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CaptOblivious

I hate to say this but my order IMO with Plaza has been a major disappointment as they shipped my T-guage stuff SAL. The track set and trains shipped together over three weeks ago. The tracks arrived Monday, but the train sets are MIA. I may try Plaza one more time and have everything shipped EMS, but as it stands 90% of everything has been with HobbySearch and while they seem a tad slow to get the orders out the door, the arrival time via EMS more than makes up for it. Just ordered another 300 bucks from them tonight.

 

You don't live in Wales by any chance?  :P I know at least one of us here does…

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2008/10/08/5-000-packages-missing-67-stolen-all-in-just-4-weeks-55578-21988281/

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Hehehe - he looks a bit 'special' bless him.

 

I ordered from Plazajapan on Saturday night (UK Time) and received my EMS at 9.00 am Wednesday morning. Not too shabby I thought - Osaka Monday, London Wednesday.

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For me, this list shows more items that I didn't know Hobby Search carried. Good find!

 

That is a good find. You know rereading my early post it's strange to even have posted that. At this point in time, I have made about 12 orders or so from HS. Love dealing with them.

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Hobby Search has changed its system of shipping costs.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/shipping_costs.html

 

REVISION: HOBBY SEARCH shipping costs

We revised our system of shipping costs as follows:

 

BEFORE: The shipping cost is determined by the Japan Post Office by measuring the weight of the parcel

at the point of shipment, based upon the EMS chart.

Since we cannot know the exact weight of the parcel in advance of shipment, we are unable to tell in advance

how much the shipping cost would be.

The shipping cost is notified to the customer AFTER the order has been shipped.

AFTER: The shipping cost is automatically calculated based on the total weight of the package

including the packaging materials, referring to the EMS standard.

The shipping costs of already-released items are notified to the customer BEFORE

the order has been placed.

Note, however, that the new shipping costs can be different from the actual EMS costs.

The customer is asked to make sure of the shipping cost before placing the order.

*Please note that the shipping costs of pre-ordered items are not yet determined, since it is impossible to predict

  the weights of pre-order items.

*Thus the shipping costs of pre-order items are notified to the customer AFTER the order has been shipped.

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I have ordered many packages from Hobby Search prior to their new shipping system.

 

My experience in the past of Kato or MicroAce shinkansens has been that EMS delivery to the USA costs around 3000 yen. Sometimes a little more; sometimes a little less.

 

I have just received a Kato 10-453 0-2000 Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen (pre-order) and was charged almost 7000 yen for EMS despite the package having a much lower shipping charge (less than half the almost 7000 yen charged) indicated on the EMS label.

 

I have of course emailed Hobby Search and will keep you updated on any further information I receive from them.

 

As a further point, I'm still not entirely certain how they inform you of the shipping cost of in-stock items before the order is placed. I have made some dummy orders and proceeded to the check out - but there's no indication of the shipping cost - anyone succeeded in receiving a shipping cost prior to entering credit card info?

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Yikes, that sounds like a mistake there!

 

yeah the ems prices seemed to creep up in the last year or so with hobbysearch for me.

 

Hobbysearch is showing a shipping charge when you check out now. i checked this when they first changed this and just now and it shows upon the final confirmation screen (ie you have to put in your cc and account info).

 

i tried a 4 car microace set and it came out to 3200yen for shipping.

 

i really like hobbyworld's shipping calculator, it lets you choose ems or sal and all you have to be is logged into see the shipping costs with one click from checkout. hobbysearch's is a pain to have to put in your cc info in order to see what the shipping might be...

 

cheers

 

jeff

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I wonder if HS sat down and reviewed the costs of transferring international parcels to Narita.  Sometimes parcels from Japan show signs of being handled by a delivery service which may mean the actual shipping cost is more than just the EMS charge.

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alpineaustralia

This has got to be a new record. Order sent by HS on Tuesday afternoon and arrived 3 days later in Syd. Cost 2400 yen. Wow!

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I wonder if HS sat down and reviewed the costs of transferring international parcels to Narita.  Sometimes parcels from Japan show signs of being handled by a delivery service which may mean the actual shipping cost is more than just the EMS charge.

 

yeah the big change in their shipping statement is that you may be charged something different from the actual ems charge that was on the package. so this may be a service or handling charge they think they need to do.

 

mores the pitty as it makes me less inclined to use them if i can get the same item thru hobbyworld sal and save $10-20 on the item, especially something bulkier that is not that expensive.

 

My record was 2.5 days from HS to washington dc! that was like three or four years ago. since then ems seems to be more like 4 and sometimes 5 days here once i get the shipment notification. when i track it i notice it can hang at the japan airport for a day and also in the landing us airport for a day. then usually a day for the express mail here at this end. still pretty amazing!

 

jeff

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My orders tend to sit around HS for about a week, but then from the time the EMS notice arrives at my inbox, to the time the package physically arrives (assuming it is during the week) is usually 36hrs.

 

>>start postal routing rant<<

 

Though, I find the routing to be unusual on the USPS end, NRT->NYC->FDK. To me this is weird because it completely bypasses BWI which is Maryland's district's central distribution facility for Express Mail. I remember talking to the psot master a while ago, and also commented that it was strange because most packages shipping from Japan should air-route NRT-SFO->BWI>FDK (as opposed to internal express mail from Europe which route PHL->BWI->FDK) or Via HGR to FDK on Sundays. For some reason everything from BWI goes to HGR before FDK on Sunday which to me is ridiculous because to get to HGR from BWI, the truckloads straight through FDK. It always fracked my weasel cause I had to wait till the HGR truck came in at 1300 before I could deliver Express mail on Sunday's.

 

>>end postal routing rant<<

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I have of course emailed Hobby Search and will keep you updated on any further information I receive from them.

 

Hobby Search have now replied to my email and credited my "points" account to my satisfaction. I do have a couple of pre-orders still pending with them so I will have to keep my eye on the shipping charges.

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hbr24b - Let us know how things went as far as your shipping charges, we can compare to see if they are consistent with other members.

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Here's a quick breakdown of my orders to Hobby Search (oldest orders first) :

 

Kato 10-512 500 Series Nozomi (Add-On 8 Cars Set) EMS JPY 2800

 

Kato 10-549 N700 Series Shinkansen Nozomi (Add-On 8 Cars Set) EMS JPY 2800

 

Micro Ace(Arii) A0496 Shinkansen Type 922-10 (7 Cars Set) EMS JPY 3200

 

Kato 10-358 Series E351 Super Azusa (Basic 8 Cars Set) EMS JPY 2800

 

KATO 10-453 Series 0-2000 Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen Bullet Train (8-Car Standard Set) EMS JPY 6800

 

So you can see that the shipping cost in the last order was wildly out of line with previous orders. I don't have the shipping labels for the earlier orders so I can't check actual EMS charge versus the amount charged above but I can say that all the boxes were roughly the same weight (give or take a few ounces). I'm on the east cost of the USA if you want to compare costs.

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Almost looks like it was a keyboard slip when entering your actual ems charge into their system. they are good folks sure they would make it good to the reasonable charge level.

 

In the last year or so i thought the hobby search orders ems charges seemed to be getting higher. EMS rates have not gone up. finally checked the last few with shipping paper charges and the bill and i was charged exactly what it cost to ship things. not sure why the costs felt like they were going up. maybe i was just ordering more!  :o part has been the slip in the dollar against the yen, but that would only be like 20% at most. felt like orders were like just over $20 shipping for a few things to $30 or more.

 

i does seem like each box is now $30 or more for EMS shipping. thats why im liking hobbyworld more now with sal shipping when i can. I also like they send you the bill to pay when its ready to ship with the final shipping charges (i think always what you get at the checkout time) so if there is a problem you can spot it before you pay and it ships. their charges always seem right on or very close (close enough with all the estimating needed) to the actual price on the box.

 

sal has no insurance for lost or broken, but i feel im now well in the self insured range for sal as i have done enough of them instead of EMS over the last few years to have saved several hundred bucks (at least, too scared to actually go back and figure out how much it could be!), so even if a few packages valued at $30-100 goes poof or gets stepped on im still wayyy ahead of the game! mind you if its something that is $300 in an order then it goes EMS!

 

maybe im mail lucky as i never have stuff go poof in the us mail as well while others seem to not have that luck...

 

cheers

 

jeff

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alpineaustralia
maybe im mail lucky as i never have stuff go poof in the us mail as well while others seem to not have that luck...

 

Can't say I have ever had any stuff go "poof" in the mail either.

Have any of the Aussies or the Poms had this problem?

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marknewton

Sadly yes, I have, although it has only ever happened to me once.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

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