Question for Rinkya users

[Koubayashi]

Brian, sorry to hear that; that really sucks eggs ............

Here is what the Rinkya web site has to say about claims for shipping damage.
http://www.rinkya.com/insurance.php

Hopefully it will be resolved quickly for you, and fully indemnify you.

Rich..

Thanks so much for that info.. had not seen it on the Rinkya site. I am a bit torn as to what to do at the moment. My luthier says that gluing and clamping the crack will make it good as new and perfectly stable to boot, all for well under $100. I could almost go that route instead of the agony of a claim that Rinkya may or may not pay out. Cannot tell if they refund just the purchase price or shipping costs as well. Thoughts?
btw, here is the closed auction for said guitar-

http://www.rinkya.com/twview.pl?URL=http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f80466562

The seller of the SG stated no claim no return in the info text
"ノークレーム、ノーリターン"
It is not clear on Rinkayas webpage but seems they will not refund.
It will be a pain in the bottom for them to claim money from the Japanese Post Office.
The Yahoo comment function differ a lot from Ebay's.
So all sellers use the no claim no retur to free their backs .
Most of the negative feedback sellers get is about time for finishing the deal, time to respond to closed auctions, sellers attitude and personality (believe it or not) and such.
Very little is about the sold item unless it is positive critique.

 

[MIJvintage]

Well, here?s a quick run down on the (non purchase price) costs of my first two RinkYa purchases.
Figures are rounded to the nearest dollar amount.

Telecaster:
Fees: $40
Japan domestic shipping: $10
EMS from Japan to USA: $155

Jazz bass:
Fees: $45
Japan domestic shipping: $16
EMS from Japan to USA: $186

Both items are waiting at my local Post Office for me to pick up tomorrow

Both items were shipped on the same flight to the US but oddly, only one item was assessed a Customs duty, of $51; the other item went thru? Customs without being assessed a duty

Rich,
How much (roughly) was the purchase price of the items that you bought? Just wanting to work out the fees paid compared to purchase price.
Cheers,
Sam

Please refer to page 2 of the thread; it's all listed there :wink:

 

[Cali Girl]

How can a Customs office doing their job properly & charging you the duty laid down by your own government constitute "corruption"? Isn't it more likely that a US Customs office which fails to charge the duty legally due is the corrupt one?

We've heard these whinges before from some US members, & I really don't get it! You're very lucky if you manage to evade paying legally due taxes - don't complain if you sometimes have to pay them.

I think he might have been referring to Chicago's long history of government corruption, there have been several famous cases there of public officials including judges completely under mob control for pay How that applies to the customs house I am not very sure.

 

[youami]

Thanks Rich. Their prices seem reasonable. I think I may have entered a whole new world of auctions.yahoo/digimart trouble!

 

[MIJvintage]

Sam, here is the info on both items; as you can see the more expensive item was $5 cheaper for 'Commission' :-?


Commission: $45.00
Handling fee: $15 (YJ to Rinkya)



Commission: $40.00
Handling fee: $15 (YJ to Rinkya)


The shipping charges within Japan were $10 for the Tele & $16 for the Jazz Bass.

EMS to the US for the Tele was $155.
Typical EMS would be $120 so, add in 25% and that's another $30, for a total of $150.
The $155 cost is pretty much dead on for typical EMS, plus 25%.

EMS to the US for the Jazz Bass was $186.
Package weight was ~1708 grams/3.76 lb. heavier than the Tele package, thus the extra cost.

I picked up the two packages today after work.
The boxes that RinkYa ships in are new/heavy thickness card board; very good boxes for EMS shipping.
Both instruments were (lightly) bubble wrapped within the gig bags, and packaging outside of the gigbags was a minimal amount of crumppled news print & a few bits of card board, placed in strategic locations.
The gig bags were bar coded & my name was also on each bar code tag; a great way to avoid mix-ups.
My items arrived safe, even tho' one box had three small holes in it, luckily on the neck end of one box.

I must say that I am completely sold on RinkYa's service, as I believe their fees to be reasonable, and their service overall is pretty **** slick.

I now have an extremely early Bacchus bass 8)

I also have one of the earliest examples that I have ever seen Fender Japan KR Teles 8)


Oddly enough, both guitars have some nice flame in the maple necks 8) 8) 8) and both are center seam/2 pc. body

So far, RinkYa is some awesome crap .................................

on a side note:
both items were on the same plane to the States, arrived & went thru' US Customs at the same time but only the Tele was tagged with a duty :-? ............... which is better than both being tagged ..................
No damage to either guitar; luckily still batting 100% for no moderate/major damage, after all these years ........

 

[JVsearch]

guitars that I import from Japan come into the US via Chicago O'Hare US Customs; IMO Chicago is STILL corrupt as Hell, and the Customs house there I'm quite confident is not immune ...............

your guitars come thru' a different point of entry & likely a lot less BS goin' on there :wink: ....................

How can a Customs office doing their job properly & charging you the duty laid down by your own government constitute "corruption"? Isn't it more likely that a US Customs office which fails to charge the duty legally due is the corrupt one?

We've heard these whinges before from some US members, & I really don't get it! You're very lucky if you manage to evade paying legally due taxes - don't complain if you sometimes have to pay them. :roll:

I would have thought that US citizens being as paranoid as they are about mail fraud (lying about value of items for international buyers) that they would have voluntarily paid the legally correct duty even when a package was not stopped? :wink: :lol:

 

[JVsearch]

The guitars look great! I especially like the Micawber, brass bridge as well! I think a brass bridge and a humbucker would have saved a Tele I had once, but I couldn't get the bridge anywhere at the time.

Glad they got there safely, unlike our brother with his SG (sorry mate).

 

[MIJvintage]

guitars that I import from Japan come into the US via Chicago O'Hare US Customs; IMO Chicago is STILL corrupt as Hell, and the Customs house there I'm quite confident is not immune ...............

your guitars come thru' a different point of entry & likely a lot less BS goin' on there :wink: ....................

How can a Customs office doing their job properly & charging you the duty laid down by your own government constitute "corruption"? Isn't it more likely that a US Customs office which fails to charge the duty legally due is the corrupt one?

We've heard these whinges before from some US members, & I really don't get it! You're very lucky if you manage to evade paying legally due taxes - don't complain if you sometimes have to pay them. :roll:

I would have thought that US citizens being as paranoid as they are about mail fraud (lying about value of items for international buyers) that they would have voluntarily paid the legally correct duty even when a package was not stopped? :wink: :lol:

I spoke (via phone) with a Customs officer at Chicago O'Hare about two years ago.
He stated that they could retroactively charge a duty on an item that was previously sent thru' Customs, and not assessed.
Sounds like BS but I don't know ........... it's never happened to me so .................
I certainly am not going to volunteer to pay a duty if one has cleared Customs, and not been tagged

AFA fudging on valuations & shipping; I don't go there, not for customers & I also don't ask it of sellers ..............

 

[BlueThird]

Anyone know how Australian customs compare? Gut feeling is that they wouldn't be anything like as generous/lax, but I haven't tested it.

 

[atha]

Just got email that starting from Nov 27th until the end of this year, they offer 15% discount on EMS shipments.

 

[Anonymous]

I especially like the Micawber, brass bridge as well! I think a brass bridge and a humbucker would have saved a Tele I had once, but I couldn't get the bridge anywhere at the time.(sorry mate).

What is the advantage of a brass bridge on a Tele?

 

[JVsearch]

I especially like the Micawber, brass bridge as well! I think a brass bridge and a humbucker would have saved a Tele I had once, but I couldn't get the bridge anywhere at the time.(sorry mate).

What is the advantage of a brass bridge on a Tele?

I had high hopes that it would mellow out the bridge pickup tone bit, reduce the chickin' pickin' effect? Softer metal?

And, of course, I wanted to be like Andy Summers!

 

[MIJvintage]

I started this thread in hopes of quickly learning other's opinions of RinkYa's service.

I would like to thank all that provided their experiences & opinions with RinkYa, particularlly Raph (JVsearch).

It's really cool when one of us can ask & then we all learn; that's the great thing about this forum.

Now I am no longer a RinkYa virgin :lol: , I now have my own small basis of RinkYa experiences & opinions of which I'm sure will be growing, and I am looking forward to more GAS purchases with RinkYa

Thanks again folks 8) ..............................

 

[JVsearch]

Anyone know how Australian customs compare? Gut feeling is that they wouldn't be anything like as generous/lax, but I haven't tested it.

No, they will crush you like a bug!
Actually they will just invoice you for the duty, which you can pay by credit card if you want. It's only 5%, but you will also be charged GST of 10%, not sure if customs collects this, or you have to pay some other authority.

Remember though, if the value is under $1000 AUD it will come straight through. So, you've got about 75K yen to play with, depending on exchange rates.

 

[JVsearch]

I started this thread in hopes of quickly learning other's opinions of RinkYa's service.

I would like to thank all that provided their experiences & opinions with RinkYa, particularlly Raph (JVsearch).

It's really cool when one of us can ask & then we all learn; that's the great thing about this forum.

Now I am no longer a RinkYa virgin :lol: , I now have my own small basis of RinkYa experiences & opinions of which I'm sure will be growing, and I am looking forward to more GAS purchases with RinkYa

Thanks again folks 8) ..............................

Glad to be of assistance! (for once :lol: )

We'll have to see if fiftywatt goes back to Rinkya to try and settle his problem to see how they handle that. It looks like maybe they dropped it, or the courier to Rinkya did, or the seller as he was taking it out the door dropped it. Seems like the guitar was fine in the listing, but that isn't conclusive either. It's a right cock up!

 

[MIJvintage]

I also think the SG package was dropped; a set/glued neck has to have some type of force to become dislodged like that.

As I stated previously, IMO the packaging materials utilized inside the two boxes I received from RinkYa were minimal amounts of materials, especially for international shipping.

I consider myself very lucky to have had no damage with either guitar, packaged like that .................

 

[fiftywatt]

We'll have to see if fiftywatt goes back to Rinkya to try and settle his problem to see how they handle that. It looks like maybe they dropped it, or the courier to Rinkya did, or the seller as he was taking it out the door dropped it. Seems like the guitar was fine in the listing, but that isn't conclusive either. It's a right cock up!

Fiftywatt here.. sent pics of the structural cracks to Rinkya a day or so ago. No response yet. Starting the claim process tomorrow or Monday. May not get anywhere.. we shall see. Totally agree with JV above..
I too suspect someone dropped this one and did not fess up. I can get it repaired of course and likely as stable as before the damage, but it would be nice to get Rinkya to pony up for something. It was shipped EMS and declared/insured for at least 39,800 Yen according to the shipping label.

 

[MIJvintage]

The 'Commission' fee that RinkYa charges seems to fluctuate a bit as I have paid $40 & $45 for this fee, on two different winning bids.

This morning I placed a bid on a non 'Price Ends' listing, was the only bidder , and the Commission fee is $50 :-?

I know it's only a few buck$ but not sure how they are calculating this so called Commission fee ...............

Commission: $50.00
Handling fee: $15 (YJ to Rinkya)


I'm really glad no one else wanted this one 8)

......... three RinkYa purchases in 15 days time ........ no, I'm not hooked :lol: ................

 

[fiftywatt]

We'll have to see if fiftywatt goes back to Rinkya to try and settle his problem to see how they handle that. It looks like maybe they dropped it, or the courier to Rinkya did, or the seller as he was taking it out the door dropped it. Seems like the guitar was fine in the listing, but that isn't conclusive either. It's a right cock up!

The latest update on my cautionary tale if you will:

http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=15153&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

 

[hunter]

Joining the conversation late ,but wanted to add my kudos to Rinkya...Have bought seven guitars to date and all have arrived safely and quickly.I agree the fees are well worth the opportunity to shop the huge assortment of MIJ guitars......The combined shipping offer has helped on two occasions where a set of pickups and some catalogs were purchased.These two items sat at their warehouse until I Purchased a guitar and had them stuffed in the box and shipped all together.There is a additional fee, but cheaper than shipping by themselves.I also have never paid a duty of any type

btw:I have asked for additional pictures and received them on occasion...on one occasion my bid was accepted before the auction ended and was not a buy-it-now bid.....this can happen if the "early exit in'' is listed on the auction 8)