Hobby Search

[Guest ___]

I prefer HS simply because I find their website to be the easiest to navigate.

[bill937ca]

What is going on at Hobby search? they seem to have an awful lot of stuff out of stock or with waiting lists, is this normal just after Xmas for them.  Makes search through a real pain when you find something you like only to see "long time out of stock"

 

There was a major re-stocking of Kato trains on April 1st and someone was on Saturday April 3rd doing further re-stocking of Kato and Greenmax.  I would expect more in the coming days.

[Guest ___]

Fish train? As opposed to the Micro-Ace release of the Fish Lips train!?

 

Fish Train:

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10048651

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10088196

 

New set also has DCC friendly lighting circuit in the tail car (like the 11-209 light)

 

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%BD%E9%89%84%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B510000%E7%B3%BB%E8%B2%A8%E8%BB%8A

 

 

 

I was joking.

[cteno4]

HS does have the great web site, almost better than a catalog to find stuff just for info! HW site is like shopping at home despot, you get a slight indication on where to go but from then on its hunter gather mentality. i actually find it fun sometimes to poke around! after a while you figure out the ways to sort by manufacturer to find things, but its still a bit of a challenge.

 

HW usually matches or beats HS pricing when there is not a sale on and up until now was the only one of the two that did SAL shipping option.

 

I still love HW for the pre-orders, usually 26% off but sometimes up to 30% off (my galaxy express was - yahoo!). This really beats the socks off of HS usual pre-order pricing. the biggest problem with HW pre-orders is that they are very brief opening to place the pre-order so you really have to check the site every week or so to keep up with whats coming out. Also at times the pre-orders for some items never come to HW so HS sometimes is the only real option for this.

 

HW also is really great about trying to do a backorder on stuff (usually happens if they have it listed as a week or less backorder) and also are really open to special orders. they have tried to track several items down for me. Also have been super with the customer service with any problems. HS has good customer service, but refused to help out on one problem order after i had dropped several thousand dollars on them in the previous few years. Their english staff apparently rotates every 6 months so you can see them never figuring out who are the long time customers that are good to keep happy and they probably are worried about just following the rules to get thru their six months clean.

 

HS sal and the current sale have brought me back to HS for some of my business. plus they were the only one to have the castle on preorder (and got that on the 20%off sale so that really helped that wallet dent!)

 

cheers

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

Their english staff apparently rotates every 6 months so you can see them never figuring out who are the long time customers that are good to keep happy and they probably are worried about just following the rules to get thru their six months clean.

 

 

 

Staff rotating every six months is apparently standard business practice in Japanese corporations.  HS operates like its part of a much larger enterprise with its new year re-stockings and staff rotations.

[Guest ___]

Their english staff apparently rotates every 6 months so you can see them never figuring out who are the long time customers that are good to keep happy and they probably are worried about just following the rules to get thru their six months clean.

 

 

 

Staff rotating every six months is apparently standard business practice in Japanese corporations.  HS operates like its part of a much larger enterprise with its new year re-stockings and staff rotations.

 

Which is quite a shame becasue I established a very good relationship with the English speaking CSR from last year which made things go much easier when I had inquiries, or cancellations.

[cteno4]

Oishi has been the english cs guy at HW for at least three years now and its great as i think he remembers who i am and is very helpful with questions, special orders and if i want to change shipping on an order. It was a big factor in my linking HW a lot to have good and consistent cs.

 

the first time there was a real problem with HS on and order, (when i was on vacation and the USPS returned my ems package as they would only officially hold ems/expressmail 5 days), they would not do anything to help. all i asked was to just if they would give me a refund for the cost of the vehicle set (not the shipping) as a store credit as at that point having them send it again was going to make me spend almost as much on the shipping as the set cost. it was either pay for reshipping ems or they keep it and i am out all the money. it was a set that sold out a week or two later so they were going to be able to turn around and sell it right away at no loss to them by that point (except their time to ship out the order to begin with). it burned me some as i have dropped many hundred of thousand of yen there over the years and they would not bend their rule at all. im sure it was a new cs person and they were very concerned about following the rules instead of making a good customer happy in a trouble spot.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

You know, Jeff, I had mentioned this situation you had had with your order as I expected my EMS to ship and arrive at my PO while I was in Japan and the guys at the PO said it would not be an issue. when I told Dennis, the lead clerk there your story, he was quite baffled by this.

[cteno4]

the head floor guy was really nice and apologetic and i think looking to try to get the resend paid for when he called in the postmaster, but when the postmaster walked in he was a real hard ass from square one and pretty rude. i think he was pissed to be called over for what he thought a minor or non issue. i felt bad for the floor guy as i think he was very embarrassed at bot the situation and the behavior of the postmaster. i also then called into the usps and went up like 3 levels and they kept saying yes there is only like a 5 day hold on express mail before its returned and no one would answer why then mail holds say ALL packages will be held. I also submitted an official complaint and of course it went poof into the system and never a response. Ours is a good sized office so i think they play by the rules more maybe.

 

i have talked with my carrier more (he has always been curious about all the boxes from japan showing up marked toys!) and he will try to make sure things get held if a vacation hold is in. unfortunately though its tougher as the express packages are kept in a different place and usually delivered by a different crew, so the slip usually gets tossed into the bin by someone else and easily buried so they may not see it.

 

Actually i am not really all that miffed with the usps, was a pain and all, but its really the only package that i have ever had trouble with, so i figure i was due a glitch. I was more upset with HS not just keeping the items and giving me a store credit for just the merchandize instead of insisting on resending or forfeiting the whole thing. I know they have general rules, but in a business odd things like this come up and good to keep a good customer happy by bending them sometimes...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

The Japanese are not as flexible in conducting business in the name customer service with foreigners as Americans are.

[cteno4]

Actually i have found HS and plaza to have better hs than most of the us online hobby shops! at least in my experience!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

ahh aaron, you are trying your luck again with sal! is that all that was in the box?!!

 

not so happy right now with hs sal, ill see what happens when it ships. seems like the 20% discount right now is going into their sal charges...

 

jeff

 

I'm starting to regret it. This second order is taking forever. I've just hit my 1 month mark from when I received notice that my SAL order shipped which is about the time where I start to get a tad nervous as normal parcels sent from Japan by my friends via JapanPost only take about three weeks.

[cteno4]

I just had a whole bunch of sal package (like 6) arrive in the last 4 days from the last month of stuff. packages from a little over 4 weeks to 12 days all showed up from last thursday to today! wondering if there was some hold up along the way somewhere!

 

sal is a bit of a crap shoot on time, but always has come through for me, never lost one in over a hundred of them so far! still figure im so well self insured now over using ems for all those shipment.

 

when it starts getting long like 4 weeks its easy to get antsie but i just try to be patient and it always has worked out! i still like the unpredictability some over the ems track it every step of the way! its my grasshopper exercise.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

Well, I've had 2 damaged, two lost and one arrived on time, so that's one hell of a crap shoot, and in this case, may be out $30.

[Hezekiah Strawbody]

Oishi has been the english cs guy at HW for at least three years now and its great as i think he remembers who i am and is very helpful with questions, special orders and if i want to change shipping on an order. It was a big factor in my linking HW a lot to have good and consistent cs.

 

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

'Oishi' is 'Aiko Ooishi' (大石 亜衣子), and I think you will find he is FEMALE, as 99% of given names that end in KO with that Kanji are 

[cteno4]

ha thanks! im always confused with japanese names as some of the time they reverse the names to make them western other times not. should have picked up on aiko being a given name, but even then i have a hard time distinguishing given names from family names in japanese.

 

thanks

 

jeff

[cteno4]

Well, I've had 2 damaged, two lost and one arrived on time, so that's one hell of a crap shoot, and in this case, may be out $30.

 

man aaron you have the worst shipping karma i have ever know! what a bummer! i feel bad that mine keep coming fine... good luck with the late one. one of the last ones was just over 4 weeks but also came with one that only took 12 days...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

The real kicker is that a bunch of books I shipped back from Osaka via JapanPost, a rather large box and heavy of that arrived last Monday, only being in transit, about 8 days.

[David]

PayPal Commemorative Sale Underway till the 31th of May!

 

Yes, it's going for another month. Hopefully this is in fact a permanent price policy dressed up as "buy now cause it will be over soon!".

[CaptOblivious]

It's June 1, and HS has posted this to the site:

2010/6/1  With the great support from our customers, HOBBY SEARCH has decided to maintain the special sales price.

Looking forward to many more orders from you! Thank you!!

 

Looks like it's permanent!

[cteno4]

oh no this is a disaster as that means hw will also probably keep their prices there and that means you know what...

 

we all spend more...

 

as truman capote said, "i can resist anything except temptation!"

 

good thing there is a lot of work for me right now.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[to2leo]

Given Japan is continuing to experience deflation, I am more surprised if the prices keep moving up.

 

However, I am afraid the currency exchange might still makes items more expensive. Euro, US, Cdn, Aus...

[bill937ca]

oh no this is a disaster as that means hw will also probably keep their prices there and that means you know what...

 

At least I have more money than hair so everything is fine! 

[Guest ___]

Hopefully, I can start to order stuff in the fall. I just bought as new 24-70 and a 70-200 f/2.8 so train money is far away :(

[IST]

However, I am afraid the currency exchange might still makes items more expensive. Euro, US, Cdn, Aus...

 

I bought my first Kato product, a V11 set on a 150 HUF/USD exchange rate about 2 years ago. Now I can buy a dollar for 230 HUF. Pfff...