Bandai DX VF-31

[mechaninac]

Well, all the back and forth herein has increased my level of anxiety regarding my eBay pre-order.  I just sent the seller an message for a status report and availability estimate, a very polite and respectful yet much more forceful and uncompromising one than the first I sent a bit over 3 weeks ago; I paid October 8, thus my time is running out, so I felt that I had to be proactive and firm at this point while still giving the seller time to respond before I escalate with PayPal... fingers crossed.

[CharlesXavier]

9 minutes ago, IXTL said:

NY folded at the first sight of PayPal.

Money returned in full back to PayPal, no questions asked.

Yes they rather lose your $ than risk getting their account locked. 

[Sanity is Optional]

18 minutes ago, mechaninac said:

Well, all the back and forth herein has increased my level of anxiety regarding my eBay pre-order.  I just sent the seller an message for a status report and availability estimate, a very polite and respectful yet much more forceful and uncompromising one than the first I sent a bit over 3 weeks ago; I paid October 8, thus my time is running out, so I felt that I had to be proactive and firm at this point while still giving the seller time to respond before I escalate with PayPal... fingers crossed.

I've got a second order on ebay myself, going to shoot them another message asking if they have any new information. Fortunately I paid with card, so I have a large chargeback window.

[derex3592]

Man....this whole situation just truly SUCKS for everyone.  So if I paid NY on my Visa card through Paypal, who should I lodge a complaint with? Chase Visa or Paypal?  Not saying I'm in a hurry to do either, I still hold on some hope, but at some point, I'm gonna have to say uncle and I want my $252 back. 

 

I truly will NEVER understand why a company as big as Bandai would ever do AND KEEP doing stupid sh*t like this. I'm sorry, on some level it makes me want to throw them the middle finger and NOT ever buy from them again.  It's like they think their sh*t is just tooo freakin cool, and I'm sorry, it ain't.  NY isn't without fault here either, once they know what was going on an email would have been nice within a week or so.  NOT good customer service.  I've been here a lot of years now and heard people rag on them, but I never had a reason to call them out, they always came through for me up until this.  Rant mode off now.

[IXTL]

13 minutes ago, CharlesXavier said:

Yes they rather lose your $ than risk getting their account locked. 

They probably thought they had the upper hand since I still had an Arad DX pre-order in my account. So they played the "no refund, store credit only" card until they realized I was done doing any more business with them.

Anyway, I'm just glad it didn't drag on. I wonder how @PsYcHoDyNaMiX 's case went.

[Slave IV]

5 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

Man....this whole situation just truly SUCKS for everyone.  So if I paid NY on my Visa card through Paypal, who should I lodge a complaint with? Chase Visa or Paypal?  Not saying I'm in a hurry to do either, I still hold on some hope, but at some point, I'm gonna have to say uncle and I want my $252 back. 

 

I truly will NEVER understand why a company as big as Bandai would ever do AND KEEP doing stupid sh*t like this. I'm sorry, on some level it makes me want to throw them the middle finger and NOT ever buy from them again.  It's like they think their sh*t is just tooo freakin cool, and I'm sorry, it ain't.  NY isn't without fault here either, once they know what was going on an email would have been nice within a week or so.  NOT good customer service.  I've been here a lot of years now and heard people rag on them, but I never had a reason to call them out, they always came through for me up until this.  Rant mode off now.

Don't complain to anyone, just wait for your order to arrive. If you get confirmation that it won't be delivered, it will also come with a proposal to reimburse you most likely by refund. If for some reason, you are unhappy with the proposal and the store is unresponsive, just contact your credit card company. 

[jenius]

I suspect NY is trying to use their massive Bandai purchase volume to try try to work something out... hence nothing to say yet. Like Bandai said "No 31A for you" and they said "But we buy sooooooooooo much from you!" and now they're waiting for Bandai to say "Okay, here's some more" but it's possible the conversation is over from Bandai's perspective.

[IXTL]

The 31A wasn't sold through Bandai's distributors like general releases. It was only sold through their webshop directly to customers. No amount of negotiating for stock is going to get Bandai let a retailer have stock of a webshop exclusive.

Edited April 6, 2018 by IXTL

[CharlesXavier]

9 hours ago, Charles_Xavier said:

http://tamashii.jp/importance/127?wovn=en

Bandai issued an apology for the delivery delay for their March items. We don't see the 31A there so it seems there is no delay at all for the 31A to begin with, or there is SOME delay but because they could still deliver by 31 March, hence it's not considered a delay.

Like I said in this post, there are no production or delivery issues with the 31A. If any, they would have posted a public notice. Click on the link and take a look.

TWEs are made to order. Period. Bandai sets a quantity in the background counter of every PO. If the quantity is maxed out, the PO closes. period.

TWEs are never sold via distributors. TWEs are sold by Bandai direct. In fact Bandai will buffer a certain quantity for exchange if the Japanese customers receive defective pieces. But that's another conversation.

In the case of MK, they likely took more POs than they ordered. Someone could have screwed up because the max quantity is 6pc as oppose to the usual 12 pc limit for valkyries.

For NY, they could have possibly made the same mistake. But at least I think they are trying in the background to sort it out, though it gets less assuring as the days pass.

[Shukenzero]

The fact that they didn't get so many preorders as to a second run, ala Gundam, means the ship has sailed on further units. They obviously meticulously plan their factory timetables, so the chances of a rerun would be for next year if ever. Knowing their policies regarding exclusives, I wager it's done. We will only get traction if people in Japan had trouble after ordering directly from them.

[derex3592]

So....another interesting wrinkle on my end..just logged into NY website, and under my order history there is ONE entry from back in 2015 for the Grace 27. OK..WTF??? I've ordered lots of stuff since then INCLUDING THE FREAKIN 31A?!  I have the Paypal confirmation email to prove that. Man....WTF with these guys..

[IXTL]

13 minutes ago, CharlesXavier said:

Like I said in this post, there are no production or delivery issues with the 31A. If any, they would have posted a public notice. Click on the link and take a look.

TWEs are made to order. Period. Bandai sets a quantity in the background counter of every PO. If the quantity is maxed out, the PO closes. period.

TWEs are never sold via distributors. TWEs are sold by Bandai direct. In fact Bandai will buffer a certain quantity for exchange if the Japanese customers receive defective pieces. But that's another conversation.

In the case of MK, they likely took more POs than they ordered. Someone could have screwed up because the max quantity is 6pc as oppose to the usual 12 pc limit for valkyries.

For NY, they could have possibly made the same mistake. But at least I think they are trying in the background to sort it out, though it gets less assuring as the days pass.

I didn't realize the max quantity was reduced for the 31A. May well have been what tripped up resellers like MK and NY if they thought each dummy webshop account they had could get them 12 pcs but they could only secure half that when they finally went about ordering.

[spacemanoeuvres]

41 minutes ago, IXTL said:

The 31A wasn't sold through Bandai's distributors like general releases. It was only sold through their webshop directly to customers. No amount of negotiating for stock is going to get Bandai let a retailer have stock of a webshop exclusive.

Yeah I don’t understand how they plan to secure additional stock. 

I finally submitted a ticket asking when mine would ship and received the same response as everyone else:

“We are sorry for the delay, we didn't receive all of our stocks for this item.

Your order will be sent as soon as possible.”

 

[HardlyNever]

Man, if supply of the 31A really is this low, and demand stays this high, this will be THE grail piece of the last 5 years or so (definitely from the Delta line-up).  The speculator in me feels like grabbing one even at the gouge-tastic prices we are seeing now could be a decent investment.  Or Bandai could release more and your investment would be bust.

I genuinely hope that everyone that pre-ordered from NY gets their valk.  I know I'd be frustrated if I had reserved such a hot item and the retailer didn't come through.  I considered pre-ordering one myself, be I'm not as enamored with it as some of the other members are (I do think it looks cool, though).  I probably would have gone with NY and gotten hosed, too.

I do have an Arad (from amiami) preorderd, though, so I hope this isn't a sign of things to come...

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

1 hour ago, IXTL said:

They probably thought they had the upper hand since I still had an Arad DX pre-order in my account. So they played the "no refund, store credit only" card until they realized I was done doing any more business with them.

Anyway, I'm just glad it didn't drag on. I wonder how @PsYcHoDyNaMiX 's case went.

I had submitted a dispute with PP, but have not escalated it yet. I had posted all the chat conversations on PP that I had with their customer service reps, and the ticket as well (just for the record). I was going patiently give them till Monday to respond, but I also decided to follow up on the looping ticket with NY (on their site). This time I stated that I wanted to update them that I submitted a PP dispute (note escalated yet, and awaiting their response).

I informed them on the ticket that this dispute was due to their CS rep's (Phoebe) answer to me stating I would not receive a refund for the pre-ordered item. And that I would gladly retract/close the dispute if they would refund my payment. I also attempted to top the response off that I've been a long time customer with them prior to 2012 with several dozen orders and would hate to see a 'healthy' customer/business relationship spoiled over Bandai's inability to produce for the demand according to the orders received.

I suppose I'm just being too lenient, so now I'm just awaiting a response.

Edited April 6, 2018 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[IXTL]

13 minutes ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

I had submitted a dispute with PP, but have not escalated it yet. I had posted all the chat conversations on PP that I had with their customer service reps, and the ticket as well (just for the record). I was going patiently give them till Monday to respond, but I also decided to follow up on the looping ticket with NY (on their site). This time I stated that I wanted to update them that I submitted a PP dispute (note escalated yet, and awaiting their response).

I informed them on the ticket that this dispute was due to their CS rep's (Phoebe) answer to me stating I would not receive a refund for the pre-ordered item. And that I would gladly retract/close the dispute if they would refund my payment. I also attempted to top the response off that I've been a long time customer with them prior to 2012 with several dozen orders and would hate to see a 'healthy' customer/business relationship spoiled over Bandai's inability to produce for the demand according to the orders received.

I suppose I'm just being too lenient, so now I'm just awaiting a response.

I escalated my case the moment NY gave a BS reply through their ticket about how my PayPal payment was "too old to be refunded" and store credit was my only option.

Good luck with yours. I guess how lenient one is depends on whether you intend to continue doing business with them. In my case, I had no such intention, so going straight for the nuclear option was easy.

Edited April 6, 2018 by IXTL

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

2 minutes ago, IXTL said:

I escalated my case the moment NY gave a BS reply through their ticket about how my PayPal payment was "too old to be refunded" and store credit was my only option.

Good luck with yours. 

Thanks! Okay as soon as I get a response from their ticket system that will be the deciding factor for the escalation. 

[eXis10z]

13 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Really? Not I. Especially after I've already offered them more money not to cancel their orders and give to me instead. It's highly likely that any cancelled orders will not be listed at original preorder price so all they are doing is helping NY instead of a fellow collector.

 

Lol I'm not surprised. I remember @no3Ljm offered to buy someone's valk (can't remember which) or PO slot cause that guy had too many or something and it was in nought.

I think there is this fear if they give up their POs to you and it gets fulfilled in the end, they will kick themselves in the nuts, especially given its soaring value. It's a "If I don't get it, I don't want you to benefit from it" mentality. Just some thoughts, not targeted at anyone here specifically.

Edited April 6, 2018 by eXis10z

[CharlesXavier]

35 minutes ago, spacemanoeuvres said:

Yeah I don’t understand how they plan to secure additional stock. 

I finally submitted a ticket asking when mine would ship and received the same response as everyone else:

“We are sorry for the delay, we didn't receive all of our stocks for this item.

Your order will be sent as soon as possible.”

 

It would be a lot more assuring if they changed "didn't receive all of our stocks" to "haven't receive all of our stocks"

The former is just grey whether we will get our PO fulfilled. For the latter, at least we know we will get it eventually.

[IXTL]

18 minutes ago, CharlesXavier said:

It would be a lot more assuring if they changed "didn't receive all of our stocks" to "haven't receive all of our stocks"

The former is just grey whether we will get our PO fulfilled. For the latter, at least we know we will get it eventually.

I don't think they know for sure if they can actually get all the stock needed. They always avoided or stopped replying me when I asked if they would be able to fulfill the pre-order.

All they were able to confirm was "we didn't receive all our stocks", "we will send your order as soon as possible", "we don't know when we will receive our stocks", "we have no estimate on when we will receive our stocks". 

Given how the Tamashii webshop operates (which you have kindly shared and explain several times), NY's replies just don't add up. They aren't waiting for stock from a distributor. I really don't see how they plan to get stock in. It seems entirely possible to me that the person manning their dummy webshop accounts didn't do his job or ran off with their stock.

Edited April 6, 2018 by IXTL

[Slave IV]

22 minutes ago, eXis10z said:

Lol I'm not surprised. I remember @no3Ljm offered to buy someone's valk (can't remember which) or PO slot cause that guy had too many or something and it was in nought.

I think there is this fear if they give up their POs to you and it gets fulfilled in the end, they will kick themselves in the nuts, especially given it's soaring value. It's a "If I don't get it, I don't want you to benefit from it" mentality. Just some thoughts, not targeted at anyone here specifically.

Haha, you are probably right! I sure wouldn't give my order up but I also wouldn't be getting pissed and cutting ties with the store over it before we got clear information that they were trying to screw me.

16 minutes ago, CharlesXavier said:

It would be a lot more assuring if they changed "didn't receive all of our stocks" to "haven't receive all of our stocks"

The former is just grey whether we will get our PO fulfilled. For the latter, at least we know we will get it eventually.

Good point. No one knows what they mean by that for sure. Assuming they will never get their stock just because Bandai is done sending their supply out is Scooby Doo logic. 

[eXis10z]

27 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

Haha, you are probably right! I sure wouldn't give my order up but I also wouldn't be getting pissed and cutting ties with the store over it before we got clear information that they were trying to screw me.

 

I guess the price of these valks + the apparent scarcity + the soaring price + the fear of missing out are not helping the situation.

[Shukenzero]

4 minutes ago, eXis10z said:

I guess the price of these valks + the apparent scarcity + the soaring price + the fear of missing out are not helping the situation.

You're definitely on the money. The prices in HK have jumped another HK$200 from some sellers. Looks like the shops have gotten wind of what's even more limited than first thought. Not everyone is jacking up this much but it'll happen and fast. Loopaza's video game store already listed it around US$360 at their brick and mortar, and I don't even know if they have that unit still in stock. 

A real shame as it's a gem of a valk, one which shows Bandai's far superior engineering, paired with an awesome delta wing configuration. Maybe the demand will make Bandai see sense in releasing an armoured Kairos bundle? Or a chance for collectors to nab another, outside of the Arad unit?

Edited April 6, 2018 by Shukenzero

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Here's the official answer from NY, time to escalate the dispute!

 

Date: 2018-04-06 13:17:10 Name: Fabrice

Message:

Hello,

We invite you to close your paypal dispute.

We accept cancellation for this order, however the refund will be done with a voucher since your payment has been done more than 6 months ago.
We cannot refund your order on Paypal.

When your dispute will be closed we will proceed to the refund.

Kind regards,

Nippon-yasan.com

Edited April 6, 2018 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[eXis10z]

Given Bandai's past record I'm pretty sure they will release Arad's Kairos since it was on screen for a good few seconds.

Not sure about 02 unit. So while not exactly the same, we'll all get a Kairos in one way or another. Not the best consolation but hopefully can soothe the nerves of some here.

[Charles_Xavier]

17 minutes ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

Here's the official answer from NY, time to escalate the dispute!

 

Date: 2018-04-06 13:17:10 Name: Fabrice

Message:

Hello,

We invite you to close your paypal dispute.

We accept cancellation for this order, however the refund will be done with a voucher since your payment has been done more than 6 months ago.
We cannot refund your order on Paypal.

When your dispute will be closed we will proceed to the refund.

Kind regards,

Nippon-yasan.com

That’s why I’ll raise the case 3 days before the last day just to make sure I get my $ back and not some crappy store credit

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

1 minute ago, Charles_Xavier said:

That’s why I’ll raise the case 3 days before the last day just to make sure I get my $ back and not some crappy store credit

I filed for the dispute on the 4th (the last day), but PP allows you additional time (in my case until April 25th) to escalate the dispute if the seller and the user are unable to reach an agreement.

[jenius]

3 minutes ago, eXis10z said:

Given Bandai's past record I'm pretty sure they will release Arad's Kairos since it was on screen for a good few seconds.

Not sure about 02 unit. So while not exactly the same, we'll all get a Kairos in one way or another. Not the best consolation but hopefully can soothe the nerves of some here.

It would be so awesome if they basically reissue this toy but as "02". A tiny bit of the draw of this toy is that it's a cannon fodder while a bit of the draw to Arad's toy would be the emblem. So, I won't be completely satisfied with Arad as a replacement.. I want both.

[Slave IV]

19 minutes ago, eXis10z said:

I guess the price of these valks + the apparent scarcity + the soaring price + the fear of missing out are not helping the situation.

I guess so. I just looked back and my Missile Regults took over two weeks before they shipped. It hasn't even been two weeks yet for this. I'd give it another two weeks before I even begin to think about contacting anyone. 

Talk about kicking yourself, the people escalating tickets are going to feel pretty pissed when other people get their orders and they see their cancelled items relisted for twice the price they paid. Especially when they can just get their money back later without making a big deal out of it. 

[94medition]

1 hour ago, spacemanoeuvres said:

Yeah I don’t understand how they plan to secure additional stock. 

I finally submitted a ticket asking when mine would ship and received the same response as everyone else:

“We are sorry for the delay, we didn't receive all of our stocks for this item.

Your order will be sent as soon as possible.”

 

I got the exact same reply from NY today...

[neoexcaliber]

10 minutes ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

Here's the official answer from NY, time to escalate the dispute!

 

Date: 2018-04-06 13:17:10 Name: Fabrice

Message:

Hello,

We invite you to close your paypal dispute.

We accept cancellation for this order, however the refund will be done with a voucher since your payment has been done more than 6 months ago.
We cannot refund your order on Paypal.

When your dispute will be closed we will proceed to the refund.

Kind regards,

Nippon-yasan.com

I wouldn't accept that voucher unless they gave a little extra as compensation. 

[jenius]

Just now, Slave IV said:

I guess so. I just looked back and my Missile Regults took over two weeks before they shipped. It hasn't even been two weeks yet for this. I'd give it another two weeks before I even begin to think about contacting anyone. 

Talk about kicking yourself, the people escalating tickets are going to feel pretty pissed when other people get their orders and they see their cancelled items relisted for twice the price they paid. Especially when they can just get their money back later without making a big deal out of it. 

How long is it going to have to go past the release date before you think that no one else is getting one from NY? 

[IXTL]

I hope people realize that unlike previous delays, NY doesn't have the item in stock at all this time. 

In the past, the delay was only in getting the order shipped out, not coming into stock.

Edited April 6, 2018 by IXTL

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Here's the follow up from NY after I informed them I would be escalating the dispute to PP. I will probably have to open a dispute on PP regarding my 2x Mirage Super Sets as well seeing as this is going south fast.
 

Date: 2018-04-06 13:49:46 Name: Fabrice

Message:

Hello,

Your account will remain closed as long as the dispute is opened.
When the dispute will be resolved, the Upper Management will decide if your account can be reopened.

Kind regards,

Nippon-yasan.com

[Slave IV]

3 minutes ago, jenius said:

How long is it going to have to go past the release date before you think that no one else is getting one from NY? 

Like I said, at least another two weeks from now. I just don't get the panic. If you don't get it and they don't return your money, just tell your credit card company and done.