don't know how taking a business is New Jersey to small claims court in North Carolina would work for an open item.

I know there have been at least two instances of someone in the community scamming multiple people out of ultimately thousands of dollars and neither succeeded in small claims court--as in, both people got to keep the money and suffered no consequences. Not a huge endorsement for me to try it with a $60 model against Breyer.

Mine had warped front legs, too, in more or less the same place as yours. I wonder if it's something which happens as they're removed from the mould, if the plastic is still soft and they're being twisted in a particular way as they're taken out? I fixed her with hot water, and to be honest that's SUCH a common thing for me these days, I don't think I even mentioned it when I posted her photos on here - I've just ended up accustomed to testing all newly arrived Breyers on a flat surface as I unpack them, checking the legs for straightness from the front, and then flicking the kettle switch more often than not. One third of my recent Stablemates singles didn't stand up, and still have coins under their feet to make them displayable. It shouldn't be this way, but when it's such a regular problem it stops being any sort of surprise.
Their quality control just isn't what it was - I mean, I get that not every model will be PERFECT, and there's always going to be some leeway in what they consider acceptable when there's something like a slight warping of a leg, or an over-buffed seam, but when the horse can't even stand up, then it either never got tested, or they decided not to care about that.

I can definitely see why you didn't bother with pursuing the refund/replace tactic, especially if it would end up costing so much more to get the same model a second time. And with mine having the identical issue on two out of the three legs, even if they'd agreed to send you another, it might have been almost the same!

I understand what you are saying Jill. It's a hassle to deal with issues like these.
Sometimes it's better for you to ignore all the negativity others have talked about though. And just go your own route, expecting a favourable outcome. Because, why not?

Anyway, it's a beautiful model.

George I didn't know yours was the same state! Must be a disregard of quality control, or most likely, they only look at every 1000th model??

Sunny, since manufacturing outsourced to China, I've heard in general that more factory errors are common. Probably production costs have been cut in many ways, as happens across all kinds of manufacturing, and quality control suffered . . .

George, it is both comforting and disappointing that yours came in a similar state. I might try her back leg again someday, but in the meantime, I got some blu tack as you recommended to help keep her from tipping if the shelf gets bumped. Is yours a little tippy even with straight legs? She stands but she could be a domino mold easily.

A surprise twist just now: I am apparently getting a call tag sent, which means I CAN send her back! So not a shady no-reply from Breyer situation, and they are willing to make it right. I should have waited another day, apparently!

No further elaboration on refund or replacement, however, so I now I decide . . . do I return her and assume it's a refund, and then risk spending the additional shipping cost and getting another with bent legs? Or do I just keep her now that she's kind of fixed?

OR does the fact that I fixed her legs mean I ought to not send her back at all because she's been altered? They didn't make any kind of specification, all I got was a notification, so I assume if I sent her back as she is now they wouldn't care either way (she'll probably get scrapped or whatever they do with open damaged models regardless). Is that dishonest . . . ?

Oh dear, I didn't expect to be so undecided!!

Mine isn't tippy as such, but cos she's very base-narrow in her pose, she'd be quite easy to knock over, or if the surface wasn't flat and solid she could wobble - I had to place her carefully when using my fake grass for photos.

Hmm, regarding returning or not - might it be a bit of an issue that they'll inspect her when she gets back to them, and deem the legs NOT bad enough to have been returned, and then refuse to give you a refund or replacement. And then the horse is their end, and would they expect a shipping fee to send it back out to you again? It might end up being a case of paying to have the same horse back cos they won't refund/replace, and in that case you'd definitely wish you'd just kept her with you all along.
Or if they do refund, and you have to order again, you're still costing yourself more money in the hope the next one will have straight legs, and it might not!

Not quite the same situation, but I once had a company send me the wrong size rug for my real pony, two sizes smaller than I'd ordered so there was no way it would've fitted well enough to just keep it. I told them and they said sure, send it back and we'll swap it for the right one, all sounded fine. Sent the rug, at my own expense, and emailed them with how much it'd cost me, thinking they'd refund me that as it was their error, not mine. Few days later, they emailed me - sorry we don't have the size you wanted, here's a refund for the price. NOT the original shipping, OR the cost of sending the wrong one back to them. I replied pointing this out, assuming it was just a mistake cos someone forgot the extra costs, and they didn't reply. Emailed again a couple of weeks later, telling them I was unhappy, no reply. So in total it cost me £11 to not have a rug for my pony after all!

And in your situation, I think I'd be more concerned about the possibility of having to cosy myself more money to get another model which might not have very good legs either, so I'd keep the one I'd got. Plus, personally, I'd feel too sorry for her ending up in a dumpster or a crusher if they DID decide to throw that one out and send you a new pony, so I'd keep her out of pity and attachment even though she isn't perfect!

Thank you for your input, George! It always helps me to hear other thoughts on things. And after talking about it with Mom, too, I think I'll probably keep her. All the reasons you said are very valid (especially having her destroyed!), and also after looking and looking and looking at pictures online I don't think her hind leg is actually TOO wildly off. It's still not quite as straight as it should be, but it sounds like what you said is what is actually bothering me more, that she has a very narrow stance.

My biggest concern is that something weird would happen with the fact that she's altered and I'd have to pay to get her back as you said. That's such a bummer about that rug!! But also a cautionary tale.

All around, I have learned to look very closely at all legs before actually releasing a horse from its box from now on. And also don't try to fix it before you actually hear back, haha.

It's a beautiful Fjord! Lovely colours, I always like it when a horse has three different colours and this one may even have four. I don't think I'd have noticed anything wrong with her after your repair if you hadn't told us. The back leg isn't completely straight, but it is quite subtle now.