Your experience with shipping and handling from Japan?

[NGT6 1315]

Morning chaps,

 

I was curious what your overall impression with having parcels shipped from Japan is. Me, I prefer to choose EMS, and for those orders I did until now I never found the postage to be extortionately high. Time in transit also is pleasingly short - usually just about three days until items touch down at Frankfurt. Add another day or two for customs treatment, if any, and the last leg to my doorstep - which is handled by DHL Express where I live. The original shipment of the E531 set I received last week was missing the two car package, but Plaza Japan quickly responded and shipped the package out before the weekend free of charge, which then arrived safe and sound yesterday. So, top marks all around so far .

[Guest ___]

EMS all the way and only.

[bc6]

I second EMS as well, a week from Japan to NYC really fast in my book.

[Martijn Meerts]

I tend to use EMS whenever I can, my record was 4 days from Honk Kong to my doorstep in Norway =)

[EWS60008]

I have used EMS in the past and I have never had any problems with it. To be honest I like buying J-Music CD's and Japanese model trains from Japan . The prices of EMS are reasonable and they are sometimes quicker than the local post!

[Bernard]

I also like EMS and sometimes I get items within 3 days, but after reading Alpine's latest incident with shipping charges and Hobby Search it has me wondering what the fees are going to be with my next purchase.

[cteno4]

EMS is fine as long as you are can pay the $$ for it. have to use it with places like hobbysearch and still use it if the box is over $100 usually as its tracked and insured. i have had packages from tokyo get here in 2.5 days to my door! also in the us EMS comes as express mail so gets delivered early in the day and 365 days a year!

 

but all that said i have had over a hundred (yes 100) SAL packages from japan in the last 7-8 years and never had one go poof. a couple took like 4 weeks, but usually about 2 weeks for larger packages and many small ones come in a week. the smaller the sal package the faster it usually comes as SAL is shipped air with space as available and i think there is always room for little packages, but the larger they get the fewer per plane. a few SAL come through munched on the packaging, but never have had any damage to the contents. I actually like the unpredictability of the arrival of SAL packages to give a bit of surprise as to when the package shows up.

 

Also for little stuff you can usually get it shipped for 540-680yen so i now will order a few small things i need more often rather than waiting for that large order to justify $20-30 for the EMS. its also great for trams when i pre-order them from rainbow ten and ship sal as they come in less than a week usually (being very small packages, they come much faster) and only $5 for the shipping.

 

cheers,

 

jeff