"THINK TWICE BEFORE ORDERING. PRiCE IS DECEPTIVE. COST MORE WHEN you factor in shipping cost and their use of third party REACH USA.Price of items seem cheaper, but the cost of shipping and it uses a 3rd party Reach US LLC cost more than if you buy from another website. You are not told of the shipping cost at check out because most of my items were not available for 3-5 days, I used PayPal to paid and was not aware that HobbyLink uses Reach USA another party til after the transaction had already occurred. Reach charges a much higher conversion rate for Japanese Yen to US dollars. My total cost should have been around $688 but I was charged $771. The shipping cost was $221. Will never buy from HobbyLink again!!"

"Currently they only accept credit card as a payment method and still they manage to mess up, and when this happens they blame it on you and block your account. Avoid them, there are many other more honest stores."

"Ordered two items. Both shown in stock but later they said one of the items is not in stock and will charge me shipping cost again in private warehouse basket. Sounds like they use this to rip people off shipping cost and waste people time. Still waiting for refund!! Never do business again with these crooks!!!"

"This is the second time I have preordered something well in advance of it coming out, and then been told I must wait for a restock because they did not receive the correct amount. The last time it happened I was able to get it from another seller who happened to get it in stock. This time I, and other people in the same boat as me, have been told our order might not be fulfilled until JANUARY, when the item was supposed to come out in late August. I am extremely disappointed, but have yet to find the item in stock elsewhere for less than $100, so I'm stuck waiting until either HLJ gets it back, or someone else does. "

"The refund system is terrible, HLJ claims I have not accepted the parcel they sent. Which was never presented at all, three months later they contact me saying the will only partially refund. When you then object they suspend accounts"

"An item that was stated as costing £47 has ended up costing me about £150 (TRIPLE), the site stated "free postage" on the item page, this is free postage to a "virtual warehouse". Then once in the virtual warehouse I was automatically charged the £47 for the item, and felt nervous about the prospects of cancelling the order and getting my money back from what I'd heard about their customer service, so went ahead anyway, thinking, how bad could it possibly be. (what an idiot I am)

All of the postage options were very expensive, no indication or estimate or even a warning there would be postage charges before this point, I imagine that they would say that putting this in their terms is enough, but it does feel very misleading, it should be much clearer. Postage estimates in advance would have been good.

On a positive note, I used FedEx and it arrived very quickly, and they included some Japanese gummy sweets which was a nice touch (doesn't take away the sting of being £100 out of pocket but it was a nice touch).
If price isn't a problem you could give it a try and hope nothing goes wrong, if you are on a tight budget don't bother, it has cost me way more than I could actually afford, and way more than it appeared it was going to.

To top it all off somewhere along the line the import tax got messed up, and I was charged ANOTHER £50 in VAT + processing fees, FedEx claim this is because Hobbylink Japan made a mistake on the import paperwork, and said they could correct it for me for an admin fee of another £50. It's been an actual nightmare.

So bottom line, I will not be using Hobbylink Japan again, and I massively recommend weighing up your options before you choose to use them."

"Even if you are a customer with them for 15 years
Even if they spent $ 2000 in two years at their site
Only canceling a total of 20 requests in two years will cancel your account
Without warning of such punishment

It is normal for every shopper through the internet to have the freedom to request and cancel

But with HobbyLink it's a crime"

"I bought a few items on Dec 2ed checked out I thought I was all good waited and waited nothing was showing up I emailed them come to find out my items were in something called a "personal warehouse" when I bought them it never said anything about going into any warehouse why on earth would I buy items in Dec and want them to sit some were and not be shipped? I wouldn't that would make no sense! by the time I learned what had happened I also learned they would want another 40 to 65 bucks to send me my Xmas gifts to be honest I didn't have it at that point as im on a fixed income so I had to go with out those gifts as if that wasn't insulting enough when I ask for a refund im now told no once its been over 10 days all we can give you is a store credit why would some one who doesn't want to pay inflated shipping costs want a store refund? so at this point they have my items I have nothing and no hope of ether getting my items or getting my cash back there is a word for that its SCAMMER...so buyer beware big time when dealing with these people im imaging they will just delete my account soon so there is no proof of their scams.."

"Awful customer service center too. I was way over charged for shipping on an item without my consent until i saw the shipping email thus it being too late. Their policies are trash. Shipping cost and method were chosen without my consent. Wouldn't reimburse or help in any way. Never going back!!"

"HLJ suspended my account, remove all my warehouse items due to I logged a bug on PayPal side on not honoring my currency exchange using my credit card. I got charge the amount with PayPal exchange rate. This was not the case on the last couple payments. So, is that true that next time is there a problem like this happen? Don't report any customer issue and let PayPal continue to dishonoring their payment option?"

"It was all good until one of my package was sent back to them for who knows why. I checked the status of the tracking number it was delivered to them but when I contacted them, they were answering at first but it suddenly stop. I keep sending them email but never got an answer! "

"this is a fake review. just wanted to check how easy it is to give a fake review"

"Purchased a transformer from them and never received the item. When I inquired about the status of the item they said they had already shipped it and that it would take 10-30 days for me to receive the item. It’s been well over 30 days and I didn’t receive the item. When I attempted to login my account to check the status and contact them I discovered that they had suspended my account! A suspension because I asked for the status of an item I Purchased! Don’t buy from this website, they will steal your money."

"I LOVE the private warehouse. It allows me to save up lots on shipping for random small items. And they save up my items for up to 60 days.
Yeah, its true it doesnt have much item variety as amiami does. BUT it also allows me to cancel some items if I had derped and ordered a wrong item....unlike amiami that wouldnt allow you to do it.

What I didnt like is that the backorder function is almost the same as "sold out". They NEVER look for the item.

Also once, I ordered some keychains for preorder and when the date came, only one appeared as "Sold Out". Yeah, it was never charged to my card, thats great, but I would like them to have a better system so they dont "overbook" their preorders.

Aside that one time, I have been pretty happy about this site to be honest.
Been using this page for 7 years now, and its my main website to go buy stuff to.

Also, I am super glad they actually have a preview for the shipping costs.
And I am glad they ship with registered sal to my country.
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TL;DR;
The site is legit and cool. Tho the backorder system ****."

"I ordered two items which appeared "in stock" at the moment of purchase, their system informed me of the shipping cost for both items. The next day one of the items appeared backordered and the other one was shipped at the full shipping cost (EMS so it was expensive). I was unable to change my purchase because their system was on "server maintenance" and the customer service constantly tried to blame me of their error, even when I send them several screenshots that proved It was their online store that was having issues, since I couldn't get any kind of solution I canceled the second item so I wouldn't be overcharged again. Even after that they kept blaming me and I didn't even got an apology."