IXTL

Just now, Chronocidal said:

See, that would make sense, but again, I'm thinking Bandai just had no idea how popular the design was going to be, and might be rushing to capitalize on that by rearranging production lines to make more. 

I'd love an update, but that's why we need someone in Japan who can actually check on this stuff for us.

Even so, Bandai would have explained this to customers that pre-ordered (that includes Mykombini and NY who used personal accounts to place orders on the webshop). Bandai would not leave them in the dark.

1 minute ago, CharlesXavier said:

Have you asked for a refund already?

So far mykombini has downright refunded its customers. I am not sure what NY is doing. Are they waiting for us to run out of patience and then put up the cancelled stocks at a high premium?

I recall my YF-29 Ozma from NY was sent out 2 weeks after the launch date but that was the longest it took for me. And during then the YF-29 Ozma's price was rocketing as well.

I too feel that this is not a Bandai issue. Only NY knows the truth behind their delay and they just refuse to come clean with us.

Still corresponding with them on the type of refund they are giving. I don't want to accept blindly and suddenly find out they've given me store credit. Even if they miraculously come through and ship out my 31A today, it would still be my final piece of business with them.

Given my experience with how NY operates, it would not surprise me that they are holding out on customers only to relist cancelled items for a higher premium later on.

3 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

It is entirely possible that Bandai just had no clue how popular the design would be, and just weren't prepared for it in terms of factory output.

Doubt it. They would have had an idea of the maximum number of units they could produce and stop accepting pre-orders on their webshop if they hit that number.

So far, there has been no indication that this shortage of 31A has anything to do with Bandai. If Bandai needed more runs to fill demand for orders received, they would have announced different shipping batches as they have for other high demand Webshop Exclusives (e.g. GFF Wing Gundam EW etc).

Also, if Bandai had really delayed shipping to webshop customers, surely they would have announced a new date, either through the webshop page or directly to customers that ordered. The fact that NY don't seem to know when they can expect stock to come in seems very odd.

Latest reply from NY. They do not know when they will get stock for the 31A.

They will allow a cancellation and refund.

6 minutes ago, hachi said:

Actually I registered once to a Japanese forwarder before but they required identity verification, so I was turned off and never used them. Thankfully I've never had a must-have item that I needed a forwarder for. But you never know what new item will come in the future, that's why I was wondering about other people's experiences using proxy service.

ID registration is a requirement of Japanese law so I just went along with it when I needed to use a forwarding service. It depends on what works out to be the most cost effective for me. If buying directly and using a forwarder is best, then that's the route I'll use.

34 minutes ago, Charles_Xavier said:

My friend’s order of 2 pc got cancelled and refunded within the hour when he sent a ticket that he will lodge a paypal complaint against NY. Surprised that NY is still ignoring you. They stand more to lose if more customers raise a case against them on PayPal. 

I was expecting NY to jump straight ahead to cancel my pre-order and refund me rather than try to explain or resolve the issue. I'm almost surprised they decided to keep silent and risk a PayPal dispute instead.

IXTL, forgot when you placed your order? I placed mine on the 10th. Seems that the last lucky few who got a 'preparation in progress' mail were placed on the 6th.  If they are currently sorting out orders placed on the 6th, I have 4 days of orders before they start on the ones placed on the 10th.Maybe

At any rate, we could sit and debate the 'what ifs', all day. I'm still not sure what to do, was initially willing to wait it out, but their lack of communication is p'ing me off ( aside the 1 formatted reply I received 6 days ago). Don't really feel like having my account ter

they are trickling whatever stock they get in order of payment after all? But from what can be gathered the forum, doesn't seem like it's more than 1 or 2 a day, if that .( Ultimately, it doesn't bode well for orders placed late October/November etc.)

Could it be that in order to avoid raising any 'suspicions' from TWE, they placed all their orders from different accounts, all got shipped to different addresses, and it's now taking forever shipping them back to their main warehouse??  *Sigh* 

minated nor loosing all my other current preorders for having cancelled that one, and not sure the Paypal protection route would be any better. Either way, I can't afford to loose the money from that cursed Kairos .

 

My order is way later than that so if they are going in sequence (which may not be the case), it's going to be a while for them to get to mine. 

I'm fine with them closing my account. Only have a DX VF-31S Arad pre-order in it and I think I have Siegfried fatigue with the J and F already. The F was the only one I really wanted from the series and since I've got it, I can stop my collecting for Delta.

My biggest gripe is someone taking my money for close to half a year now and not delivering or being responsive when they've failed to deliver. Not getting a 31A or 31S isn't a biggie, it's just the same toy I already have with some new bits and colors. These things aren't cheap and I can find better use for the cash saved.

The main thing now is to get my cash back while PayPal is still covering me rather than try to work something out with NY later if they finally come out and say they can't deliver. I'm definitely not accepting store credit.

1 hour ago, Kinzoku VF said:

Another day and still F all . Hopefully the Deculture gods heard our plight..... Otherwise...that's it, life-time boycott for Bandai, I sell everything (keeping all my Popy stuff though, but anything with a Bandai logo, up for grabs). I'll only collect Toynami's stuff..........or not.

Really tempted to sell this cursed preorder.  P'd off checking up that frozen 'order status' 50 times a day. Seriously, a 'proper' explanation should be in order by now. Are they just waiting for the all PayPal 'insurance/guarantees' to run out before announcing something. Really disappointed how they're going about this fiasco. 

NY have ignored my last two tickets asking for more info than the cut/paste reply they've been giving everyone. In the past when they've delayed shipping for my orders, the order status was at least at "preparation in progress", meaning they actually had the item and were just taking their own sweet time to package and post it. Now they don't even have stock and I can't get a clear answer from them if they will actually be able to fulfill orders.

They may well come through at the end (who knows when?) but I'm not willing to take gamble on it by going past the PayPal Protection period. I'll be pulling the PayPal dispute trigger tomorrow (mid-day JST) if they continue with their customer service silence. I'm done doing business with this shady outfit.

1 hour ago, hachi said:

Has anybody tried a proxy and ordered directly from Bandai? Or is that not possible?

Ordering directly from the Tamashii Web Shop was tricky in in the past because you needed to have a Japan issued credit card to pay for purchases. It was easier to just order from resellers or use a proxy buying service.

They've recently started to accept payment through Amazon Pay (linked to an Amazon JP account which you can input a non-Japan issued credit card into) so it should be possible for overseas customers to order directly and make payment and then have the items shipped to a forwarder.

8 minutes ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

I said I would go to Paypal if they couldn't give me a reliable response through one of their customer service reps on the chat window, so she suggested to open a ticket. I had one open already and replied with a follow up, but their reply to the ticket said nothing really other than they're 'awaiting their stock and my order will be sent as soon as possible'. Just a pointer back to their initial response.

Seeing as others who ordered on 10/6 are getting their orderes processed I could hold out till tomorrow since the Paypal dispute allows me to claim by April the 4th.

I tried live chat for the hell of it and straightaway they asked me to open a ticket saying live chat staff couldn't check inventory and what's available on the site is what's available. What's the point of live chat then? Surely people would want to ask them about orders and items they have for sale.

Likewise, I'll do Paypal dispute tomorrow.

5 minutes ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

No follow up with NY. I however did reply to a ticket that I submitted to them and instead of an answer from them they just took the ticket and turned it back to 'awaiting response from customer'.

Thus their way of saying 'look at previous reply'.

That's NY service for you.

So you're holding out for them or going to Paypal?

On 4/2/2018 at 8:51 PM, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

I already informed NY if there is no update I'm filing a Paypal dispute tomorrow.

Any update from them or are they ignoring queries even with the threat of a Paypal dispute?

1 hour ago, orindlt said:

I wonder how much of our concern is misplaced cultural assumptions. I've noticed when I've traveled to Japan that they do bend over backwards in a way that westerners tend not to to ensure that someone that they've accepted a financial commitment from is looked after. That where a western company would say "bad luck" and cut their losses, that a Japanese org would go the extra mile to try to meet the needs of those they have entered into an agreement with. Again that's just my impressions, but I'd have more faith in a "trust us to do right by you" from a Japanese org than I would from an Australian or US based one. One can hope anyway ;-)

NY is based in Japan but isn't run by Japanese. I believe their staff is mostly French.

I'm prepared to lose my DX VF-31S pre-order with NY. Not keen on it and I find myself wondering why I need so many VF-31's. If NY cancel my 31A and 31S orders at the end, the bright side is I end up saving a nice sum of cash.

Have been looking for an exit from collecting valks and this affair might well be a blessing in disguise. Skyrocketing prices, lack of space and other issues (pre-order madness for DXs, NY nonsense etc.) have really taken the joy out of the hobby.

I opened up yet another ticket with NY since they seem to dodge questions or just stop answering an existing ticket.

I referenced their copy/paste answer on the 31A and asked them to clearly answer if they will be able to fulfill the pre-order at all. I wonder what crap reply they'll give.

They've got till the end of the week to get the item out or give a sufficiently good explanation on the situation. If not, Paypal dispute next week and I'm done with them for good.

1 hour ago, jrhudson311 said:

Man!  It sounds like you guys are wearing NY out.  I have sent 0 emails to them about my 31a but choose to be patient and see what happens.

If they were upfront and updated customers on the situation without customers having to ask, they could have avoided this. Right now, people are getting annoyed because an expensive item that was supposed to be available more than a week ago and which people paid for close to half a year ago is seemingly in limbo.

59 minutes ago, chyll2 said:

 

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us,

We are sorry for the delay, we didn't receive all of our stocks for this item.

Your order will be sent as soon as possible.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Kind regards,

Nippon-yasan.com

That's the one. Had to open 2 tickets just to squeeze a different answer out of them. It looks like I may need to open another one as they are refusing to answer my follow up query on whether they could actually fulfill the pre-orders.

43 minutes ago, no3Ljm said:

Here's the thing now since we don't know how things working out between NY and Bandai. Are they being promised by Bandai will supply them stocks and not refund the customers at this point? Or NY is also holding on to see if Bandai will supply them more? Would be nice if they could just say, we're waiting for supplies at this number of days, and if this number of days have passed without any stocks from Bandai we will start refunding everyone. Atleast it's more realistic that way. Oh well, like I said, my interest on the Kairos is waning now. 

The 31A being a Tamashii Webshop exclusive means NY isn't ordering from a Bandai distributor as a retailer. They ordered through the webshop as any collector living in Japan did. The webshop probably had limits on how many pieces one account/address could order so NY likely needed several accounts/addresses to place their orders.

Assuming they placed as many orders with the webshop as they took pre-orders from us, they shouldn't have problems fulfilling orders. 

Initially, I thought they needed more time to consolidate all their stocks from various addresses before they could ship out orders but with the two week delay (31A was released officially mid-March), I'm not so sure now. They'd better not be trying to buy stocks off the 2nd hand market and stiffing us by asking for more money to cover our orders.

I asked NY 3 times and they kept using the same cut and paste reply about how they didn't receive all their stock and were still waiting. On the last reply, they just said no estimated time for shipping.

EDIT: I asked them outright if there was the possibility that they might not be able to fulfill their orders. Want to get my money back while still within the PayPal protection period.

I suspect NY used the addresses of several individuals to place their orders for the 31A on Tamashii Webshop and the pieces are trickling in to their office from these various addresses.

That's why items are being shipped out bit by bit.

https://twitter.com/hapi_seajack/status/978740924850216960

https://twitter.com/MHXX1919/status/977824377390620672

https://twitter.com/fx50s_709/status/977428330428252160

40 minutes ago, IXTL said:

Satelight's booth at Anime Japan 2018.

https://twitter.com/CAM_KSK/status/977420890840301568

More pics of the prototype

https://twitter.com/GwynCampbell/status/977421554412748800

https://twitter.com/SherylnNome/status/977427527831494657