Deputy Services
Aug. 26th, 2010 09:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zalliaOkay, so I haven't actually received my items from ShoppingMallJapan yet, but I'm pretty much ready to make the determination that I'm going to stick with Crescent Shop. Even if they are a few dollars more, they're insanely easier to use and far more predictable.
The last straw is an auction I bid on this morning. I kind of got into a bidding war and had to leave for work not knowing if I won, but fine if I didn't because I'd gone higher than I meant to. Well I check it when I get in through CS's site and it shows that SMJ won the auction and my last bid is the closing amount. So I *did* win, alright. Well, I go to check the "my items" tab at SMJ and it's showing that I lost. ...? So I don't know if that's going to change, or they're too stupid or trying to rip me off or what, since I haven't bid enough to know if that's just a temp placeholder or not, but it's still annoying to not sure if that money's staying or going. Oh and also, I still haven't gotten an invoice from the last auction I won on the 17th. I can hazard a guess which is going to bring me to my next gripe.
In theory this "batch shipping" to the US sounded like a real money saver. They send a lot of auction stuff altogether to their US office and then ship out to you from there. The first thing I won was just a handful of gashapon. 2 or 3 figures and some magnets and keychains. Even the auction only had about 300-500yen shipping. But when I get invoiced for it, they've added another 500y to that total for this batch shipping. The guy even said "I think that's a fair amount". Um, really? Cause for how small that stuff was, it probably only added .50 to whatever box you could have thrown it into. It might balance out better on the bigger items compared to the EMS, but I'm not sure I'll know for sure if I did win this last auction.
The other thing is that CS is just vastly easier to use all around. You log in through their site, search and there's a nice toolbar up at the top that lets you automatically bid or add to a watch list. The watch list is WONDERFUL. You add your own titles so you know what you're watching and it keeps track on if you've bid or gotten outbid or won. SMJ is better at emailing when you've been outbid or won, CS you have to go check on those things yourself. But SMJ to bid, you have to type in the auction number, and then put in your password each time. It's pretty annoying when you're trying to quick bid since it's all buried in this windows and the pw enter screen shows up in a different place. Paying is also a pain in the ass when you get your invoice since you either have to do all the paypal work yourself or reply back to have them charge it to your CC and then not hear back for a couple days if they did it or not. CS it's just "I want to pay for this" click a couple things to go to paypal, it's already done up for you, couple more clicks, done. They also usually have the invoices done in 3-5 days.
The most annoying thing I think is that actually getting the stuff shipped out takes a while to get the charges and then wait for them to mail it. I think I've figured out that they only mail on Thursdays though which is why I get so impatient. Yeah, the EMS is high, but I'm thinking that even spread around on the items, it's going to come to about what SMJ is charging for it's batch shipping if that other lot is any indication. Conversion rates around about the same for both, as well. I saw on SM a few other places that people use, but if it means I can't bid if those people have, I think I'll stick with CS.
The last straw is an auction I bid on this morning. I kind of got into a bidding war and had to leave for work not knowing if I won, but fine if I didn't because I'd gone higher than I meant to. Well I check it when I get in through CS's site and it shows that SMJ won the auction and my last bid is the closing amount. So I *did* win, alright. Well, I go to check the "my items" tab at SMJ and it's showing that I lost. ...? So I don't know if that's going to change, or they're too stupid or trying to rip me off or what, since I haven't bid enough to know if that's just a temp placeholder or not, but it's still annoying to not sure if that money's staying or going. Oh and also, I still haven't gotten an invoice from the last auction I won on the 17th. I can hazard a guess which is going to bring me to my next gripe.
In theory this "batch shipping" to the US sounded like a real money saver. They send a lot of auction stuff altogether to their US office and then ship out to you from there. The first thing I won was just a handful of gashapon. 2 or 3 figures and some magnets and keychains. Even the auction only had about 300-500yen shipping. But when I get invoiced for it, they've added another 500y to that total for this batch shipping. The guy even said "I think that's a fair amount". Um, really? Cause for how small that stuff was, it probably only added .50 to whatever box you could have thrown it into. It might balance out better on the bigger items compared to the EMS, but I'm not sure I'll know for sure if I did win this last auction.
The other thing is that CS is just vastly easier to use all around. You log in through their site, search and there's a nice toolbar up at the top that lets you automatically bid or add to a watch list. The watch list is WONDERFUL. You add your own titles so you know what you're watching and it keeps track on if you've bid or gotten outbid or won. SMJ is better at emailing when you've been outbid or won, CS you have to go check on those things yourself. But SMJ to bid, you have to type in the auction number, and then put in your password each time. It's pretty annoying when you're trying to quick bid since it's all buried in this windows and the pw enter screen shows up in a different place. Paying is also a pain in the ass when you get your invoice since you either have to do all the paypal work yourself or reply back to have them charge it to your CC and then not hear back for a couple days if they did it or not. CS it's just "I want to pay for this" click a couple things to go to paypal, it's already done up for you, couple more clicks, done. They also usually have the invoices done in 3-5 days.
The most annoying thing I think is that actually getting the stuff shipped out takes a while to get the charges and then wait for them to mail it. I think I've figured out that they only mail on Thursdays though which is why I get so impatient. Yeah, the EMS is high, but I'm thinking that even spread around on the items, it's going to come to about what SMJ is charging for it's batch shipping if that other lot is any indication. Conversion rates around about the same for both, as well. I saw on SM a few other places that people use, but if it means I can't bid if those people have, I think I'll stick with CS.
