Plaza Japan - what it's really all about

[BuggyDad 5385]

21 minutes ago, simalarion said:

one of those: Things you never thought you needed and still think you never would need when you get them.

Well, need is a strong word. The question is, do I open the packet and yoyo it, send my son to school with it or just marvel at its mere existence as usual. 

[Empty_Hand 203]

Helicopter .  Completely impractical as an eraser as skids and blades are hard plastic, which somehow makes it more charming.

 

[Raman36 1711]

My first odd experience with PJ

Placed an order at PJ on March 11th.

They shipped on March 19th via Japan Registered Airmail.

March 20th it left Japan. For the next 20 days tracking had zero updates. I message PJ to open a claim. They initially told me that it would take up to 8 weeks. This made me mad as it’s supposed to take 5-14 days per Japan Post.  So I told them to open a claim.

Last night I finally received an update. It arrived in NY Customs. It bypassed the entire west coast of US and arrived in NY?  🤦🏻

[smackers 16]

On 2/10/2024 at 5:01 PM, Exvee-Ohwan said:

PJ are now charging vat on all orders, irrespective of if they are over £135 or not.  I'm ok with this, but do I run the risk of getting double charged on vat on an order over £135 if customs intercept it?  My understanding is that as far as UK customs go, orders over £135 should not be charged vat at point of sale so they may not be expecting PJ to have already charged me.

Also, is the £135 threshold on the value of the goods only or the value of the order including shipping>

I did query about this because i wanted a Ford F-350 High Lift kit saying about the fact the tax was included and i'd be charged again when it reaches UK. The only shipping option was Fedex.

After reading their shipping t&c's i asked for the order to be processed manually and sent with Japan Post so that the Royal Mail will deal with it this end.

I was advised that they still collect and pay the tax to HMRC and use Fedex because they are the only company to accommadate the pre-payment of VAT on orders over £135.00

They seem to think i will not be charged any more but i think i may get a letter soon from Fedex asking for payment of import duties plus their admin fee.

The paperwork on box shows value of item as $240 and shipping as $0.00 so this will be interesting.

So far cost of item, shipping and paying through paypal with their fees etc the total is just under £300.

 

Third order from them this year, first i got a blue one of these erasers and this is my second pink one.

Would have been nicer to have something different but i'm not picky, they'll probably go to my nieces or nephews children anyway.

[Nick-W 1787]

34 minutes ago, smackers said:

I was advised that they still collect and pay the tax to HMRC and use Fedex because they are the only company to accommadate the pre-payment of VAT on orders over £135.00

They seem to think i will not be charged any more but i think i may get a letter soon from Fedex asking for payment of import duties plus their admin fee.

The paperwork on box shows value of item as $240 and shipping as $0.00 so this will be interesting.

Something strange happened on my last order. It just went over the £135 threshold. I chose DHL for the delivery. It seems from the tracking it got stopped at customs, rejected and returned to Japan. PJ then sent it straight back out with FedEx and it came through absolutely fine, no further taxes or charges. Hopefully yours will be fine too. 

[Sogogi 3358]

17 hours ago, Raman36 said:

My first odd experience with PJ

Placed an order at PJ on March 11th.

They shipped on March 19th via Japan Registered Airmail.

March 20th it left Japan. For the next 20 days tracking had zero updates. I message PJ to open a claim. They initially told me that it would take up to 8 weeks. This made me mad as it’s supposed to take 5-14 days per Japan Post.  So I told them to open a claim.

Last night I finally received an update. It arrived in NY Customs. It bypassed the entire west coast of US and arrived in NY?  🤦🏻

Yeah japan air mail is slow… i used it last time to save 5 bucks and not doing it again. 

[alvinlwh 7030]

.

[Raman36 1711]

3 hours ago, Sogogi said:

Yeah japan air mail is slow… i used it last time to save 5 bucks and not doing it again. 

I used this airmail 2 other times and received in a week and half. This time however was a disaster 

[Raman36 1711]

1 hour ago, alvinlwh said:

Wait till you see how long their surface mail takes!

I didn’t mind the old SAL service. Used it for items I was in no rush to receive. Took 2-4 weeks but was dirt cheap. 
 

4 years post covid however there still is no sal. Instead registered airmail that costs $5-8 less than Fed Ex /DHL. Was again ok with it for a week and half. But not this 

[toyolien 5570]

Never seen this one before:

 

[ruebiracer 1172]

On 4/13/2024 at 12:46 AM, toyolien said:

Never seen this one before:

 

Isn´t this a scale glass for your workshop @toyolien?

[toyolien 5570]

1 hour ago, ruebiracer said:

Isn´t this a scale glass for your workshop @toyolien?

Absolutely. They are almost a perfect 10th scale size.

[Juggular 5080]

On 4/5/2024 at 11:05 AM, Empty_Hand said:

Helicopter .  Completely impractical as an eraser as skids and blades are hard plastic, which somehow makes it more charming.

 

That is curious.  Erasers have plasticizer, which makes them soft.  If plasticizer touches plastic for a long time, plasticizer melts the plastic.  That's why erasers left sitting on ruler, keyboard, etc, would stick to them.  They must have used some special plastic.  

 

 

[middleagedgrup 235]

Evening all.  Has anyone tried to purchase anything from PJ yesterday and/or today?  I was unable to complete my checkout last night: the 'shipping' page refuses to load and then times-out after five minutes with a message saying it looks like their server is taking too long to respond, either due to poor connectivity or an error with their servers. Same all day today too...

[svenb 3911]

43 minutes ago, middleagedgrup said:

Evening all.  Has anyone tried to purchase anything from PJ yesterday and/or today?  I was unable to complete my checkout last night: the 'shipping' page refuses to load and then times-out after five minutes with a message saying it looks like their server is taking too long to respond, either due to poor connectivity or an error with their servers. Same all day today too...

Not today but a couple of weeks ago I had similar, had to change payment method then went through straight away 🧐

[Sogogi 3358]

Payment failed for me few times.. turns out there were items in my cart that are out of stock

[jonboy1 3333]

Is it just me, or are orders from PJ taking a very long time to process at the moment?

Previously, I'd place an order, get confirmation, then about an hour later get another one saying my order was being prepared for shipping, and shipped within a day from ordering.

The last 3 orders I've placed have taken over a week to process. The first one I contacted them about after a week as I thought there must be something wrong, and within 10 minutes of getting a reply saying "sorry, it is being processed now" it was dispatched.

The second order I realised was a day before a public holiday long weekend, so I expected a bit of a delay, but again, it was 10 days before it was dispatched.

The third order is now on day 9 and still no sign of it being sent.....

[Twinfan 1831]

Perfectly normal for them to take between 3-10 days to process in my experience.  I believe the stock is held in different locations, so depending on what you ordered it can take a few days to get everything into the same place for final packaging.

I don't think I've ever had one go out within hours, 5 or 6 days is the average for me.  But then my orders are usually a pile of small things that are probably scattered across Japan!

[jonboy1 3333]

7 minutes ago, Twinfan said:

Perfectly normal for them to take between 3-10 days to process in my experience.  I believe the stock is held in different locations, so depending on what you ordered it can take a few days to get everything into the same place for final packaging.

I don't think I've ever had one go out within hours, 5 or 6 days is the average for me.  But then my orders are usually a pile of small things that are probably scattered across Japan!

Ah ok, good to know thanks! Was starting to think they didn't like me any more!

[toyolien 5570]

Mine have always taken at least 5 days to ship. I just assumed they walked round the warehouse extremely slowly....

[SlideWRX 896]

On 5/29/2024 at 4:22 AM, jonboy1 said:

Previously, I'd place an order, get confirmation, then about an hour later get another one saying my order was being prepared for shipping, and shipped within a day from ordering.

The last 3 orders I've placed have taken over a week to process. The first one I contacted them about after a week as I thought there must be something wrong, and within 10 minutes of getting a reply saying "sorry, it is being processed now" it was dispatched.

I have had both.  A couple times I had an out-of-stock item in my cart, that got there when it was in stock but I took too long apparently.  I have emailed them to refund that item & ship the rest and that gets it going.

[Alex97 455]

On 5/29/2024 at 9:50 AM, toyolien said:

Mine have always taken at least 5 days to ship

I had a sub 24 hour dispatch a few days ago, usually the longest part is the dispatch time!

[simalarion 2530]

I must wait 1 Year and then i need to take a flight to Japan and pick it up for myself!

 

[Sogogi 3358]

Looks like PJ increased prices for tamiya items.

Real price used to be lower than the face value on the packaging, but now actual price is 10% higher than the face value…..

[Twinfan 1831]

Holy cow!  I placed an order last week and one of the items has gone up by £10/over 25%!  Super Stock motors are now ~£30 too.

Wow.