Where to Buy Anime in the UK (was Anime Online Retailers)

Well, looks like my love affair with Supermart is at an end.

I'd defended this company from its detractors for several reasons:

1 - They generally have stocks of some hard to find stuff.

2 - They're usually pretty goodprice-wise.

3 - I've never had to pay import duties on anything from them - they pay those duties up-front, much like Moviemars.

The drawback has always been their variable delivery times. the quickest I had anything was within a fortnight, and the longest an order ever took has been three and a bit weeks. But I've stuck by 'em, because they generally always deliver the goods.

Not so this time. I ordered spme Viridian Collection DVDs from them over on Play.com, where they have listed them as 'packing' for 4 days now, after my bank account was charged. I've emailed Supermart to query this situation (it's usually a sign that the seller doesn't have stocks of the specific goods) but, no reply.

Previously, they've always been really good So this is pretty galling. I notice their feedback score on Play has dropped by 2% OVERNIGHT, so I dread to think what's going on with them.

Do people take no pride in their businesses anymore?
:roll:

I've also noticed a few sellers on Play and Amazon are blighted with some truly dumb negative feedback. Customers are sometimes incapable of checking to see that the seller is based outside their country, or reading the clear-as-day disclaimer that DVDs are supplied with a specific region code that prohibits use on non-modified players. Yet STILL they complain about these unavoidable issues with negative feedback.

And if I see one more red mark on a seller's feedback page, accompanied by the words 'Film arrived. It was crap.' I fear I'll scream.
 
HdE said:
And if I see one more red mark on a seller's feedback page, accompanied by the words 'Film arrived. It was crap.' I fear I'll scream.
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This annoys me as well. If you order something and it turns out to be crap give the product a low rating not the seller. The seller is not responsible for people ordering low quality items.

The retailer should only be judged on speed of delivery, how well the order is packed and the quality of aftersale service should it be required not whether the item ordered is good or not.
 
Sing it loud, brother!

I am CONSISTENTLY ASTOUNDED at the creative ideas people have about seller feedback and what is appropriate to say there. What's worse is that the likes of Amazon and Play leave that idiotic nonsense posted for all to see!

I'm actually keeping a log of some of the more hilarious ones I've seen. I'll most likely make them the subject o my DA journal at some point. I mean... honestly! Some of them are too rude to re-type here.

Feedback abuse - intentional or otherwise - concerns me. I've already seen a few good retailers fall off of Amazon because of it.

In the case of Supermart - an update. I just got an email telling me my DVDs have been dispatched. No reply to my query email, mind. I'm less than impressed with their service just lately, but it'll be a shame if they don't buck up their ideas. They've been a reliable source for some tricky-to-find anime just lately. I sincerely doubt that Macross II and the original Bubblegum Crisis would be in my collection if not for them.

EDIT: DEAR. GOD. I get home from work today, check my email, and Supermart have refunded my order, after initially telling me they'd posted it.

Welcome to my 'sellers never to use again' list, Supermart. :roll:
 
With the feed back I can understand people giving neutral feed back when after a month something has not turned up but they get a refund. What I don't like are all the stupid people that don't read things and give negative feed back after waiting a few days to a week and something has not shown up when it clearly states on most of the sellers from out side the UK it will take around 2-3 weeks. What does get me is the level of anger directed at these companies rather than the postal services and their dodgy employees. The level of english used for many of the feedbacks also leads me to question intelligence of the customers. That said it concerns me how many of the feedbacks are mentioning how bad some of the traders are at corresponding when things do go wrong.

Axelmusic are pretty good when things go wrong unfortunately for them I have had to report two things going missing in the post in the last couple of months. It just annoys me for whatever reason the postal service is so shoddy I lose up to half a dozen packages each year. Which means after re-shipping it can be about two months after the original dispatch that I get something.
 
Excellent points, Dracos.

I've had a pretty good run of luck with online ordering. I think just three items I ordered since I went online early last year have not arrived - and in each case I was either sent a replacement (which arrived safely) or a complete refund.

Our postal services in the UK really are quite shocking at times - and this comes from somebody who has friends and family in the post office!

Like you, I'm amazed at the astonishing lack of savvy some customers display. Non-existent deliveries are seldom the fault of retailers, and I have to ask, do we REALLY live in an age where people who have the level of intelligence required to complete an online ordering process can't work that out?
 
HdE said:
I'm amazed at the astonishing lack of savvy some customers display. Non-existent deliveries are seldom the fault of retailers, and I have to ask, do we REALLY live in an age where people who have the level of intelligence required to complete an online ordering process can't work that out?
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Work in sales/customer service for a while and the depths of human stupidity will cease to amaze you pretty quickly.

Someone ordering from my company rang up yesterday and complained loudly for at least twenty minutes (in all seriousness) that they weren't sent everything in the catalogue picture when they ordered one item in the picture. Each item clearly had a number by it which corresponded to a listing to the side of the picture. That's like complaining you didn't get the books when buying a bookshelf from Argos. The worst thing was we had to pander to the belligerent bastard. If it was up to me I'd have had him shot.

People are just idiots, full stop. I stopped expecting anything from them a long time ago, yet I still find myself regularly disappointed. My opinion of humanity is has gone so far through the floor that it's reappeared in the South Pacific.
 
ayase said:
HdE said:
I'm amazed at the astonishing lack of savvy some customers display. Non-existent deliveries are seldom the fault of retailers, and I have to ask, do we REALLY live in an age where people who have the level of intelligence required to complete an online ordering process can't work that out?
Click to expand...
Work in sales/customer service for a while and the depths of human stupidity will cease to amaze you pretty quickly.
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And that's just the people you're working alongside. ;)
 
@ayase.
With trade descriptions and customer expectations people have to watch what they put in adverting photos. That's why all those ipod peripherals have does not include ipod emblazoned across them.

I would hate to work in sales with so many people trying it on. The guy I get my comics and collectables from has had some pretty crappy feed back on his ebay store for no good reason. The worst being some some stupid woman that bought a doll off him and decided she did not like how much she paid so waited for him to be selling a similar one, she then left a negative feed back lying about how the one she bought was a fake so no-one bid on the second one. He is getting pretty sick of the number of people lying about things being broken to get their money back.
 
@maestro - Thankfully not, or I'd have quit by now :p

Dracos said:
With trade descriptions and customer expectations people have to watch what they put in adverting photos. That's why all those ipod peripherals have does not include ipod emblazoned across them.
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Things like that just show how far wrong our legal system has gone. It's now custom built for the moronic, greedy and deceitful. As for your friend, I'm certain people lie to us about things being broken. We ask for photographic proof now, but I wouldn't put it past them to purposefully break things they no longer want or aren't selling in order to get their money back.

The vast majority of customers are fine, but it really annoys me how it's the people who are unreasonable, belligerent f*ckers who get all the scraping and bowing from my boss (she knows by now they won't get any from me. Do unto others as they do unto you is my motto) while those who have genuine grievances but don't kick up a fuss are sidelined. It's depressing to note as an observation on human behaviour that (and I'm sure it's true throughout society) if you're a mouthy aggressive ******** you get listened to. If you're reasonable and accommodating, you don't.
 
Its even better when people get all bent out of shape and start going on about sale of goods, distance selling and the such when in reality if they didn't act like total idiots the retailers would, more often than not, refund them.
 
Ayase, 2501 - you make excellent, pertinent points. I particularly like your comment, Ayase, about doing unto others as you'd like done to you.

I'm self employed, and I operate a strict policy where customer grievances are concerned.

If I feel the customer is being reasonable, and if they air their complaint in civilised terms, then I'll bend over backwards to resolve the situation. This has helped me to develop a very positive reputation in my line of work, and has enabled me to maintain a friendly footing with some of my customers for almost 12 years.

On the flip-side:

If a customer has unreasonable expectations. I tell them so.

If a customer raises their voice to me or makes personal insults, I walk away from them.

If a customer is rude to me, or attempts to get what they want through dishonest means, or by unfairly comparing my services to those of somebody else, I shake their hand, thank them for their custom, and terminate my dealings with them. Because, bottom line, I neither need nor want those types of customers on my books.

I've been accused of being militant about this, but the fact of the matter is, businesses need to have some form of protection against customers with such vindictive, obstroperous and unreasonable attitudes.

The feedback system operated by sites such as Amazon, Play and even Ebay concerns me somewhat because it's open to abuse. Even when the relevant parties are advised that feedback is unhelpful or improper, it doesn't mean that EVERY instance of this gets dealt with - and that leaves the door wide open for idiots and opportunists to unfairly damage a good seller's reputation.
 
Most of the anime I order is American due to their larger selection and I buy it all from United Publications.

I'm in love with their quality and delivery times. When an item is in stock, I almost always receive it the day after it's dispatched - and if order is placed before 11am it's shipped that day. There is some leeway with that though. I once placed an order at 1pm, they dispatched it an hour later and it arrived the following day. I think it depends how busy they are since they go to pretty much every UK anime con and have a table in the dealers room.

Their prices are reasonable considering most of their stock is USA import and they are based in England, but them being located in England means there are no extortionate delivery charges to UK addresses and no risk of it being held and having to pay import charges. It's a quid or two per item, depending how big it is really.


United Publications = 5/5
 
I agree United Publications are good but their shipping charges are not always cheap. The Read or Die blu-ray set that is due out in January has a shipping cost of £7.70.
 
That does come in some moderately epic packaging, though. And I wonder if they have to pay more in the first place due to the distribution method in the States.
 
Something to watch out for on Axelmusic is the billing and this especially.

"Please note that all prices displayed in GBP are for DISPLAY PURPOSES ONLY. Actual billing can be done in USD and CAD only. Once you start the check-out process you will be asked which billing currency you would prefer

As such, all GBP displayed prices will be approximate and not legally binding. Exact billing prices will be displayed upon check-out."

I had not really noticed on my credit card statement before but I just looked on line and realised I paid £16 more than my order ended at in the basket with my discount because of the above. I picked Canadian Dollars for the extra reward points this time. Maybe next time I will check the exchange on both US and Canadian Dollars. It might only make a few pence difference on one off things but as I tend to spend between £150 and £200 on a monthly order it could make quite a difference if I get it wrong.
 
GAH!

I am not happy.

I'd decided to import the last two volumes of Gundam OO from the USA to watch over Xmas (the final set is out soon) and I've had a nasty shock.

Season 2 part 3 is nigh on IMPOSSIBLE to find for decent money at the moment. It even has the dreaded 'Currently unavailable - we don't know when or if this product will become available again' tag under it on Amazon.

So, I was forced to buy the set from Amazon.Com for a much higher price.

Still, at least I'll get it. But I'm dreading the customs charges and Royal Mail handling fee (which I have no intention of paying at all, seeing as I've already paid £8.00 to Amazon for international shipping). :evil:
 
The problem I find with Axelmusic is that a lot of stuff is not held in stock and the 0-3 days can be quite an under estimate.

Does anyone know if and why they stopped the Helium pass thing as mine runs out soon and it does not seem that you can re-new them.

On another note it looks like my replacement copy of Haruhi season 2 may have gone missing after the first one did. It was re-sent three weeks ago and I have had all my stuff ordered since. I don't want to have to tell Axelmusic it went missing again, I will give it another week or so to turn up. They don't seem to ask too many questions about missing stuff, but as it will be the third time in about three months I have had to tell them about missing packages they may start to get suspicious.
 
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