The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a thread)

HdE said:
Urrgh. My saga with my order of the Heroic Legend of Arslan sets from Marvelio on Amazon has taken a turn.

I just discovered that the Blu Rays will have been sent via DHL Global Mail. Had I realised this in advance, I'd never have ordered them.

I received an email purportedly from DHL asking me to click a link for tracking information. As I'm aware that scammers very often try to pass themselves off as DHL and (to my knowledge at the time) I wasn;t expecting anything from them, I simply deleted the email.

Can anyone confirm if this is the standard practice for DHL Global Mail? My previous experiences with DHL as a courier have been universally terrible, so I've never used this particular service.

It all looks a bit suspect to me, to be honest. So if anybody can clarify or offer some reassurance, it'd be MUCH appreciated.
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I never got an email from DHL for my Arslan Part 1 and Seraph Part 1.
 
HdE said:
Urrgh. My saga with my order of the Heroic Legend of Arslan sets from Marvelio on Amazon has taken a turn.

I just discovered that the Blu Rays will have been sent via DHL Global Mail. Had I realised this in advance, I'd never have ordered them.

I received an email purportedly from DHL asking me to click a link for tracking information. As I'm aware that scammers very often try to pass themselves off as DHL and (to my knowledge at the time) I wasn;t expecting anything from them, I simply deleted the email.

Can anyone confirm if this is the standard practice for DHL Global Mail? My previous experiences with DHL as a courier have been universally terrible, so I've never used this particular service.

It all looks a bit suspect to me, to be honest. So if anybody can clarify or offer some reassurance, it'd be MUCH appreciated.
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I've only had to deal with dhl when getting items from Amazon Japan and I never got an email.

If it is dhl then the seller should give you a tracking number. If they haven't ask for one and then google dhl tracking. Put in the number and that will tell you what you need to know and you can pay any import costs that way (without having to click a sus link)
 
Thanks, guys. This actually helps a lot. This email smelled fishy from day one, and I think my suspicions can be classifed as 'confirmed.'

The delivery timeframe as specified on Amazon for my delivery runs until the first of February, so technically, my Arslan BDs could still turn up. What concerns me is that the email I have which purports to be from 'DHL Tracking' starts with 'Dear Customer' (always suspect!) and contains no specific details of my name, address or order - just a blue link which it asks me to click to receive my tracking number and also confirm my address. That looks dodgy as all get out, and no way am I clicking it!

I'll contact Marvelio again and do as Gemsy Chan suggests.
 
One further question, on a different topic. This one's on behalf of a friend:

When ordering anime from an established and legit US seller on Ebay, my pal has heard it said that there's a much higher chance of the package being intercepted by customs if it's over the import threshold. This sounds like poppycock* to me, but seeing as I tend to swear off buying anime on Ebay, I really can't say with authority.

Has anyone had any experience to corroborate this?




*Englsih expletive, for our foreign readers. :eek:)
 
HdE said:
One further question, on a different topic. This one's on behalf of a friend:

When ordering anime from an established and legit US seller on Ebay, my pal has heard it said that there's a much higher chance of the package being intercepted by customs if it's over the import threshold. This sounds like poppycock* to me, but seeing as I tend to swear off buying anime on Ebay, I really can't say with authority.

Has anyone had any experience to corroborate this?




*Englsih expletive, for our foreign readers. :eek:)
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Depends how they send it. If it goes through ebays global shipping then customs are covered in the shipping cost your pal paid (much like amazon's). If not then it will depend on how the seller labelled the custom form.
 
Gemsy Chan is two for two in this thread!

That's pretty much what I figured. I actually also realised that I've told a minor porkie-pie above - I HAVE ordered anime through Ebay, but usually only when shipping is specified via the global shipping system.

In this case, my friend is after an item that he's so far only managed to find on Ebay, and he's been told that 'all Ebay orders from the USA get inspected by customs.'

Sounds a bit plucked out of the sky to me, but then again how do I know that isn't the case?
 
Is there a list of French/German/Italian anime releases with English subs/ dubs? I can find plenty for Japanese releases but not for there countries.
 
crashmatt said:
Is there a list of French/German/Italian anime releases with English subs/ dubs? I can find plenty for Japanese releases but not for there countries.
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As I understood it, for the most part, whenever a French, German or Italian release has English subs or dubs, it's because it's also intended for release in the United Kingdom. So it would only be Universal, Sony and select Anime Limited/@Anime, Kaze and Warner Bros. titles.

That said, the data isn't great. Kaze aren't always that great at providing accurate information (according to Amazon Fr, their JJBA includes English dub audio but not subtitles?), @Anime will only ever list French subs/dubs on their releases.
 
Buzz201 said:
As I understood it, for the most part, whenever a French, German or Italian release has English subs or dubs, it's because it's also intended for release in the United Kingdom. So it would only be Universal, Sony and select Anime Limited, Kaze and Warner Bros. titles.
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I've only ever seen a few Kaze releases with English subs like Nisekoi but I was wondering if there were others.
 
crashmatt said:
I've only ever seen a few Kaze releases with English subs like Nisekoi but I was wondering if there were others.
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I think it's 50/50. If there's a title Kaze has in the UK that you want, it's definitely worth checking France first. Information on Amazon and their site isn't always great, but there's generally some clue.
 
Anyone know what the deal is with importing? Do you have to pay import tax on everything? Never really imported anything before or is it on a certain amount you spend?
 
Dave1988 said:
Anyone know what the deal is with importing? Do you have to pay import tax on everything? Never really imported anything before or is it on a certain amount you spend?
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There is a certain threshold (I think it's around £20) where you won't get charged, but if the item is valued much over that, you'll get charged 20% of the item's value plus an £8 (Royal Mail) or £14 (Parcelforce) handling fee on top.
 
Dave1988 said:
Anyone know what the deal is with importing? Do you have to pay import tax on everything? Never really imported anything before or is it on a certain amount you spend?
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If you buy from Amazon.com (you can use your Amazon.co.uk account there too, and they'll charge you in GBP so no transaction fee from your bank), you can put the import fees down in advance. So if you get charged then, Amazon will use that money and you won't have to pay the handling fee @IncendiaryLemon mentioned. And if you don't get charged, Amazon will refund you the money you put down.

Perhaps a better option might be to buy from a UK reseller, such as United Publications (aka UP, UP1, UP1 USA) and I think Otaku.co.uk do it. Here they import the item and then send it to you from within the UK, so they deal with all the tax and handling fee and such nonsense, and you just pay a single fee and receive the item. I will however say, this is legally questionable, so you might not be as protected as if you were buying a UK item from HMV or wherever.
 
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