I pre-ordered the reissue Sky Lynx from Hobbylink Japan back at the start of December along with a couple of SD gundams.
At the time, Sky Lynx was listed as December release, so I thought I wouldn't have to wait long for it to come into stock and be sent to me along with the gundams that were already in stock.
However, as Christmas came and went, the release date listed for Sky Lynx changed from December to February.
At this point I should mention HLJ's 2 month order policy.
We will process your order for shipping and charge you if either (a) all items on your order are available, or (b) more than two months have passed since you placed the order and one or more items are available, or (c) you request shipping of available items. Backordered items will remain on your order until you cancel them yourself, or we become convinced that an item will not be available for the forseeable future and cancel it ourselves. You will be informed in an e-mail from us if this happens. When processing any given order for shipping, we will also check any other order(s) you have placed with us, and add any shippable items from that order(s) to the shipping order.
In light of that policy I decided that I'd best cancel my order and re-submit it so as to be sure all my goods were shipped together, rather than getting the gundams sent at the start of Feb (2 months after the date of the original order), and Sky Lynx sent later in the month when he became available.
So I cancelled and re-submitted my order and it all seemed like it would progress without any problems.
Time passed and February rolled around.
Remembering that Sky Lynx was meant to become available in February I decided to log in and see how my order was shaping up.
At this point I was in for a bit of a surprise.
I found that Sky Lynx had come into stock, but the gundams had gone out of stock.
However, when I visited the actual product page for Sky Lynx it was listed as backordered.
It seemed that Sky Lynx had come and gone and I'd missed him because the gundams that I had on the same order were out of stock when Sky Lynx came into stock.
Fearing I'd missed my chance to get my hands on Sky Lynx, I sent an email to HLJ asking if I had indeed missed him, and also went about cancelling the now out of stock gundams from my order so there did still happen to be a Sky Lynx available for me he could be sent straight away.
I received a reply from them saying that indeed they did have more orders than their current stock could supply, but they were expecting some cancelations and some more stock to arrive soon so I shouldn't give up hope.
At the start of March I received the shipping confirmation email and Sky Lynx was finally on his way to me.
Shipping from Japan to Australia takes about a week all up, and true to that formula I collected him from the Post Office on the 10th of March.
At this point I thought my saga was complete, but alas it was not to be.
Upon arriving home and unpacking the box I found my Sky Lynx his perfect condition box, all shiny and new and sealed.
I carefully sliced the tape that sealed the box and reverently removed my prize.
He was a sight to behold, and as one of the Transformers I'd wanted since I was a small child it was truly a great moment for me.
A moment however, which was sadly disrupted by my discovery that the gold chromed cargo of my beautiful Sky Lynx was inexplicably damaged.
There were score marks as if it had been attacked with a craft knife, and what looked like scribble from a permanent marker, marring the gold and shiny surface.
I wasted no time taking photos and sending off an email to HLJ to see what could be done about this travesty.
Here is a copy of those photos and the email I sent:
The package arrived in excellent condition, and the box inside was in perfect condition and sealed, but upon inspection of the toy after opening the box I discovered that part of it appears damaged.
The cargo area of the shuttle is damaged by black markings and what look like cuts with a knife.
Pictures of the damage are attached.
Obviously this is not your fault since the box was sealed. It must have occurred in the manufacturing.
Is there anything that can be done about this? Does Hobby Link Japan or Takara have an exchange policy for this kind of thing?
That was the 10th of March. On the 13th of March, with no reply to the email I sent, I received a new automated Shipping Notice email telling me that an item called "Takara Tomy Parts" was being shipped to me at a cost of 0.
The next day I received an email from a real person at HLJ stating:
Hi
Thanks for writing.
We were able to get replacement parts from Takara Tomy, and they were shipped to you yesterday.
Thanks for shopping with HobbyLink Japan!
The Shipping Notice email had contained a tracking number, with a disclaimer that it may take up to 72 hours for the item to appear on the tracking site.
Keeping that in mind, I wasn't surprised to find that there was not yet any info available for that tracking number at either the Japanese or Australian tracking sites.
However, when there was still no data after five days I started to worry that perhaps the number was incorrect, or something had gone wrong with the parcel.
I sent an email asking what was going on with the tracking and received this reply:
Hi
Thanks for writing.
Please wait a couple of days and try again - the returns/parts department sometimes does orders in batches, and they get a little behind in actually getting them to the post office. It should be in the system soon.
Thanks for shopping with HobbyLink Japan!
That was on the 19th of March.
Reassured that my package had not mysteriously vanished and was simply delayed in being posted I continued checking the tracking site daily, but without fear that the package was never going to arrive.
Finally, on the 24th of March the item was shown to have been posted in Japan.
From there things proceeded quite smoothly, with all the usual arivals, dispatches and customs steps in the international postage procedure.
It arrived in Australia on the 26th, and according to the tracking site, delivery was attempted on the 28th.
My house is one of 70 on the one block, and packages are never actually delivered to my door.
The standard procedure is to just deliver a card to my letterbox, telling me that my parcel has arrived at the post office and I should go and collect it.
The tracking site informed me that this was indeed what had happened, but when I checked the letter box there was no card to be seen.
I know that sometimes the info on these tracking sites is out of synch with what has actually happened, and so sometimes the card doesn't arrive until the day after the tracking site says it has.
With the 28th being a Friday though, this meant that I would have to wait until Monday for the card, and the opportunity to collect my package.
Monday came and went and there was still no card.
Same with Tuesday.
Finally on Wednesday I decided to just take the tracking number down to the post office and ask them if my package was there for me to pick up.
Turns out it was, and on their books it said that delivery had been attempted on the 27th. No idea why the card never arrived.
Anyway. I finally received the package today, Wednesday the 2nd of April.
After half a month of waiting, my Sky Lynx could finally be complete.
I wasn't sure exactly what I would find in the box. Would it just be the gold chromed cargo piece, would there be instructions on how to take my Sky Lynx apart to replace the piece? I had no idea.
Anyway, upon opening the box I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had been sent a whole new Shuttle.
This wasn't a replacement part, this was a replacement figure!
He was sealed in a clear plastic bag, and I made sure to check his cargo compartment through the bag before opening it.
It was perfect.
Finally my Sky Lynx saga has been resolved. I've got my re-issue Sky Lynx in full working order, with no damage to any parts.
Time to get to work on putting those stickers on now!
The only question remaining is what do I do with the original shuttle? The one with the damaged cargo?
I guess I should just sell it on eBay, or maybe someone here on Seibertron has a use for it.
