Akibado Problem......

Visual Novel Community Off Topic
#21
quote:
If they continue like this they probably will be out of business soon.

I agree with that. I mean, how do they intend to do business if they arent't even able/willing to provide their customers with information needed to pay them? This is really weird ... [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/frown.gif[/img]

I've sent them another email today, this time to order(at)akibado(dot)com. That's the address you're supposed to send your Paypal payments to, so I hope they at least check that one from time to time ...

#22

Okkk so another update…

Its been 24 days since I won an auction and it “hasn’t arrived at the office yet”

One week since I sent a shipping request and I haven’t got a reply yet…so I sent them an email just then, lets see what happens.

#23

I’ve been using SMJ (Shoppingmall Japan) quite a lot in the meantime and they’re a LOT faster than Akibado! What makes me wonder especially is that won items usually arrive at their office within a couple of days and not a couple of weeks like at Akibado. They usually ship your stuff within 4-5 days after sending a shipping request and Nick usually replies to emails within a day, often even within a few hours.

The only negative points so far are higher fees (but still ok IMO) and a shipping department, that will simply ignore whatever special shipping instructions you might give them. -_- And they don’t do special orders anymore, which was why I returned to Akibado for a few items.

By the way: I’ve also used Akibado a lot in the past and never had any really serious complaints about them, so far, apart from the fact that they’ve always been so slow, of course. But what’s happening this time is simply ridiculous! :frowning:

#24

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the long overdue update. Anyway, I had finally received my stuff from Akibado at the end of January. Took them 2 bloody months. They never did reply to the several emails I had sent them though. It seems their attitude towards their customers are still as bad as ever.

@o_okarin: I wonder if it really does take 21 days to arrive at their office. It took for bloody ever for the status of my items to change as well, but when I looked at the buyer/seller comments on YJA, looking at the dates it seems like they receive the items within a week at most and they just don’t update the status on their site unless they feel like it. I really don’t know what goes on, but I don’t really care now since I don’t plan on using them for future purchases.

Anyway for those who are experiencing the Akibado blues, hang in there!

#25

I’ve just emailed Akibado for the third time today, after reading this thread. All I wanted to do was make a deposit, but if even that is such a painful, tedious process, I dread going through an entire auction with them. Still, I want to see if they deign to reply this:

More importantly, can anyone else recommend other (cheap!) auction services that you have had a good experience with? I know of otaku-ya, shopping mall japan and mail order japan. Any comments/reviews?

#26

I much prefer shops, not auctions, therefore I can’t give you a direct help. Time to insert new (useful, I hope) Links!:

  1. http://www.fdjp.com/ (praised by masakiryu)

  2. http://www.nippon-export.com/

#27

I got a reply from Akibado. They were uncannily efficient this time round. Must I write long, mean letters to get them to even look? Here’s their response:

Ooh, look, customer service. And a lousy apology. That wasn’t so hard now, was it, Akibado? Could have done it A WEEK AGO, couldn’t you, Akibado?

Since they’re making it this difficult, I shall just have to go elsewhere. I’ve decided to try shopping mall Japan, since a few people have mentioned good things about it. We’ll see how that one goes.

For purchasing, fdjp looks great. Unfortunately, I don’t have paypal (have heard too much bad stuff about it). Is there any other purchasing service you’d recommend?

ps: Sadly, Akibado seems to be the cheapest service across the board. Now if only SMJ would open their custom purchase services and extend them beyond anime cells…

#28

In my opinion, it’s because they know of this thread (besides, it’s very popular -do you know?-, although not the only one)…

Sorry, no. I can give you only this other Link (on a side note, me too I’ve no trust in PayPal).

#29

An update on my case: I decided to stop insisting on using SAL for my shipment and sent them the money for EMS on Tuesday and today(!) I received this:

So it’s not like they’re really dead or something. They obviously just don’t like answering customer questions and such. :frowning:

Well, I guess I’ll respect their their wish to be left alone and take my business somewhere else in the future.

#30

Well, if anything I’m glad they replied so quickly to both your and my emails. Perhaps this is the beginning of a change?

If anyone is still in contact with them, do report on their progress here. I’m sure we’d all like to know if they improve.

#31

Hmpf! I wouldn’t exactly call that a change, at least not for the better. The only thing they did was to ship my stuff after I forked over the money for EMS shipping, which I had never requested in first place. I had asked them to ship via SAL and my repeated questions regarding why they wouldn’t or couldn’t do that still haven’t been answered with a single beep. I feel ripped off. -_-

[ 06-03-2006, 06:14 PM: Message edited by: z-kun ]

#32

There certainly isn’t any improvement!!! Both my items have arrived at the office after 21 and about 26 days and I sent a shipping request on the 14th and 26th of May (21 days & 10days wait now) and I haven’t gotten a quotation to for my final payment so they can just send the items to me already!!! I have also sent them 3 emails, they did NOT reply to a single one of them. I was considering a cheaper means of shipping NOT EMS so I could save some money but since I read Z-kuns post, I was afraid to ask for a more personalised service.

@crucif-X: I’m pretty sure it doesnt take 21 days for any auction seller to send their items!! and akibados yahoo account doesnt have many bad ratings, their payment seems to be on time, the sellers usually send items within one week.

Obviously it does not take 21 days to send an item, what annoys me is that Akibado advertises that it takes somewhere between 6-21 days, WHICH IS NOT THE CASE. Its almost always at least 21 days wait for the item just to arrive at the office, I don’t know how long its going to take for them to send me a reply to the shipping request since I haven’t got one yet and its been 21days for one of the items already. NONE of my items are “heavy” or “large” or need “special repackaging” so they better have a good reason why it should take 21 days for them to send me a quotation so that I CAN SEND THEM MONEY.

#33

hmmm, well it has been interesting (and nerve-racking) to read all of this about akibado. i just recently discovered them and their description of their business sounded so goo dthat i didnt even try a small order to try their service, and jumped right in with a 5000yen order.

although my expierance with them isnt too exciting, i guess i could keep you guys updated on their service now, even though the last post here was 2 weeks ago.

i sent them a request for an estimate on the 10th (of this month), and i got my reply on the 13th. Then i sent my order form that day on the 13th, and got a confirmation the next day on the 14th. But then, being the not-so-smart person i am, i didnt kno how to pay them, so i sent them an email soon afer, but it really hasnt been that long so im not too surprised that i havnt got a reply. but now im in trouble cause i think it said i need to pay by the 21st, and thats in three days, so what exactly do i do to pay? cause i really wanna see if there service will be that bad for me. x.x

and also, i saw some of the links up there for other site for this kind of stuff, but which ones are the better ones for ordering stuff just from shops online, not auctioning places? because if akibado doesnt pan out then i will definetly want to try something else, because i really love ordering stuff from japan online. i have an addiction XDXD

[EDIT] oh yea, and the akibado site is down on my computer, so that also got me kinda worried. im a spaz and i probably checked the site like a millions times a day, but i think its been down for about 3-4 days now. but im not sure x.x [EDIT]

[ 06-19-2006, 11:09 PM: Message edited by: linda_phillips ]

#34

Well, maybe is just time to insert another Link: http://www.jlist.com/ . You can try here too for custom orders -maybe-, but remember that JList emails tend to be devoured by overzealous antispam services…

#35

Hi,

I started using Akibado at around April, I order posters from Yahoo Auctions, and it took around a month for them to changed the status from waiting to arrived, and took more than 2 weeks for them to changed the status from arrived to confirmation after I requested shipping, and another few days for them to shipped the items out to me. It took nearly two months altogether to get the item here. Not to mention the shipping was very expensive in the range over $30,000 yen since they repack the orders into two separate orders.

But thats nothing.

Right now, I have a big problem with Akibado at the moment. On the date of 5/25/06, I’ve bidded on some posters for $1000 yen, and the status hasn’t changed at all as it is still waiting since then nor did I receive any replies from them even though I’ve email them countless times after a month of waiting. Thats like 7 weeks, almost 2 months of waiting! No replies at all! Another regretful thing this I did was made a bid on a Super Dolfie for 58,000 yen on 06/11/06 and won, that was made from a manual bid request because their system didn’t function properly at that time, so it’s been like 6 weeks and no change in status! Whats worse is that I’ve checked their feedback comments and there weren’t any comments made on the items from them and the sellers! I got a bad feeling that akibado may have scam the money and purposely lose a customer like me! They didn’t reply back to me on what happen to them got me suspicious. I’m really frustrated and angry right now. I also blindedly bidded on another super dolfie for $20,500 yen on 7/7/06, because I thought they were honest, but somewhow recently I got a feeling that things aren’t right, and not until this week were I serious about taking steps to consider resolving this with them but they don’t message me back. What irks me is the fact that no comments were made on the items for over 5-7 weeks, not even the seller themselves!!

On 7/13/06, I threaten them with an email that I will take legal action if they don’t respond back to me. I’m both frustrated and angry at the moment, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get my things back and if they don’t have it, I need the money back!! I even got their address and phone number from EMS custom notes on the previous package that I’ve received. Here is the information:

From:

Naoko Nagata

Yoshimura Building 3rd Floor
1-2-2 Higashi-Nihonbashi
Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 103-0004
Japan

Telephone no/fax no:

03-3866-3828

Have anyone gave them a call?

I really want to give them yell!

If nothing else works, should I take legal advice from a solicitor in regards to this?

I was thinking of making a complaint to Paypal? Will that work?

I’ve heard that someone suggest calling to the embassy, will that help?

Does anyone know people in Japan so they could give them a visit?

What can I do, email them again?

I’m willing to file complaint to PAYPAL if they don’t respond back again!

Thanks for reading.

[ 07-14-2006, 08:19 AM: Message edited by: ani_otoko ]

#36

Hello, same here. I have won 2 auctions the 6/12/06. No news, no answers to my mails… I have made a deposit the 6/10/06, as i have 45 days to make a complaint to PAYPAL, i’ll do it next week if nothing changed.

ani_otoko for the feedback don’t worry. Some sellers simply put feedback after the winner, as akibado never lets feedback.

#37

Hello. Fellow victim here. -_-;;

I’m planning on sending an email, this time with a Japanese translation. I’m crossing my fingers and hope that they at least respond to this one.

Anyone know other Japanese proxy services aside from rinkya and akibado? I don’t like rinkya very well since they charge obscenely large amounts of service charge when buying stuff below 10,000yen.

#38

What’s the best one?

#39

It has been 8 weeks since I won the bid on item and no change in status. The other item is 6 weeks and still waiting!

I haven’t done anything yet since I first posted on this thread. Actually I emailed again last week asking them to check my items since its been nearly 2 months and if they don’t reply back, I do’ll something about it.

#40

Personally i have begun a dispute on paypal.
I’ll see if they answer…