Reviews Akiba Soul
5★ - Good customer service
Good customer service.
AkibaSoul_US Keeper of Grails
As we explained to you in full detail via email, your pre-order is secured and still on its way but our distributor, who is owned by Good Smile Company, has total control on when the figure arrives stateside for us to ship to you.
Literally every single store in the US is stuck waiting for pre-orders. This is completely out of our control and 100% because of our distributor and the global supply chain being affected by covid.
Due to covid, the entire world's shipping distribution has been delayed severely by a shortage of workers, ports, and containers. We don't have any way to speed this up so we have to wait along with every other figure store in the entire United States.
In regards to a refund, deposits for pre-orders are non-refundable. Even if we cancelled your pre-order, our distributor cannot cancel your pre-order so we're still on the hook to pay for the pre-order we placed specifically for you. We need that deposit to offset the cost when we receive your pre-order in and almost all the time have to sell it below our cost.
Literally every single store in the US is stuck waiting for pre-orders. This is completely out of our control and 100% because of our distributor and the global supply chain being affected by covid.
Due to covid, the entire world's shipping distribution has been delayed severely by a shortage of workers, ports, and containers. We don't have any way to speed this up so we have to wait along with every other figure store in the entire United States.
In regards to a refund, deposits for pre-orders are non-refundable. Even if we cancelled your pre-order, our distributor cannot cancel your pre-order so we're still on the hook to pay for the pre-order we placed specifically for you. We need that deposit to offset the cost when we receive your pre-order in and almost all the time have to sell it below our cost.
5★ - Excellent customer service.
Martin from AkibaSoul is the definition of excellent customer service.
Left a comment in the order, got an email back about 5 mins later addressing the issue, at 11 pm on a weekday. Ok, it wasn’t even really a issue. It was as just a passerby comment, wasn’t even looking for a response. To top it all off, I was given store credits for the next order.
Competitive prices and flat rate shipping also is a win for me.
Left a comment in the order, got an email back about 5 mins later addressing the issue, at 11 pm on a weekday. Ok, it wasn’t even really a issue. It was as just a passerby comment, wasn’t even looking for a response. To top it all off, I was given store credits for the next order.
Competitive prices and flat rate shipping also is a win for me.
5★ - Do not pre-order here, you have been warned (Updated)
Pre-ordered an figure that the shop originally states it should be in stock on January 2022. Later on January I received email from them says the figure release date was delayed. However, the figure was already released in Japan on November 2021. So I waited a few months, they just delayed the release date from their shop all the time. When I was trying to contact them, they said their supplier got some logistics problem. I either give up my downpayment or I will have to wait whatever time they want me to wait. So I waited all the way till now on October 2022. Finally the figure arrived and I paid the full price. When I received the figure, I found the shipping box is totally destroyed and the figure package is also damaged. So please do yourself a favor, do not pre-order here.
Update: The shop owner contacted me and offered me partial refund for the damaged figure package. I think they are trying their best to fix this problem for me. So for this outstanding customer service, I think they deserve a better rating.
Update: The shop owner contacted me and offered me partial refund for the damaged figure package. I think they are trying their best to fix this problem for me. So for this outstanding customer service, I think they deserve a better rating.
AkibaSoul_US Keeper of Grails
Hello, we're really sorry to hear that the figure package was damaged! As figure collectors ourselves, we care a lot about everything we ship out and pack figures as best as we can. Even the best packing job may not be able to withstand how UPS treats the boxes in shipment. If you could send us a support ticket via our contact form, we'll see what we can do to help make it better.
In regards to pre-order cancellations, we've had to be strict on it lately due to a big increase on cancelled pre-orders. Unlike other giant stores like Big Bad Toy Store or Right Stuf, we're an extremely small shop. Other stores go bankrupt and close down because too many people cancelled pre-orders and left the store with too much inventory and an inability to pay for all those figures in time. Non-refundable deposits are the only way we can combat that problem. It's not fun when someone cancels $2000 of pre-orders in one go (and that's happened several times already).
In regards to figure delays, those figures are still stuck at the factories or a dock overseas waiting to be loaded and shipped. With covid wrecking supply chains, everything is taking much longer to get from China to the US. It's much quicker for Japan to get figures since China is so much closer. This is a universal truth for any US figure store. No matter where you order from in the US, all US stores (from Crunchyroll, Big Bad Toy Store, Right Stuf) are in the same boat and go through the same distributor. We have no say whatsoever on deliver dates from our distributor. We really wish we could speed up release dates but we have no power over it whatsoever. No store in the US does.
In regards to pre-order cancellations, we've had to be strict on it lately due to a big increase on cancelled pre-orders. Unlike other giant stores like Big Bad Toy Store or Right Stuf, we're an extremely small shop. Other stores go bankrupt and close down because too many people cancelled pre-orders and left the store with too much inventory and an inability to pay for all those figures in time. Non-refundable deposits are the only way we can combat that problem. It's not fun when someone cancels $2000 of pre-orders in one go (and that's happened several times already).
In regards to figure delays, those figures are still stuck at the factories or a dock overseas waiting to be loaded and shipped. With covid wrecking supply chains, everything is taking much longer to get from China to the US. It's much quicker for Japan to get figures since China is so much closer. This is a universal truth for any US figure store. No matter where you order from in the US, all US stores (from Crunchyroll, Big Bad Toy Store, Right Stuf) are in the same boat and go through the same distributor. We have no say whatsoever on deliver dates from our distributor. We really wish we could speed up release dates but we have no power over it whatsoever. No store in the US does.
5★ - Super friendly
Have asked several questions about products, and the owner is always quick and eager to reply and provide plenty of information and knowledge, truly marking akibasoul as an amazing and established name when it comes to buying pre-owned waifus.
5★ - Really great!!
AkibaSoul is really great to work with! All boxes I've received have been packaged perfectly and always survived whatever trek through hell the postal service decided to send the box on. If you have any questions or anything they're always quick and happy to respond! Probably the easiest figure store I've ever dealt with and my favorite US based one!
