Otacute is a MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT!
Yeah, i've been doing my figure collecting/shopping online for the longest time and by far i have received cancellations of my orders in the earliest time. But never have i experienced such atrocity that an item i pre-order ends up cancelled and them blaming dengeki for it. Here is the email that i received.
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Dear Reyes Augustus Caesar,
Thank you for your interest in otacute.com.
My name is Vincent and I'm the manager of otacute.com.
I'm writing you concerning your reservation of [Toradora!] Aisaka Taiga China Dress Ver. (Dengeki Limited Edition).
I'm sorry to inform you that due to modification of the reservation deadline for this product on dengekionline, we couldn’t order it before the new order deadline as far as we weren't able to get this information.
We tried all what we could do to get this products, but unfortunately we weren't able to get it.
I'm sincerely sorry about that and I deeply apologize for the inconvenience.
I will have to cancel your reservation for this product as far as we can't get it.
I hope you'll understand this is a very exceptional case. In the future, if we will propose that kind of products again, we will make sure we will be informed in the case of a reservation deadline modification.
I really wish this incident won't discourage you to continue to trust us and I hope we will have the opportunity in a near future to satisfy your wishes again.
I thank you for your understanding.
Best Regards,
For the Otacute Team,
Vincent
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In my case, this is the worst possible thing to occur in my pre-order experiences online. I don't mind if my order gets cancelled but make sure that it is cancelled at the earliest time possible so that i could immediately order from a different vendor who has access to it. Take note that this particular Taiga figure is a limited edition with limited slots for pre-order. I went with Otacute given that it's one of the online vendors that i have access with and a friend of mine already had order with them that went good. If i had access to japanese sites to pre-order this with less hassle i've already done so.
That said, I am so disappointed with Otacute that i'll never do any purchase with them from this point forward regardless of what. I'm currently doing purchases with AmiAmi, HLJ and Play-Asia and by far these guys have never botched on me not even once!
PS:
Yeah and now i don't have any means to pre-order this particular Taiga since all known orders/preorder of this item are closed.
Figure of the year is now annoyance of the year. Nice service otacute... It ain't cute at all..
EDIT:
Before i create or purchase personally from an online store i hitch hike from someone who has used their service. When proven that it is good then that's the time i do my personal purchase under my own name. So it's not an excuse for me that i've not tested the service quality of an online store. I do make sure i test it for that is my extra mile on this.
Otacute sent me a reply about this that they had to cancel all of it and along with it is in apology. Well the thing is apology isn't going to fix my problems in acquiring something special for a very special occasion. Not to mention i had to skip on other items such as Senjougahara figure etc. for this. That's how much of a hassle it is which is why i am so disappointed.
I also do understand your posts that not to be specific on this but as like what i have posted. This isn't the first time i get cancellation but...
BUT at the very least the other online shop informs me AHEAD OF TIME so that i have ample time to preorder with a different store. It's really easy to do tracking on your items and orders as long as you are really into your business and want to provide excellent customer service.
I have the same email too. Well I have noticed that Otacute.com usually has their items a day or two behind amiami.
It hurts to know that I won't get this figure either, and I was really looking forward to it too, but hey what can you do about it.
Hopefully this won't happen to any of us again, from this website or others.
In my case it won't happen again since i won't be doing my shopping with them.
To think i've recommended them to some of my friends too. From now on i'd stick with the top guys who are 100% reliable instead of shooting for the moon.
To each their own opinion, I so far haven't had a problem with Otacute, and I still have alot more figures on preorder thru them.
So I'll be giving them a second chance myself, it hurts to not get that figure, but I'll live =3.
In my case it hurts cause that figure is estimated to arrive in the month of the anniversary for my girlfriend and she likes taiga so i got this for her even if i'm not a usual fan of limited edition items plus I cancelled some of my orders to make way for this then F happens....
SIGH!
That really sucks for you man.
Ya can try to get the Taiga from the Beach Queen series, she looks adorable in her 1 piece swim suit, and inner tube. There are some other really nice Taiga figures out there too, that your girlfriend will probly love to have, unless she already has them.
And Taiga is one of my favorite characters too =0, LOLIs FTW
:( Otacute arn't a major disappointment. They've always been wonderful for me. You can't base their existence on one very unfortunate bad experience though.
Ouch. I havent bought from them, good to know about this. There are previous posts complaining about them too, concerning with packaging of the parcels with insufficient protection.
You can't simply blame them for things like this. It happens sometimes that they can't get several items in. It's not the end of the world plus there's Yahoo Japan, Mandarake and maybe other places that you can try your luck at.
Sorry to hear that, it seems Otacute has been getting a lot of bad publicity lately.
Although Otacute has disappointed you, it has been good for others. If this actually happened on a regular basis, then I think there's a problem. I don't think you should call it a "major disappointment
With businesses, there's always an unlucky customer who does not get their product or gets a defect product
I think it's bad to judge a supplier based on your first experience with Otacute but as the saying goes, "first impressions are important"
Sounds like you're overreacting. Sure what they did was wrong but they're not completely at fault. I wouldn't write them off just because they weren't able to get one exclusive/limited item. They're usually able to get most of their limited/exclusive items in stock and at reasonable prices too. At least they're apologizing for it and acknowledging they made the mistake. And sorry but as much as you wanted this Taiga figure I wouldn't call her "figure of the year". She is far from it IMO.
I just bought two figures from them which were sold out at every major store. I was so thankful they had them in stock! Otacute has been my savior in my case. And I have done plenty of business with them in the past and have never experienced any major problems. If you think Otacute is horrible then trying buying from some American retailers. You'll really be set up for disappointment.
It may be far from figure of the year for some but for the girl i am with in my relationship, for her it is but i do get your point.
since you're in the philippines, have you tried great toys or wasabi? yes their figures arrive like 3-6 months after its been released in japan but based on experience, once you pre-order something, its all good.
anyway, i think not buying from them based on one bad experience is not right. especially since this is a limited figure i would really expect something like this from any retailer.
I've been doing local figure shopping with Wasabi Toys but the thing is that i never got to the deadline on this one with Wasabi so i ended up there.
well, i'm in no position to say this (as i have not yet to purchase anything from Otacute), but i think other hobby stores in Japan does better job than Otacute in every ways, from pre-order to shipping, judging by people's posts lately.
i think Hobby Search, AmiAmi, and HLJ are just good enough. just my personal opinion though so.. ya.. useless point i made here i guess. ^ ^;
I got the same mail too! It's really dissapointing that they can't get them pre-orders. Now I have to try and secure her else where.(if luck permits) IMO Otacute is great though but this is really an major ouch...@^@
I've updated my post to answer some of the questions here. Thanks for reading...
They wouldn't know that you wanted it for a special occasion
They sell a lot of products, so they would be quite busy with keeping up with whats in and whats not
People make mistakes and this is just one of them, just gotta live with it.
An apology is better than nothing~
I have buy several items from otacute. The only thing that makes me worried is, they tend to ship small package with small cardboard box, and almost leave no gap inside the box for paper or bubble wrap protection. BUT so far, the packages came alright.
They're unable to get the item you wanted so much, it suck, I know. But it doesn't mean they're bad seller.
Aw crap, now I remember I still got one unpaid order to Amiami... Gotta pay now :D
I've also ordered from Otacute and been satisfied with their service despite their poor packaging. I got my Drossel from them when nobody else had her available so in my eyes they are a good company.
I've purchased from Otacute several times in the past and have been very satisfied with their service. I'm sorry that this unfortunate incident occurred, but it certainly does not make Otacute a bad company, certainly not one you should write off completely. It sounds like they were very sincere in their apology email to you, and even if you were disappointed, I think it's important to acknowledge that they put forth the effort to write to you and everyone else this occurred to. Other companies might not have been so personal with you about the matter and just said, "oops, sorry!" or something along those lines. XD;
Anyhow, I hope you are able to find the figure somewhere else. You might try Y!Japan auctions or Mandarake after she is released. I'm sure an opportunity will come by!
You could probably check Mandrake after it comes out. They will probably have a few for a bit.
Wasn't the pre-order deadline back in June? If you check Tokyo Hunter he had an order deadline of June 14.
I know ppl are being reasonable here but won't you be really annoyed/pissed off if you really wanted a figure and expected to get it and suddenly have it canceled on ya?
if you are willing to dish out money for a figure that you really want, you would try to find it else where after it got released. I am not joking when I am saying this.
Regardless, I would ask Tokyo Hunter if he has some extras and see if you can obtain one.
Of course you could go somewhere else after release and pay a premium to get it. It is just that most ppl, or at least me, have planned out how much to spend in advance or planned to save up the expected price + shipping. So yeah, I would get really annoyed too if I suddenly have to go search Mandrake or YJA for something I expected to get.
I mean sure, I never had an order cancel on me, but I know situations when I looked far and wide to get something I really wanted, since I have the means to do so now (which resulted in an over priced Nanoha Nendo). What I am saying is, if you planned that much, you should also plan for cases when these kinds of things happen <- as I say this, I wonder if others take the same kind of measures when stuff happens (since in my case, the only thing "limited" I ordered were the Touhou Nendos, which I ordered from Tokyo and Nico Tsuhan directly -using a proxy).
As well, shouldn't we be "expecting" these kinds of things from a pre-order? I mean from how the letter reads, and the reaction from the thread maker, it seems as though the company (Otacute) was trying to make ends meet due to some movement in Dengeki Hobby, which failed. I mean, I would also assume that other retailers would have been dealt a blow by this event. I would also assume that the safest bet for this kind of things would be to have a proxy service, and order directly from the distributor (Dengeki, right?)
It's just bad strategy/management on their part.
In my case I placed the order with them 2 months before the new dengekionline deadline. So looks like they don't put their orders in until just before deadlines. As i'm sure you're well aware, popular items tend to run out of stock earlier, even for preordered goods. So Otacute didn't exactly employ a good strategy to secure this limited figure for their customers.
i reckon someone fcked up in office otacute.
I've only ordered from HLJ.com preorders and they've been so awesome.
I've also preorder collectors edition of the first Haruhi game released on psp from YesAsia.com that one was harsh, cause they had to cancelled it then they brought it back then they upped the price gah it was a mission to get a solid answer. but in the end i got it and now i have a psp vertically standing with yuki as my clock.
I hope you some how get your item that you really want.
I haven't had any experience with that store, but for limited/magazine order/web order (exclusives) as such, we're lucky that someone even accepts overseas orders for....
But as for your case, there is always the last resort of auctions.yahoo.co.jp
I am not surprised Otacute did this. It is just one thing on the list of stuff they do wrong.
1) If you preorder something and it goes down in price when it is released you will NOT get the lower price
2) Most packages come with minimal to zero padding. If it is a nendoroid or figma chances are there is no padding at all. I've had 10 packages from Otacute, most packaging I've ever got was one small sheet of bubble wrap on the top of the box. Nothing on the sides or bottom.
3) While most online stores say you cannot cancel orders, most allow you to. Otacute allows you one cancellation IF you harass them over an order.
4) You cannot combine orders at all. Since most figures are released on completely different days it is hard to wait to place an order. Why? Because if you wait, chances are you won't get the figure AT ALL because the first one is now sold out. AmiAmi automatically groups orders. HS allows you to combine too.
5) Their shipping costs for SAL/EMS are higher than AmiAmi or HS, at least for me.
6) They do not update you via email if a figure is delayed. AmiAmi does, HS order status page shows dates too. To find a date for Otacute you have to go to the product page and look at the bottom and hope they updated it.
I only use Otacute for limited items that only they have. Thankfully that hasn't been that many anymore.
Perfect list. Exact same thoughts from me as well.
I woke up this morning and checked my email. I gotten the same exact email as you, I was so dam disappointed. I was all excited and couldnt wait for the figure to arrive in early November but WTF Otacute, if you couldnt told me that earlier before the pre-order deadline, which was somewhere in JUNE!! I could have pre-ordered from Tokyo Hunter or something. Now I cant even get the figure cuz its limited Edition! Later on, its gonna be one expensive figurine.
If you do the middleman thing, you'll probably be able to get her via YJA.
I felt the exact same way you did. This was my first order with Otacute and I'm EXTREMELY upset about it. While it seems dengeki did make some changes, that doesn't mean Otacute isn't completely free from fault. If other stores were able to secure orders for the figure, there's no reason why they couldn't.
Well, there're lots of online shops but since I can remember I've only using HLJ, HobbySearch and Cdjapan because I did never have a problem dealing with them and it's true that other shops have nice discount, but I prefer not to try others and suffer some bad experience.
For the same, don't know anything about Otacute and I fell sorry for you and this situation, isn't funny when something that you really want suddenly goes out of your hands.
Cheer up!
I placed an order with them on this item as well.
I placed the order on the 19th of April. The dengekionline (newer and earlier) cutoff deadline is 14th of June. They had almost 2 months to put their order in for me yet they somehow managed to miss it.
It doesn't really matter if dengekionline had shifted the deadline to an earlier date. They still had almost 2 months to place the order with dengekionline!
Next time I'm just not gonna bother with them and will go through a proxy instead. It's not like they have any advantages over using a proxy in terms of pricing. It's just a bit more easier to order.
If anything I'm still very vexed with Otacute over this..as with many people here. I ordered around April too, so my thoughts are the same as yours. I wonder what when wrong with their management... ~^~
I had cancellation from Tokyo Hunter before so you may put them on black list as well along with Otacute.