As some of you may know, I had a little online ordering mishap at the start of February. In the end I did get a reply from Animebooks.com about 2 weeks later after posting about it and it’s all bad news. They do apologise for sending me the incorrect item and that I can return it for a refund. However, after having a read through the return policy it states that they do not refund shipping. At that I figured it’s not worth returning the item back at all as I would have to ship the item back myself out of my pocket, and two I would only get half of what I paid in total back. I paid $39 USD and then $40 USD on top for shipping. So yeah, you can tell I’m not too happy about that.
The other bad part is that I didn’t receive any explanation of why I got sent the incorrect item in the first place. Although I may be a little over my head about this point, but I still like an explanation of how they sent the incorrect item that is listed on their site. Well it’s all in the past now and I just had a stroke of bad luck with an online purchase, everyone gets one at least once. But I for one know not to buy from Animebooks.com ever again. Though thankfully for me I’m not the only one who got sent ARIA Premium Posterbook by mistake. A reader of Moé Moé Rabu informed me that it also happened to him about a week and half ago.
So what am I going to do with the ARIA Premium Posterbook 2? Well I’ve decided to sell it off. Personally for me, it would just sit here in my room unopened since I already have one and I figured it would be better off in the hands of another ARIA fan. For the time being, I have a few people I know that are interested and I’ll see if they want to pay the price I have in mind for it, $80 AUD (I originally paid $88 AUD so I’m not even making a profit let alone making it even). Either way, I’ll make some ARIA fan happy.
Man, I haven’t gotten a chance to read your blog for a quite a while. And right when I come back I see aftermath reports with Clannad lol.
Sorry to hear about that; now I know not to buy their cheap, To Heart 2 Kusakabe Yuki vacation figure.
Hmm unfortunately I don’t watch Aria, but yeah, I’m sure you’ll find something who wants it.
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Ouch. Is this ’service’ why you’ve posted “Dozo! Have a starfish!” on the blog?
Ah well - there were at least three other people clamoring for a copy, and if any of them are closer to where you are, you could probably save a bit on the shipping.
AOforever1: Good to see you come back. Personally I try not to order too much from the US as US shipping always takes longer and will always be more expensive than shipping form Japan. The shortest I’ve ever waited for an item from the US via regular airmail was 3 weeks. Shop around, you might find something cheaper online.
M12: Oh I’m sure I will, and they’ll be one happy person.
Haesslich: That’s right, I tried to find a present giving image that wasn’t Christmas related, but this works well. For the time being I’m looking at selling in Australia first, but if there is no interest, I’ll look to selling it overseas.
Yeah, it’s quite a bit of bad luck when online purchasing ends up with a mishap, due to the crazy shipping charges we have to pay. At least your retailer took the moral responsibility for this though. Some deputy services (AnimeChaos Shopping Mall Japan to be specific) do not offer any sort of compensation or apology when crap hits the fan, even if it’s their fault. Then again, anyone who engages in online buying knows the risks beforehand.
$40.00 shipping?! That’s more than the retail price of the posterbook I believe. Jeez, sending stuff to the land down under is not cheap!! And I thought Japan to America shipping was bad. Hopefully you’ll find someone in Australia that wants it so you don’t have to send it outside of the country.
The USD40 shipping price leads me to believe that it was shipped from the US. Usually shipping of an artbook would be around the 2500 yen mark when coming from Japan, unless its super big or heavy.
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icie: I haven’t had any issues with the deputy services so far but then I haven’t ordered anything through YJA in a year and half. But as you mentioned about the mishaps, that’s one disadvantage about purchasing through a deputy service as they are simply the middle man, and if things go wrong, we’re the ones who take the heat.
The $40 USD was because of Express Mail. Animebooks only ship via express to those outside the US, and generally that’s one reason I hate purchasing items from the US. The express shipping costs more from the US than it does from Japan.
Lunatic_Sae: In most cases, shipping anywhere overseas can be expensive. Of course that is also depends on the item that is being shipped, but I myself find shipping from US is expensive than most other places. I got a parcel sent from Singapore, via registered express, that contained 3 figures and a magazine and that only costs me $45 AUD.
Ouch, as much as I would like that posterbook, I simply don’t have the money for it =(. And I though that Canadian customs was stupid (ie: overstating the value of my shipment by two-folds).