The preorder issues are well-established. Den-O's issues are a nightmare...and I think I've heard of someone experiencing something similarly, though I can't remember who (maybe it was on Twitter). I remember Gogdog of TFW had a bad experience with one of their CSRs that was basically taunting/antagonizing him.

Didn't some people have some stuff they'd paid for disappear from their Private Warehouse? I remember something like that coming up, I think in the Figuarts thread.

Me personally, I haven't experienced any issues with them to date, but I never make Tamashii preorders with them (I'd rather risk an inability to return it to AmiAmi in return for a cheaper price, or just wait and get something from Amazon/BBTS via Bluefin, then deal with HLJ) and at this point only make Transformer preorders that I can't get through AmiAmi (typically when they sell out of MPs in the blink of an eye), always make sure I preorder immediately and always keep a backup at BBTS in case something shady happens anyways. Even when I receive a payment request, I don't like to leave anything sitting there for more than a month.

I've heard too many bad experiences from others to think I'm immune to experiencing something similar myself eventually.

I haven't had a problem with HLJ. It's been a while since I've used them though.

That's... not HLJ's fault. You shouldn't have chosen the slowest shipping option.

I've been buying from them on and off for almost ten years now, so Den-O's absolutely shit luck aside, HLJ is pretty reliable, as long as you're ordering from in-stock and not preordering. It does take them forever to process, though.

I pick it because it was the cheapest shipping and I go with the cheapest shipping for the most part because I don't have a good budget and it helps me save more money. I've done SAL on other web sites and they do a better job on shipping out items with SAL. I remember one point where I had to e-mail HLJ a few weeks later after I order my item and they told me that my item could have been lost in the mail. They didn't seem to bother to refund me and I forgot about my item until a month later.

You realize that once it's out of the warehouse they have no real control over how it gets to its destination. That's entirely on the transportation company, and considering much of this stuff comes via the ocean, lord Poseidon himself.

SAL shipping taking forever has absolutely nothing to do with HLJ, it's a problem with SAL. Likewise, if you choose the unregistered, untracked snail mail option and it never arrives, that's not HLJ's problem. It's the same with any store, tracking exists for a reason and if you choose not to use it and your item goes missing, it's your fault for choosing the cheap option rather then the safe option. As long as HLJ sent the item and has proof they did send it, they have no reason to give you a refund.

I order from them for over a year now and haven’t had any problem either. And I pre-order there a lot.

My Ryugen FiguArt was a little bit late with getting shipped out from them, but after I asked about it they told me what was delaying the process in a professional and friendly way and mailed him out a day later.

Other then that everything was okay, I will recommend them, just because all those horror-stories never happened to me personally, and I wont talk shit about them unless they give me a reason to.

I haven't had any problems with them & I've only ever purchased 2 items from them, both being Gundam Wing Robot Damashiis *different release years mind you* & both arrived at the correct time.

So, do the preorder issues also apply to restocks/backorders?

As with most people here, I've not had any issues with HLJ when ordering items that are in stock. In fact, for years they never failed to complete my pre-orders. It was only when I started collecting Toku that I had problems. Lots of problems. I had three orders in a row go unfulfilled without a peep from them. When a fourth failed to materialize I sent them an email and got a snotty reply back saying they got shorted and if I really wanted the item I should buy it somewhere else. Charming, to say the least. Also, I cancelled both Build DaiOh and Safari GaOh about a month before their release and, like Den-O, they were removed from my account as far as I could see, but I was billed for both. Unfortunately, I have a PayPal agreement set up with them so the payment was processed before I knew what was going on. They also tend to bill you for backordered items without any warning at all of an impending restock and sometimes a charge out of nowhere months down the line can really screw up the budget.

I still have to use them sometimes, if I can't score a pre-order somewhere else, but I generally tend to stick to buying random in stock stuff when they run a sale now.