almost 5 days in customs now, and I'm feeling a little bit concerned. anyone ever have a celga box take so long? what should I do other than worry?

One package I ordered spent 3 weeks in customs.

3 weeks?? ugh. I've never had an EMS parcel take any more than a few days to reach me from Japan. I suppose there's nothing I can do. I just hope they don't go tearing into my box o' toys with their grubby hands. anyone else ever have a celga box stuck in customs?

The box and figures were perfect so I wouldn't worry.

Perhaps this is a precursor to what Pogue was mentioning in another thread:

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=26806&p=373205#p373205

Maybe US Customs is wondering why so many japanese 'monster' toys are suddenly showing up here. Terrorist plot I tell ya...

So I missed an EMS delivery yesterday. I go to the website and request to have the item left at the post office for pickup as I have done for the past 2 years of dealing with EMS parcels. Today I go down to the post office and they tell me that it was sent out for redelivery because I SENT IN A REQUEST. The guy at the window said that if I don't send in a request, they'll hold it for me at the office until the return date.

Is this a recent change? It used to be that if I didn't send in that request, the package would be sent out again automatically the next day, causing me to miss it again, etc. etc. I don't get this.

Wow I never even knew you could request to have the item left at the post office via EMS! Seems to me the USPS will do just about anything to prevent a package from being delivered and the rules of common sense don't apply. Daniel I think everything depends on the your carrier, as to what the actual end result will be. I'm glad I keep weird work hours and make it a point to talk to mine. Sub's mess everything up though!

Mine came today. Looks like it was just held up at customs.

looks like a lot of things are getting held up in customs. after almost 6 days of being in customs, my tracking info finally says it's on the way.

Prolly slow for holidays. I deal with MOJ and also checked the Japan business info holiday schedule.
It is true that Christmas is an increasingly popular unofficial holiday, but New Years Day is a real one. The actual practice is that everyone screws off before, during and after. Just like here.
EMS officially restarts delivery on Monday the 5th if I read the notices correctly.
I could be wrong of course and *my* EMS might just be sitting in Limbo, on its short road to Hell.

I'm writing off a purchase I paid for on 12/30 till probably the 2nd week of January. I found out the hard way last year that New Years day/ week is HUGE in Japan. The biggest holiday over there. Basically everything closes for the first week in January. This is why I had Celga send my small horde before xmas.

here's my EMS worry... really more of a complaint i guess

1 auction i won
with 8 marusan originals

celga automatically packed it without my asking (they do that not apparently) and for some reason the shipping invoice for EMS is 57 bucks.

i have written them back and asked for SAL or something cheaper.

have EMS rates gone up drastically from what i remember?

EMS has always been pricey...maybe a bit more now, with the exchange rate. I don't know as though Celga will ship SAL since they can't track it. Plus, with old Marusans, I'd pay the EMS.

Celga did the same thing with my most recent purchases; packed them and sent me an invoice w/o my request. My shipping invoice was well over $100. I had quite a few toys, true, but was still a little surprised nonetheless.

Shipping rates from Taiwan just went through the roof as well. First EMS (which was very reasonable up until a few months ago) and now registered air.

Seems the only cheapish way to send things anymore is standard airmail or small packet (equivalent to the USPS's First Class Mail International). In my experience, as long as you write the address neatly (which seems to be a problem for some people LOL), regular airmail is usually fine.

But for an expensive parcel from Japan or elsewhere, yeah, you probably want to stick with EMS (despite the charge), especially since US customs seems to have a habit of holding packages. At least EMS allows you to track it and figure out if it's stuck somewhere.

Did you check the cost versus the actual rates at Celga's shipping rate list?
http://celga.com/beta/docs/ems.htm

Celga is great because they are cool human beings, but they are also human beings and make mistakes. One time an EMS package that was 300 g was mis-entered as having a weight of 3,000 g and I caught it and it was corrected to the real weight.

Sorry, but I think this whole thread is retarded.

It's Xmas/New Year :
Not only have you got holidays to take into account
("Ooh, 2 days ... Whoopee!"),
but you've got the same number of staff
dealing with maybe 10x the number of packages.
If there ARE extra staff, they're temps.

US Post Office temps are mainly otherwise unemployable crackheads
specially recruited from prisons and mental institutions
who consider it part of their job to mis-sort stuff,
return packages that should be held,
play football with packages marked "Fragile", etc.
(Plus a few students who are, obviously, even worse.)

Also: No names, no packdrill,
but $57 for 8 figures with the level of service that EMS provides
is a freakin' bargain.

The cheapest you can send an EMS package is about $12,
but it's difficult to pack & send even a single vinyl figure for that.
About $15 is more realistic.
The price does rise quickly for larger/heavier items though.

Let's just put that in perspective:
S7 and most other cool outlets charge me $18 minimum US -> Japan.
I've OFTEN been charged $30 for A SINGLE ITEM by other places.
In one case I was charged $60 for an item that, while big and heavy,
actually arrived with $45 postage on it.
When I queried this I was told the extra $15 was the "...& packing" part,
something you're almost NEVER charged by Japanese companies.

IMO the Japan Postal Service is one of, if not THE best in the world.
It's also one of the cheapest.

It amazes me that people will spend all this money on toys,
then bitch about shipping costs which are probably no more than you'd spend
if you took the car down to your local Walmart to pick them up yourself.

I think the complaints are being levied more against the USPS than EMS.

But I don't know...Celga makes a ton of money on its commissions, so I'm hoping they charge exact shipping (with no other "handling" or "packing" fees) with its packages. I don't have a Celga account, so I'm not sure.

The Japan post office is good, but not perfect. It's slower than the Taiwan system (packages here clear customs within minutes or hours - they sometimes sit in Japan customs for several days). And, a letter I sent to Japan last year was lost in the mail. In any case, it's definitely a better/faster/safer/cheaper domestic carrier system than the USPS.

You best be trolling Sir ...

USA:
Area: 3.8M sq.miles
Pop : 304.75M

Japan:
Area: 1.46M sq.miles
Pop : 127M

Taiwan:
Area: 13,900 sq.miles
Pop : 23M

... there is simply no comparison.

Hmm, geography, custom wait times, efficiency + lost packages. Apples...oranges...guavas.. and papayas!

Anyway, I was trying to add some sincere feedback. Read up again and you'll see I was complimenting the JPS over the USPS....

Nevermind - I'll leave you to romp and stomp. Happy New Year yo ho!!