I switched from YesAsia to Play-Asia early in the year because they are cheaper in price and can use coupons.
From January to the end of April I've placed 5 orders, all involved pre-orders.
For all pre-orders, I placed the order and paid via PayPal at least 2 weeks before the release date.
However, out of these 5 pre-orders, they delayed the shipment of 2 of them.
The first time was in March, they told me on the release date that they had to split my shipment because my pre-order item is not in stock. I emailed them to ask why, thinking that they might not have received the item on their side. However, their answer shocked me:
"I am sorry that this item is not in a high demand and thus rather difficult to find the source. You would probably need to wait for 1-2 weeks more for us to get the item and we kindly ask for your patience."
I think this is unacceptable because the CD I pre-ordered actually ranked 3rd place in ORICON for the release date so there's no reason for not being in high demand. Most of all, Play-Asia's duty, after receiving my payment, should be to "place" a pre-order rather than to "source" it after its release. But this was the first time theny delayed my order then, so I bore with them at that time.
The item was subsequently shipped one week later.
For the second time they delayed my pre-order, I placed the order and paid via PayPal on April 30 for an album to be released on May 13.
On May 13, they splitted my order and once again told me that my pre-order item was not yet in stock. So once again I wrote to them asking for a reason, again thinking that they either has not received the item on their side, or they had difficulty sourcing it.
Play-Asia's answer, 5 days after the release, once again shocked me:
"We have just informed by our supplier that the item is no longer available. We have tried to source the item from other means, however, we could not get sufficient stock to allocate to all the pre-order customer. Thus, we have cancelled your order. Would you like to change to other item or have the payment refund to your paypal account?"
Now this time they don't have enough copies for all customers. Why didn't they place an order of "sufficient copies" in the first place?
They didn't even offer me a reason on the release date, but only replied and cancelled my order after I wrote them.
I have paid for the pre-order so that Play-Asia couls pre-order for me, and for the second time they said they didn't or couldn't pre-order for me.
I wonder why YesAsia and CDJapan can even have extra copies in stock, while Play-Asia failed to even have enough copies for all pre-order customers.
In the end, they refunded via PayPal upon my reply. And I ordered from YesAsia nearly one week after the release date and they shipped it right after my payment.
So this is my 5-month Play-Asia trial. And in the end, sadly, I had to switch back to YesAsia.
Play-Asia is very attractive in price, but in terms of customer service and meeting with shipment date, they failed tremendously.
Maybe some other customers may not agree with me, but I usually pre-order with these sites.
I have read a few reviews here, some customers also have problems with Play-Asia such as the speed they ship and pre-ordering.
So to conclude, I will never recommend Play-Asia for anyone who would like to place pre-orders.
This review was modified by its author, akatsukikyou, on
5/31/09 12:06 AM.