Plaza Japan

[N-Osoi]

I have those 're-order' buttons but I assumed that was for a whole new order. I paid in full for my original items and there's been no refund or anything so far. Still waiting for a reply to my query.

[katoftw]

I got a partial refund on my credit card once the sorted it out.

 

I get that they can attempt to source items elsewhere. But if they cannot find it within a week. Then call it then. Don't drag it out.

[N-Osoi]

I guess Golden Week has also fallen in this time frame which might have slowed things down a bit. 

[RS18U]

1 hour ago, N-Osoi said:

I have those 're-order' buttons but I assumed that was for a whole new order. I paid in full for my original items and there's been no refund or anything so far. Still waiting for a reply to my query.

Thanks @N-Osoi I was wondering that as I had my dinner: what have I done.  I have sent a note to Plaza Japan to see if this can be sorted out and will see what they say.

[bill937ca]

12 minutes ago, RS18U said:

Thanks @N-Osoi I was wondering that as I had my dinner: what have I done.  I have sent a note to Plaza Japan to see if this can be sorted out and will see what they say.

Yes, Japan is closed for Golden Week.  Even if they get your item Japan Post is on vacation during Golden Week.

 

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2282.html

 

[N-Osoi]

Just got a reply to say there was a delay and items will be shipped in a day or two.

[cteno4]

Patience always pays off.

 

jeff

[RS18U]

20 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Patience always pays off.

 

jeff

Yup 😳

 

Update:

Just after I posted my bit of a rant, the following happened:

• I asked Plaza Japan to cancel my second order
• I got a notice that my first order was shipped as I had ordered it, with no deletions
• Plaza Japan did a full refund on the second order with no fee

So my positive impressions of Plaza Japan are renewed and I look forward to receiving my order towards the end of May.  Will update when I have the order in hand.

[Kingmeow]

On 5/6/2024 at 8:05 PM, RS18U said:

Not too impressed with Plaza Japan at the moment.  I placed an order April 30 for 14 items, and all I saw in the order status was 'preparing to ship' just like @N-Osoi.  This time, after reading these last few posts, I clicked on the order only to find 3 are out of stock, and I had to re-order the rest.  Will see what happens now.  Pretty poor communications from what I thought was a reputable company.

 

See update below.

 

On 5/6/2024 at 10:05 PM, RS18U said:

Thanks @N-Osoi I was wondering that as I had my dinner: what have I done.  I have sent a note to Plaza Japan to see if this can be sorted out and will see what they say.

 

On 5/8/2024 at 12:20 AM, RS18U said:

Yup 😳

 

Update:

Just after I posted my bit of a rant, the following happened:

• I asked Plaza Japan to cancel my second order
• I got a notice that my first order was shipped as I had ordered it, with no deletions
• Plaza Japan did a full refund on the second order with no fee

So my positive impressions of Plaza Japan are renewed and I look forward to receiving my order towards the end of May.  Will update when I have the order in hand.

 

Hey @RS18U I was wondering when you sent them your inquiry, what did you ask them and what was their reply?

 

I'm kind of in the same predicament.  My past two orders have been super fast in getting the items picked and packed and into the hands of DHL, 3-5 days.  However, with this order, it's Day 10 with "Preparing for Shipment" status.  I did noticed that two of the items are now "Out of Stock" after ordering but that has happened before in the previous two orders with no negative effect.  Their FAQ even said that can happen and it's ok.  One of the items is a Greenmax kit and noted an above post about their scarcity and PJ taking forever to find it to fulfill the order.

 

As @katoftw suggested, PJ should set a time limit where if they can't source the item, they should just remove it from your order and credit back you back the cost of the time.  The lack of updates drives you crazy if you have OCD.  🤣🙃

 

Normally I'm patient about this but I often go in with other club members to split the shipping cost and with this order, half the items are for someone else and we have a train show this coming weekend.  I was hoping to give the items to him and collect the money else I have to wait another two months to see him and get the money back.

 

We are a distributed club since we are all over half the state.  It became that way through retirement and people moving to cheaper locations of the state.

 

EDIT:

I wonder if PJ sets your items that are in stock aside as they wait for the out of stock items?  Can you imagine the round and round if they don't and an out of stock item comes in but the one(s) that was in stock is now out?  😬

Edited December 9 by Kingmeow

[Tony Galiani]

I have been lucky as I have gotten good service from Plaza Japan.  Two things I have noticed - -

An item I ordered showed as out of stock when I checked on it.  The reason was that I had gotten the last one.

And sometimes the turnaround time for orders has been really fast but other times really slow - with no clear reason to me.

Hope everything gets sorted out!

Tony

[cteno4]

Group orders are hard like this. We use to do them a lot (especially with books when it was cheap shipping on bulk orders) and we always made sure no one was in a rush and had to have on a group order as when ordered get bigger delay issues go up. Thats the price of the discounted shipping.

 

Luckily we had monthly lunches so easy to just distribute the next lunch if delayed. But we don’t do them anymore so it’s more like you with having to hope folks would be at shows and the group orders have sort of gone away.

 

jeff

[Kingmeow]

@Tony Galiani serves me right for being greedy...buying $600 worth of trains in Japan and then turn around and place an order with PJ a few weeks after returning from Japan!  But I blame all of you for spreading Koki fever (and me catching it)!!!!!  🤣  BTW, one of the 2 items out of stock is a container.  🙄😁

 

Jeff, no one is ever in a rush when we do group orders.  But it seems I'm the most "diligent" of the group and get things done instead of just talking about it.  So I front the money first, which really isn't a problem, but it's the distribution and collection than can add additional stress to the process.  All these orders have been $400+ with one over $500.  The savings on shipping is very significant so that's why we do it.

 

For this one, it's only one additional person but I usually limit it to 3, myself included, to make it manageable.

Edited December 9 by Kingmeow

[RS18U]

13 hours ago, Kingmeow said:

 

 

 

Hey @RS18U I was wondering when you sent them your inquiry, what did you ask them and what was their reply?

 

I'm kind of in the same predicament.  My past two orders have been super fast in getting the items picked and packed and into the hands of DHL, 3-5 days.  However, with this order, it's Day 10 with "Preparing for Shipment" status.  I did noticed that two of the items are now "Out of Stock" after ordering but that has happened before in the previous two orders with no negative effect.  Their FAQ even said that can happen and it's ok.  One of the items is a Greenmax kit and noted an above post about their scarcity and PJ taking forever to find it to fulfill the order.

 

As @katoftw suggested, PJ should set a time limit where if they can't source the item, they should just remove it from your order and credit back you back the cost of the time.  The lack of updates drives you crazy if you have OCD.  🤣🙃

 

Normally I'm patient about this but I often go in with other club members to split the shipping cost and with this order, half the items are for someone else and we have a train show this coming weekend.  I was hoping to give the items to him and collect the money else I have to wait another two months to see him and get the money back.

 

We are a distributed club since we are all over half the state.  It became that way through retirement and people moving to cheaper locations of the state.

 

EDIT:

I wonder if PJ sets your items that are in stock aside as they wait for the out of stock items?  Can you imagine the round and round if they don't and an out of stock item comes in but the one(s) that was in stock is now out?  😬

@Kingmeow got to dig deep on this one!  As I noted, my order was fulfilled in its entirety despite some items showing not available when I went to check.  Turns out like @Tony Galiani says, I got the last one(s) so they must have updated their inventory after my order.  Happened with my last PJ order too, but I was not worried and got what they said they had available when I placed the order.

 

As for my note to PJ back in April, it was something like "oops, I think I misunderstood the message.  Can you please cancel order 123XXX" (the second re-order).  If I had not done that I think I would have got both orders, just the second one would have been missing the items no longer available.

 

Hope this helps.

Will

[disturbman]

4 hours ago, RS18U said:

I got the last one(s) so they must have updated their inventory after my order.

 

That's an automatic function. Otherwise an online shop would be impossible to run. If you had to do stock update manually, first it would be an impossibly time consuming task, and second you would have to send many, many, many emails saying: "Sorry, someone ordered at the same time as you and we don't have the quantities". Just imagine how that would go for an operation as large as PJ 😁

Edited December 10 by disturbman

[Kingmeow]

O-M-G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  PJ/DHL are crazy and come through again!  If I had bet against them I would have lost all my money!  😁

 

Late last night I got an email (which I opened this morning) from PJ that my order status has been changed to Shipped.  I had given up on getting anything this week and thus miss the weekend train show for distribution of the goods.

 

Shortly thereafter I got a DHL email advising that the package has been picked up.  I took a look at the DHL email and it said delivery will be THIS THURSDAY.  Wait!  Isn't today Wednesday already?

 

And just now I got another DHL email saying the package has been processed through Osaka.  The delivery date is still EOD tomorrow, Thursday!  This is insane!  Normally it would take 4-5 days for DHL to get it here (Osaka to east coast US), which in itself is miracle half way around the world!  Is DHL using military jets for transport now???  🤣

 

From the surface it looks like regular DHL Global Express, the same service we used in previous orders.  I wonder if PJ put an "expedite" on it given that they took so long to source whatever was backordered.

 

Either way, it looks like less than two weeks from beginning to end, within the range of my expectations for PJ.  (I have had orders that took 8 days beginning to end.)

 

There shall be Koki-mania Thursday night at my house!  🤪

 

Sorry for ruffling feathers but it is another (good) data point for PJ.

 

Edited December 11 by Kingmeow

[cteno4]

Over the years ordering from Japan I’ve gotten to be very patient as if you let yourself get enticed by the usual very rapid fulfillment and shipping, you can get disappointed on other times where something makes it a bit longer in one or more of the steps that messes up that usually pretty rapid service/delivery. I’ve found DHL can be really variable from japan, from a day to week. EMS use to be the most regular in about 2 days most of the time. From the usual shops fulfillment has varied as well, with usually having it shipping within a day or so to sometime a week (or even more) for something still in stock after ordering. The usual is fast and clean but at times it gets slowed up along the way. Good news is the usual is fast and clean and in many hundreds (maybe over a thousand) orders from Japan I think 99% were very smooth and none have gone poof or destroyed (and that’s with probably >75% untracked).

 

I’m glad you may get this by the show to deliver!

 

jeff

[Kingmeow]

On 12/11/2024 at 12:10 PM, cteno4 said:

Over the years ordering from Japan I’ve gotten to be very patient as if you let yourself get enticed by the usual very rapid fulfillment and shipping, you can get disappointed on other times where something makes it a bit longer in one or more of the steps that messes up that usually pretty rapid service/delivery. I’ve found DHL can be really variable from japan, from a day to week.

 

Well, looks like it won't make it to the show for delivery!  I kind of thought that would happen.  2 days from Osaka to NYC Metro, really?  🥴

 

End of Day delivery yesterday didn't happen.  It would have been a surprise if it did but my gut was telling me otherwise.  Now tracking went cold with a Not Available, Try Again Later.

 

Oh well, Jeff's first sentence above is so true so I'm just going to let it ride.  It'll get here when it gets here.  😎

[Kingmeow]

Update: Delivered!  On a Sunday at 4:30pm nevertheless.

 

I asked the driver, you guys delivering on a Sunday???  You must be crazy!!!  (Meant to be a complement of their hard work.)  He looked at me, smiled and said "No!  We're smart!"  I had to laugh with him as it makes sense.  Everyone's watching football so there's no traffic on the road.  Plus we have blue laws in where I live.  All stores, unless essentials, must be closed on Sundays.

 

Tracking was interesting.  Last stamp was "Left DHL facility in Osaka" in Japan then not a peep for 3 days.  Estimated Delivery turned off and was Not Available, Try Again Later.  Then bam, arrived in Cincinnati and delivered the next day in Metro NYC area.  That's the amazing part.  Arriving in Cincinnati and at my house the next day.

 

This time, it's the heaviest order yet.  3.5 kg!  The outer box looks pristine with the exception of a MINOR dented corner.  I'll open tomorrow and post picture.  Too tire after back to back holiday parties.  🤪

[cteno4]

DHL has always been spotty. Years ago I used them for us domestic express (before the abandoned it) and tracking would blank like that at times. But service overall and price was good. From japan I’ve seen things hang at the big hub in Cincinnati as well with no delivery estimate once it hit there. Other times I’d get the estimated delivery email once it was on the plane to us of like 2 or 3 days out and bam next morning it’s here! But overall it’s been decent form japan. Sadly the price has gone up and not the deal it used to be to be, especially from Amazon jp.

 

jeff