Hobby Link Japan.... a salutary warning. (Update 04:12:2015)

I'll let my PayPal dispute type explain:

I ordered my item on September 16th and HLJ say they shipped it on September 17th. Delivery to take place in 10 to 30 working days. (by October 29th.)

When my item hadn't arrived, I contacted HLJ and was told I must wait until November 10th before they could investigate. I contacted them at that point and was told that they'd "made a mistake" and now I must wait until December 10th, in case the item was returned to them.

I was further informed that if the item was not returned to them by their postal system, I would have to wait another month for their postal system to 'investigate' before they are prepared to send a replacement.

At no point during the ordering system is this explained. Further in my communications with HLJ, I received a link to their 'Problem Resolution' page in which I found these statements (in bold type): "under no circumstances should you ever contact your credit card company or PayPal to dispute charges from HobbyLink Japan." and "such customers may be blacklisted from using our service, meaning we will accept no further orders from them, ever. We also share information about blacklisted customers with other online merchants offering similar merchandise."

I do not take kindly to such unveiled threats.

At no point in their ordering system was it explained to me, that in the case of non-delivery would I have to wait up to 30 business days for the item to be returned to HLC and if it was not returned to them I would have to wait a further month for their postal system to 'investigate' before they would send a replacement.

My contract with HLJ, was to have my order delivered in 30 business days. 43 business days have now elapsed since their shipping date of September 17th. and since they are clearly in breach of contract, I request a full refund.

Oh dear, one to avoid then.

You bet!

Dealt with them a number of times without problems. However, IMO, the mark of a good company, is not how well they perform when ordering/delivering...... it's how they sort problems out afterwards. ie customer after sales service.

They deleted my account before I opened the PayPal dispute and before I sent this reply:

"Hello,

“under no circumstances should you ever contact your credit card company or PayPal to dispute charges from HobbyLink Japan. “

“As such, not only will we vigorously contest any PayPal or credit card disputes or chargebacks filed by customers, but also, such customers may be blacklisted from using our service, meaning we will accept no further orders from them, ever. We also share information about blacklisted customers”

I do not take kindly to such threats from anyone.

At no point in your ordering system, was I informed that I would need to wait up to a further six weeks, for my decals to be returned to you and then up to a further four weeks, for your postal system to investigate the matter, before you would send out a replacement.

Go ahead and close my account, I will NEVER order from HLC again and further, I will inform members of the various modelling websites I belong to, exactly how you handle after sales service. (How’s that for a threat!!!)

Dispute case with PayPal opened."

Hi Al,

I've never used them and now never will, thank you for this Sir...

I haven't checked out the Pay-Pal rules for a while, but wasn't there a set limit after which you couldn't make a claim, I wonder if this is one of tactics, to get you to wait until you can no longer get your money back, which I am sure is also against Pay-Pal rules, but I'm not 100% sure...

And as them them telling you not to contact your payment method company, surely I would have thought that was also against the law...

Fingers crossed for you Sir and hope you get your hard earned back quickly...

Andy...

They've been around a while and should do better for customers, regardless of "who's to blame."  Instead of veiled threats they should ask forgiveness and patience.  No excuse for their attitude.

harron68 wrote:They've been around a while and should do better for customers, regardless of "who's to blame."  Instead of veiled threats they should ask forgiveness and patience.  No excuse for their attitude.

There is nothing "veiled" about their threats!!! This is the kind of behavior you might expect if you were dealing with the mob! Their threats and behavior are unexcusable. I don't care how long they have been around. It is time we in the hobby recognize them for who they are and refuse to spend any further money with them.

JohnJ wrote: It is time we in the hobby recognize them for who they are and refuse to spend any further money with them.

Consider it done !!!

I was looking at some Marvel stuff but now they can go fish!!!

Hi Al, I haven't checked out the Pay-Pal rules for a while, but wasn't there a set limit after which you couldn't make a claim, I wonder if this is one of tactics, to get you to wait until you can no longer get your money back, which I am sure is also against Pay-Pal rules, but I'm not 100% sure... Andy... wrote:

Yes there is a time limit Andy, it's 180 days and you could well be right. I'm sure this was the case with my compressor claim as it went to 178 days!!

Fingers crossed for you Sir and hope you get your hard earned back quickly... wrote:

Thanks Andy, but it's not about the money (just GBP11.00 and even less for them) it's the principle and I do not take threats from anyone!!

Thanks for your support guys.

This is their reply in the PayPal dispute:

This order was shipped to you by SAL Small Packet as you requested on Sept. 18. SAL Small Packet is not trackable, and it can be slow. As explained, we need to allow at least 12 weeks for a SAL Small Packet shipment to arrive, so if it has not reached you by Dec. 18, please let us know. Since you have opened a dispute against us, your account has now been permanently closed.

Note their shipped date has changed from September 17th to September 18th and now they are saying I must wait a FURTHER eight days. (December 18th instead of December 10th)

My reply:

So now you expect me to wait yet another eight days?

I'm glad to hear you have carried out your outrageous threat to delete my account. I don't take kindly to threats. I will never deal with you again so your threat has fallen on deaf ears. Maybe you should also get your facts straight, before you deleted my account, your website confirmed a September 17th shipping date. And I note too, that you deleted my account BEFORE I opened this dispute via PayPal.

It seems like theyre going to keep changing dates etc to match their stance in the matter eh

It won't work, they'll put themselfes in a corner and start back peddling soon no doubt.

Nice polite but solid reply as well Al.

Snake wrote:

It won't work, they'll put themselfes in a corner and start back peddling soon no doubt.

Actually, I don't think they will Colin. Too much arrogance I fear.

PayPal allows six days for general discourse between buyer and seller, after which the buyer can escalate the dispute to a claim and at which point PayPal will arbitrate and decide the outcome. In this case, that date is the 23rd and you can bet your little cotton socks I',, be escalating it to a claim.

Oh yes Al .... escalate away mate!!!

Ill give PayPal their do's ..... when I had my "little" problem with scammers and ended up 2800 in the red, they did pay me back the 500 maximum claim amount within days.... not that it helped much lol

Great info. I have ordered a couple of things from them with no issue, but never again. You can't treat customers like that.

Great news. PayPal closed my dispute case in my favour to-day.

One up for the good guys!!

Oh!! and the decals still haven't arrived but I did get a set from Indycals in less than ten days!!

I posted this message in the 'Off Topics' section on the 28 September - Hobbylink Japan - Exchange Rate:

Be careful when making a purchase with Hobbylink Japan when using a credit card. My cousin made a $150 purchase but when he did the sums found he was charged $20 above the $aus/yen exchange rate. His bank will be taking this matter up with Hobbylink. I noticed problems a few years ago when I made the same calculations and decided to make all purchases via Paypal, and there were no more problems.

My cousin was reimbursed after his bank made enquiries.

Power to the people !!!!!

Good news Al, glad it's sorted

Great news Al. There is still hope for the little guy.

Hi Al,



Andy...

P.S...Does this mean we can all order extra KFC on you now Sir...

Congrats Al!!!