amiami ?

[talyn8]

Hey Guys,

I hope I'm posting this in the right place.

Has anyone ever had trouble with amiami.com ?

I ordered a 1/60 Valk from them, which came damaged and they are refusing to replace it or refund me, all they offered was a 6.00 refund.

Has anyone else ever had problems like this with them ?

Edited August 17, 2012 by talyn8

[GU-11]

Not sure about Amiami, but when I got a busted-up SV-51 Nora from HLJ the last time, they asked for pictures of the damaged part(s) to be emailed to them. Once it's been determined to be a manufacturing defect, they asked for the figure to be sent back, so that the factory can repair it. Similar process for a damaged VF-1D, except they actually sent me replacement parts--took them a long while to get it shipped, though.

Maybe your item was damaged during shipping? They usually don't cover that kind of damage, AFAIK--only manufacturing defects.

Just my two cents worth.

Edited August 17, 2012 by GU-11

[talyn8]

Thanks for your thoughts, it's definitely a manufacturing defect though.

I did take pics, but I only have an ipod and the pics were a little blurry, so that didn't seem to help.

I will show you this stock pic though:

http://i46.tinypic.com/eti9w1.jpg

I've circled in red the part that is damaged, it's almost snapped through.. anyone ever had this problem ?

[Chronocidal]

Apparently AmiAmi doesn't do replacements at all unfortunately. A few people have given up buying from them just because of this.

HLJ has a much more dependable policy, and will replace things if they're damaged.

On the other hand though, if the damage isn't bad enough to prevent you from transforming or displaying it, I wouldn't worry about it. It's not fun having to live with damage, no, but a lot of people do because it's easier than getting a replacement. A lot of us will try and repair things ourselves if it's possible, and it often is to an extent.

I'm guessing the piece is the big shoulder hinge though? That is tough.. it's a heavy duty joint, so it might be tricky to fix. It might be one of those things that's just best covered up by using fighter/gerwalk mode, or you could attempt to glue it.

Edited August 17, 2012 by Chronocidal

[talyn8]

Good to know, I'm hoping to get a refund from them though and then maybe reorder though HLJ or someone else.

[GU-11]

Thanks for your thoughts, it's definitely a manufacturing defect though. I did take pics, but I only have an ipod and the pics were a little blurry, so that didn't seem to help. I will show you this stock pic though: http://i46.tinypic.com/eti9w1.jpg I've circled in red the part that is damaged, it's almost snapped through.. anyone ever had this problem ?

That definitely a manufacturing defect.

And I thought the QC for Valks would have improved after Yamato switched factories. Maybe these were old stock left over from the old production lines?

Apparently AmiAmi doesn't do replacements at all unfortunately. A few people have given up buying from them just because of this.

They don't?

Damn, good thing the last few figs I bought from them were fine.

[raptormesh]

Yeah they don't, the last item i purchased from them even came with a note in english informing customers that they will not be responsible for defects or returns.

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, I've been considering cancelling my Yamato preorders for the VF-19F, VF-17D and VF-19P because of this. If HLJ opens up orders again before they come out, I might do just that, but for now I think I can deal.

Short of anything completely catastropic, I've had a lot of experience repairing my yammies when needed, so I tend to think I might be able fix them myself.

[anubis20]

Amiami has completely gone down the crapper. My 171 had a missing piece as well and wanted to refund me $3... I told them to go screw themselves and to give me a refund. I was gonna have to pay out of pocket for shipping it back so you're bound to loose some money here Fortunately a member on the forums was kind enough to send me the piece as he didnt care much for it.

[MacrossJunkie]

I'm another HLJ convert. If a company doesn't support the product they're selling, particularly for manufacturer defects on something you just spent a couple hundred dollars on, there's no way I'm going to take a chance on buying with said company. I've fixed a few Yammies myself, but the VF-19S was such a catastrophic defect that there was nothing I could do to fix it that would have any sort of structural integrity as the part had disintegrated into little blue bits of plastic and powder.

Never again.

[Rabidweezil]

Same here. Once they started including notes they won't replace damaged items, I pretty much dropped them as a buying source unless I'm desperate. Considering I buy stuff that's several hundred dollars in price, I want to go with a place that respects the value of my money like HLJ.

[anubis20]

They claim the manufacturer only provides support for Japanese customers but they are a distributor. If a defective product is returned to them they have to return it and get something from Bandai. How does Bandai know who bought it? Theyre just trying to wash their hands from dealing with returns and things like that. Big Bad Toy Store overcharges on stuff but theyll handle these situations way better than Amiami.

[Tober]

Yep, when Amiami started including the yellow slips in their packages I stopped ordering expensive items from them. If they state that they don't include support for broken/missing parts in their Terms and Conditions section then there is not much you can do about it. You could try contacting PayPal, but I'm not sure how far that would get you, and you would risk being blacklisted by Amiami.

Unfortunately HLJ has indefinitely suspended offering a parts service to customers they didn't sell to. You could try contacting Yamato USA, they might be able to assist you, it believe it has happened before... Please let us know if that actually works.

[talyn8]

Well Amiami are really pissing me off, I've been emailing them back and forth, and I even phoned them at one point.

I've asked for a replacement, but they say they are out of stock, yet their web site says in stock (it's the VF-1S TV ver. w/Optional Parts btw) and so they are offing me a refund of the merchandise cost, but not the shipping cost AND I have to pay to ship the Valk back to them, so I've lost almost $80 in shipping costs.

So I'm not happy at all with them, I've told them as much and I've opened a Paypal dispute with them, hopefully that will get me somewhere.

One thing is for sure, I'll never order from Amiami again!

Anyone know where I can pick up a VF-1S TV ver. w/Optional Parts ? lol

Edited August 18, 2012 by talyn8

[talyn8]

Ha! I got'em! I'm getting a replacement Valk! The Buyer wins one at last! lol.

I guess that Paypal dispute really worked, if anyone else ever has any trouble with Amiami just open a Paypal dispute, worked for me! lol

Thanks for all the replies guys, the info really helped me. I'll say this, from now on I'll order from hlj. lol

Edited August 18, 2012 by talyn8

[ruskiiVFaussie]

well... I had a package missing for a month and a half, but I'm going to see if I can resolve it my end seeing how they looked into it starting it has arrived at my post office, and the registered shipping tracking states it only left japan, not even arriving in australia. Lucky its not a valk lol I've never had problems with them honestly.

Edited August 18, 2012 by ruskiiVFaussie

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

HLJ has so far worked fine for me. Graham hates them for some reason but all my yamato stuff I got from them. (what you got to do is send emails to them telling them you wish to ship the item out immediately if you want prompt service because they have a system where they prefer to wait for you to buy extra things and combine the shipping to save you money. If you don't want that, you have to explicitly state that you don't want to wait, and for them to please send the item alone as soon as they can. They assume everyone will add an extra item to the shopping trolley so they don't send out the item until certain that you only want 1 thing)

I hope yamato are able to use HLJ as a supplier of future online exclusive macross goodies for us outside japan. I would prefer to buy Vf-4 from them just because of the convenience and extra protection people here have talked about.

One thing I don't like is how Bandai gets a whole online video show on HLJ (teaching you how to assemble gundam kits) while macross doesn't get crap. I think yamato should get them to promote valkyries on it all the time to act as free advertisements. lol

Edited August 19, 2012 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[Sandman]

Amiami has completely gone down the crapper. My 171 had a missing piece as well and wanted to refund me $3... I told them to go screw themselves and to give me a refund. I was gonna have to pay out of pocket for shipping it back so you're bound to loose some money here Fortunately a member on the forums was kind enough to send me the piece as he didnt care much for it.

What piece were you missing? My 171 came with one of the chest guns missing. Nippon-yassen wants me to ship it back to them at my cost which is like $90. Its hardly worth it so I'm hooped. Hopefully one day I can find a replacement gun I can attach to it.

[anubis20]

What piece were you missing? My 171 came with one of the chest guns missing. Nippon-yassen wants me to ship it back to them at my cost which is like $90. Its hardly worth it so I'm hooped. Hopefully one day I can find a replacement gun I can attach to it.

Damn thats worse than mine. I was missing the little piece that flips out from the shoulders.

[claude grant]

Don't know what they did to Graham, but as for the "HLJ is king" support, I will never even attempt to do business with them again in life.

Had been ordering from HLJ for about ten years with an impeccable track record, when an erroneous charge for over 1/2 a grand shows up in my online acct. Contacted HLJ about it and they blacklisted me, and closed my acct. without ever doing an investigation. Never once did they respond to my inquiry about what were the items I 'allegedly' ordered. Guess my urgent tone was too strong for them. I still have all the emails & shipping notices to/from them during this period. They seem to have gotten worse since they moved into the new warehouse facility too. Unfortunately, I think their growth spurt allowed them to either acquire, or inspire, some "thieves in the temple" so to speak.

And to think of all the free press & good word of mouth I gave this company when asked by friends where to go for their hobby needs...

My first test with Amiami was an $700.00+ (approx) order for 2 Yamato 1/3000 SDF-1s; and they passed it with flying colors. Have used them 4 times since with no problems, and I have a RAH Evangelion on pre-order with them currently...will be curious to see if this no refund/no replacement yellow slip will be included in this order.

[Tober]

Don't know what they did to Graham, but as for the "HLJ is king" support, I will never even attempt to do business with them again in life.

Had been ordering from HLJ for about ten years with an impeccable track record, when an erroneous charge for over 1/2 a grand shows up in my online acct. Contacted HLJ about it and they blacklisted me, and closed my acct. without ever doing an investigation. Never once did they respond to my inquiry about what were the items I 'allegedly' ordered. Guess my urgent tone was too strong for them. I still have all the emails & shipping notices to/from them during this period. They seem to have gotten worse since they moved into the new warehouse facility too. Unfortunately, I think their growth spurt allowed them to either acquire, or inspire, some "thieves in the temple" so to speak.

And to think of all the free press & good word of mouth I gave this company when asked by friends where to go for their hobby needs...

My first test with Amiami was an $700.00+ (approx) order for 2 Yamato 1/3000 SDF-1s; and they passed it with flying colors. Have used them 4 times since with no problems, and I have a RAH Evangelion on pre-order with them currently...will be curious to see if this no refund/no replacement yellow slip will be included in this order.

That's really disturbing. Did you file for a PayPal dispute or chargeback if you paid by credit card?

[claude grant]

Absolutely Tober...and immediately when my money was returned to my acct., via Paypal & my lending institution, that's when my access to HLJ ceased to exist. My 10+ years of free advertising for their company, loyalty to their platform, and not to mention several thousand dollars worth of purchases, meant nothing to them.

Had thought about going to Otakon one of these past years and talk to one of their booth personnel to see if I could get a warm body response, but came to my senses quickly. I'd be a fool to spend money just to inform them that they, or someone within their organization, tried to rob me? That's good money after bad. Decided to make better use of my resources and look for other options instead.

A lot of these internet companies are starting to fall prey to the same mindset that's made so many brick & mortars fall by the wayside...and what it boils down to is a lack of quality customer service, and the fact that they think they're the only game in town. What was once a hassle, and expenditure of resources (gas, time, phone calls, 'real' leg work, etc...) when it came to finding replacements for your goods & services, can now be done, in most instances, as effortlessly as changing a channel with the remote.

Long story short (I know, too late for that ), I no longer soapbox for any of these companies anymore; it just so happens that some of my current orders have been with Amiami, and knock on wood, so far so good. And should they decide to become too problematic, then on to the next one. And if I can't find a company that I like, then so be it. It was fun while it lasted, but life holds other pleasures than just the headaches of toy collecting.

Just remember, Tober, and I know you already know this, but it bears repeating...it's your money and you have more options than ever concerning where, when, why, & how you spend it, so make sure you get what you pay for. I, like many of these other talkbackers, truly love this hobby, but I don't want to get this fact twisted one iota...I won't put up with anymore bull ish to enjoy it. Those days are gone like they never existed in the first place.

Sorry for diatribing...think I finally got that outta my craw for good! Be blessed

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Don't know what they did to Graham,

They take a while to send stuff out.

[claude grant]

They take a while to send stuff out.

Thanks for that insight, LVL.

[Lolicon]

HLJ is at the bottom of my (admittedly short) list of online hobby shops to order from, for similarly shoddy customer treatment.

[Knightdramon]

Last time I had an issue with amiami they were great about it. Admittedly, that was February 2011. The MP09 Rodimus they sent me, like the rest of his batch, had very shoddy issues all over. Since I was in military deployment at the time, I got to handle him mid-March and immediately contacted them about it. They responded that many buyers reported problems and offered me half the amount of the figure as re-reimbursement.

Haven't used HLJ since 2010 or so, if I recall correctly.

[Tober]

Absolutely Tober...and immediately when my money ... Sorry for diatribing...think I finally got that outta my craw for good! Be blessed

Yeah, things haven't been the same since their new system started.

I'm still in the '10+ years without a problem' group, but I try to keep an eye on store feedback.

Thanks.

[claude grant]

And let's hope it stays that way! You're welcome bro.

[Benbot]

Anyone order from Angolz? They seem to be good (at least from my experience.)

[mass driver]

Angolz is good. I've been using them for the last ten years. They've never let me down.

[Lupin The Third]

HLJ is at the bottom of my (admittedly short) list of online hobby shops to order from, for similarly shoddy customer treatment.

I've ordered from HLJ off and on over the years, in fact I believe they were my first order direct from Japan with the two massive Gundam Dendrobium MSIA figures I ordered for myself and my brother, and I never had any issues until just recently. Their migration to their new site coincided with several large ticket preorders I had on file with the (including the Nadia Nautilus subs, new Shirow Iris figure, and others). Due to the brilliant fact that their site would either a) not allow me to login or b) not accept payment processing, I was unable to pay for the items. So what is HLJ's solution? Lock and ban my account. It's so absurd that even though I have an alternate account with them I will never purchase anything from them again. I'll get it from Amiami or somewhere else at this point. I didn't even bother to contact them. I actually just found it so hilariously incompetent that they would punish a customer for their own website's issues that I saw no reason to interact further with such stupid individuals.

As for my amiami experience I first ordered from them when I was looking for the hyper-obscure Shooting Game Historica Thunderforce ships. I'd not heard of their site previously but they were the only one who had available for preorder AND they had an exclusive color variant as well. Received that at the end of 2010 and then didn't buy anything again until the end of last year but since then I've picked up Valks, Lupin figures, and a tons of other miscellaneous figures with no complaints whatsoever.

I haven't had any defects yet, but ultimately I think people aren't understanding that while you think that they should swap out a tiny little part on an expensive figure for you the logistics of that doing internationally are quite expensive. And let's be fair here too...most of you complaining expect them to pay for shipping the item back to Japan and to eat the cost of resending you a replacement as well. So on an item that they might only make $50-75 you're expecting back and forth international shipping. And that's honestly an absurd expectation.

But hey, at least they let me actually place orders and don't ban me because their servers don't work properly. So I'm probably biased.

[Omegablue]

For the last few years I've been using Amiami as they are the cheapest with their SAL insured.

Only issue I came across, was when ordering 3 Bishoujo Ghostbuster figures, but one was missing in the shipped box.

Amiami set us a picture showing they packed 3. Yes, Amiami takes pictures of every order before shipping, and they basically said we had to claim for theft from the postal network spanning from Japan, to China, to South Africa. A 6 month mission.

Hobby Search has the best customer service in my expereince, however they're a bit too pricey.

Was a devotee loyal of HLJ, until they sent me a Valk in a stupid extra large box, over charging me shipping for it, and became a recurring problem with the next orders.

[Uxi]

Wow that sucks. I had no complaints about a few Ami Ami purchases but won't do it anymore with that policy.

[Tober]

I thought EMS was only dependent upon weight, not package size..?

Otherwise Amiami would be near criminal. Half the content of their packages are paper.

[MikeRoz]

AmiAmi does't tell you the shipping up front? Can you cancel if it turns out to be outrageous? I'd estimate it myself but they don't put the item weight on the page.