Reviews Otaku Square
2★ - Worst webshop i ever dealt with, totaly no service
Terrible service, well, no service at all.
I'm trying to reach them for more then a month.
The don't reply to e-mails, telephone is out of service, they don't reply in the chatoption, etc.
I ordered a pre-order with bonus.
I got the pre-order but not the bonus.
I have read so many complaints about Otaku Square so i also informed their partner Good Smile Company about all the complaints.
Everyone who reads this.
NEVER BUY FROM THIS WEBSHOP.
It's not worth it.
Tip to MFC.net
Stop being partner with this shop
I'm trying to reach them for more then a month.
The don't reply to e-mails, telephone is out of service, they don't reply in the chatoption, etc.
I ordered a pre-order with bonus.
I got the pre-order but not the bonus.
I have read so many complaints about Otaku Square so i also informed their partner Good Smile Company about all the complaints.
Everyone who reads this.
NEVER BUY FROM THIS WEBSHOP.
It's not worth it.
Tip to MFC.net
Stop being partner with this shop
2★ - Bad customer service and lack of communication
UPDATE: to my surprise (in a good way), I got a notification from Otaku Square and the local post office that the 2nd part of my first order is shipped. My account still says that it's due in May, so there's still clearly something not entirely right there, but this is good. All without me having to contact them too (sadly, I guess that's not a given). Of course, the below is still valid in terms of CS complaints
Sadly, the two times I've ordered from them, I've had bad experiences with them. Both times had to do with their customer service and the state of their system. Very similar to reviews below me.
Customer service is basically useless, as they don't seem to have access to anything useful. Every time I've contacted them the result was the same: 'Unfortunately, we can't see anything. We'll put out a message for you internally and someone'll contact you.' This never happened.
The 1st time (somewhere in October) I never got an order confirmation. Customer service tried to send an order confirmation multiple times, but I never got it. Eventually it got resolved luckily. System problems. The order was two figures, one of which was due to release in November 2021, the other one in this coming May. I did get the November 2021 just fine in the end.
The 2nd time I ordered from them, it was set to release in December 2021. I got an order confirmation, so everything seemed to go fine. Then the release date passed by... nothing. The release date was still unchanged too. I thought, 'well, it's COVID time and between Christmas and new years, maybe that's to be expected'. I waited until after the new year to contact them when I still didn't get any update. So I contacted them, and they said they couldn't help me and that they'd put a message through internally and that I'd be contacted. This never happened. Rinse and repeat all the way to somewhere mid-January. Luckily, I was able to contact someone from Otaku Square themselves (with the 1st order, I got an e-mail from someone internally when the initial problem seemed to be resolved), instead of their external CS center. They told me that it was indeed delayed and told me that the new release date would be somewhere early February. They were also aware of the problems that were happening, but there was a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes
So, I waited again until the supposed release date... Nothing again. Keep in mind, all this time, the release date on my order page was still set to December 2021. It was never updated.
Once again, I tried to contact CS, because maybe it'd gotten better by now. Nope, not at all.
Meanwhile, I saw other sites getting stock of this series of figures, so I was getting worried. I contacted CS very often, but often got the same result. Eventually, I asked for a refund, which they said they'd put through. But, I had to contact CS very often again and every time I heard the same thing again. I resorted to contacting the same person again in March, and eventually got a hold of them. Once again, they were kind of enough to be of actual help and gave me the refund. I did get my money back too.
The order is weirdly enough still open in my account though.
I still have part of the 1st order open (due in May), but I have very little faith that this order will actually fulfilled...
TLDR: poor communication with customers, seemingly broken order system and CS is close to useless when there's a problem. Once you manage to get a hold of someone internally, they are pretty helpful, but that's not a good way to resolve things.
Sadly, the two times I've ordered from them, I've had bad experiences with them. Both times had to do with their customer service and the state of their system. Very similar to reviews below me.
Customer service is basically useless, as they don't seem to have access to anything useful. Every time I've contacted them the result was the same: 'Unfortunately, we can't see anything. We'll put out a message for you internally and someone'll contact you.' This never happened.
The 1st time (somewhere in October) I never got an order confirmation. Customer service tried to send an order confirmation multiple times, but I never got it. Eventually it got resolved luckily. System problems. The order was two figures, one of which was due to release in November 2021, the other one in this coming May. I did get the November 2021 just fine in the end.
The 2nd time I ordered from them, it was set to release in December 2021. I got an order confirmation, so everything seemed to go fine. Then the release date passed by... nothing. The release date was still unchanged too. I thought, 'well, it's COVID time and between Christmas and new years, maybe that's to be expected'. I waited until after the new year to contact them when I still didn't get any update. So I contacted them, and they said they couldn't help me and that they'd put a message through internally and that I'd be contacted. This never happened. Rinse and repeat all the way to somewhere mid-January. Luckily, I was able to contact someone from Otaku Square themselves (with the 1st order, I got an e-mail from someone internally when the initial problem seemed to be resolved), instead of their external CS center. They told me that it was indeed delayed and told me that the new release date would be somewhere early February. They were also aware of the problems that were happening, but there was a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes
So, I waited again until the supposed release date... Nothing again. Keep in mind, all this time, the release date on my order page was still set to December 2021. It was never updated.
Once again, I tried to contact CS, because maybe it'd gotten better by now. Nope, not at all.
Meanwhile, I saw other sites getting stock of this series of figures, so I was getting worried. I contacted CS very often, but often got the same result. Eventually, I asked for a refund, which they said they'd put through. But, I had to contact CS very often again and every time I heard the same thing again. I resorted to contacting the same person again in March, and eventually got a hold of them. Once again, they were kind of enough to be of actual help and gave me the refund. I did get my money back too.
The order is weirdly enough still open in my account though.
I still have part of the 1st order open (due in May), but I have very little faith that this order will actually fulfilled...
TLDR: poor communication with customers, seemingly broken order system and CS is close to useless when there's a problem. Once you manage to get a hold of someone internally, they are pretty helpful, but that's not a good way to resolve things.
2★ - Terrible Customer Service and Slow Shipping
To summarize, Otaku Square is slow to ship, slow to respond to customer queries, and generally just bad at updating and getting back to customers. I hate posting a negative review of a young company, but I think it's important that people know what to expect so they can make an informed decision as to whether or not to do business with them.
A more detailed version of my experience with them is as follows:
My sister placed an order with Otaku Square (OS) back in February for a Nendoroid meant as a gift for me. She doesn't buy figures often, but tried to do some research ahead of time and thought OS was trustworthy based on the little bit of feedback on them that she could find.
The figure was listed to ship in March, but as the deadline for shipping approached, she never received an update from them. She contacted them, asked when/if the figure had shipped and received a reply that it wouldn't be shipped until April with no reason given for the delay.
Later in April, as the new estimated shipping date approached, with no updates from them, she contacted them again and asked for an update on the order. It took them several days to finally respond, but they told her it had been shipped at last. She asked them for tracking information but never received it.
Finally, near the end of May, well over a month since they said they shipped it, I contacted them to see if I could get the tracking information for the order or some proof that they had actually shipped it, since we still hadn't received anything and she hadn't heard back from them. We tried a couple of different methods of contacting them before we heard back.
The customer service representative that I talked to finally gave me the tracking number for the order after I asked repeatedly for it. They noted that the shipment was taking "an unusual amount of time" and promised to open a case with PostNL (the shipping service) to inquire about the package. I expressed how frustrated we were with the whole experience, specifically how bad they were at updating or responding to us and how long the order was taking. They haven't responded to that message.
Some of the circumstances surrounding the delays I can understand what with the ongoing pandemic and how it's affected business and logistics around the world. Things such as what happened to the package once it was shipped are beyond OS's control.
But the part that frustrates me the most, beyond how long it's taken for this order as well as the uncertainty of whether it'll ever arrive, is how OS repeatedly failed to update us or keep us informed on its status. We had to repeatedly reach out to them to get any updates with a lot of back and forth to figure out what was happening.
Until they change their communication practices and get better at either proactively updating customers or responding to customer requests in a timely manner, I wholeheartedly can't recommend them. They seem to offer decent prices and advertise stock for some harder to find figures, but there's a lot of uncertainty as to how long it'll take things to ship and whether or not they'll even inform you of any shipping details unless you pester them about it.
I've seen others who have had positive experiences with OS here and elsewhere online, but I've also seen people with experiences similar to ours now that I've done some research on them myself. I'd urge anyone considering buying from them to first look elsewhere. If you do end up using them, be prepared to be proactive at getting information from them as they aren't very good at providing it.
--UPDATE--
I just want to add that while I appreciate them responding to my review, I would have preferred them just responding to the messages my sister and I sent them in the first place. The cynic in me suspects that the only reason they're responding here is because this review is public and potentially damages their reputation, whereas there's no direct consequences to them ignoring messages from customers unless those customers share their experiences publicly.
I'd urge others to share their experiences as well, good or bad. Part of the problem with assessing OS is the scarcity of reviews out there to gauge how good or bad they are at handling orders or customer service.
A more detailed version of my experience with them is as follows:
My sister placed an order with Otaku Square (OS) back in February for a Nendoroid meant as a gift for me. She doesn't buy figures often, but tried to do some research ahead of time and thought OS was trustworthy based on the little bit of feedback on them that she could find.
The figure was listed to ship in March, but as the deadline for shipping approached, she never received an update from them. She contacted them, asked when/if the figure had shipped and received a reply that it wouldn't be shipped until April with no reason given for the delay.
Later in April, as the new estimated shipping date approached, with no updates from them, she contacted them again and asked for an update on the order. It took them several days to finally respond, but they told her it had been shipped at last. She asked them for tracking information but never received it.
Finally, near the end of May, well over a month since they said they shipped it, I contacted them to see if I could get the tracking information for the order or some proof that they had actually shipped it, since we still hadn't received anything and she hadn't heard back from them. We tried a couple of different methods of contacting them before we heard back.
The customer service representative that I talked to finally gave me the tracking number for the order after I asked repeatedly for it. They noted that the shipment was taking "an unusual amount of time" and promised to open a case with PostNL (the shipping service) to inquire about the package. I expressed how frustrated we were with the whole experience, specifically how bad they were at updating or responding to us and how long the order was taking. They haven't responded to that message.
Some of the circumstances surrounding the delays I can understand what with the ongoing pandemic and how it's affected business and logistics around the world. Things such as what happened to the package once it was shipped are beyond OS's control.
But the part that frustrates me the most, beyond how long it's taken for this order as well as the uncertainty of whether it'll ever arrive, is how OS repeatedly failed to update us or keep us informed on its status. We had to repeatedly reach out to them to get any updates with a lot of back and forth to figure out what was happening.
Until they change their communication practices and get better at either proactively updating customers or responding to customer requests in a timely manner, I wholeheartedly can't recommend them. They seem to offer decent prices and advertise stock for some harder to find figures, but there's a lot of uncertainty as to how long it'll take things to ship and whether or not they'll even inform you of any shipping details unless you pester them about it.
I've seen others who have had positive experiences with OS here and elsewhere online, but I've also seen people with experiences similar to ours now that I've done some research on them myself. I'd urge anyone considering buying from them to first look elsewhere. If you do end up using them, be prepared to be proactive at getting information from them as they aren't very good at providing it.
--UPDATE--
I just want to add that while I appreciate them responding to my review, I would have preferred them just responding to the messages my sister and I sent them in the first place. The cynic in me suspects that the only reason they're responding here is because this review is public and potentially damages their reputation, whereas there's no direct consequences to them ignoring messages from customers unless those customers share their experiences publicly.
I'd urge others to share their experiences as well, good or bad. Part of the problem with assessing OS is the scarcity of reviews out there to gauge how good or bad they are at handling orders or customer service.
Hello,
Thank you for your review.
We are aware of the communication problems and are working hard behind the scenes to improve this.
Due to the surge of orders we experienced during the pandemic we have unfortunately created a backlog that we have to work through before we can dedicate time to some much needed improvements.
This does unfortunately mean that some customers are not getting the attention they deserve in resolving issues, which is the reason behind the mixed bag of reviews.
We do apologize for your bad experience, and will take your review to heart in improving our service.
Kind regards,
Team Otaku Square
Thank you for your review.
We are aware of the communication problems and are working hard behind the scenes to improve this.
Due to the surge of orders we experienced during the pandemic we have unfortunately created a backlog that we have to work through before we can dedicate time to some much needed improvements.
This does unfortunately mean that some customers are not getting the attention they deserve in resolving issues, which is the reason behind the mixed bag of reviews.
We do apologize for your bad experience, and will take your review to heart in improving our service.
Kind regards,
Team Otaku Square
2★ - Review after Nekopara order
I purchased the latest Vanilla and Chocola orders from here since I couldn't find them anywhere else. Since they were a MFC partner I decided to give it a go. I received the figures, however the most disappointing thing is that absolutely no protection or padding was used inside the box. My vanilla figure box was crushed and dented. For spending a large amount of money, you would think they would take some time to protect the items. Pretty disappointing and will not be buying from them again.
Hello,
Thank you for your review!
We are aware that our packaging fell short for the orders of the mentioned products.
We have since then received more feedback from customers regarding this, and I'd like to assure you that this is not our standard for packaging orders.
In accordance, we have made this clear to our warehouse and hope that an incident such as this one will not occur in the future.
Our apologies for the inconvenience you experienced!
Have a great week,
Otaku Square
Thank you for your review!
We are aware that our packaging fell short for the orders of the mentioned products.
We have since then received more feedback from customers regarding this, and I'd like to assure you that this is not our standard for packaging orders.
In accordance, we have made this clear to our warehouse and hope that an incident such as this one will not occur in the future.
Our apologies for the inconvenience you experienced!
Have a great week,
Otaku Square
4 reviews
