Buckle up boys and girls because it's time and I am motivated for another shop review. This time, it's (you guessed it) Nippon-Yasan.com. I'll cut right to the chase and say that this site is TERRIBLE, but as way of explanation I will now tell you the story of the figure I paid for in full but will never receive, and what mistakes I made along the way to bring me to the conclusion that I will never spend another dollar at this site again, and that I will also actively discourage people from doing so whenever the opportunity arises.
Part 1 - Ship Girls Poison the Mind
Back in September of 2019 I decided to see what all the fuss was about with the very popular phone game, Azur Lane. I never really had an interest in Kancolle when it was popular because the designs of the ship girls didn't appeal to me, but Azur Lane had what were in my opinion better and more varied designs. On top of that, they had some really nice figures on the horizon including a pair from Alter that looked really stunning. Already kind of late to the game, I missed the pre-order window for Alter's Atago from Amiami and TOM at the time wasn't selling Azur Lane figures, so I decided to turn to Nippon-Yasan who in the past had been useful for snapping up pre-orders on figures that had already had their orders closed on other sites. It would only be apparent to me how they manage this much later. It's important to note that at this point, I paid in full for some reason. I think the issue was that I had read stories online of people with pre-orders from Nippon-Yasan being asked to pay more than originally quoted on account of shipping changes, and I figured I could side-step any eventual problems by just paying in full up-front.
Part 2 Delays - Pandemics, and Waiting
As is the case with any Alter figure, Atago and her sister ship Takao (which I had ordered from Amiami before the window closed) were delayed and delayed and then things got even worse on account of the global pandemic. When the figure finally released in June or July (I forget which exactly) I contacted Nippon-Yasan via their support ticket system to inquire what would happen with my order now that SAL shipping was no longer available. After several attempts to contact them they finally responded by telling me that I could either pay more for UPS (no), ship by ferry (seems risky), or wait for SAL to become available again. At that point, I decided to wait for SAL. I figured that they have my figure and I could just get it later no problem. Oh how stupid I was.
Part 3 - The Waiting, Part Deux
As time went on it became apparent that SAL shipping might never come back. I contacted Amiami to consolidate my orders and change my shipping option to DHL, which they did no problem and promptly, but when I contacted Nippon-Yasan all I got was 2 weeks of silence. I contacted them again, and nothing still. Finally I went to their chat support, who told me they would check with "the team" about my tickets, and then that night recveived the following message:
Hello
Thank you for your message
Sir , i regret to inform you even if you change the shipping method we won't be able to honor your order.
We do not have the product anymore it's really difficult to find this product now
We are terrible sorry for the inconvenience, here the option we can offer you:
- refund your order by store credit (time to make a proper refund has been expired)
- if there are something on the website, make an exception and switch the product (prices have to be equivalent)
- keep the order but we do not know when it will be ship , change now or after the shipping method.
Kind Regards
Nippon-yasan.com
Customer Service
Excuse me what the fuck?
Part 4 - ???
I have asked them for store credit, which is not a replacement for this figure at all by any stretch, but seeing as to how I do not even have the credit card which I paid this order with any longer and it was over a year ago I doubt I could get my actual cash back. What's fucked up about this is that I paid for the damn figure and they either lied when they offered me to change my shipping earlier in the summer or they just went ahead and sold my figure to someone else while I was waiting for SAL to come back. I'm not crushed because I don't think the figure actually came out that well in the end from the pictures I've seen. Mostly I'm just agitated because this is a shitty way to do business and people need to stop shopping at this damn site.
Anyway, don't shop at Nippon-Yasan. Nippon-Yasan is not a good site. I would say even if they are the only source you can find that has the figure available to pre-order, don't do it because that order is not a guarantee that you will get your figure. On top of that, they will not issue a refund. I have an idea of how I will use the credit if and when they ever issue it to me, so will update here later if it works out, but in the end this has just been a huge hassle. I've had plenty of normal transactions with them, but in my opinion the acceptable failure rate for a service that sells items that are this expensive is 0%. Beyond that, I'll take my business elsewhere.
update: After badgering them again they've issued me a credit which has some weird stipulation that the subtotal (not counting shipping wtf) need be at least 1 yen higher than the refund amount. I've used it to pre-order (I know I'm a dumbass I should have ordered in-stock items) this figure which actually I already have an order on through Native's shop, but that order was placed with a credit card that has since been re-issued with new account numbers due to fraud and is also extremely temperamental when it comes to accepting any charges at all, so the current possibilities are 1) I will get one figure from Native, 2) I will get 1 figure from Native and one from Nippon-Yasan, or 3) I will get one figure from Nippon Yasan, or 4) I will get no figures and have to go through this again with Nippon-Yasan. I'm hoping just for 3 to happen. I also had to order two prepaid JP eShop codes to bump the sub-total over the refund amount, so guess I'll be getting a final fantasy game or something on the JP eShop.
Pretty sure I fucked up on this one, but we'll see.
update 2: I went back to Nippon-Yasan and swapped the order for an in-stock item. This time, they refunded my order (not sure if it was refunded entirely including the eShop codes yet, but we'll see) and split the voucher into two portions so that I could use the entire voucher on this item which is in-stock. The secret to getting them to respond to support tickets is to go to chat support and ask them SPECIFICALLY to "follow up with the team" or "flag the ticket." This is their language that they have used in the past and it translates into them checking up on it that same day. Once somebody from support is actually looking at your ticket they will generally be responsive on it. At this time, my recommendation would still be to only use Nippon-Yasan for in-stock items as a last resort when all other means to obtain the figure you want are exhausted.
update 3: I finally received my Faery Queen Elaine, based on the Tony Taka art and produced by Native and it's a beautiful, high quality figure I think in the end I actually came out ahead in this whole ordeal. The pictures of the final Atago are not very impressive IMO, and I sold the Takao I received from Amiami for some slight profit, so in the end everything worked out.
update 4: This site went out of business. They won't be missed.
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