I made the mistake of ordering at Amazon.co.jp site

The site mentioned that the book I wanted would be available in a weeks time. But then around the expected delivery time I get an email that the book would be delayed by a MONTH. I thought that maybe this is a one time occurance.

The next time I had to order another book the same thing happened only this time the book was late by 2 MONTHs.
All this while there site lists that the book would be available in a weeks time.
I find that they are uncommunicative and suddenly send mail at expected delivery time about delay and the site mentions no contact phone number. They are very misleading.
In contrast Skysoft are very reliable and my shipments have never been delayed.

The fact that it happened twice to you does seem to be a pattern. Thanks for sharing this.

I had exactly the same experience with Amazon. Oddly, it is much quicker to order directly from Amazon.US than .jp
Would you please let us know how to contact Skysoft? I don't know that company. Thanks!

Skysoft link
http://www.skysoft.co.jp/englishN/welcomeE.asp?Userid=11418162

Also as far as I know when one ships from amazon US site one have to pay overseas shipping charges whereas u dont pay it if you order at amazon.co.jp site.

At Skysoft there are no shipping charges and you can easily pickup at your nearest bookstore(the list is available at their site)

When Amazon.co.jp first opened and were offering free shipping on all orders I did a price comparison on a few books. To my surprise, I noticed that a few of the books were so much cheaper on Amazon.com that it was cheaper to buy the books there and pay for the overseas shipping than it was to buy the book from Amazon.co.jp and get free shipping!

Since then, I've been told that books cost more in Japan and this added expense sometimes exceeds that of overseas shipping charges. I've also found that books arrive faster from Amazon.com than from Amazon.co.jp.

I often use Amazon.com to read reviews and sample pages, then just copy the ISBN number and check out the price on Amazon.co.jp.

Skysoft is also good, though marginally more expensive than Amazon.com.

Happy hunting! Karen

I, on the contrary, have had only positive experiences with Amazon.com, both from the US and here in Japan.

I order books about every two months. I used to order from the US site, and I switched over to the Japan site about two years ago ... and my experience has been as follows:

1) When ordering from the US site, delivery usually takes about 7-10 days. When ordering from the Japan site, delivery usually takes 9-14 days (If the books are listed as available within 1-2 days).

2) If ordering more than Y1500 worth of books, total cost is cheaper purchasing through the Japan site. For example, for my little 5 year-old reader, I recently purchased:

- How My Parents Learned to Eat Y641
- Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid (Step into Reading, a Step 3 Book) Y430
- Olivia Saves the Circus Y1786

Total: Y2857 + Tax (Y143) + Free Shipping = Y3000

If I were to order the same through the US site, the total book cost would be less, but then the exorbitant shipping charges would kick in:

- How My Parents Learned to Eat $5.95
- Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid (Step into Reading, a Step 3 Book) $3.99
- - Olivia Saves the Circus $11.87

Total: $21.81 + Standard Shipping ($6.99 + (3 x 4.49)) = $42.27 (about Y5000)

Particularly with tiny, light children's books, I find it difficult to justify this very hefty shipping cost.

I hope this helps.

Michael-
I think it's interesting that you are satisfied with delivery in 9-14 days when they say "available within 1-2 days". I wouldn't be.
Different points of view...
Scott

My interest piqued by this conversation, I went to the amazon.co.jp site and checked the status of my order.

It says:
Books ordered: 04/07/03
Delivery date range: 04/30/03 to 05/17/03

Hmmm.
Now, when I ordered I am quite sure that I was told (before clicking the final Order button) that shipping would take 1-2 weeks, so it was just recently that I got to thinking, hey, where are those Amazon books.

4-6 weeks seems unreasonable to me to wait for books. That said, one of the books is out of print and was not available on amazon.com or anywhere else I could find in the US, so I was thrilled to be able to find it at amazon.co.jp. Definitely, a more realistic estimate of necessary delivery time would have been appreciated, though.

I have only good things to say about amazon.com, though-- have picked up some absolutely fantastic bargains on language learning software and language tapes through them, via their used bookshop. I also buy things on eBay from time to time, but I buy more from Amazon.com than eBay by far.

New books ordered from www.amazon.com can arrive at your doorstep in Japan unbelievably fast-- my last order arrived only *3 days* after I ordered it from the US site. (Guess I must have ordered at exactly the right time-- caught the delivery truck exactly as it was heading for the international airport or something?)

So, thumbs up to amazon.com, thumbs down to amazon.co.jp!

Tara
Adachi-ku, Tokyo

I would like to add a short comment about my experience with amazon.co.jp. I placed an order on Thu Apr 24 around 3pm and my order arrived today, Mon Apr 28 11am. Free shipping and I received a 500yen discount from Citibank VISA. It's not the first time I've ordered from the Japan site. My previous order came just as fast though one book is on backorder. When I ordered from the US, it took one month and I had to pay shipping and the US exchange rate wasn't favorable. The site indicates whether the book is available in Japan or has to be shipped from the US which causes the delay, I believe. When I have had to send an email, the response was in 1-2 days. The English email address is english@amazon.co.jp. My friend says there is a phone number for English service but I don't know it.

I too had a bad experience with Amazon.co.jp. I have used both the US Amazon and the UK Amazon for years and have been very happy.

I tried out Amazon Japan a couple of months ago. They promised delivery within a week. The final date came and went. When I tracked my package it said that it had been delivered! I emailed them and found that the delivery company they used had tried to deliver the package but couldn't find our house, so they gave up AND didn't bother telling me! I was so angry. Emails going back and forth, it turned out that the delivery company was using an old map and they had our house marked under the name of the previous owner, so actually they didn't even try to deliver the package because if they had, they would have seen our name outside the front of the house.

In the end, we finally got the book -- just one book and all that trouble with barely an apology from Amazon (who blamed everything on the delivery company--my point, they should have informed me of the trouble, not wait for me to contact them, plus their tracking had the package down as "delivered"). I will never use them again!

I just had another wonderful shopping experience with Amazon.com Japan that I would like to share.

At about 13:00 last Thursday afternoon, I placed an order for some children's books. "Availability" was given (in Japanese) as "Usually ships within 24 hours" (通常24時間以内に発送します。). Minutes after 13:00 THE NEXT DAY, a fellow from the delivery company, Nippon Express, was at the door with the shipment.

And the best part - Total Shipping Cost: 0 Yen.

Impressive!

Maybe it just took a while for Amazon.co.jp to iron out the kinks in their network after they first opened? Or maybe Michael is just one lucky person?

That may be the cheapest international shipping services when going by weight. There are also different size flat rate boxes that can be cheaper for small heavy items.
Check here. http://www.parcelbound.com/