Volks no longer going to accept Paypal?

Well, this is disheartening to say the least. I relied on Paypal for Volks Int. because our prepaid Visa card never works. I even tried to use it when we paid for Luka. Freaked me out that I was going to screw it up for Raven initially thinking that the CC would be the safer option. I was in a panic until PayPal went through with flying colors. I have used PP for all of my preorders, Len's lottery, and the random webstore purchases the last 5 years.

 

I've been struggling to be involved in the hobby since my health took a nose dive, and this is going to certainly affect it as well. Although I'm doing better in some areas I'm still so super easily exhausted especially in the heat, and I'm still afraid that complicated photo setups may be beyond my ability now unless it is a rare occasion. Being able to get new Kiddos along with everyone else pretty much felt like the only way I could join in. So emotionally it kinda feels like getting flipped the bird by Volks Int. despite the fact that I have ben a model customer with no complaints for years.

 

I am just very, very saddened to hear this.

 

~Sister Kyoya

Are you able to use one of those aforementioned PayPal cards, SK? Maybe you can apply for one. I looked into that myself but it seems to be US-only :/

 

I have to admit that seeing even more talk of cards being declined makes me uneasy. Has anyone in Australia had Volks decline a card before, and if so, what kind? I’m pretty sure I’ll need to get a new card once I’m back there anyway so I may as well get one I can be sure will work.

Are you able to use one of those aforementioned PayPal cards, SK? Maybe you can apply for one. I looked into that myself but it seems to be US-only :/

 

I have to admit that seeing even more talk of cards being declined makes me uneasy. Has anyone in Australia had Volks decline a card before, and if so, what kind? I’m pretty sure I’ll need to get a new card once I’m back there anyway so I may as well get one I can be sure will work.

 

I recently just moved to Melbourne and there has been some issues with cards with paypal. So far 2 types of cards are not accepted by volks.

Any EFTPOS cards are a no-go for any online purchase. So if you plan to get a bank card, always ask for a Visa card(Not sure if mastercards work, but Visas are always accepted everywhere). And yes, you can get Visa debit cards. Paypal cards are not accepted overseas sadly, especially with purchases which aren't my US addresss. My paypal was actually frozen because I attempted to use a Paypal card in Australia to a website purchase which wasn't my US address, the issue was fixed though. I am too scared to try it again.

So emotionally it kinda feels like getting flipped the bird by Volks Int. despite the fact that I have ben a model customer with no complaints for years.

 

I am just very, very saddened to hear this.

 

~Sister Kyoya

 

I wasn't happy to hear about it, but I suspect it really has to do with the bad behavior of a few bringing a consequence to the many.

 

It seems like Volks is experimenting with new ways of getting dolls into the hands of the people who want them, which entails a certain amount of risk. Consequently they may be reducing their risk in other areas. (A guess on my part, we don't really know why.) I don't like the idea that Paypal assumes the customer is always right, and can renege on payment after receiving goods in good faith. I think that is a slipshod way of handling business. I can understand how Volks might think it's just too risky to maintain the partnership.

 

I can think of a few businesses that went under when new product lines failed to sell at the same moment they had cash flow problems, so I can understand caution.

Edited July 23, 2018 by Guest

I know PayPal has never really been big in Japan, to the point where I’m pleasantly surprised to even find businesses that offer it. I saw some vague rant on jtwitter a while back about Japan getting rid of convenient things that are common in the West, including PayPal and Air b&b on the list (unrelated to this convo but very recently something like 80% of Japanese air b&b listings have been taken down and it now requires an expensive license which few can be bothered getting due to the cost) I don’t know if other businesses besides Volks are getting rid of PayPal - the rant wasn’t from someone in the doll hobby as far as I could tell - but I don’t think this is only volks. Although I do wonder why they decided to when other sites like amiami have left it be.

Which is extra odd to me because japanese PayPal has been slowly starting to pop up in more places recently - although typically only places with international visitors.

I can confirm that an Australian debit mastercard works for volks,

 

I was wondering if it was the paypal fees that are causing the problem?

Is Paypal increasing the costs to merchants to use them? The press release from ebay about them switching away at least implied that, and if that's the case it's no surprise some places would stop accepting them.

 

For me personally, with all the hoops they made me jump through to claim the trivial amount of money I got from the few items I sold on this forum, once I finally got that I spent it and deleted my account and I'll never use them again. I dislike shopping places that use them as payment processor (without me having to have an account) because I don't want to support them at all. Between that experience and all the stories I read of them siding with buyers over sellers no matter what and I don't think much of the company.

 

But it's certainly bad for those who need them as a way to buy. I just wish there weren't so many places that only accepted payment through them; in this hobby especially it seems like practically all the companies in Korea or other parts of Asia only take payment via Paypal.

So this was brought up in one of the DD groups on Facebook, and someone said that Paypal recently increased its fees for some overseas countries, Japan included. So between that and them cracking down hard on sellers that try to charge buyers their fees, I can see why Volks dropped them.

I can confirm that an Australian debit mastercard works for volks,

 

I was wondering if it was the paypal fees that are causing the problem?

Good to know, that’s the card I have but I rarely use it.

I keep hearing some less great things about PayPal recently so I kind of want to drop it anyway now. I just also wish there was a similar alternative for people with the card problems.

Are there any Canadians here who can confirm which credit cards will work for Volks? I tried my visa debit and it didn't go through. I'd like to get one through my bank, but I don't want to bother if it won't go through anyway. Thank you! ❤️

Are there any Canadians here who can confirm which credit cards will work for Volks? I tried my visa debit and it didn't go through. I'd like to get one through my bank, but I don't want to bother if it won't go through anyway. Thank you! ❤️

 

I can confirm that my TD Visa wasn't working (even though I had no problems in the past) when I tried to get in the lottery for Kaede and buy items from Dolpa Sendai 2 after event online. I used my husband's CIBC Visa and it worked.

Are there any Canadians here who can confirm which credit cards will work for Volks? I tried my visa debit and it didn't go through. I'd like to get one through my bank, but I don't want to bother if it won't go through anyway. Thank you! ❤️

 

I can confirm that my TD Visa wasn't working (even though I had no problems in the past) when I tried to get in the lottery for Kaede and buy items from Dolpa Sendai 2 after event online. I used my husband's CIBC Visa and it worked.

 

Ahh ok thanks for the tip!! I was thinking about TD, so it's good to know.

I have a Paypal Mastercard that's really a credit card. Do ya'll think that would work? Has anyone tried? It's got its own credit limit and everything.

I managed to put in for Kaede, but not without some aggravation. Apparently my Visa from Bank of America doesn't work, but my military bank Visa does. The NICOS system (Volks' 3rd party verification) seems to recognize "Verified by Visa", and sent me a code to my cell to input when checking out.

 

I called BoA because they're also supposed to be participating in the Verified by Visa program. They blamed it on Volks and the NICOS system, and told me I needed to call the merchant. After explaining that I couldn't do that as I don't speak Japanese, they claimed it was because I didn't have my cell phone listed. When I pointed out it was already in my profile, and that I had opted in for the VbV program, they then claimed that I had to call and specifically set up that # for VbV.

After doing so, I was told that it would take anywhere from 15min to 36hrs to update in the system.

I never was able to get it to work, so I switched to the military bank Visa, which went through like a champ.

 

My BoA Visa is my hobby money card, which is why I tried so hard to fix things. The whole reason I got it years ago was because they advertised that it could be used for overseas purchases. So much for that!

 

My BoA Visa is my hobby money card, which is why I tried so hard to fix things. The whole reason I got it years ago was because they advertised that it could be used for overseas purchases. So much for that!

 

Not to sound cynical or anything, but you can probably thank criminal elements like the Russian Mob, and rogue states like North Korea for all these new restrictions. The banks are just desperately playing catch-up.

Hi there,

 

This message is mostly for Canadian residents with Canadian CCs.

 

My TD Visa didn't work on VolksINTL today and got blocked. I went to my branch, where they called TD loss prevention, unblocked my card and suggested that when I need to purchase anything from VolksINTL, I go ahead and purchase, then call them RIGHT AWAY and they will try to push the transaction through. I will try that in the end of October and report the outcome here, if anyone's interested.

 

Anyway, the DDIII NS body is on its way from VolksUSA!

I emailed Volks about some CC issues and their protection system (which is garbage, but mostly VISAs fault) and got this in response,

 

"*About Paypal

 

We are sorry to inform you that it has not been decided yet when we will make PayPal payment available again.

 

We are sorry that there are many things we cannot say for certain.

We ask for your kind understanding.

 

-------------------------------------------------

 

*About payment with credit card

 

We received inquiries from customers outside Japan that several credit cards can not be used.

As of now, Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Nicos has not announced any system failure problems.

 

Recently, Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Nicos strengthened security when paying credit card.

However it is unknown at this time whether this is the reason why some customers outside Japan can not pay credit cards.

 

We are currently contacting Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Nikos regarding the cause.

However, since Japan is a national holiday until September 17 (JST), the reply from Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Nikos is scheduled to be after September 18 (JST).

 

I will contact you as soon as the results are known.

Please wait.

 

Thank you very much for contacting us. "

 

 

They haven't contacted me back yet. Not sure if this helps, but at least it says that all this is currently on their minds. So there's that.

 

For reference, I bank with Wells Fargo. They blocked me from making the purchase and I just verified it with text/automated call and tried again and it went through (and probably will from now on). Whenever I go overseas or if I buy from one website a lot I can just tell them that and they will permanently unflag it for me. Not sure if that works in other banks, but maybe worth a try.

There's a new note on the Volks Japan webstore:

 

Regarding PayPal Payments

 

Dear Valuable Customers,

Thank you very much for using the VOLKS Website Store.

We would like to take this opportunity to inform you about PayPal Payments and updating our system.

Due to the system update by PayPal (on June 25, 2018 JST), the VOLKS Website Store could no longer accept payments through PayPal.

We are currently working to solve the issues by updating our system and hoping to complete by January 2019.

We are truly sorry for any inconveniences that were caused because of this issue. We would like to announce another method to accept PayPal Payments.

 

The "other method" is described here:

 

https://www.volks.co.jp/guide_en/payment/3_e/#another

That's wonderful news! I may just do that email method for 9S's preorder instead of trying to trouble-shoot my VISA, especially because my paypal already has a whole load of JPY in it that I've saved for that specific purpose.

I hope this method goes smoothly and doesn't cause problems for them.

That's wonderful news! I may just do that email method for 9S's preorder instead of trying to trouble-shoot my VISA, especially because my paypal already has a whole load of JPY in it that I've saved for that specific purpose.

I hope this method goes smoothly and doesn't cause problems for them.

Do note that apparently Paypal still won't be accepted for the deposit for the preorders though:

https://www.volks.co.jp/sp_d_029_nierautomata_en/?version=en

 

Pre-orders will be accepted through the payment of a deposit.

 

The deposit must be paid through credit card only. You can't use PayPal to pay the deposit.

As soon as we verify the payment of the deposit (to be paid by credit card) for the DD item of your choice, your pre-order will be confirmed.

It could be that info is older than the new Paypal note; however I think it was stated earlier in this thread that Saber and Jeanne's preorders were this way too? I don't personally know.

Aww man lol. I thought they might have changed their minds on that. I guess there's probably no getting around it then.

I hope the other people who were having card issues can get it sorted though.