Celga experience.

[Lestat 2167]

I thought I'd just add it here as well since I'm not certain whether or not everyone read it where I posted it. This contains very negative feedback, so this might be a warning to everyone still considering to order their Japanese merchandise with this shopping service.

 

My Celga experience so far.

If you’re ordering items other than those coming from Rakuten, I harshly advice you not to proceed in doing business with these people at all costs.

 

About three months ago, I ordered two things off the UNDER CODE webshop with them. One of the items had a special instruction. And I think that it took them time to understand what had to be done after the application for this special instruction ended on the webshop. Anyway. Two items: that shouldn’t be such a very big deal, should it? For them it is. About two months ago, I suddenly got an invoice for the CD that was due to the second of June, so I was asking myself how on earth they had gotten me this item. I emailed them of course, and they told me it was the other item I had ordered so everything seemed fine. I payed for shipment and waited.

 

Once I got this item in the mail, I was flabbergasted. This item didn’t belong to me, I had never ordered it! Turns out it was the CD my friend in France (I’m located in the Netherlands so go figure) ordered. Of course I was mad, because now I both had paid for something that wasn’t mine and my friend had to wait longer for his CD because now I had to ship it to him instead.

 

I emailed Celga again, and surprisingly, they didn’t understand how this happened! After a few emails back and forth they ended up telling me that they weren’t able to purchase item #1 for me in the end. So, instead of this, you send me other people’s belongings? They refunded me for everything, so I thought I lost my item.

 

Until now. Item #2 was still due to release so I waited for this. After a few days after its release date I emailed Celga again to check in with them and see if they actually received it (since on their website it has been saying they had this item in stock the day I ordered it so I couldn’t possibly continue applying for shipment) and they, after several confirmations (with me adding an extra link of the item after they asked) told me that everything was fine and they should pack it up and send me an invoice for shipment. Two days later, I get this invoice by ordering via SAL. $41. Now, for a CD, this would be pretty insane, wouldn’t it? I ask them why, and they don’t answer me anything but telling me that for small packages EMS is cheaper. So naturally, I change my shipment to EMS. $46. I am set off, really. How can a CD, weighing perhaps 100 gram, be that expensive to ship? My further investigation this morning lead me to the invoice saying my items weighs 1,4 kilogram. Now there were some bells ringing. My item #1 would estimate being about such a weight. And when I click the link on the invoice of the item I ordered, I get a blank page on the UNDER CODE website (this item is out of stock by now, hence the blank page). So that could only mean one thing. After telling me they couldn’t get item #1, refunding me the costs, and me thinking this bid was lost forever, they still have it.

 

Now, I have to wait on #2 again. I have yet to place a new shipment request, and wait another few weeks perhaps to see if they actually have it at all.

 

Now… Their customer support. It is hopeless. I think currently their American side is being ran by only three persons, and if you email with them back and forth it’s never the same person coming back at you. I think it would be much more convenient if they placed one person on an individual order instead of trying to get it done by multiple. If you ask them a question, it’s about 0% that it’s actually going to be answered. I’ve asked them an endless amount of questions and the only thing they reply is: We’ll look into it, thank you for your patience. Oh, and Keigo is plain rude.

 

 

Is there anyone else having had such experiences with Celga? 

[stylelover 1086]

I think theres a shopping service thread somewhere, but idk. and this should better be in the same section the "do you buy batches" thread is in.

 

I dont really have anything to add on this. people still use celga? Thought everyone is using fromjapan by now.

[Mr.0 619]

I'm the french friend she mentionned, and I also had some problems with them, so yeah, I'll use only From Japan from now on!

[TheBistroButcher666 228]

I used to use them and never had problems, I would receive free gift items all the time too but I keep seeing these stories pop up more and more. Man what the heck happened.

[Number Girl 48]

Wow, sorry to hear about that. :/ I hope things get worked out. 

 

I used Celga once about three years ago to get some CD's from a Yahoo JP auction. Everything turned out alright, except that the wait was incredibly long and the communication/feedback was ridiculously slow for some reason. I remember that it took them an eternity to update my online order status, so for the longest time I was freaking out because I thought they had lost the bid on my item until I emailed them and they finally replied saying it was in shipping process. I had a very similar experience with Rinkya (also my bill ended up being about $40 - this was for one used 900 yen CD on Amazon) and after that I haven't used a shopping service since. I've decided that for one or two CD's, it just isn't worth the huge expense. 

 

Also a funny thing about Celga - they attempted to send me a bonus magazine, but instead of sending me the actual magazine, they just sent me the bonus CD that came with the magazine. -___-