Question about ordering from Play-Asia... (1 Viewer)

[MarcoBiscotti]

I ordered the deluxe limited collector's edition Studio Ghibli box set from Play-Asia about a week ago and it arrived the other day, while packaged with much care and effort, the box was unfortunately significantly damaged and it's obvious that this occured prior to shipping.

I have just emailed Play-Asia explaining the situation and informing them politely that I expect to be compensated with a replacement set in return, however there is a bit of a problem...

Upon delivery of this box-set, I was made liable to $40 CAN in custom fees!!

I accepted these charges as I understand that these are provincial government related and have nothing to do with the company, but I will not accept the responsibility of these costs a second time to have another set reshipped!

I am waiting to hear what Play-Asia intends to do in order to accomodate me in this regard, but I'm curious if anyone else has ever encountered a similar situation when ordering from this company or simply importing a large ammount DVD's from outside of the country before, and if so, how was it dealt?

Having to return DVD's is so frustrating, this is like the third time past month (all from different e-tailers)!

I guess I'll have to wait to hear from Play-Asia, however if anyone else has been in this situation, please let me know!

 

[Tory]

In the US, I have never had to pay a custom fee. Am I suppose to? I was never asked, I just got the box in the mail. I would think, since the error is on their side they should pay all the fees that come with shipping charges including that and since their primary business is importing, they should be prepared for such an occurence andhave some sort of info about how thy andle these matters on their site. I never bought from them before though.

 

[Ken Chui]

Marco:

As a former Ontario resident, I can't say I've dealt with a defective return with a foreign e-tailer (US or overseas), but I do remember the hefty customs brokers fees. Unfortunately, these fees can't be avoided (couriers will need to collect these fees for clearing packages through Canada Customs); paying duties and taxes may be another story. You may want to contact Canada Customs to determine if these will be levied on your replacement package; their toll-free number within Canada is 1-800-461-9999 or you can get in touch with one of the local Québec offices.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Thanks a lot Ken,

I'm going to contact Canada Customs this afternoon to inquire but I still believe that this should be Play Asia's responsibility as they are at fault for sending damaged merchandise. I can state with 100% confidence that the contents of the packaged were shipped in such a condition and that the damages were all existent prior to transit. I absolutely refuse to be made liable to an excess of $80 in total for these duties and customs fees for Play Asia's fault. I have no problem covering these charges based on an order recieved in proper context, but I do not intend to be made liable to them two times, unnecissarily!

I hope to hear from Play Asia in the next day as they've yet to return any of my emails, otherwise I will have to seek further action. This certainly is not the type of service I would have expected...

Thanks for the help and contact info.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

This is the response I recieved today, suffice to say, I am NOT satisifed with Play Asia's customer service...


"Thank you for writing to Play-Asia.com.

I am sorry to hear about the problem. Usually all items we ship are brand new and especially limited editions are well protected during shipping. However in some occassions small glitches on the boxing are common, already during the manufactory prcocess or through delivery to us and unfortunately unavoidable.

Would it be possible to take a picture with the digi cam of the unit, especially of those parts that you have described?

If there is anything else we can do for you, feel free to contact us again.

With warm regards, Alice"



So a completely banged up, dented and damaged box is considered "a common small glitch"? I can't believe they actually suggested that I take pictures of this set as if it would make any difference.. I paid well over $300 U.S. for this product, this is absolutely unacceptable and I will not let up until I recieve a full exchange! I hope I don't have to resort to filing claims with the better business bureau...

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

I've ordered several times from Play-Asia, and have never had any problems with them. That's not to say it's not their fault, though. You noted that it was obvious that the damage occurred prior to shipping, you might want to tell them exactly what that reason is. I think they want photographic evidence to refute that claim.

 

[DavidofLondon]

I can't be certain about Canadian customs rules (being a Brit and all) but the rules for returning things here are fairly straightforward.

If you end up doing so you can contact customs, let them know you're returning the item and they'll refund the customs fee. They'll probably want some form of proof (such as copies of shipping documents) that the item was sent back out of the country.

Note, I specified the customs fee, this is because what you can find is on top of the customs charge the courier company charges you a handling fee for collecting the money on behalf of customs (you have to pay them to take your money, great scheme). So when customs give the refund they won't refund the courier fee. Normally the couriers here won't either.

When I've had problems I've had to argue with the original shippers to get that money back. I get a lot of R1 DVDs from US suppliers and have had to change supplier a few times because they wouldn't accept these charges.

So far I've been very happy with my current supplier though (lasersedge).

David

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Thanks a lot David, I'm just concerned about Play-Asia not accepting the exchange which has me very upset.

Here are the pictures that I've taken to attest to the damage however, as I've explained to Play-Asia's customer service rep - I had to borrow a friend's digital camera which was not very efficient and these do not accurately depict the magnitude of the damage. In actuality, the entire box looks a whole lot worse and appears to be crumpled, dented and banged up all over. Here are some of the pictures anyway (I won't post them all), I'd really appreciate your opinions.

Considering I spent over $300 US on this limited edition box set, I don't thinkt hat my request for an exchange is unreasonable. This is obviously damaged merchandise...

ETC.

 

[Tory]

hat dent in the first pic, I get those all the time locally ,and I have almost given up on returning them due to the frequency of getting them like that, although, this beinng a major big box set, it totally unexcusable. If you ever order something from amazon in a cardboard dvd case, you will find it like that. They set the item on a slab of cardboard then shrinkwrap the item to it. I believe it is the shrinkwrapping process they use in their shipping practice that causes it. I have seen damages like that from what looks like a bad bump before, but this looks like shrinkwrap thing to me. They may have damaged it in packing it for shipment.