Valk-1S Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Hi, I ordered some stuff from Hobby Search about 2 weeks ago but they are yet to process my order. It is still showing as Confirming Payment. I read they can be slow but this is really slow especially since they haven't replied any of my emails to them. Anyone who ordered from them before, will appreciate some feedback about them. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wabbit Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 I also have an oldorder still not completed (though I still want them). Yesterday I read in http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...20entry204349 the same problem with other MW'ers buying from them, just go to that page a look up for Hobby Search... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anubis Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Yeah, sometimes it takes them a while to process an order even an in stock item. It was a week of "waiting to ship" before my Belldandy 1/6 PVC shipped. That will be my last order with them, as they seem to have stopped replying to emails. Really sad. They used to be good about that, answering questions by the next day, and even now they have great prices. But failure to respond to 6 e-mails means I'll never buy from them again. Non-existent customer service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wabbit Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Yeah, sometimes it takes them a while to process an order even an in stock item. It was a week of "waiting to ship" before my Belldandy 1/6 PVC shipped. That will be my last order with them, as they seem to have stopped replying to emails. Really sad. They used to be good about that, answering questions by the next day, and even now they have great prices. But failure to respond to 6 e-mails means I'll never buy from them again.Non-existent customer service. That's sad. Maybe the English speaking employee(s) is on vacation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valk-1S Posted September 29, 2004 Author Share Posted September 29, 2004 Thanks for the replies. Glad to know I am not the only one having difficulty with them. Possibly something happen to them as they put it on their news section of their website that email and shipping will be delay a little but that was like in mid August. If this is a little I wonder what a normal delay is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anubis Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 They stopped communicating back in June/July though, so they've exhausted any possible justifiable excuse they could come up with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valk-1S Posted September 29, 2004 Author Share Posted September 29, 2004 Thats bad to hear. Has anyone who ordered from them recently manage to receive their orders? I tried cancelling my order a week ago but as you already know, no replies. I am tempted to order from another place, but am afraid they will still process my order later on as I read from another forum that a person received a cancellation notice from them but still got his items shipped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xstoys Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 Thats bad to hear. Has anyone who ordered from them recently manage to receive their orders? Yup, I did ... but not without some demanding e-mails. I placed an order & waited 3 weeks before contacting them. The status on their website said "ready to ship," but I never got a shipping notice. I e-mailed them several times to ask what was going on? After about a week I got an e-mail with tracing # that said it was going out tomorrow. Arrived a few days after that. Box was sturdy with the standard newspaper lining. Shipping for a medium box cost @ $30 USD. Typical lousy service from overseas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valk-1S Posted September 29, 2004 Author Share Posted September 29, 2004 Thanks xstoys. I actually called them up a couple of hours ago and they said they will check my order and get back to me by end of the week. Luckily there was someone there who could speak English as the person who pick up the phone couldn't. Hopefully their shipping will be the same as what HLJ charges and not inflated up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhyone Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 Hopefully their shipping will be the same as what HLJ charges and not inflated up. One problem is that with Hobby Search, you don't know the shipping charge until you get your parcel. I recently paid 3600 yen in shipping two books for this reason. I thought I was under the magic 2 kg weight limit (for SAL), but I wasn't. There is a big jump from 2080 yen (2 kg) to 3600 yen (2.5 kg). Ouch! You can refer to the SAL and EMS tables for reference. For South-East Asia at least, HLJ has slightly cheaper SAL rates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wabbit Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 Thanks xstoys.I actually called them up a couple of hours ago and they said they will check my order and get back to me by end of the week. Luckily there was someone there who could speak English as the person who pick up the phone couldn't. Hopefully their shipping will be the same as what HLJ charges and not inflated up. You actually telephoned them? What is your rate to call to Japan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valk-1S Posted September 30, 2004 Author Share Posted September 30, 2004 Thanks xstoys.I actually called them up a couple of hours ago and they said they will check my order and get back to me by end of the week. Luckily there was someone there who could speak English as the person who pick up the phone couldn't. Hopefully their shipping will be the same as what HLJ charges and not inflated up. You actually telephoned them? What is your rate to call to Japan? Yup Cost me about A$0.04 per minute to call from Australia using an International Phone Card. They pick up the phone immediately and don't put you on hold. Just have to get that person to transfer you to someone who could speak English. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valk-1S Posted September 30, 2004 Author Share Posted September 30, 2004 Hopefully their shipping will be the same as what HLJ charges and not inflated up. One problem is that with Hobby Search, you don't know the shipping charge until you get your parcel. I recently paid 3600 yen in shipping two books for this reason. I thought I was under the magic 2 kg weight limit (for SAL), but I wasn't. There is a big jump from 2080 yen (2 kg) to 3600 yen (2.5 kg). Ouch! You can refer to the SAL and EMS tables for reference. For South-East Asia at least, HLJ has slightly cheaper SAL rates. I used HLJ weight calculation and add about 500g for the box. Cross finger and hope that's how Hobby Search will calculate my package as well. I don't mind if its another 500g, just hope they don't inflate it too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhyone Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 (edited) I used HLJ weight calculation and add about 500g for the box. Cross finger and hope that's how Hobby Search will calculate my package as well. The books are 1.6 kg according to HLJ, so I thought I was safe. For SAL, there is a dead zone from 2 kg to 4 kg. It's most uneconomical to send parcels of such weight to Asia. For US/Europe, anything more than 2 kg is ridiculous! I don't mind if its another 500g, just hope they don't inflate it too much. I think you don't have to worry about that. Take a recent example I had: The Millia 639 figure-set. 400 grams on HLJ. I was charged 640 yen for shipping. That means a weight of 550 grams. 150 grams of packaging. (For comparison, the same thing on HLJ will cost me 520 yen.) I find Hobby Search extremely slow, however. It's no longer surprising to me to find my orders processed only after two weeks. Edited September 30, 2004 by nhyone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valk-1S Posted October 5, 2004 Author Share Posted October 5, 2004 Yay!! I guess calling them up help a lot as they sent my stuff out last Saturday and my package is in Aus now waiting for delivery. Shipping was charged fairly as well. I had to use EMS due to its weight and they added an extra kilo for the box. One think good came out from their delays is that the Aussie dollar strengthen against the Yen so I got it a little bit cheaper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mar Fai Posted October 7, 2004 Share Posted October 7, 2004 I just bought a 1/48 VF-1J Hikaru w/Super Pack from Oobase, and it was delivered to me within a few days. Pretty quick service! Their prices are little higher than HLJ, but when you add up the shipping, they are actually cheaper. So, you guys might want to try them. It might save you some frustration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaHX Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 i just ordered from hobby search and hlj. i placed the orders on the same day and hobby search got here first. shipping wasnt overpriced and my package was fine. i guess their service is starting to vary. but never had i recieved a package this fast from hlj ever so im actually quite happy right now. i'm probably going to place another order with them really soon. just sharing my experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valk-1S Posted October 21, 2004 Author Share Posted October 21, 2004 (edited) Glad to hear you had a good experience with them. I thought the shipping was reasonable on mine but after receiving the invoice with the package, I was charge over 1kg for the packaging and therefore had to pay extra 700Yen. The thing is that my package weight 3600g and they could have easily reduced it by 100g by cutting down the amount of cardboard they used. They basically used a recycled Gundam Bandai box and cut the corners to reduce the height but never cut down on all the excess cardboard on the top. Still happy though as I received it in excellent condition. I will probably still give them another go. Their shipping is not overpriced as they charge what they paid. Their slow response, no idea. Maybe some internal problem. But since you manage to get your package fast, they may have solve it. Edited October 21, 2004 by Valk-1S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasabi-elephant Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 (edited) I think their system is screwed, some sort of technical problems, I can't even place my order, after completing all the required info, I clicked on the "send" button and received an error page. Well, at least I got a couple of email responses from their staffs , despite the fact that they don't make immediate reply. If you want a reply , you guys might want to try the following addresses: hamada@1999.co.jp suzuki@1999.co.jp katayama@1999.co.jp (REN KATAYAMA) nakano@1999.co.jp (Shinya NAKANO) Gone! igarashi@1999.co.jp Gone! Edited October 27, 2004 by wasabi-elephant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaHX Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 it seems like their website is under construction. theyre using a temporary search right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valk-1S Posted January 5, 2005 Author Share Posted January 5, 2005 Seems like Hobby Search is improving. I decided to bite the bullet and give them another go as I did receive my goods the last time and also I just wanted to use up my points and buy something small like a Hasegawa Kit. Ordered just b4 Christmas on the 22 Dec and checked their website today and its been shipped. Pretty fast considering they closed from the 25 Dec to 5 Jan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UN Spacy Posted August 1, 2007 Share Posted August 1, 2007 Sorry to bump but I've been thinking about ordering from items from them. Any US customers do business with them? Are they any good? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azrael Posted August 1, 2007 Share Posted August 1, 2007 Sorry to bump but I've been thinking about ordering from items from them. Any US customers do business with them? Are they any good? I have pre-ordered my MG Strike Noir and 1/100 Akatsuki from them and I didn't have any problems with them. I noticed their processing was a bit slow as it took 4 days to go from in stock to shipped status but I haven't bought anything from them recently. Otherwise, I never had a problem with them. They were cheaper than Hobby Link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumdumgai Posted August 6, 2007 Share Posted August 6, 2007 I've had problems with them and refuse to buy form them anymore. I had them screw up and send my Q-rau to a wrong address, it didn't get accepted and got sent back, and they didn't resend it to my address. They refused to refund me also. In fact they plain old stopped replying to my mails. Their communication leaves much to be desired, as does their service. While I don't like HLJ that much, they've got lightyears better service than Hobbysearch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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