Issues with Akiba Games

PCEngineHell · 05/10/2015, 10:18 PM

http://stores.ebay.com/akibagamesdotcom
http://akiba-games.com

I decided to give these guys a go. Honestly I am not pleased at all with them. All 4 items I purchased arrived filthy. I purchased loose cards of Salamander, TwinBee, Ordyne, and an Arcade Card Duo. The Arcade Card, in addition to a lot of standard filth, was covered with some sticky film and gunky stuff, and stuck in a old filthy hucard sleeve.

The other 3 games were equally filthy, though less sticky. Ordyne had a few deep scratches in the back of the card also. Salamander was DOA. Powering up the game will get you solid audio, but garbles graphics. No amount of cleaning helps the situation. TwinBee was the only item that really came as described, outside of being dirty.

The seller also raped me on shipping cost. I paid €17.30 EUR (tad over $19.00 ) for shipping, which amounts to about 2314 yen. The seller only spent about 1200 yen to actually ship the package. The only positive to this was the packing job was good enough.

Concerning the Salamander situation, the seller is claiming it was fine when shipped, and are not owning up to it, so I opened a dispute with ebay. Anyway, figured I would put this out there just in case anyone was curious how bad this seller can be when things go wrong.

EDIT: video link showing Salamander not working.

Bloufo · 05/11/2015, 02:43 AM

Have bought a few items in the recent past from that seller. No problems to report.
But yeah that's definitely not cool for him not wanting to take responsibility for a defective item.

That thing you mention though with the sticky loose hueys,
I've experienced that on a number of occasions from a few different reputable sellers.
I'm thinking it could be as a result of the loose cards being left kinda exposed in that plastic sleeve at certain weather temps over a prolonged period.

PCEngineHell · 05/11/2015, 10:04 AM

This guy did not even bother to stick the other 3 cards in any kind of sleeve. He refuses to reply to the dispute, and has threatened revenge for getting the negative feedback I left him after he refused to respond and accept responsibility.

I wasn't even going to bust his chops and the sticky filth shit, the Salamander not working right was the major deal to me, but given his response, I can tell this is going to be one of those situations where ebay forces a refund due to seller non-compliance.

I should also note, the guy did not put the true value of the items on the package, so even if it was damaged during shipping, insurance would be worthless. He claimed the items were only worth 1000 yen combined.

EDIT: Sigh, had I seen this prior concerning their website store I would have just stuck with my gut after seeing the ebay negs they have and avoided them. https://www.facebook.com/akiba.games/reviews

They have a low of low star reviews, more bad ones then good as of late I guess from initial viewing. Just another Rising Stuff kind of seller I guess.

Oh and to add to this, the seller lied on their feedback follow ups saying I had pictures of the items so I knew of their condition. The problem with that is the pics are marked "sample image" and the auction states "The picture is a SAMPLE, so it is NOT the actual item picture.". The seller also stated in their Salamander feedback follow up that I refused to mail the defective item back. Their words specifically are :"Ask for a refund but won't return the game because it's working !!!".

The problem here is that I never refused, nor asked specifically for a refund. I opened a dispute for item not as described so a return could be processed, for either an exchange or a refund. Since the item was not as described ebay is going to insist the seller cover return shipping if they want the item back. The seller has made no attempt to respond to the dispute, but they have had no problem sending messages to my inbox. A return cant be processed until the seller responds, so umm, yeah, more like seller refuses to accept a return lol.

grendelrt · 05/11/2015, 11:13 AM

I had a guy send me a Sega CD, Genesis, 2 controllers and 3 games in a box 3x the size needed with no packing material. Suffice to say shit was broke. He refused all help and eBay made him refund, but he refused to pay shipping. EBay actually paid for the shipping back to him which I thought was good for me but sucked that he should have had to pay for it.
Image lol
/25d898822571a974748adcaf8f7ede5a.jpg

All the packing material
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PCEngineHell · 05/11/2015, 11:32 AM

Oh ebay will make him pay for it one way or another. They tack it onto the seller fees he has to pay or whatever, so if he doesn't pay those when it is time he loses his seller account. It is part of their new seller policies they set up as of late.

grendelrt · 05/11/2015, 11:52 AM

That is great then, I luckily haven't had much trouble with Japan sellers so far, the shipping would worry me if I did though. Sucks they aren't taking car of you, I will avoid them in the future.

PCEngineHell · 05/11/2015, 12:16 PM

I just noticed this little tidbit on one of his feedback followups:

"You paid without waiting for the combined shipment invoice you stupid !"

This is rather funny considering I sent a request for combined shipping and a day later he sent a invoice for it. I paid for it and confirmed the shipping info and price he listed was correct for the method I chose. He dropped me a pm back confirming what I asked/stated.

/invoice%20from%20akiba_zpstxpfndm6.png
/akiba%20lies%20about%20shipping_zpsl1hnmmvy.png

So basically yeah, the guy is a flat out liar on all levels.

wildfruit · 05/11/2015, 12:39 PM

I was going to order a load of cheap games from akiba games. I had 7 or 8 cd rom roms in the basket but when the shipping came to £40, which was more than the games cost, I cancelled. Shame some people rape on shipping. I always refund postage difference if my estimate is more than £1 over actual cost.

PCEngineHell · 05/11/2015, 12:43 PM

Yeah and the thing is, if it was an honest mistake on the shipping cost thing, he could at any time have sent a pm saying "Oh hey you over paid, I am refunding the difference." But I mean, this Akiba Games guy is a dirt bag, so no, he will just keep the extra cash because it was intentional, much like him sending a defective game it seems.

Bloufo · 05/11/2015, 01:00 PM

Not refunding the difference is a complete douchebag move.

PCEngineHell · 05/11/2015, 01:11 PM

Yeah and I mean, there are honest sellers out there that will refund the difference when it happens. Guys like Toshi at Jump to Japan will do it no questions asked.

NecroPhile · 05/12/2015, 04:52 PM

He also sells stuff on ebay under akiba-games-tokyo.

PCEngineHell · 05/12/2015, 05:13 PM

Probably a backup account in case he ever loses his main one. No reason to have a secondary seller account like that, selling the same kind of items, unless you are somewhat shady and tend to burn bridges.

NecroPhile · 05/12/2015, 05:18 PM

Yep, 'tis shady. I was trolling for a Basted (tits!) and noticed two sellers using the same pic.

bob · 05/12/2015, 05:26 PM

Jeez, between this and Bold, you have been having a string of shit luck with ebay.

PCEngineHell · 05/12/2015, 05:55 PM

Quote from: galam on 05/12/2015, 05:26 PMJeez, between this and Bold, you have been having a string of shit luck with ebay.

Nah not all is bad. I have been buying from some other fairly good sellers as of late also.

tknjin · 05/12/2015, 06:29 PM

I am surprised that is going on, but I cannot say I have had issues with him in the past. If all else fails I can recommend you some of the other ebay sellers such as 199963wands, Steve666b, ryoplanshop(he or she includes bags of tea with your purchases), garakuta1028, japan_4_you, retrogamecity. I have shopped with these guys before and have never had any issues with my purchases. Hopefully this helps.

mickcris · 05/12/2015, 06:36 PM

I have bought a few things from them in the past, from their website. prices are pretty reasonable until shipping is included. but it seems all shipping from japan is expensive. and they definitely do not clean anything before they resell it.

Digi.k · 05/12/2015, 07:49 PM

Unfortunately you have to deal with crap every now and then.

I recommend you use this stuff to clean the contact points. Use a q-tip too. Just make sure it's fully dry before you put it in and switch on.

PCEngineHell · 05/12/2015, 09:56 PM

WD 40 will destroy pcbs, so I prefer to not use it on any electronics. It breaks down the bonding in the layers of the pcb. Seeing the damage it can cause first hand, I'd rather just avoid it all together. Also, concerning 199963wands, I just put in a order with them yesterday!

Bloufo · 05/12/2015, 10:58 PM

Quote from: tknjin on 05/12/2015, 06:29 PMI am surprised that is going on, but I cannot say I have had issues with him in the past. If all else fails I can recommend you some of the other ebay sellers such as 199963wands, Steve666b, ryoplanshop(he or she includes bags of tea with your purchases), garakuta1028, japan_4_you, retrogamecity. I have shopped with these guys before and have never had any issues with my purchases. Hopefully this helps.

Retrogamecity is nice and all until you bring up any sort of complaint.

I used him for years until one time he sold me an N64 adapter. It was just a plain pass thru device to allow JP games on a US N64 console. I mean it literally takes a few minutes for you to achieve the same thing by doing the "mod" yourself, but I bought his product because it was cheap and he insisted (in the item description and via communication) that this would allow for PAL games to be compatible/playable as well.

I still left him positive feedback but the mere fact that I even brought it up that the item description was not accurate, he has since (going on 3 years now, lol) found a bunch of highly original excuses why shipping to my location is "weirdly problematic at this time under current eBay guidelines" ahahaha

PCEngineHell · 05/15/2015, 06:15 PM

Just an update on this, ebay forced a refund, including partial shipping cost. Akiba never responded to the dispute, so that is on them. They do that too often and they will eventually lose their selling abilities. Pretty stupid over all.

MotherGunner · 05/15/2015, 07:15 PM

Great to hear you recovered most of your money. The frakkers...

CrackTiger · 05/15/2015, 07:17 PM

ryoplanshop does not combine shipping.

MotherGunner · 05/15/2015, 08:27 PM

robocop does not condone shoplifting.

esteban · 05/16/2015, 03:12 AM

I'll buy that for a dollar.

tknjin · 05/16/2015, 05:56 AM

Quote from: guest on 05/15/2015, 07:17 PMryoplanshop does not combine shipping.

That's not true, he has most definitely done combined shipping for me before. Unless I am just a lucky because I have definitely dealt with this seller more than once.

CrackTiger · 05/16/2015, 11:03 AM

Quote from: tknjin on 05/16/2015, 05:56 AM
Quote from: CrackTiger on 05/15/2015, 07:17 PMryoplanshop does not combine shipping.
That's not true, he has most definitely donye combined shipping for me before. Unless I am just a lucky because I have definitely dealt with this seller more than once.

It may not currently be the case with each transaction, but I got screwed twice. The second time I had forgotten the seller's name. Each time I requested a combined total invoice and at least one of the times sent a question after pointing out that shipping wasn't combined and they simply said that the individual shipping prices combined on any amount of items are what I must pay. They may have since adjusted their prices to make legit profit instead of gouging on shipping.

cr8zykuban0 · 05/18/2015, 09:18 PM

damn, that sucks to hear about your items. i'll be sure to avoid this seller.

sirhcman · 05/18/2015, 09:23 PM

Quote from: tknjin on 05/16/2015, 05:56 AM
Quote from: guest on 05/15/2015, 07:17 PMryoplanshop does not combine shipping.
That's not true, he has most definitely done combined shipping for me before. Unless I am just a lucky because I have definitely dealt with this seller more than once.

I messaged him the other day when I inquired about some saturn games and he told me he does..

Jimmy Hapa · 05/19/2015, 04:45 PM

Regarding ryolanshop, I've contacted them about combined shipping as well, and while they do provide that service, I had to pay "full price," since shipping on each individual item added up was the actual cost to ship, according to a message. I believe it, since all the games I ordered had pretty low shipping costs to start with. You can probably get combined shipping if one or two of the games had some unusually high shipping price to start with, since I've seen CD-based games range from the low end of $5 all the way to $15 with this particular seller.

A seller I've always had good experiences with is SuperFamiMart, who is courteous and has very fair prices. I've gotten some excellent deals using SFM, on ebay as well as their own website. I've even gotten promo codes for 10-25% off any one order, which helped me get some great games for really cheap.