Hobby Search

[disturbman]

It seems HS has become very strict and inflexible, I have heard several people complain recently about their lack of flexibility and unresponsive customer service. Seeing how expensive their shipping has become, they should definitely offer people more service and easier ways to recombine packages.

[brill27mcb]

FYI, this was at the bottom of my Oct. 21 HS email newsletter:

 

"From editor

One of the top news stories in Japan today was the exchange rate of the yen against the US dollar at 150 yen to the dollar. According to reports, this is the lowest level of yen depreciation in about 32 years. The yen continues to depreciate in currencies other than the US dollar. Depending on the country/region, now is the time to buy railroad models such as tracks, buildings, and train sets that are on sale at Hobby Search."

 

Then this morning I received the following email:

 

"Dear ***** *****,

This mail is sent to all customers registered in states we are
to start Sales Tax collection for.

Nowadays, most states in the US require remote sellers to collect
sales tax on their behalf, although conditions differ for each state.
As the state registered on your account also requires us to collect
the sales tax for them, we will begin doing so as of November 1st, 2022.

We understand this will affect you greatly, so we are offering
a special 20% off shipping discount to support you with your orders
(with exception of orders using DHL shipping).

If you need to change shipping method for your orders,
please do so from your account page.

[Hobby Search account page]
https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/mypage/

Please be noted that this offer is valid only on orders addressed to
states we are collecting sales/use tax for.

For more detail, please see below.

[Regarding collection of tax by Hobby Search]
https://www.1999.co.jp/tax_collection_e.html

If have any inquiry, please free to contact us.
Sincerely yours,

------------------------------------------------
Hobby Search Co., Ltd.
Website: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng
Contact: hs-support@1999.co.jp"

 

So they do not appear to be looking at cheaper ways of shipping (to the U.S. at least), but instead they are offering an internal discount on shipping to offset the Point-of-Sale tax collection they now have to do.

 

Rich K.
 

[katoftw]

They are offering discounted shipping to make you keep your orders.  As you have the right to cancel orders since taxes are now applied to exsisting.

 

Any new orders or recombiniations from November the 1st though, I'd expect the shipping discount to be gone.  They might continue it for a while though, as their competitors are not collecting taxes yet.

[Guest]

Amazon JP is a competitor, and they started collecting (foreign) taxes a few years ago.

[cteno4]

Yeah the states went at the big global companies first, especially ones that have a presence in the state and amazon is everywhere! Now going after the medium fish…

 

im hoping the levels stay where they are so shops like modeltrainplus and rg rokko decide it ain’t worth it to collect and submit taxes. I’m hoping this system at least lets them just do one payment and a form saying how much to each state…

 

I don’t mind the tax so much I just hope it doesn’t drive away exporters we love!

 

we have a thread on the US tax collection here now

 

 

jeff

[katoftw]

Amazon is just one of many competitors. Luckily shoppers have choice as per my last post.

Edited October 26, 2022 by katoftw

[chadbag]

5 hours ago, Bob Martin said:

Amazon JP is a competitor, and they started collecting (foreign) taxes a few years ago.

 

 For some places.  I have yet to be charged Utah (US) sales tax on Amazon JP purchases.

 

I have to think that these places are voluntarily complying since it is a state level matter (not Federal [US]) and the states have no real way to reach the non-US companies shipping into the US.  And Hobby Search must be doing good US business as they have to reach a certain level of orders for each state they are collecting sales tax in in order to be "required" to pay it.  For most states it is $100k in yearly sales and/or a certain number of orders -- usually 100 or 200 and for some states it is that number of order AND that dollar amount and in some states either one will get you there.  Some states have lower or higher numbers.

 

(Yes, I got the same email today and went and explored the details -- I know that my business I run on the side does not have to collect sales tax for any sales outside of Utah as we are too small).

[bill937ca]

10/26   Notice of email server failure

 

We had been unable to send or receive emails due to our email server failure between approx. 10:30am ～ 2:10pm today (Japan time GMT+9). For the duration of the server failure, order confirmation emails could not be sent, and inquiries and cancellation requests from the account page have not been received. We are very sorry for all the trouble and inconvenience this has caused. For customers who had sent us cancellation requests or inquiries from your account page during the server failure, we must ask you to please send them again.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation greatly, thank you very much in advance.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/infodetails

Edited October 26, 2022 by disturbman
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[VJM]

On 10/27/2022 at 4:19 AM, bill937ca said:

10/26   Notice of email server failure

 

We had been unable to send or receive emails due to our email server failure between approx. 10:30am ～ 2:10pm today (Japan time GMT+9). For the duration of the server failure, order confirmation emails could not be sent, and inquiries and cancellation requests from the account page have not been received. We are very sorry for all the trouble and inconvenience this has caused. For customers who had sent us cancellation requests or inquiries from your account page during the server failure, we must ask you to please send them again.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation greatly, thank you very much in advance.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/infodetails

 

Anyone ever do an IT root cause analysis for a Japanese company?  One of the questions that you have to answer is "How will you stop this from ever happening again?"

 

As anyone in IT knows, particularly with the way the question is asked, the answer is (honestly) "You can't."  But unfortunately that answer is unacceptable. 

[JR East]

5 hours ago, VJM said:

 

Anyone ever do an IT root cause analysis for a Japanese company?  One of the questions that you have to answer is "How will you stop this from ever happening again?"

 

As anyone in IT knows, particularly with the way the question is asked, the answer is (honestly) "You can't."  But unfortunately that answer is unacceptable. 

 

The solution is the anvil. Replace any failing part with an anvil. An anvil never fails. It lasts centuries without failing. If everything was build only with anvil, nobody will face failures anymore in the world. 

[marknewton]

On 10/26/2022 at 9:12 AM, cteno4 said:

I don’t mind the tax so much...

I very much mind the tax we now pay here in Australia. To be specific, I mind the way it was imposed, and the justification given for it. I don't intend to start a political discussion, so I'll just say that I'll never EVER buy anything at a Harvey Norman department store, and I'll loathe the Liberal Party until the day I die.

 

(And to avoid confusion for anyone outside Australia, our so-called Liberal Party are a conservative/rightwing mob. There's nothing remotely liberal about them.)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

4 hours ago, JR East said:

An anvil never fails. It lasts centuries without failing.

You're not a blacksmith or a boilermaker, are you? 😉

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[JR East]

1 hour ago, marknewton said:

You're not a blacksmith or a boilermaker, are you? 😉

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

No I'm an IT Project Manager (indeed ...). 

 

Anvil is the solution for nearly everything. It's the Graal. Every engineer must think 'Anvil'. Anvil-design will save the world: robust, never failing, long-lasting. 🤪

Edited October 28, 2022 by JR East

[railsquid]

So is "Anvil" something where you take the project specification, heat it up and beat it with a hammer against a hard surface?

[James-SNMB]

I received an email from HobbySearch this week starting that EMS and Surface Parcel options are resuming to Canada. Nice to have some non-DHL options again.

 

My email just mentioned Canada, but I imagined the opening up of tourism will mean more flights from everywhere to Japan, so I expect other countries will have similar service soon, if not already.

 

(I still miss SAL though...)

[chadbag]

Has Hobby Search ditched its English pages for foreigners or do they just not make it possible to reach them from a Japanese IP address?

 

I've clicked on links they've sent me to products.  It just goes to their Japanese main page.  I click on links to specific products form Google search.  It just goes to their Japanese main page.  I've searched all over the main page for the link to get me to the English pages for foreigners.  Can't find it.   We've been in Japan a few weeks visiting and we're returning in a few days to the US and I wonder if they just don't allow Japanese IP addresses to even look at the English pages?

 

Very frustrating as I was trying to look some stuff up.

 

[bill937ca]

34 minutes ago, chadbag said:

Has Hobby Search ditched its English pages for foreigners or do they just not make it possible to reach them from a Japanese IP address?

 

I've clicked on links they've sent me to products.  It just goes to their Japanese main page.  I click on links to specific products form Google search.  It just goes to their Japanese main page.  I've searched all over the main page for the link to get me to the English pages for foreigners.  Can't find it.   We've been in Japan a few weeks visiting and we're returning in a few days to the US and I wonder if they just don't allow Japanese IP addresses to even look at the English pages?

 

Very frustrating as I was trying to look some stuff up.

 

As far as I know it always been that way.  Japanese pages show payment and shipping methods that only apply in  Japan  and include the VAT for Japanese sales.  English language pages only show foreign shipping and payment without the VAT.

 

Most web merchants make a determination by your shipping address and then proceed with shipping and payment options,  but not the architecture of the Hobby Search web site.

Edited January 2, 2023 by bill937ca

[Cat]

53 minutes ago, chadbag said:

Very frustrating as I was trying to look some stuff up.

 

Add [/eng] into the URL: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/rail/

I remove the /eng when I want to get to the Japanese page to cut and paste key words for searching Yahoo Auction Japan.
 

[roadstar_na6]

6 hours ago, Cat said:

I remove the /eng when I want to get to the Japanese page to cut and paste key words for searching Yahoo Auction Japan.

The english page has a "show japanese description" link on the end of each listing 😉

[Cat]

1 hour ago, roadstar_na6 said:

The english page has a "show japanese description" link on the end of each listing 😉

It does, but I've found it easier to look at the full Japanese page in order to find various keywords because everything is in full parallel layout to the English page.

[chadbag]

8 hours ago, Cat said:

Add [/eng] into the URL: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/rail/

I remove the /eng when I want to get to the Japanese page to cut and paste key words for searching Yahoo Auction Japan.
 

 

Adding /eng doesn't work.  It forces me to the Japanese site and there is no way to get to the English site.  

 

Because everyone with an IP address in Japan speaks Japanese /s

 

9 hours ago, bill937ca said:

As far as I know it always been that way.  Japanese pages show payment and shipping methods that only apply in  Japan  and include the VAT for Japanese sales.  English language pages only show foreign shipping and payment without the VAT.

 

Most web merchants make a determination by your shipping address and then proceed with shipping and payment options,  but not the architecture of the Hobby Search web site.

 

Yeah it seems kind of dumb to force a range of IPs to a site where you can't switch the language.  You just determine VAT or not by the shipping address or if the person is logged in by their registered address.  Or if you want to do it (pricing and shipping) by IP address, at least add an option to switch languages displayed or something.

Anyway...  Thanks all for the replies.

Edited January 3, 2023 by chadbag

[cteno4]

A number of Japanese sites do the ip mapping and force you to the Japanese sites if Japanese ip address.

 

I guess you could do a vpn or proxy server, but that’s a pain on the go!

 

jeff

[chadbag]

21 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

A number of Japanese sites do the ip mapping and force you to the Japanese sites if Japanese ip address.

 

I guess you could do a vpn or proxy server, but that’s a pain on the go!

 

yeah not worth the effort for my needs...  Was just trying to research some stuff.  Hobby Search has become less and less interesting for me anyway and this just kind of seals the deal, so to speak.

 

Kind of dumb how they do it if you ask me.  At the least you could offer an English option on your Japan site, like, as I said, "everyone in Japan speaks Japanese" (not)

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by chadbag

[bill937ca]

2 hours ago, chadbag said:

 

Kind of dumb how they do it if you ask me.  At the least you could offer an English option on your Japan site, like, as I said, "everyone in Japan speaks Japanese" (not)

 

 I think Japan's relative isolation from the rest of the world may be a factor in this.

[bill937ca]

2023/01/13Notice of DHL shipping price adjustment

Due to adjustment of shipping prices by DHL, we are required to update our shipping prices for our DHL shipments.

This new price take effect as of: 16th of January, 2023 (Japan time GMT+9)

Please be noted that the price will be reflected on all orders charged after this date.
This will also affect backorders or any orders with charges not finalized before the date above.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/infodetails