Nier Automata x Dollfie Dream

28 minutes ago, Beani said:

I purchase preorders on a regular basis and most stores state that the price will change to 10% on release even if shown as 8% now or they show with 10% tax already in the price. This started around April this year I think. Sword and Shield is a prime example of it occurring but how each store handles the situation is totally different. 

Unfortunately the actual shop page for the dolls is now gone (and I cant get it via wayback machine), but I am positive that it gave me the total price of 84240 for 9S at the time I preordered him (as opposed to the special site for the dolls which only gives the price sans tax, 78000) with no fine print. It would be odd if they gave that total at the time of preorder if it was subject to change after release, but maybe there is precedent for this. For example I have no idea what happened with Volks preorders back when the tax first changed to 8% (or if they were even doing preorders then...?)

It's not the end of the world if I have to pay that extra 2%, but the principle of the thing would still irk me, especially because I had always assumed that non-Japanese residents...shouldn't be paying that tax to begin with, but woops.

Unrelated but...it shouldnt be too far off that we hear about this year's preorder project. I wonder if we'll get a countdown again.

9 hours ago, Monty said:

Theres a lot of talk of the tax change but...do items that go up for preorder -before- a tax change actually count for that? I've been wondering that a while now. I would have thought that as long as the preorder started before the tax changed then the full price would be what it would have been with the previous tax. But I'm no economist and barely understand tax matters in my own country.

gotta admit I'm gonna be annoyed if I have to pay even more for him than what was advertised. Our plumetting exchange rate has already increased his price by a few hundred or so since I preordered him as it is, and I'm not looking forward to the fact that I'm probably going to have to pay some kind of ludicrous customs fee on top of that purely because the exchange rate made his cost go over the limit.

Actually their pages had prices as X (without tax) iirc? I believe the tax is added when we pay for them  So the "Advertised" price is not going to be more.
(oh nvm i just read your next comment derp)

I completely agree we shouldn't be paying their taxes since we're not Japanese, it makes no sense (aren't they just adding that money in their pockets? xD)

Edited August 23, 2019 by Shailara

On 8/23/2019 at 10:09 AM, Shailara said:

I completely agree we shouldn't be paying their taxes since we're not Japanese, it makes no sense (aren't they just adding that money in their pockets? xD)

Dunno how Japanese tax law works regarding collection at time of sale, but I expect Volks is scrupulously passing that collected tax to their government. 

On 8/23/2019 at 12:09 PM, Shailara said:

Actually their pages had prices as X (without tax) iirc? I believe the tax is added when we pay for them  So the "Advertised" price is not going to be more.
(oh nvm i just read your next comment derp)

I completely agree we shouldn't be paying their taxes since we're not Japanese, it makes no sense (aren't they just adding that money in their pockets? xD)

Wasn't there a really in-depth discussion about this some time back?  I'm thinking there was a big tax discussion, was it or was it not being charged, back during the Jp webstore reopening.  I don't recall for sure, but the issue does seem familiar.

 

I found this old announcement by Volks about tax: https://www.volks.co.jp/news/20190801.html?_ga=2.57727338.1151098506.1567181224-1484828867.1446975153

My grammar always trips me up in times like this but I believe it says that preorders before August 4th will be the same price you preordered for but they will adjust that total to be inclusive of 10% tax rather than 8% (so they are taking the loss perhaps or the government has a scheme to compensate them). The Nier preorder are listed for the price staying the same. 

Sadly that means they have no incentive for an earlier release like I hoped they would. 

Edited September 1, 2019 by Beani

48 minutes ago, Beani said:

I found this old announcement by Volks about tax: https://www.volks.co.jp/news/20190801.html?_ga=2.57727338.1151098506.1567181224-1484828867.1446975153

My grammar always trips me up in times like this but I believe it says that preorders before August 4th will be the same price you preordered for but they will adjust that total to be inclusive of 10% tax rather than 8% (so they are taking the loss perhaps or the government has a scheme to compensate them). The Nier preorder are listed for the price staying the same. 

Sadly that means they have no incentive for an earlier release like I hoped they would. 

I think that might be kind of an upside though, because a few people here seemed to need more time.

A bit off-topic, but still on the topic of that tax, I want to bring up something I noticed when ordering earlier, as this is something I was griping about in an earlier thread, and I don't remember now if I figured out what was actually happening at that time. This is another change on the new webstore, I believe, and it may be different if ordering from somewhere other than the US.

Items on the webstore generally show with the tax included price, and state as such. During the ordering process however, they show up in the cart without tax, even though still say tax included in each item description. Then the tax is added back at the end and labeled as a "commission fee." I think I noticed that when putting items in the cart but not logged in, the tax was included in the item subtotal but that it changed once logged in (and thus knowing where I am located).

1 hour ago, BeyondTime said:

I think that might be kind of an upside though, because a few people here seemed to need more time.

This seems to be a common trend whenever there is a preorder. As someone who did save in time (I started saving the moment 2B was announced and had the funds ready well before orders even started and I don’t have a huge salary AND have had multiple large sudden expenses to pay) I’d like my 2B as early as possible.

22 minutes ago, Beani said:

This seems to be a common trend whenever there is a preorder. As someone who did save in time (I started saving the moment 2B was announced and had the funds ready well before orders even started and I don’t have a huge salary AND have had multiple large sudden expenses to pay) I’d like my 2B as early as possible.

I don't blame you for wanting that at all.

I started saving before the pre-orders too, but when you make $200 a week and life happens, things suck. So I'm glad for the extra time. Regardless, it's not a responsibility contest and they will come out VERY soon. And then we'll all be too busy bouncing off the walls with excitement. I do wish there was a system in place to pay earlier though. I so wish there was. Life would be a lot easier. >_< 

I,m looking in my order story and they add the 10.000 i paid for the 9s, whit the green label in processing, at last i know they dont lost my order.

4 hours ago, kalisha said:

I,m looking in my order story and they add the 10.000 i paid for the 9s, whit the green label in processing, at last i know they dont lost my order.

Thanks for the heads up! I checked and my 2B order is showing with its order number too ^^

6 hours ago, kalisha said:

I,m looking in my order story and they add the 10.000 i paid for the 9s, whit the green label in processing, at last i know they dont lost my order.

 Yay finally! That must have been really recent. I can also see mine

Can finally see mine too! Though...they have my name wrong lol. Do I really have to email them for that? It seems to not want me to edit it on my profile page. They just repeated my first name twice for some reason and the address is correct, so I won't really bother if I really gotta email lol.

Mine shows up too ^_^ That's quite a relief, woo~ 

Bunny, I'd consult with your PO, to be honest. Try once again at some point to edit your profile and then perhaps ask your PO if your surname not being on the package my cause you any trouble of retrieving it. Because I would imagine a surname is more important than a first name... at least for my PO, they require me to give ID (of course it has a photo and all that too).

5 hours ago, Shailara said:

Mine shows up too ^_^ That's quite a relief, woo~ 

Bunny, I'd consult with your PO, to be honest. Try once again at some point to edit your profile and then perhaps ask your PO if your surname not being on the package my cause you any trouble of retrieving it. Because I would imagine a surname is more important than a first name... at least for my PO, they require me to give ID (of course it has a photo and all that too).

Yeah, luckily surname, or name at all, isn't an issue. I wish they carded for signature for mail here. They'll give it to anyone who answers the door here(which is how even signature confirmed orders end up at the wrong house here...)

So I guess it's more of a nitpick than anything lol. Since street address is correct. Still odd how it ended up like that with the new site, my previous account had my name right lol. Volks is full of surprises with this new system.

 

Anyone else order through Volks USA and not have their $200 down payment listed? I just checked my account and the only 'order' that shows is my old lottery entry. 😭 I'm hoping it is just website derpyness and the order isn't lost. I don't expect it would be but it sure gave me a panic to see that it was missing/not listed. I thought that somehow I had completely missed the payment email or something despite checking my email everyday.

On the plus side though, I'm really bad at math. 😂 Even going through Volks USA I get paranoid that I forget to calculate a fee correctly, so even though I have paid my $200 down payment, I've still saved the full amount for 9S without subtracting the $200. 🤣 That's the good kind of math to be bad at because it avoids me getting completely stressed out before the payment is due.

~SK

There’s a small section in the latest Volk’s news that states shipping will occur between October and November. Which we basically knew anyway.

Hoping this means no chance for a delay and that in-store pickup will be October. 

On 9/7/2019 at 7:26 PM, Sister Kyoya said:

Anyone else order through Volks USA and not have their $200 down payment listed? I just checked my account and the only 'order' that shows is my old lottery entry. 😭 I'm hoping it is just website derpyness and the order isn't lost. I don't expect it would be but it sure gave me a panic to see that it was missing/not listed. I thought that somehow I had completely missed the payment email or something despite checking my email everyday.

On the plus side though, I'm really bad at math. 😂 Even going through Volks USA I get paranoid that I forget to calculate a fee correctly, so even though I have paid my $200 down payment, I've still saved the full amount for 9S without subtracting the $200. 🤣 That's the good kind of math to be bad at because it avoids me getting completely stressed out before the payment is due.

~SK

Hello Sister Kyoya,

My preorder for 2B and 9S is listed in my order history, you might want to send Volks USA an email about it.

Finally got the reminder of my untouchable funds for them, hoorah! 

I am... however... very nervous about payment types. I remember this was before they switched to credit card or something only right? And there was a discussion many pages ago about it. I really hope they accept Paypal, Mastercard, etc. I was trying to pay Mandarake with Mastercard recently and it wouldn't go through because it didn't have some really specific type of security on it.

I can't wait for 9S. Like, the excitement is coming back like it did when I first saw the collab announcement. I finally get a doll I can hold and dress up and take with me from my favorite franchise on the planet. This is my 13 year old Drakengard obsession come true.

 

I actually have a custom Caim costume I commissioned (minus outer armor, working on that) that I'm totally going to put 9S in >__> So if anyone likes Drakengard 1 watch out for that fun (if it fits)

I did PayPal for my July Collection & Dolpa stuff on the international site a week ago. 

I think their credit card system does have a verification, but my card that doesn’t work on Mandarake works at Volks.  

3 hours ago, littlebirdzoom said:

I was trying to pay Mandarake with Mastercard recently and it wouldn't go through because it didn't have some really specific type of security on it.

OT but I wanted to offer what I know about this:

Mandarake requires what they refer to as 3D Secure on credit cards i.e. Verfied by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode, both products of a company called Arcot Systems.

This is particularly annoying for people in the US since, as far as I can determine, none of the major card issuers support this currently. Most information about this on companies' sites has been completely removed, and finding it is difficult anyway since some cards support it overseas but not here, but it appears several of the companies supported it a few years ago but stopped.

I have a card from Barclays which does not support the feature, but surprisingly works on Mandarake anyway. I didn't even try ordering from them for years after they made this change, thinking I couldn't (and since if you commit to an order and don't pay you can be banned I didn't risk it), went to the trouble to get another card that I thought had the feature as it's one that apparently used to, and upon finding that one did not work when I tried to order, in a panic tried the Barclays card and it worked, and has numerous times since. I'm sure some day, and probably now that I've talked about it, it'll stop working and I'll be locked out of ordering from them. (I won't make another Paypal account after losing money to them and I never trusted them anyway, my own personal quirk I suppose.)

A smaller regional bank here that offered their own cards did support the feature a few years ago, until they switched to a different card carrier where it also went away, so for anyone who has access to cards of that type, it may be worth checking on.

Additional: Mandarake is the only place I know that requires this. Other places use it but do not reject cards not supporting it, like Amiami. Probably depending on your internet service and speed, when checking out on anywhere that has it, you may see redirects to arcot.com. I also notice that Arcot is still using Adobe Flash, of all things; hopefully they fix that soon.

For a card that actually has the feature, you would get some kind of popup window that requires a verification code you enter, perhaps a login; as I've never actually seen it I don't know exactly what it looks like.

Cards that I know do not work on Mandarake: Capital One (the one that I believe used to have Verified by Visa support, does not now)

Edited September 12, 2019 by cfx

I tried talking to a credit card rep about the required 3D secure stuff.  They didn't even know what I was talking about.  This was even though I found a section on their page detailing how they supported it.

I gave up on it.  I continue to just use Paypal with Mandarake, which funds off one of my cards anyway.  So it's a needless hoop to have to jump through.  The only real effect it has is that I can't buy anything marked "18 or older", which has come up a couple of times but hasn't been that important overall.

 

2 hours ago, Gabriel said:

I tried talking to a credit card rep about the required 3D secure stuff.  They didn't even know what I was talking about.  This was even though I found a section on their page detailing how they supported it.

Heh, not surprised. With the exception of Amex who I've had great experiences with, the CS at any other card company seems to mostly suck. I've had an issue with Barclays just recently where the USPS apparently lost my payment. I contacted Barclays online about it to see if I could have the penalties removed, and all I got in response was a canned message that was completely worthless about how to make payments, mail them on time, make sure the checks are made out right, etc.

I forgot about this, but I did have another bad experience some years ago with 3D Secure. Back then I had that local bank card that supported it, but I never activated the function on the card because I didn't think I needed it, and the signup site for it was just plain text where it didn't even look legitimate. Play-Asia supported the feature, but didn't require it, and something must have been set up incorrectly. I tried to use this particular card there, I got the signin popup thing which I couldn't use since I didn't have the thing activated, and so then my card was rejected, and locked where I couldn't use it at all, anywhere.

So, my opinion of 3D Secure isn't a good one, and it's cost two companies business from me, not that I'm typical necessarily. I stopped dealing with Play-Asia after that, and was afraid to order from Mandarake for several years whereas I'd been buying a fair number of figures from them before they made that change.

A friend asked Mandarake if they were aware that few/no cards in the US supported 3D Secure, and got a response that amounted to "whatever..."

VERY good to know! Thank you to all three of you!

 

Guess it's a Mandarake quirk then as far as the exclusivity goes lol. I've used my credit card on AmiAmi before and it worked fine. I used *a* card on Volks Int in the last few months but I can't quite remember which one. One worked and one didn't. I really should have written down which was which. I had no idea that the 3D secure feature was such a pain, and an unknown pain. Seeing as how weird Japan is with payment systems outside of their own, none of this surprises me though xD

 

(Side note, never thought in 2018 I'd get excited that somewhere in the developed world accepted card. Thanks Japan.)

 

I'm very relived that this payment process might not be a headache.

 

12 minutes ago, cfx said:

 

A friend asked Mandarake if they were aware that few/no cards in the US supported 3D Secure, and got a response that amounted to "whatever..."

Just wish they would make this very obvious when electing payment methods. Nearly cost me my account with them. I'll keep my colorful opinions to myself, but I just wish they'd make it obvious. 

Edited September 12, 2019 by littlebirdzoom