keitaro Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 quite a few modemo's are on run out 30% off too Link to comment
CaptOblivious Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 to top it off the e5 is now waiting list on hs :( Umm I don't think you need to panic. Just like any other Shinkansen, the E5 will be very widely available, for a while. Like the Tomix and Kato E1s? The original Tomix 300? Like any model of the 200? :P I'm sure you are right, though—the E5 is surely popular enough to keep it in production for a long while. Which is why I haven't bought one yet either :D Link to comment
clem24 Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Like the Tomix and Kato E1s? The original Tomix 300? Like any model of the 200? ? On initial release, these were very widely available. Yes they're scarce now but when they first came out, they were everywhere, most especially the E1s. They were everywhere. Of course they're difficult to find now but that isn't the point.. Same with the 200 series trains. Even the Microace releases. They were showing up in used shops almost immediately after release at huge discount. It's almost like the Japanese buy these things, bring them home, take a few pics, run them for 10 mins, and sell them. Link to comment
CaptOblivious Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Like the Tomix and Kato E1s? The original Tomix 300? Like any model of the 200? ? On initial release, these were very widely available. Yes they're scarce now but when they first came out, they were everywhere, most especially the E1s. They were everywhere. Of course they're difficult to find now but that isn't the point.. Same with the 200 series trains. Even the Microace releases. They were showing up in used shops almost immediately after release at huge discount. It's almost like the Japanese buy these things, bring them home, take a few pics, run them for 10 mins, and sell them. Fair enough! Link to comment
cteno4 Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 HW is definitely canceling all preorders that are not here by the 15th. Aiko says no one will be able to ship anything after she leaves this weekend. make sure to request shipment on any order you have that might be partially in and waiting for a backorder or that whole order will not be shipped. jeff Link to comment
andreas Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Hi all Just read this: http://www.hwjapan.com/hwjapan_close.aspx Notice of Store Closure Effective Thuesday, March 15, 2011 we will be closing HW JAPAN: Oversea customer exclusive hobby online store. We will take order until 8:00 am Tuesday, March 15 in Japan time. All orders paid before 0:00am Wednesday, March 16 in Japan time, will be shipped by Thursday, March 17. However, other orders will be cancelled authomatically without notification. If you need to ship any items of existing orders, please request us by e-mail as soon as possible. Any inconvenience occurs after the closure, please contact Mr. YOSHIDA at hwj@mail.aoshima-bk.co.jp, but please note that we no longer accept any order. We really appriciated your support all these years. We wish we could see you someday when we restart our online shop. For now, it is inevitable to close our shop with our parent company policy. It's a shame, I bought nearly all my Japanese trains from them. Andreas Link to comment
CaptOblivious Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 andreas; just merged your topic into the existing discussion. Just so you know. Hi all Just read this: http://www.hwjapan.com/hwjapan_close.aspx Notice of Store Closure Effective Thuesday, March 15, 2011 we will be closing HW JAPAN: Oversea customer exclusive hobby online store. We will take order until 8:00 am Tuesday, March 15 in Japan time. All orders paid before 0:00am Wednesday, March 16 in Japan time, will be shipped by Thursday, March 17. However, other orders will be cancelled authomatically without notification. If you need to ship any items of existing orders, please request us by e-mail as soon as possible. Any inconvenience occurs after the closure, please contact Mr. YOSHIDA at hwj@mail.aoshima-bk.co.jp, but please note that we no longer accept any order. We really appriciated your support all these years. We wish we could see you someday when we restart our online shop. For now, it is inevitable to close our shop with our parent company policy. It's a shame, I bought nearly all my Japanese trains from them. Andreas Link to comment
to2leo Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 So sad to read this. I do hope HWJ will rethink their policy and reopen the Oversea option. Link to comment
westfalen Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 My final order, the Tomix 35 car + EF66 set, was shipped today. I thought I'd use up my discount points but now I've earned another 782 by buying this set, oh well. I wonder if the points will be carried on if they find someone else to run the overseas side of the business. Link to comment
Martijn Meerts Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 My final order, the Tomix 35 car + EF66 set, was shipped today. I thought I'd use up my discount points but now I've earned another 782 by buying this set, oh well. I wonder if the points will be carried on if they find someone else to run the overseas side of the business. It's a lovely set, got mine a while ago. The cars run great actually, even on just a small oval there are no problem with them going through the curves. Even pushing them instead of pulling them gave no problems through the curves. The only problem is, it takes half a day to put all those cars on the track :) Link to comment
ToniBabelony Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 My last HWJ order shipped today as well. A shame that they have to close the shop... Link to comment
keitaro Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 same here got my 1720 in that shipment Link to comment
harukablue Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 Have they just closed the chop to export?, as the Japanese site seems to be up n running! http://hobbyworld.aoshima-bk.co.jp/scripts/hw/kengt.aspx?sc=28///103///569 Link to comment
cteno4 Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 yep just closed the export department. the department manager left and i guess they couldnt or decided not to hire a new one so they closed the export department. sad... cheers jeff Link to comment
clem24 Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 yep just closed the export department. the department manager left and i guess they couldnt or decided not to hire a new one so they closed the export department. So what was the problem then? No money to be made? To much of a hassle dealing with people? I wonder if profitability was the main reason, and if it was, I wonder if it had to do with their slow and crappy website. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 they never said. the department manager gave a few weeks notice and thats when they started the closure process. perhaps the price wars were just too much, maybe too much hassle, maybe other issues, who knows, i doubt it would be shared. website was rather fun to find things. got good at it. it was kind of like shopping at home depot, bit of hunter gatherer. i was loyal to them as they did sal when hs did not and they also gave 26-30% off preorders. also nice folks over the years, always pleasant to deal with and did some special orders for me happily. cheers jeff Link to comment
keitaro Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 The senior business management Person quit/retired. Meaning a "younger" person took over they closed because of a policy decision. Don't be surprised to see hw back up in action again some time in the next year. Common practice in japan to stop part of a business if the eldest and more "experienced employee" quits or retires. Especially when said part of the business is for foreigners and the management don't have English skills. I emailed asking if they were starting back up and I got a English reply that looked like he had google translated it and it didn't make sense or answer my question. The fact they are still paying to host the English domain still and not redirecting to a page on their jp site to me is proof they may have plans to reopen back up. Link to comment
clem24 Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 they never said. the department manager gave a few weeks notice and thats when they started the closure process. perhaps the price wars were just too much, maybe too much hassle, maybe other issues, who knows, i doubt it would be shared. website was rather fun to find things. got good at it. it was kind of like shopping at home depot, bit of hunter gatherer. i was loyal to them as they did sal when hs did not and they also gave 26-30% off preorders. also nice folks over the years, always pleasant to deal with and did some special orders for me happily. Can't say that I am loyal to any one vendor, really. Whomever has the best price and/or availability, I bought from. With that said, HS right now is my last choice as they easily have the highest prices and worst cancellation policies. But unfortunately, also the best website. But otherwise, I find all the Japanese vendors have awesome customer service and everything always comes neatly boxed and wrapped. My beef with the HW website really wasn't the fact that it was poorly laid out and hard to navigate, but that it was blazingly slow, which sometimes made it quite agonizing to go through. Link to comment
Guest JRF-1935 Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 The senior business management Person quit/retired. Meaning a "younger" person took over they closed because of a policy decision. Don't be surprised to see hw back up in action again some time in the next year. Common practice in japan to stop part of a business if the eldest and more "experienced employee" quits or retires. Especially when said part of the business is for foreigners and the management don't have English skills. I emailed asking if they were starting back up and I got a English reply that looked like he had google translated it and it didn't make sense or answer my question. The fact they are still paying to host the English domain still and not redirecting to a page on their jp site to me is proof they may have plans to reopen back up. KeitaroThrough personal email's to Aoshima-Sama, she is the one who retired. Last correspondance after the Earth Quake/Tsunami she stated she, her family, and friends were all OK. She stated the site will reopen in the future. Warmest Regards and well wishes on her retirement and a "long" life, were gratiously accepted. I have not heard from her since. Rich C Link to comment
keitaro Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 Rich thats different to what she emailed when asking why closing. I always thought that they cycled through english speakers often anyway ? Why would it be hard to replace her if that was the case? anyway i don't really care just want them to re-open with a hopefully newer site. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 I dont think Hobby World cycled their english speaking workers, i think it is Hobby Search that does this. It was the manager of the overseas shipping that left. jeff Link to comment
Guest JRF-1935 Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Rich thats different to what she emailed when asking why closing. I always thought that they cycled through english speakers often anyway ? Why would it be hard to replace her if that was the case? anyway i don't really care just want them to re-open with a hopefully newer site. Keitaro Back in Sept 2010 I sent a letter of inquiry to HW Japan and did not receive a response - I asked a Japanese email friend to review my email and he pointed out I made some serious mistakes and possible disrespect. I addressed the email to Aoshima - San not knowing Aoshima was a women. I sent a letter of apology and she replied. The email of HW closure was a generic one sent to all customers by the company - Aoshima-bk.co.jp - regarding a "policy Change" I have no idea what that means and why it would be hard to replace her. Maybe has something to do with the other owners in partnership. Possibly no one in the family will take over the business with new partners, maybe restructure now she's gone? Who Knows? Anyway I sent an email after the earthquake/tsunami to the email address she sent with her acceptance of my apology and that is what she told me. Aoshima -Sama stated the site will reopen and I beleive that. Hope it's soon! Rich C Link to comment
Darklighter Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 I addressed the email to Aoshima - San not knowing Aoshima was a women. San is gender-neutral! And her last name wasn't Aoshima. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Aoshima is the name of the parent model company. i think her name was Aiko Oishi cheers jeff Link to comment
Guest JRF-1935 Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 According to my Japanese friend - addressing a Female business women with respect is Sama. Aoshima is the parent company and her name IS Aiko Oishi - not Aoshima. These are the mistakes I made in correspondence Link to comment
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