"I found out recently that j-list gets a ton of negative reviews. This is shocking to me. I've been using them since 2006 and have never had a bad shipment. If something ends up not being available, they don't charge for it and take it off your order or you can have them send it when it's in stock.

I order something at least 2 or 3 times a year from them and everything is in the box and nothing is damaged. The products are pretty great as well."

"This site is extremely difficult to use. They often run out of items but do not feel it is necessary to put this information on the website. So you will be ordering an item they know they have none of but just haven't gotten around to telling you yet. Shipping is horribly expensive and goes up not down with larger orders. It takes up to two months for package to arrive and that's on top of how long it takes them to process the order, sometimes weeks, although they take your money right away. If you have a problem get ready for a fight. It can take anywhere from two or three days to never for problems to be addressed. And when they do not want to address your concerns they label your tickets as "private", as in not their problems to solve. It would be better to order anything you need from other sites or independent sellers then to give money to such a poor service."

"Hello everyone,

I know I will likely get flamed for this, but i work for j list in the San Diego office.
i know the japan side needs improvement on their customer service and I am working with them on it. but it is slower then I would like.
make sure to use our trouble ticket system or reply to the tracking mails you get from me for orders from the USA (shirts and games) and I will do what I can to help you out.
i will also say when I have gotten items from the japan side it can be a bit frustrating. i am not here to sell anything or to change your minds, i just want you to know we are listening, and some of us are trying to make it better.

-Shane
Shipping and Warehouse Manager
USA Office

P.S. i am giving us a 3/5 we have room for improvement.
:)
have a great day everyone.
"

"just dont buy from j-list

they all liar."

"Wow. For a site so handsomely so put together, the service behind the scenes is shamefully below par. If you make an order, don't even expect them to bother shipping that order for the next 2 weeks.

The items are actually all overpriced compared to any other online retailer, the service is too slow to ever be considered professional or even remotely competent, they give 0 support to buyers who didn't make an account with them, and they don't actually respond to emails.

Everything they sell can be gotten from Amazon for up to 30% cheaper... plus it will be shipped that day, oftentimes from merchants already inside the States.

Do not bother with Jlist.com. It's a deplorable mess run by some lazy and greedy animals. Only giving 1 star because there is no option to give 0."

"I have bought T-shirts for my son at Christmas time and I was billed twice. They keep telling me it is a Paypal issue. Paypal is telling me to contact J-List. I am not getting anywhere with J-List. I will never buy again from this supplier. First time and last time regardless how nice or original the stuff is. Never had any issue before buying online or paying through paypal. I am not a happy camper, for sure! Update: J-List came through and refunded the overcharge. It was a headache but in the end, it got resolved. Thanks Nicholas Graham from J-List!"

"I ordered a magazine subscription for Animedia Magazine on October 13th 2013 for $12 and I paid $16 extra for EMS Express Shipping (3-5 days). Total is $28. I get the confirmation email with my invoice details, etc. It's now November 7th and I don't have my magazine, tracking information, or any confirmation that it's been shipped or processed. I go on the website and check to see what's going on and there is absolutely NO information whatsoever about my order.

I've contacted J-List representatives by email (because there is no customer service number..) several (and I mean SEVERAL) times, but they keep telling me that my subscription starts in November. Uhh yeah okay.

So this guy named Nicholas emails me after I demand that my November issue of Animedia be shipped and that I be given tracking information (There is one in stock on the website..or so it says). He tells me that he can get me the October issue and I clearly told him that I wanted the November one. I'd be fine with the October issue, but now that it's November I want to keep up with the new anime. Anyways, he emails back and told me that my card was declined. Why was he trying to charge me? I already paid $28 on the 13th of October. Does this money just get wasted? Basically they wanted me to pay $28 for nothing, and then another $28 for the actual magazine to be shipped. My next billing cycle is November 13th and I will NOT be renewing my subscription if this is how they work (which seems that it is based on other customer reviews).

J-List "You've got an enemy in Japan" is more like it."

"The first couple of times they were good, but on the third order they are taking forever and this time I paid extra for faster shipping - I was promised it would only take 2 weeks, it's been 3 weeks since I paid and I finally got an email saying that my order has shipped. What happened? Did it really take 3 weeks just to confirm my payment? :("

"I know they've gotten a ton of bad ratings, but there was a PC game being offered by very few stores, so I took a chance on J-List. I did pay via PayPal so that I could use PayPal Buyer Protection if ripped off, but as I mostly expected, the order went as it should. Product received in less than a week, came with extra items I can only describe as hilarious and/or sad. Nonetheless, no problems."

"I'm looking at some of the other reviews here and I guess I lucked out. I ordered a Studio Ghibli pocket diary calendar after the other retailer I usually buy them from didn't stock them this year, so it was a small item. It was shipped right away and got to me in a timely fashion. I used a trackable shipping method, which I have found is a must when dealing with a company from overseas. I also used PayPal. I liked how their prices were listed in US dollars, too. "

"If i could rate 0 stars I would. I have been waiting 7 weeks for my order. I finally e-mailed them and there response was my credit card was declined saying they sent me a CC refusal e-mail yet i've been checking my email and have never once gotten an e-mail about my order nor an e-mail about my card being refused? Although they still managed to charge me a $5 dollar cancellation fee? I had enough money to cover my order how can they refuse MY money and then take a $5 cancellation fee after refusing it? Don't trust J-List and make your orders somewhere else."

"I used to like this site. I wasted so much money on things I thought were great. However, I realized the hard way just how much I wasted. The only thing I didn't like at the time was that the owner, Peter Payne, was braggy, a narc and acted like he was better than others simply because he is a president of a company. However, after being fortunate enough to go to Japan myself, I realized just how much he was overcharging people for stuff that you can get if you look hard enough. The slap in the face was when I check one of the prices for a book. 60 dollars on Jlist. Not too bad if you want it enough right? Well just the other day I saw the same item in a bookstore, for....20 dollars, or roughly 1500 yen. seriously? And this isn't just for one item, but many which are marked up extremely high. The last insult was a banana container for 8 dollars on the shop, 100 yen in Japan. I swore off of jlist after this because I realized that this site is ripping people off at such a crazy amount. Save your money, and even if you may not have the chance to go to Japan, I have seen many import shops that have the same exact items at a much lower price.Not to mention they are scamming people with the shipping prices. 12.50 in shipping for that candy? Yeah, right. you could get that shiped through another company for 4.50."

"J-List is painfully slow at processing orders and their customer service comes across as snarky and unhelpful. I ordered a video game that was listed as in-stock, and it took over two weeks to be shipped after my card was charged. That is absolutely unacceptable.

It's a shame, too. J-List stocks a lot of interesting stuff and does a wonderful job with the site's presentation, but it's obviously a disaster behind the scenes. Not recommended."

"I have ordered twice from J-list. On the first occasion, one item out of the shipment was missing and (without notifying me) replaced in the shipping box with a completely different (and enigmatic) food product. I never could figure out what the hell that thing was. What was especially bad was that I was not forewarned or simply notified then refunded for that one missing item. On the second occasion, five items were missing from the shipment. Adding to that, the missing items were no longer listed on their website. Even further, one food item received had expired before I had even placed the order, and J-list did not respond to my concerns regarding that. Great looking website. Abysmal customer service. EFFECTIVELY, THEY JUST DON'T CARE.
"

"I have been purchasing stuff online for years without much issues. I tried purchasing from them late last year and heres their reply, "We need to receive a scan of your credit and ID (both sides of each) in order to process your order. Please send a computer scan to this email address". a scan of both sides of my credit card and id sent via email? really?

At first i thought it was an error and asked them about it, they confirmed it and promised to "delete it once its verified". i refused and when i suggested for other forms of payment like paypal, they simply ignored all my emails. its been months since and i have yet to hear from them."