After Robotkingdom sent me the wrong item

[langzixinxin]

I ordered a fansproject power commander(the red one) from RK for 119USD.

They are very fast indeed. But once I open the box, I saw "TFX-01 city commander" on it. I hesitated a little bit thinking this might be a wrong one. But I am new to TFs, so not very sure. I cut the seal, it is a wrong one.


I contact them. After providing couple of photo evidence, this is what I got form their reply:

===============
OK, we will ship the correct one to you, and the wrong one, just keep it.

Thanks,
Ray
================

It made me more than better off, but why they do that? Do you have any similar experience with them?
:confused:

[llamatron]

Why do they do that?

Because they are the greatest.

[k.wong23]

Robotkingdom are the best!!! Be greatful!

[bruticus]

Sounds like they do this often??

very interesting.....

[Gutsman Heavy]

had it happen to me, scored a Micron Legend Super Ironhide!

[Vector Prime]

So I should keep my fingers crossed that they send me the wrong stuff? :D

[Golden Phoenix]

It could be cheaper for you to keep it.

If they asked you to send it back then you'd have to get money from them to send it, that's a hassle, and the hassle might make you less willing to buy again.

Also by letting you keep it your likely to tell people (which you have) and this may increase orders. People would be more willing to buy from them knowing if they get the wrong item they can keep it for free. Kinda like a chance to win something.
And by letting you keep it you don't feel bitter or annoyed at them either. I'm guessing your rather happy with the transaction.

If it all works, the increased business will cover the costs.

[Kyle]

I hope such nice things can happen to me... :D

:o

:p

[Lordy]

Once I ordered a Henkei Megatron and a Henkei Smokescreen. They sent me two of each, and told me I could keep the extras.

So the other Megs and Smokescreen are still in their original boxes, hidden away. In 10 years time...

I love Robotkingdom.

[AussieJason]

Good service on their part.

In fact, the plug from the positive dealings with them in this thread alone may be enough of an advertisement to cover the cost of supplying the wrong item.

[Deonasis]

That is very very cool. And yes, it does make me more likely to shop through them. Each day as I turn into my street, waiting for my order to arrive, I'll secretly be hoping to see giant pallets of stock in my front lawn as they ship 1/2 their warehouse to me!

[griffin]

They sent me the wrong item a couple months back, and asked for a photo, but never heard anything back from them. I'll have to chase them up again about it before they run out of stock.

[5FDP]

RK is about the only online store that I buy things from. I find them to be very prompt and professional.

That was very nice of them to say you could keep the item. Most other places would ask you to ship it back to them first and in some cases, pay for the return shipping. You're a lucky man.

[kaiden]

RK is about the only online store that I buy things from. I find them to be very prompt and professional.

That was very nice of them to say you could keep the item. Most other places would ask you to ship it back to them first and in some cases, pay for the return shipping. You're a lucky man.

i hate that especially with ebay and paypal. bunch of assholes.

[Zippo]

Never had anything wrong from RK, but certinally been overcharged $20-50US on a heap of parcels and never heard anything back from my emails about that.

Guess that is why they can afford to tell people to keep :-)

I still use them though. A better option that most of the USA stores, eBay and a lot of the Japanese stores as well.

[langzixinxin]

Never had anything wrong from RK, but certinally been overcharged $20-50US on a heap of parcels and never heard anything back from my emails about that.

Guess that is why they can afford to tell people to keep :-)

I still use them though. A better option that most of the USA stores, eBay and a lot of the Japanese stores as well.


I ordered galvatron takara reissue couple of weeks ago. I planned to get my friend from HK to bring it to me but Chinese new year delay the delivery. Finally the item arrived my friend's house his mum has to post it for me to Melbourne.

His mum simply use the original post box that RK use. The postage cost is around 20 AUD.

I am pretty sure had I let RK post that item to Melbourne, it will be higher than 20. :rolleyes:

[DarkHyren]

I am pretty sure had I let RK post that item to Melbourne, it will be higher than 20I dunno, I was curious so I just chucked a Takara G1 reissue Galvatron in the cart to see and it says "Shipping Charge (Australia) : $20.98".
That's Registered Air Mail Parcel by the way, not EMS. EMS says $28.67.
Unless those figures arn't the final post costs? I havn't used RK before so I wouldn't know.

[5FDP]

Unless those figures arn't the final post costs? I havn't used RK before so I wouldn't know.

They would be. I've never had them email me or send another quote for shipping that differs from what their website calculates.

[langzixinxin]

I dunno, I was curious so I just chucked a Takara G1 reissue Galvatron in the cart to see and it says "Shipping Charge (Australia) : $20.98".
That's Registered Air Mail Parcel by the way, not EMS. EMS says $28.67.
Unless those figures arn't the final post costs? I havn't used RK before so I wouldn't know.

Wow, cool. I didn't try actually. But sad, they don't have e-hobby version anymore. :o

[The_Damned]

i had a big order a while ago and the didnt send a ehobby sunstorm and i emailed them about and they sent one out to me.

[Robzy]

RK are brilliant like that!! They always put the customer first... I had a package arrive from them without one of my figures. I emailed them and they didn't even ask for proof, they just expressed the fig to me immediately with a few extra little freebies and an apology!

Not like Hobby Link Japan! :mad::mad: I refuse to use them and I don't trust them, after several billing and shipping problems I had with them. I'm still waiting for HLJ to resolve issues from 2007. They are really bad, and they don't care about their customers.

Robot Kingdom, however, are highly recommended!! :)

[Kyle]

I think for most online stores with a shopping cart system, realistically we should never expect them to charge us the exact shipping cost. A shopping cart system can only use very simple and basic forumlae to "estimate" very roughly the shipping cost. To be charged the exact shipping you will either need (1) a staff who goes to pack your toys first before giving you a shipping quote. This wastes human resources and costs the store greatly if you happen to change your mind or cancel the order. Or (2) a sophisticated algorithm built into the shopping cart system that can take into account the dimensions and weight of each toy, the amount of bubble wrap required and dimensions of packing boxes available. And this is actually much much more complex and difficult than most would think, if you know anything about mathematics or programming, keeping in mind some item boxes are not even rectangular nowadays. And (1) is not possible anyway if you want to checkout and complete the transaction right away. So there's a trade off between how fast the shopping process can be completed and how much you pay. The online stores are there to make a living so we cannot expect them to under-estimate the shipping cost in most cases.

I think, before you checkout, as long as you can live with what they quote you, just forget if there will be any difference on the final shipping cost on package. This way you'll live happier. :)

[griffin]

After a bit more hassling, RK sent the Ghost Henkei Starscream that I ordered back in January.
Now I can go back and order more stuff...

[Eazy D]

I've bought relatively large orders from robotkingdom about 4 times before in the past with no hitch. They usually reply to my emails but tend to be a bit vague. Unfortunately on my last transaction I had a bad experience with them

I ordered a fairly large orders of
1.The asia exclusive ROTF leader class jetfire and buster optimus two pack
2. Bludgeon
3. alternity cliffjumper
4. Human alliance sideswipe

The postage calculator gave out a shipping price when I made the order and I made the paypal payment based on that. The option I selected was Hong Kong post registered air parcel [which is what I normally use]

A couple of days later I get an email from them saying the parcel is oversize to australia and they have to ship it in two separate parcels. For this they wanted an extra 6 USD.

I emailed them saying I thought they could'nt just change the postage totals like that when the ordering system had given a final price but they would'nt send the items out so I ended up having to paypal them the extra 6 USD.

I was pretty disappointed with the whole transaction. Once an on-line ordering system gives you a final shipping price they can't go back on it. If postage ends up being more then they have to bear that cost. I don't mind systems like the one HLJ uses where they wont give you an exact shipping total when you make the order [they will give you a rough guide] You only find out the exact total once they have packed the item and invoiced you. That system is fair because they specifically state that they wont commit to a final shipping total until they've packed your order.

Anyway, I got all the stuff in two boxes. I'm still not happy with the experience though.

[Kyle]

I ordered a fairly large orders of
1.The asia exclusive ROTF leader class jetfire and buster optimus two pack
2. Bludgeon
3. alternity cliffjumper
4. Human alliance sideswipe

Did you order multiples or only one of each?

[griffin]

The shipping calculator probably wasn't able to know when a package size cut-off point was, and just gave an 'estimate' based on the details it knew (toy sizes and weights, and destination). So a change in the shipping method (2 boxes instead of 1) would change the estimate/actual postage amount.

Considering it was only $6 for an order that would have been close to $200, they could have just absorbed the cost (considering the higher prices they've been charging now - they still boast in their FAQ that they are cheaper than other online sources on *everything*, but new items often the same or more than other major sources).

Anyway, at least you had both boxes sent at the same time. A couple years ago I ordered enough stuff for two boxes, and they only sent one. They wanted me to confirm its delivery before sending the second one, but I never saw the request to contact them, so ended up waiting a couple weeks for the second box before asking them where it was. It wasn't a condition of the sale that they would withhold half of the order, and they didn't make it clear beforehand, or have me agree to it.

A bulk of my collection comes from that store, so can't really complain too much about a couple of bad transactions.

[jaydisc]

In my earlier days with RK they tried to pull the "can we send it in two boxes please?" to which I refused. They sent it via EMS at the same price instead. Granted, these were typically large group orders, and by the time they did this to me the first time, I had already had numerous successful orders with them and used this in my argument.

[Eazy D]

Did you order multiples or only one of each?

No, Just one of each.

The funny thing is that although the items were indeed pretty big, I have in the past recieved a parcel from hong kong [not RK] that would have been size and weight-wise comparable to a single box for the whole order.

At the end of the day RK isn't bad and I'd still go back to them but they've got their fair share of flaws as well. I just really have a pet peeve against "unexpected costs" which on-line retailers conjure up.

[Kyle]

No, Just one of each.

The funny thing is that although the items were indeed pretty big, I have in the past recieved a parcel from hong kong [not RK] that would have been size and weight-wise comparable to a single box for the whole order.

At the end of the day RK isn't bad and I'd still go back to them but they've got their fair share of flaws as well. I just really have a pet peeve against "unexpected costs" which on-line retailers conjure up.

Back in January, kurdt and I received a very big box from RK... the box used was the Hasbro case box made to hold 3 of those ROTF Optimus Prime + Jetfire 2-packs. We paid only for airmail registered, but when we received the confirmation email they gave us EMS tracking (automatically upgraded).

[Mr Ed]

I just ordered 3 Diamond Select Toys statue, 370Z and Megatron Alternity sets via EMS. Total cost $305.

Hopefully it will arrive quickly!!

[langzixinxin]

they told me the oversize issue when I ordered omega supreme + armada demolisher.

[kurdt_the_goat]

Just thought i'd post this incase anyone has a RK order stuff up in the future...

In a recent Alternity order, RK sent me 12 Skywarps and 1 Starscream.. instead of 6 Skywarps, 7 Starscreams.

I emailed them and they instructed to post back.. which i did.
I then told them the shipping cost and suggested a free item could make up for it, and they obliged.

It sucks that they made the mistake, no doubt.
But, at least they dealt with it quickly and well.
I think the lesson to learn is, if you don't get angry, and ask respectfully to be compensated, you're more likely to get reimbursed one way or another.