Has anyone had any problems using Amazon.co.jp?

[Sshadow5001]

Has anyone shopped with Amazon.co.jp? I'm looking to order Hironobu Kageyama Power Live `95 CYVOX which is a fantastic album I would kill to own. If you havent heard it, it has quite a few Dragonball Z songs including of course CHA-LA HEAD CHA-LA, We Gotta Power & We Were Angels aswell as Lights Journey and several of movie themes.

Anyway has anyone experianced any problem with customs? shipping costs? etc

Thanks in advance

[Kendamu]

One of my purchases a few years ago from there had about $15 in customs charges that was initially covered by FedEX on the way into the country. I paid FedEX back probably a week later.

[Sshadow5001]

Ok I signed up to Amazon.co.jp. my order was gonna cost around £55...I dunno if I wanna spend that much money on a CD can anyone else recommend a place to buy Japanese CD's where it doesn't cost so much?

[Bussani]

I don't know if it's cheaper, but you could check on CD Japan.

[ect5150]

Before the US Dragon Boxes were releases, I bought the DBZ Box singles & DB Box singles through Amazon.jp when they had 40% and 50% off. Once I got the account setup and the shipping issues taken care of, ordering was pretty seamless.

If I had to do it over again, I would (although now the have/had the US DBoxes at better prices when they were new, exchange rates were at their height when I purchased, etc...)

I did have Fed Ex try that customs charge on me once through all of the shipments I had (which were many). I don't remember if I paid it or not - I remember thinking "I don't have an agreement with Fed Ex, they can take it up with Amazon, f*ck them..." --- but they only tried it once on me.

[Ryuman]

Is customs not supposed to charge or something? I was kinda put off importing from Amazon JP by customs after I bought a US Dragon Box through Amazon UK. Perhaps my circumstances are different since it wasn't actually Amazon selling it?

[Gokuden]

Don't they use DHL as well? I got dinged $15 for Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 some years ago, and it was delivered by Canada Post with a DHL insignia.
The game itself cost $15...

[ect5150]

Don't they use DHL as well? I got dinged $15 for Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 some years ago, and it was delivered by Canada Post with a DHL insignia.
The game itself cost $15...

I remember all of my deliveries came via FedEx or DHL. At least in my area, they were always far more reliable than UPS (when FedEx delivered, they were accurate within a 60 minute time span for an estimated delivery date for me).

[Cold Skin]

Huh... All those complications actually make me think twice about importing the upcoming colored manga...

It must be hard enough to make an account when everything is written in Japanese and meant for a Japanese address, but if I end up paying the equivalent of 45$ for only one volume and have to deal with lots of unknown datas such as paying extras to external entities - perhaps when delivered instead of when ordering, but I don't even know that -, etc...

It's just way more complicated than I thought, and there are way too many unknown datas for me to actually want to try now.
I'm already not comfortable with ordering online in my own country, so if you add extra unknown datas that I don't even know what it's for, how it works, how you're supposed to deal with, etc... it becomes a little too much for me to handle.
I'm having second thoughts about what was going to be my first import in the end, cause imports really don't seem easy to deal with...
The day they release a step-by-step instruction manual, maybe I'll reconsider.

I can't figure out why all "Amazon" sites are not connected instead of being one "Amazon" for the whole world, like "select whatever you want in the whole world no matter what the country is, and it'll be just like selecting it in your own country, you order, you pay, we deal with everything else to bring it to you".

[Gokuden]

Don't they use DHL as well? I got dinged $15 for Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 some years ago, and it was delivered by Canada Post with a DHL insignia.
The game itself cost $15...

I remember all of my deliveries came via FedEx or DHL. At least in my area, they were always far more reliable than UPS (when FedEx delivered, they were accurate within a 60 minute time span for an estimated delivery date for me).

UPS is terrible, they just throw the items at your doorstep and run. People could runaway with them. Whenever I can, I try to stay away from UPS.

Purolator and FedEx are class.

[ect5150]

Huh... All those complications actually make me think twice about importing the upcoming colored manga...

It must be hard enough to make an account when everything is written in Japanese and meant for a Japanese address, ...

Somewhere on the Amazon.JP page is a link that says "View In English" -- language barrier issues were basically non-existent for me. They will even charge your credit card for you in dollars now and handle the exchange of currency if I remember correctly (there may be a small fee for that though).

[Sshadow5001]

Yeah I found the english option and was able to sign up and sort out delivery address and credit card easily. My only problem is the price, especially if there is a chance I'll be charged on top of that to get it from the post office.

I can't really justify £55+ unknown costs for a CD But I can't find the CD anywhere else.

[ect5150]

Check with the post office regarding how that works if you want. That would probably be useful information for other forums members living in your area as well. They may tell you it's really a cost to the shipper and they are just trying to get you to pay their bill.

[TheNamekGio]

No setup was real easy and you can use any type of credit card. I use an American Express Prepaid card and it works fine when ordering on AMZN JPN. If you can have DHL deliver to you cause you can handle all the other fees with them. Most of the time there isn't any fees. Plus they deliver on time!