Volks Int resumes international orders, temporary switch to DHL (UPDATED)

9 minutes ago, cfx said:

In case you didn't see this, HS has this message in their updates, this one dated 03/27:

Quote

Amid outbreak of COVID-19, we are still shipping orders as usual.
However, please note that international shipments are delayed/restricted in some countries (especially great delay has been confirmed for shipments to USA and Australia.)

*I* didn't see this update and I placed an order with HS on 3/31.

Glad I specifically asked for EMS but the delays are still annoying.

This is only my speculation, but it seems logical to assume that the delay is going to be the "waiting for a plane" stage, or perhaps even before that if Japan Post is short staffed or prioritizing other things; once it gets on a plane timing should be fairly normal, with the caveat of whatever delays may exist in the destination country. Put another way, EMS is going to behave like it is SAL.

I have a DDS Chihaya being shipped to me via EMS now, so waiting for that may be fun.

One other bit in those Hobby Search updates:

Quote

As for processing of your orders, payment will be charged as usual.
However, orders that cannot be shipped will be paused until their corresponding shipping services are resumed.

With the wording and since some countries can't be shipped to at all currently, that could be interpreted more than one way, but I read that as, you can order and still select SAL shipping, in which case the order will be held until it can be shipped via that method to you.

If that's right, different shops are handling the situation in different ways. If I understand Mandarake's policy page, they will hold a package for you if you are in a country that they can't currently ship to at all, but otherwise you must pick from one of the currently available options. In other words, here in the US if I order from them now I have to have my order shipped EMS or DHL; I can't choose SAL and have my package held.

Edited April 6, 2020 by cfx

I received a tracking number this morning for my Hobby Search package. The number is active on Japan Post's web site. Now I'll get to have "fun" wondering if an EMS package can make the trip across the ocean.

It's going to be slow at best. My Yahoo Japan package entered the tracking system at 04/06/2020 15:30 Japan time with the initial "Posting/Collection" status, and that's still where it is now. That hasn't been that long, but it's certainly not normal for EMS.

Thinking about it, perhaps that's another reason Volks suspended all shipments outside of Japan even to places EMS is still theoretically delivering to. There is all this uncertainty over how long it will take, and that would no doubt also lead to customers bombarding Volks with "Where is my package?" questions.

Funnily enough, and I guess this is just an automated process, but I just got an email from the proxy wanting me to rate my experience because it seems to think the package was shipped long enough ago that surely I have it already (lol).

Edited April 8, 2020 by cfx

With the new state of emergency declared in Japan, as of 04/08 several Volks stores including Doll Point are now closed until further notice:

https://www.volks.co.jp/cs/news/20200331_01.html

The ones still open have reduced hours, but I'm not sure if that has changed from earlier.

4 hours ago, cfx said:

It's going to be slow at best. My Yahoo Japan package entered the tracking system at 04/06/2020 15:30 Japan time with the initial "Posting/Collection" status, and that's still where it is now. That hasn't been that long, but it's certainly not normal for EMS.

My HS package is now in the "Arrival at outward office of exchange" status. USPS even recognizes the tracking number and shows the package as "Accepted". (My three Mandarake registered SAL packages have been in the "Posting/Collection" status and for the oldest one, that's been the case since 3/16.)

With the state of emergency adding on to the pile, l needed this like another hole in the head.

Edited April 8, 2020 by growcian

My order from last week just shipped EMS from Volks Japan. It's in the posting / collection state.

6 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

My order from last week just shipped EMS from Volks Japan. It's in the posting / collection state.

You ordered before they stopped taking orders? I was thinking about it that night right before they did it, but went to bed instead unfortunately.

My Yahoo Japan shipment is still in posting/collection, so I'm glad to see things are still progressing albeit slowly.

1 hour ago, cfx said:

You ordered before they stopped taking orders?

Yes, but it hadn't shipped when they announced a suspension in overseas shipments.

Japan Post has posted an update:

https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2020/0409_03_en.html

Quote

Considerable delivery delays for mail items destined to the United States

As we have announced previously, the novel coronavirus pandemic has caused a global reduction of flights. Accordingly, acceptance of international mail items to some countries/territories is temporarily suspended and considerable delivery delays are expected for outbound mail items to other countries/territories.

Although mail items to the United States are currently being accepted, it is expected to take more than two weeks to load the items that have already been accepted on airplanes to that country due to the significant reduction and suspension of flights.

Therefore, we are trying our best to dispatch promptly as many postal items as possible to the United States, cooperating with airline companies and the postal operator in that country.

We sincerely apologize that delivery will take more time than usual. It would be appreciated if you would kindly understand this situation in advance.

So it's going to take a while to get anything; essentially EMS will be as slow as SAL was during normal times. Of course, Volks isn't accepting orders now anyway, but for those last ones they took, and anything from other stores in Japan, this is where it stands now.

Edited April 11, 2020 by cfx

Not related to Volks per se but related to the previous thing I was talking about with my hobbysearch order... after more than two weeks of no tracking update I got one this morning...to say it had been returned to the sender ._. I would hope this means hobbysearch are gonna just hold onto it until things improve. I do feel better about the package being with them than stuck at the airport or something. But it does make me feel uneasy, especially because it was expensive. I’m just glad I don’t have anything else on preorder atm except for a figure that isn’t shipping until October, and i’ll be surprised if future release dates for figures aren’t delayed a few months anyway.

I’m sure I’m not the only one this has happened to so I just hope they’re able to keep track of all the returned packages.

While I don't see anything on the Hobby Search site about that particular situation, both Volks and Amiami specifically mention that packages that get returned like this will be held, so hopefully they're all prepared to deal with this particular issue.

My DD Chihaya from Buyee/Yahoo Japan has been sitting at "posting/collection" for a full week now and that's EMS. Earlier I thought EMS would be about the speed SAL used to be; now it's starting to look like it may rival sea mail. 😕

I have one figure preorder that's scheduled for July, which I'm sure would be delayed a month or two even without this virus; I would also hope the shipping situation improves by July.

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by cfx

Has anyone bought anything from Mandarake recently?  Have they been super slow as well?  I'm just wondering because I'm wanting to make an order with them in the next few days and while I know it'll take longer than normal even with DHL or EMS, I don't want it to be a month or two wait.

 

 

Billy

@baldylox Can’t say how fast Mandarake is processing but so far my work still has great delivery times with DHL. EMS is totally in the toilet though. Go for DHL or don’t buy right now I think. EMS really could take a month or more at this point.

As I wrote just above, I have an EMS package that was shipped on 04/06 and as of right now, it's still at the "posting/collection" stage i.e. hasn't even made it to "arrival at outward office of exchange" step yet, in over a week.

I read back through this thread, and @Monty's package that he posted above was returned to Hobby Search is also EMS, so there's no guarantee EMS will even be delivered even though the service is supposed to still be operating.

I also have a CDJapan package that was shipped unregistered SAL on 03/26 so I'm especially worried about that one.

I've resigned myself to the idea that I can't order anything else from Japan until this situation improves.

 

And of course, Volks Japan webstore has restocked several outfits I wanted, though maybe that's just them shuffling stock from Doll Point because it's closed. I imagine by the time I can order from there again these items will be gone.

 

 

10 minutes ago, cfx said:

I read back through this thread, and @Monty's package that he posted above was returned to Hobby Search is also EMS, so there's no guarantee EMS will even be delivered even though the service is supposed to still be operating.

Related: I have -two- friends in the US who ordered the exact same thing as me that shipped out at the same time as mine, also shipping by EMS, and they both received it within a week and a half of it shipping out, all while mine didnt update tracking at all. This is probably because of less flights to/from Australia than to/from the US, and I'm almost positive things have tightened since then (27th of March). So while I can say 'EMS to the US was ok 2 weeks or so ago, just a little slower than normal' I can't say for certain anymore, and kind of doubt it. So I hope those who have ordered stuff recently can share their own experiences. 

I'm personally not ordering anything internationally for a long time as said. At least I'll be saving a lot.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Monty

12 minutes ago, Monty said:

Related: I have -two- friends in the US who ordered the exact same thing as me that shipped out at the same time as mine, also shipping by EMS, and they both received it within a week and a half of it shipping out, all while mine didnt update tracking at all. This is probably because of less flights to/from Australia than to/from the US, and I'm almost positive things have tightened since then (27th of March). So while I can say 'EMS to the US was ok 2 weeks or so ago, just a little slower than normal' I can't say for certain anymore, and kind of doubt it. So I hope those who have ordered stuff recently can share their own experiences. 

Not Japan, but I had blue rays from the UK retailer base.com shipped to the US via Royal Mail on 03/25 and got those days ago, quicker than usual really. I had read that Royal Mail was using ships for all overseas shipments but that obviously wasn't the case here and I can't find anything on their website about that. Still, that was 2 weeks ago and things seem to have gotten worse since then. This probably classifies as airmail rather than SAL but I don't know for sure.

I had an Japan EMS package from Amiami (DD Shiburin) that was shipped on 02/22 and that got here in 4 days according to tracking, so at that time things were still normal. That feels forever ago now.

Japan Post canceled EMS to that group of countries on 04/01; I'm not sure if all SAL was canceled on that same date or earlier.

The rest of this is my speculation, not fact as I can't possibly know that, but it makes the most sense to me:

I think packages are piling up at the outward office(s) of exchange because of so few flights, and that's likely where they are sitting even though they maybe haven't been scanned to show that, likely because they're piling up. Killing SAL and some EMS was likely an attempt to deal with this, but it wasn't enough, and so the packages continue to pile up leading to them being returned to sender as with yours. To add to this theory, there is a thread on MFC where people are also talking about this situtation, and someone with a proxy package also stuck at the posting/collection stage had their proxy attempt to get the package back, and they found it had actually left that post office on its way to the office of exchange so it was either there or in transit between the two.

I would think it's a US vs Australia thing. I listen to two daily podcasts about Corona news, one is US based, and the other is Australia based. I like to compare how another country is dealing with things. It seems to me from listening to these, that Australia closed borders and went into self isolation sooner and cracked down much harder than than the US, to prevent what is happening here. The earlier delays to both countries are likely related to the backup due to a reduced number of flights. But now, since Australia is one of those who did stop accepting overseas packages entirely, if a package to Australia didn't make it out of the origin country before that, it just can't be shipped at all right now. In contrast, since the US doesn't really seem to have limited overseas mail, we can still order things, but it will likely take forever. At my job, I have noticed that even orders within the country are sometimes getting lost in transit, and the tracking won't have updated since mid-March. So if you will feel anxious about the package getting lost, I wouldn't order it yet if it were me.

2 hours ago, Beani said:

@baldylox Can’t say how fast Mandarake is processing but so far my work still has great delivery times with DHL. EMS is totally in the toilet though. Go for DHL or don’t buy right now I think. EMS really could take a month or more at this point.

Thanks for the input!  I was thinking going for the DHL option as well since that's how SmD is now shipping all their orders.  Hopefully that will work out nicely for me.  😉

 

 

Billy

1 hour ago, Monty said:

Related: I have -two- friends in the US who ordered the exact same thing as me that shipped out at the same time as mine, also shipping by EMS, and they both received it within a week and a half of it shipping out, all while mine didnt update tracking at all. This is probably because of less flights to/from Australia than to/from the US, and I'm almost positive things have tightened since then (27th of March). So while I can say 'EMS to the US was ok 2 weeks or so ago, just a little slower than normal' I can't say for certain anymore, and kind of doubt it. So I hope those who have ordered stuff recently can share their own experiences.

I will use this as an opportunity to share my pain!

Oh, wait...

The dates correspond to the last time the package was scanned, followed by the shipping status and package location. All packages are going from Japan to the US.

• Mandarake package #1: 3/16, Registered SAL, Posting/collection, Nakano post office
• Mandarake package #2: 3/21, Registered SAL, Posting/collection, Nakano post office
• Mandarake package #3: 3/25, Registered SAL, Posting/collection, Nakano post office
• Hobby Search package: 4/8, EMS, Arrival at outward office of exchange, Tokyo International

(Not everyone reading this knows the following so I'll add it here: Nakano is in Tokyo.)

So far, nothing was returned to sender. Yet.

1 hour ago, Monty said:

I'm personally not ordering anything internationally for a long time as said.

While I would like to say the same thing, I have a pre-order with Amiami due in May. I have no idea if/when I would be able to receive that.

At the very least, I won't be placing any new international orders until I'm confident I can actually receive packages from overseas.

1 hour ago, cfx said:

I had an Japan EMS package from Amiami (DD Shiburin) that was shipped on 02/22 and that got here in 4 days according to tracking, so at that time things were still normal. That feels forever ago now.

Indeed it does.

I had an Amiami order which shipped by EMS on 3/13. That arrived quickly as expected, so even then things were still normal.

I had another Mandarake order I placed on 3/19. This shipped with the speed of EMS despite me asking for registered SAL. Unlike with the packages currently stuck in Tokyo, this package flew out from Osaka International. I received this package at or around 3/26.

One additional bit of information: My EMS package (Chihaya) that has been at posting/collection since 04/06 is at the "Hino" post office in Japan (postal code 191-8799), wherever that is.

I also have an order from Cotin Doll that was shipped on 04/07 and as of 04/08 is at the "departure from outgoing office" stage (in Taiwan) i.e. waiting for a plane; this is airmail not EMS so isn't even late, yet. It isn't trackable on the USPS website though I assume it will be once it arrives here. That's an order I wouldn't have made, at that time, except every time I wait on their site they end up selling whatever wig(s) it was I wanted while I wait for them to stock something else.

1 hour ago, Jezrah said:

But now, since Australia is one of those who did stop accepting overseas packages entirely, if a package to Australia didn't make it out of the origin country before that, it just can't be shipped at all right now.

I didn't realize they'd done this. That makes me feel better that I'll get my package; it'll just take forever. I think it's correct that Australia locked everything down earlier; I exchange emails with someone who lives there and he was telling me about what was happening there before I was really aware of what was going on at all (because I don't really keep up with world news etc.).

Edited April 15, 2020 by cfx

8 minutes ago, cfx said:

One additional bit of information: My EMS package (Chihaya) that has been at posting/collection since 04/06 is at the "Hino" post office in Japan, wherever that is.

I also have an order from Cotin Doll that was shipped on 04/07 and as of 04/08 is at the "departure from outgoing office" stage (in Taiwan) i.e. waiting for a plane; this is airmail not EMS so isn't even late, yet. It isn't trackable on the USPS website though I assume it will be once it arrives here. That's an order I wouldn't have made, at that time, except every time I wait on their site they end up selling whatever wig(s) it was I wanted while I wait for them to stock something else.

I didn't realize they'd done this. That makes me feel better that I'll get my package; it'll just take forever. I think it's correct that Australia locked everything down earlier; I exchange emails with someone who lives there and he was telling me about what was happening there before I was really aware of what was going on at all (because I don't really keep up with world news etc.).

I should apply the caveat of: I don't know if Australia is not accepting packages from everywhere, but they are one of the ones listed that Japan Post isn't shipping to right now.

7 minutes ago, Jezrah said:

I should apply the caveat of: I don't know if Australia is not accepting packages from everywhere, but they are one of the ones listed that Japan Post isn't shipping to right now.

Oh, you are right, and this is new.

I had the initial document from April 1st with the list of countries Japan Post wasn't shipping to, and Australia wasn't listed. I see now that there is a newer version, dated April 10, and that now lists Australia among the countries not being shipped to. That explains why @Monty's package got returned to Hobby Search.

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by cfx

5 hours ago, Monty said:

So I hope those who have ordered stuff recently can share their own experiences. 

My EMS order from Volks Japan is has been sitting in the Sonobe post office in Kyoto since 4/8. As I understand it the Osaka airport handles international post for most of southern Japan, so I expect that stuff is going to move pretty slowly.

I didn't order stuff from Volks Japan recently but my friend is sending something to me by EMS (she is in Osaka, I'm in San Francisco), so far the last update is on April 7th at arrival at outward office.