VolksUSA No Longer Accepting Volks NEWS LE Preorder Items

So if you're not up on their FB page, today VolksUSA announced this:

 

Unfortunately, VOLKS USA will no longer be accepting the VOLKS NEWS special item pre-orders.

 

We are incredibly sorry for the inconvenience and if you have any questions please feel free to ask.

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

Am I the only one that's starting to get a little upset with how they're handling their North America customers?

 

Is the next announcement going to be that they won't be carrying the new clothing releases?

 

I mean.. c'mon Volks, quit making it so hard for me to love and throw money at you... TT^TT

I feel like the list of what they don't (or won't?) do is two or three times longer than the list of things they actually can do...

If this means what it really sounds like then it's surprising, why would they put the US branch under new management and invest in a new website if they don't intend to allow people to order their limited items? I thought the idea was to offer better service to our part of the world?

 

I'll withhold judgement until they clarify what this means for us but unless there's a communication problem here then this isn't a good thing.

I think this refers specifically to the ones you get via Volks News. . .though on top of the no-lottery-limiteds thing it isn't looking good.

 

I really really hope the no Dolpa lottery thing ends up being temporary. I can kind of understand not wanting to do the Volks News ones though, since the magazines get to the US so much later than they do to Japan--while I have never tried to get Volks News items, the US setup always sounded a little kludgy. ^^; The Dolpa stuff seemed relatively streamlined though, so don't know why they'd keep away from them forever.

At this rate they won't be carrying much to make buying from them worth while

Sylph no Sumika can solve this problem - for SD and DD Volks News items. There are no items on offer for this VN issue (#58), so it's just to keep in mind for the future.

 

The next Volks News #59 is due out at the end of June. Each issue does not always have a special item, and the special items that do come up aren't always doll-related, but if there's anything interesting out there this availability problem can usually be addressed.

 

I am suprised that VolksUSA would stop offering these. Dolls I guess I can understand since Volks International still sells them to USA customers via lottery. But there's no other official avenue for getting the Volks News items internationally.

It's good we have other means incase there is something we really and truly want enough to pay the upcharge/fees on them - but it gets to be a little much when Volks still wants to have some sort of NA presence but then not actually *want* our business on the same items they offer to their native Japan customers.

 

It confuses me from a business standpoint why they're making all these changes when they've downsized and no longer have a physical storefront. You'd think that this change would allow them to have *more* options for customers and not less. Maybe they're all temporary until they restructure?

 

Just don't understand a company that sells luxury items wants to make it harder for people who want to give them money. That seems crazy backwards o__O

If this means what it really sounds like then it's surprising, why would they put the US branch under new management and invest in a new website if they don't intend to allow people to order their limited items? I thought the idea was to offer better service to our part of the world?

 

I'll withhold judgement until they clarify what this means for us but unless there's a communication problem here then this isn't a good thing.

 

 

Not saying this is possible but from how I have seen some companies run. Maybe they just plan to use this website for namesake and use their old building for the time being to forward items from their volks japan warehouse and then go directly to website = orders shipped directly from japan only. I have noticed some businesses slowly cutting some of their expenditures with overseas stuff since it's not as profitable. I'm more then likely incorrect but that is what I have seen working with businesses over the past 18 years that look more at profit balance in their home country versus smaller profit in another country. Not to mention the headaches of too many orders to fill for what they plan to make and mark up costs

Just ignore me on this It was all just a dream.....

So, will VolksUSA just be for Standard dolls? No more limited anything?

I'm perplexed by this. Yes, we can still order from Volks international, but really?! Why make it harder for us to obtain items directly from them. All this is going to do is make everyone go for after market things at higher prices. As if it wasn't hard enough to get limited items. -_-

In a weird way I am just starting to wonder what is the point at all in having the VolksUSA website if they're pretty much only going to be making it slightly easier for NA customers to order standard edition stuff?

I'm perplexed by this. Yes, we can still order from Volks international, but really?! Why make it harder for us to obtain items directly from them. All this is going to do is make everyone go for after market things at higher prices. As if it wasn't hard enough to get limited items. -_-

 

 

tell me about it - call me crazy... but the whole scalping/markup-war in the DD world is getting a bit much... I want to give Volks 100% of my money for their items, not pay some middle man all the time...

 

Had this been a year ago, the prepainted DDH-07 and DDH-05 heads would have been unavailable (am i remembering that right?), so I mean.. lately they've been doing wigs so it's not like we're missing *that* much (though they were super cute!), but who knows what they'd offer in the future that we can't get in on.

 

Can we even order the News booklets from the International site? And with the books are non-Japan residents able to even partake in the preorders that way?

 

I just hope this is all temporary while they restructure. /pray

 

(...and I shudder to think of what could happen if they announce some issue with the Miku preorders. I'll go mental lol)

Restructurings like this are not too unsurprising, if you look at the larger situation of Japanese companies in general. Unless they're a monolithic multinational company like Sony.. for everyone else, the domestic Japanese market is the most important, and overseas is just kind of a "nice to have". For another example, Studio Ghibli has never really cared how its movies do overseas or if it gets any overseas awards.

 

Volks might leave it as temporary, pulling back and then rolling things out in a different way. Or they might just change the services offered to make it easier on the home office: just sell standard items and event-limited clothes to overseas markets. We shall see.

 

Can we even order the News booklets from the International site? And with the books are non-Japan residents able to even partake in the preorders that way?

No. You have to be a Japanese VS/VIP member in order to obtain the order forms with your Volks News in the first place. Thus not just anyone in Japan can get the items either. You can come to Japan on vacation and buy a Volks News to get the magazine itself, but it won't help you get any limited bonus items from it. Even if you did manage to join VS/VIP while here and get an order form you'd still need a proxy, because on every order form there is exactly one sentence written in English: "Shipping is within Japan only." ^_^;;