Lost Package Mandarake

[grEenLeaFx]

I bought a $500 shikishi from their BWA last July and it never made it through US Customs. Mandarake said the package was lost and has strung me along ever since. I have partial insurance on it. They filed a claim with the postal service back in July so I don't know what the issue is now. Has anyone had a package lost from Mandarake? How did you get it resolved? I was making progress with them at first but now it seems like they are trying to ignore it until it goes away. They stopped answering my emails all together. I have never had an issue with them before, but I am getting very poor service and its frustrating. Doesn't make me feel comfortable purchasing from them again until this gets taken care of. I don't know what else to do, so any tips or helpful information is much appreciated thanks.

[kizu]

I haven't lost a package from Mandarake yet. I did lose one from a Japanese retailer in the past. I always try to pay by credit card or fund via credit card on paypal... SO what happened in this instance was that I told the retailer it was lost and at first they were telling me it was lost in the US and tried to pass it off as already out of their hands. Then I said there should've been insurance which they claim it did. Then the post office told me they have to file insurance claim which they didn't seem to want to deal with. I got fed up eventually and disputed the transaction. After I did so I guess they got dinged and then went back to USPS, USPS did an investigation on me and had me submit some form the package was lost within a due date and i never heard from anybody ever again... So those paying by other methods aside from CC, I would just be careful and try to always pay CC.

[grEenLeaFx]

Thats good advice I should have paid by credit card through paypal. So even if they stalled me through paypal's money back guarantee period I could have disputed it with my cc. I will definitely do that from now on. I just took it out of my bank account none the wiser.

[zerospace]

I haven't had any packages from Mandarake get lost, either, but I'm in the USA and switched to having them ship via DHL rather than USPS (DHL seems faster for me, has better tracking and seems generally more reliable when it comes to international packages). I pay for most everything online (eBay, Mandarake, etc) with a CC because of the ability to file a claim with my CC company if something goes totally wrong, so I agree, that's very good advice.

What's the deal with customs? Is there no tracking data on your package? Which postal service did they file a claim with?

[grEenLeaFx]

Ok I will keep that in mind too. They shipped EMS and filed a claim there. US Customs said it was shipped back to Japan with no reason indicated. The tracking number stopped at US Customs though and EMS said the package was lost. Conflicting information, but all I know is I never got my package and Mandarake kept all my money and probably my insurance money as well.

EDIT: I finally got a partial refund about 2 weeks after I started this post. The international team is very slow. Took them 8 months total to resolve this case. I honestly don't think they would have refunded me without a lot of persistence on my part.