What's your experience with Plaza Japan and shipping been?

[bc6]

I'm getting back into Japanese model trains and made a purchase of my holy grail Series E235 Yamanote 4+4+3 sets.

I made a purchase on the 27th of this month and the order still hasn't shipped, Am I being impatient with them about the shipping?

I emailed them about the shipping and was given a lame excuse and was not given a shipping date even though I specifically asked for one. 

 

FINALLY my stuff has shipped so I'm looking probably at another week. 

Edited April 4, 2023 by bc6

[disturbman]

8 minutes ago, bc6 said:

Am I being impatient with them about the shipping?

Yes. Totally. The time to panic is after a good 10 days, not before.

 

A good way to learn patience is to ship surface. Depending on where you live, the shipment can take a few months to reach you.

 

After that, a few days of delay at shipping won’t feel like anything.

Edited April 1, 2023 by disturbman

[cteno4]

Yes thas the problem with express shipping, you then expect the whole process to become express as well but you’ve only really paid for express on the shipping part. Shop doesn’t make any more with it going express and many times there can be more paperwork and hassles with express shipping for them.

 

I’ve had stuff take up to a week by just about every main export source we use at one time or another. Things don’t run fast all the time. Most sources have stuff shipped in 1-4 days and can be speedy most of the time but now and then stuff happens. Just requires some patience. Plaza has been a good source for a long time and seems to be doing well with the new web shop now.

 

Also interacting with them it’s good to be very polite in asking questions about things, being demanding can just lead to diminished response from many shops. What was their excuse for the delay?

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

Its not the shipping that is the problem, but their inventory. If you look closely most items say "Available" which means they are relaying on wholesale suppliers for most items. I do not think you could do this when they sold on eBay.   I've had three out of my last four orders short ship because items (mainly Greenmax kits) weren't available.

 

They also state orders ship on 1-3 days of cleared payment.

 

How We Ship:

Items will be shipped from Japan. We usually ship within 1-3 business days of receiving cleared payment but please note that it could take longer depending on the product and the quantity of items ordered.

 

https://www.plazajapan.com/pages/ordering-information.html#shipping-info

 

They are also closed Saturday and Sunday. Don't think it was always this way in the past. So if there is a weekend add two days to the 1-3 days.

Edited April 1, 2023 by bill937ca

[bc6]

1 hour ago, disturbman said:

Yes. Totally. The time to panic is after a good 10 days, not before.

 

A good way to learn patience is to ship surface. Depending on where you live, the shipment can take a few months to reach you.

 

After that, a few days of delay at shipping won’t feel like anything.

10 days are you kidding me, In this day and age with express shipping and planes I think a week is too much unless the shop doesent have the item. 

 

I get stuff from China sooner than the shipment Im waiting on lol. 

 

Thats exactly why I dont ship via surface. 

[bc6]

7 minutes ago, bill937ca said:

Its not the shipping that is the problem, but their inventory. If you look closely most items say "Available" which means they are relaying on wholesale suppliers for most items. I do not think you could do this when they sold on eBay.   I've had three out of my last four orders short ship because items (mainly Greenmax kits) weren't available.

 

They also state orders ship on 1-3 days of cleared payment.

 

How We Ship:

Items will be shipped from Japan. We usually ship within 1-3 business days of receiving cleared payment but please note that it could take longer depending on the product and the quantity of items ordered.

 

https://www.plazajapan.com/pages/ordering-information.html#shipping-info

 

They are also closed Saturday and Sunday. Don't think it was always this way in the past. So if there is a weekend add two days to the 1-3 days.

Im sure youre right about their inventory so I'll need to remember that next time I want to order from Plaza Japan. 

This was PayPay so it was pretty instant as the money is deducted from my bank.

I dont expect anyone to shiip on Sat or Sun because most shippers dont ship on Sat and Sun in the USA,

I think Im being impatient been spoiled by Amazon to much. 

 

[katoftw]

Was it priority/express shipping or another option?

[bc6]

57 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Yes thas the problem with express shipping, you then expect the whole process to become express as well but you’ve only really paid for express on the shipping part. Shop doesn’t make any more with it going express and many times there can be more paperwork and hassles with express shipping for them.

 

I’ve had stuff take up to a week by just about every main export source we use at one time or another. Things don’t run fast all the time. Most sources have stuff shipped in 1-4 days and can be speedy most of the time but now and then stuff happens. Just requires some patience. Plaza has been a good source for a long time and seems to be doing well with the new web shop now.

 

Also interacting with them it’s good to be very polite in asking questions about things, being demanding can just lead to diminished response from many shops. What was their excuse for the delay?

 

jeff

I have no ideal how my order will ship as they didnt mention shipping times.

I can wait a week for my stuff my thing is juat tell me its going to take a week dont keep me in suspense about my order. 

lol I get this as I had a rude response with another Japanese online store lol.

[bc6]

3 minutes ago, katoftw said:

Was it priority/express shipping or another option?

Its going by UPS (UPS Worldwide Express® Saver)

[disturbman]

I'll just quote Jeff again, he nailed pretty much: "Yes, the problem with express shipping, you then expect the whole process to become express as well but you’ve only really paid for express on the shipping part. Shop doesn’t make any more with it going express and many times there can be more paperwork and hassles with express shipping for them."

It's not because you are used for some things to go fast or faster that it always happens like that. There can be many reasons why something can't be dispatched immediately. 10 days is the time to send an email because that's when something probably went wrong. Before that, it can just be things taking more time than they should for any normal reasons: slow processing of order or payment confirmation, back-order being filled up, etc.

 

Also note that some sellers do not ship everyday but may have specific days for pickups for specific carriers. If you miss the window, it will take more time.

[bc6]

7 hours ago, disturbman said:

I'll just quote Jeff again, he nailed pretty much: "Yes, the problem with express shipping, you then expect the whole process to become express as well but you’ve only really paid for express on the shipping part. Shop doesn’t make any more with it going express and many times there can be more paperwork and hassles with express shipping for them."

It's not because you are used for some things to go fast or faster that it always happens like that. There can be many reasons why something can't be dispatched immediately. 10 days is the time to send an email because that's when something probably went wrong. Before that, it can just be things taking more time than they should for any normal reasons: slow processing of order or payment confirmation, back-order being filled up, etc.

 

Also note that some sellers do not ship everyday but may have specific days for pickups for specific carriers. If you miss the window, it will take more time.

Thanks for your feedback on this I haven't shopped at PlazaJapan for quite a while and I suspect this what's happening to me. 

[disturbman]

Never forget that Amazon is an highly automatised and socially costly exception. Most sellers can’t provide the same level of “service”.

 

Speaking of China, I also had one locomotive that once took two weeks to ship from the manufacturer, I had ordered directly from them. The delay was because they were short-staffed and couldn’t fullfill all shipping orders immediately.

 

In any case, let us know how it goes.

[katoftw]

I had 28 days from AmiAmi in January. Stuffs just real weird in Japan recently.

[bc6]

8 hours ago, katoftw said:

I had 28 days from AmiAmi in January. Stuffs just real weird in Japan recently.

Yikes an entire month, Thats nuts.

[inobu]

Plaza Japan has been a good resource for me. The delays I've see are getting from

one terminal in the States to another.

I always check Model train Stuff before I order.

 

Model Train Stuff has the main 4 car and 3 car ext set in stock and they are in Maryland.

 

Inobu

 

 

 

[Wolf]

I cannot say anything bad about Plaza as well. Shipping times usually been very good, just like you experience they may take a few days to actually pack, or get a backorder in stock.

 

Also they always ship orders complete, learned that the hard way when I had larger order and there was a pre-order mixed in beetween XD

[cteno4]

1 hour ago, bc6 said:

Yikes an entire month, Thats nuts.

Stuff like this happens now and then, but I’ve never had an order go poof! I’d say 98% of my orders came in expected time of like 1-3 days to ship then the expected express or SAL shipping times. Once and a while you just have to wait a bit if something gets held up at the shop, shipping, and/or customs.

 

I’ve probably ordered 50 or so orders from Plaza Japan over the years and all came fine, I’m sure a few were a bit delayed but all came. At one point they were using very thin cardboard boxes that were getting very dinged up in shipping but items never damaged inside and they later stopped that.

 

I probably shipped >90% of my orders over the last 25 years (yikes I’d guess it may be near a thousand) SAL until covid shut that down. No tracking, insurance, or even a shipped notice many times and just usually about an average of 10-14 days and here. A few went to three weeks and a few to up to 5 weeks for some odd reason, but they all eventually got here. Also never got any significant damage to an item shipped from japan. I guess using SAL taught me patience and it was just bad to fret over how the package was doing and when it would get here. Actually makes going out to get the mail fun!

 

I’ve had express packages also get hung up at times at all sorts of stages in the shipping and take up to a couple of weeks to get here, but again they always got here and most of them in the expected 1-3 day window. Some of the new economy or saver express shipping have been more variable. The new one with amazon.jp has been very spotty on time and tracking really is not tracking on it. But again they all got here in good shape.

 

I don’t worry about insurance on stuff (some express services like DHL really don’t give you any) either as with so many orders at 100% getting here intact, makes me super well self insured and continuing to spend money on insurance is just a waste. So again it’s better to just relax and not worry about time and such on orders as they will come! Unless something is really late, poking the shops does little good as they are almost all pretty small operations really (even the bigger sources are not big companies) and they don’t have a big cs staff and systems to help a lot.

 

I find impatience with something coming just taints the joy when it arrives and always makes it seem to take a lot longer to get here than it really did.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[bc6]

3 hours ago, inobu said:

Plaza Japan has been a good resource for me. The delays I've see are getting from

one terminal in the States to another.

I always check Model train Stuff before I order.

 

Model Train Stuff has the main 4 car and 3 car ext set in stock and they are in Maryland.

 

Inobu

 

 

 

Thanks I will check MTS before I order overseas.

[Giugiaro]

I ordered a KATO SL and a couple of Rokuhan stuff late last month. Paying to shipping took a couple of days, but nothing out of the ordinary.

 

The item arrived at Portugal 5 days ago, and was presented to customs an hour later.
But the customs portal still says the item hasn't arrived in Portugal.

 

Get yourselves ready because this seems like it's going to be another bumpy ride!!!

 

[bc6]

Just wanted to give you guys an update my package shipped from Plaza Japan yesterday thank goodness. Hopefully the arrival of my Yamanote set will coincide with the arrival of my Kato K11 set.

Edited April 4, 2023 by bc6

[Wolf]

An update for everyone here from me to figure "waiting times" too. Ordered Friday, Shipped today (Wednsday).

[disturbman]

From Plaza?

[Wolf]

Yep, Bridges