Hobby Search

[Claude_Dreyfus]

For the first time in a while I have availed myself of the Hobby Search sale. My captive has arrived, but accompanied by a Viacom Blu-ray disc of the Odakyu Romance car, which I didn't order, nor appears on my receipt. I was going to check with HS, but wanted to know if they occasionally give out freebies like this (especially during a sale) and anyone else on here had received something similar.

[Yavianice]

Hobbysearch has advertised free Viacom bluray when you purchase a qualifying set for a while now. So yes, this is expected.

[JR 500系]

1 hour ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

For the first time in a while I have availed myself of the Hobby Search sale. My captive has arrived, but accompanied by a Viacom Blu-ray disc of the Odakyu Romance car, which I didn't order, nor appears on my receipt. I was going to check with HS, but wanted to know if they occasionally give out freebies like this (especially during a sale) and anyone else on here had received something similar.

 

Yeah me too, even though my item did not fall into the Hobby Search qualifying item... It's nice of them to include it! 

 

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Thanks chaps...a nice surprise; I'm a bit of a sucker for cab view videos.

[disturbman]

Now, I wonder if I will receive one with my sales catch.

[JR 500系]

13 hours ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

Thanks chaps...a nice surprise; I'm a bit of a sucker for cab view videos.

 

Yeah to my surprise too! However, i would have prefered if it went the correct way....  😅

 

Viewing a trip from the rear end of the romance car isnt exactly what i would really like~ 😅

 

8 hours ago, disturbman said:

Now, I wonder if I will receive one with my sales catch.

 

I think you will, i'm guessing they have quite a fair lot of these videos for distribution. It was printed 'Not for Sale' on the back so i think it's some sort of advertising material by Vicom maybe? 

[roadstar_na6]

4 hours ago, JR 500系 said:

Viewing a trip from the rear end of the romance car isnt exactly what i would really like~ 😅

Play it in reverse then 🙂

[lukewang01]

Is HS website down for anyone else as well? I can't seem to open it on my browser while other Japanese websites works fine. 

[railsquid]

8 minutes ago, lukewang01 said:

Is HS website down for anyone else as well? I can't seem to open it on my browser while other Japanese websites works fine. 

 

Yup, it seems down and has been for at least a couple of hours.

[railsquid]

Working now.

[bill937ca]

Hobby Search is moving later this month and their server will be going off line for a time on the 11th.

 

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

 

2020/12/02We would like to express our gratitude and sincere thanks to all our customers for supporting Hobby Search.

We are pleased to inform that we will be relocating ourselves to a larger facility, to accommodate our growing business.

[New Address]
Sumida Park Place 4F,
1-1-10, Yokokawa,
Sumida-ku, 130-0003 Tokyo

[Office relocation schedule (dates stated in Japan time GMT+9)]
11th - 14th December, 2020
*There may be difficulties accessing our website during the 11th due to server transfer.

Due to this relocation, Hobby Search will not be operating during the above days.
We will start business at our new office as of 15th December, 2020.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and greatly appreciate your understanding of this matter.

[James-SNMB]

Just got an email from Hobby search that EMS and Air Parcel service (among others) to Canada have once again been suspended.

 

The only options to Canada right now are DHL, Surface Parcel, and Surface Small Packet.

 

Any Canadians with experience importing via DHL? I assume I'm going to be dinged the brokerage fee, etc.?

 

Otherwise the cost for my order would be similar to a Surface Parcel and be much quicker...

 

Not really keen on any of these options, but December pre-orders are coming, so I'm looking for least-worst!

 

[bill937ca]

You will be charged GST by DHL from their US base in Cincinnati. I don't remember brokerage fee. That is an old UPS scam. I've already twice received compensation  from a class action lawsuit for "brokerage" fees.  I chose surface for my December orders.

[James-SNMB]

Thanks @bill937ca! That's good news. I'll give DHL a whirl. (Not that I have much choice right now).

[marknewton]

I hope that DHL in Canada provides a better service than they do here in Australia.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[shadowtiger25]

I'm having issue where my PayPal transaction didn't go through on hobby search and now I am trying to figure out what to do

 

They sent me an email saying to update it, but it just says to update the payment on PayPal. However it is not showing up on my PayPal profile, and I am frankly not sure what to do at this point about it other than wait to see if they attempt to charge again and start planning a back up for this purchase

 

which sucks because it was a pre-order if a HO scale Tubame express with all 11 cars and I feel like it will sell out super quick if I dont act soon

[chadbag]

12 hours ago, shadowtiger25 said:

I'm having issue where my PayPal transaction didn't go through on hobby search and now I am trying to figure out what to do

 

They sent me an email saying to update it, but it just says to update the payment on PayPal. However it is not showing up on my PayPal profile, and I am frankly not sure what to do at this point about it other than wait to see if they attempt to charge again and start planning a back up for this purchase

 

which sucks because it was a pre-order if a HO scale Tubame express with all 11 cars and I feel like it will sell out super quick if I dont act soon

 

 

I am a little confused.  Did you already try to pay off their invoice?  Is that what failed?

 

You have their PP email -- just make a direct payment for the amount and put your invoice/order info inside the payment info block for the payment.

 

[katoftw]

Make sure all is up to date with your paypal detail. New credit card number etc etc. Or payment limits for both cc and pp are higher than purchase anount.

Edited December 24, 2020 by katoftw

[shadowtiger25]

On 12/23/2020 at 9:13 PM, chadbag said:

 

 

I am a little confused.  Did you already try to pay off their invoice?  Is that what failed?

 

You have their PP email -- just make a direct payment for the amount and put your invoice/order info inside the payment info block for the payment.

 

I was confused at the time as well

 

so I atuomatic paypal payment set up and it is on there correct

not sure why it wasnt going through but I had them send me an invoice and I paid it that way

[disturbman]

For those who don’t already know, HS sales are back.

[Tony Galiani]

Of course, I placed an order last week ....

Oh well.

Tony Galiani

[williamv]

I’ve had such poor service from Hobby Search, that I will never shop with them again.

 

They have a buzzard way of charging. The website does not include shipping. Instead, they charge you for your items and then they try cancelling the charge and recharging with shipping added, for some reason.

 

I placed an order, paid with my credit card which was successfully charged. However, they insisted that there was an “authorisation issue”, put my order on hold and repeatedly demanded payment. The payment was in fact authorised without any issue, and that was confirmed by my bank, who told me that the Hobby Search had not claimed the money. I emailed Hobby Search several times and most of the time, they ignored me.

 

I was forced to wait a month for the transaction to be cancelled, and the charge refunded to my credit card. I contacted them several times to try to arrange payment again, and was again ignored, so I decided to purchase my items elsewhere.

 

Hobby Search charged my credit card again but without my authority. Interesting that this time, they had charged it without any problem. I had to contact them to have it reversed. I was surprised today they actually replied and refunded the charge but I am still slightly out of pocket because of changes in exchange rates.

 

I have since been shopping with Plaza Japan and I am very pleased with them. It’s very easy to order and pay on their website. They are very responsive and service is great. My orders are usually shipped in less than a day, and sometimes within 6-8 hours, which is impressive. I highly recommend Plaza Japan. I’m glad I found them and will be shopping with them from now on.

[cteno4]

Sorry to hear about you’re bad experience. I’ve never had an issue with hobbysearch like this and I’ve probably had a couple of hundred transactions with them over the last 15 or so years, so it’s not normal for them. Couple of times small issues, but always cleared up quickly. They do have their rules and follow them very closely on things like cancelations, order recombination, etc. while I’ve only used them a couple of times over the past covid year, I’ve had no issues. I think a number of years ago I had one charge suspended by the credit card for HS as I had ordered from three different overseas places in the span of like 15 minutes which can trip cc security systems, but my credit cards have gotten very use to my patterns now and this almost never happens and when it does they just check, they don’t suspend/cancel.

 

with all the changes in shipping with covid they cannot always automatically calculate shipping on ordering. I’m guessing they made a mistake with the first charge without shipping and then did the second charge. Did both transactions come thru on your end or did the first come thru as canceled. Wondering if they kept looking at the first canceled charge w.o shipping thinking you did not pay and the second charge with shipping that went thru they lost track of.

 

Did you send HS the info from the credit card showing transaction completed? There is usually a transaction number and in this case I would get there are two transaction numbers. Also if HS thought it not paid probably best at that point to just cancel the transaction with your bank and then start over.

 

im also wondering if they may be having an issue keeping good English speaking cs folks during covid. They usually use interns I think for their English correspondence I believe. Covid also completely snarled their business last year when sal and EMS shut down with a lot of packages stuck in transit and returned. All around I think covid has hurt their business from a number of angles.

 

plaza is a good source, but they too can be spacey on communications at times but overall good. They are usually at retail price for many things. Many folks like to use them thru ebay with the extra layer of ebay safety there, as they are not comfortable ordering overseas. probably why prices are a bit higher for all the ebay costs. Other shops like modeltrainplus, amiami, and RG-Rokko are excellent as well. Modeltrainplus and RG-Rokko are smaller shops with very personal service.

 

issues like this are pretty rare with most all Japanese shops and when they do happen it’s usually resolved easily, but problems do happen.

 

Jeff

[katoftw]

Never been charged for the items only. Then recharged for the shipping. They just invoice me with shipping options and I pay once.

[williamv]

On 2/14/2021 at 5:47 AM, cteno4 said:

Sorry to hear about you’re bad experience. I’ve never had an issue with hobbysearch like this and I’ve probably had a couple of hundred transactions with them over the last 15 or so years, so it’s not normal for them. Couple of times small issues, but always cleared up quickly. They do have their rules and follow them very closely on things like cancelations, order recombination, etc. while I’ve only used them a couple of times over the past covid year, I’ve had no issues. I think a number of years ago I had one charge suspended by the credit card for HS as I had ordered from three different overseas places in the span of like 15 minutes which can trip cc security systems, but my credit cards have gotten very use to my patterns now and this almost never happens and when it does they just check, they don’t suspend/cancel.

 

with all the changes in shipping with covid they cannot always automatically calculate shipping on ordering. I’m guessing they made a mistake with the first charge without shipping and then did the second charge. Did both transactions come thru on your end or did the first come thru as canceled. Wondering if they kept looking at the first canceled charge w.o shipping thinking you did not pay and the second charge with shipping that went thru they lost track of.

 

Did you send HS the info from the credit card showing transaction completed? There is usually a transaction number and in this case I would get there are two transaction numbers. Also if HS thought it not paid probably best at that point to just cancel the transaction with your bank and then start over.

 

im also wondering if they may be having an issue keeping good English speaking cs folks during covid. They usually use interns I think for their English correspondence I believe. Covid also completely snarled their business last year when sal and EMS shut down with a lot of packages stuck in transit and returned. All around I think covid has hurt their business from a number of angles.

 

plaza is a good source, but they too can be spacey on communications at times but overall good. They are usually at retail price for many things. Many folks like to use them thru ebay with the extra layer of ebay safety there, as they are not comfortable ordering overseas. probably why prices are a bit higher for all the ebay costs. Other shops like modeltrainplus, amiami, and RG-Rokko are excellent as well. Modeltrainplus and RG-Rokko are smaller shops with very personal service.

 

issues like this are pretty rare with most all Japanese shops and when they do happen it’s usually resolved easily, but problems do happen.

 

Jeff

Thanks! I really appreciate all of that! I may give them another go some time. I was pretty shocked that I had such a bad experience at a Japanese store! I’ll take a look at the other stores too.