Bad experience with Bujin

[PhilMcLaughlin]

If you are in the UK I would strongly reccomend against trying to buy anything from Bujin

Following some very positive postings here earlier I tried to get information about their gear. That took 3 tries and a week, the mail I sent which got a response was terse (I was terse) and they sent me a reply saying words to the effect of "hey we are great look at our happy customers"

OK I did and I orderd a bogu bag and shinai case on February 6th

I got a confirmation email

"Dear Phil McLaughlin,

Thank you for placing your order with Bu Jin(R) Design.

We have received your order and will start working on it for you immediately. Since all of our products are handmade it is possible that your item(s) may take up to two weeks to be completed. Once your order is completed we will ship it to you via the shipping method you requested (an additional two to five business days for US delivery)."

SIX WEEKS later & no further response (needless to say no kit) I sent another email asking for progress - no reply.

A further week later I sent a message to the effect of tell me that this order is coming or forget it (it was destined to be a present and time was running out).

They havent bothered replying to that either

As Im in the UK I dont want to be paying transatlantic phone calls to progress chase what appeared to be a straight forward order.

So perhaps Im unlucky but I would not reccomend this company to anyone here in the UK.

cheers

[Alex]

How did you request it be sent? As with our magazine, after we send it, there is no way of tracking where it is. Usually it arrives to our subscribers within a couple of weeks, but sometimes it takes over a month, even though it is airmail. When we get mail from subscribers asking where their mag is, we usually tell them to wait a little longer, and send out a replacement if it still doesn't come. It is very frustrating for us and our subscribers.

We found that the magazine usually takes longer if there is a war somewhere, and it also depends on the type of wrapping we send it in. Maybe it has been held up in the custom offices of UK post along with millions of other packages that need to be checked in this time of heightened security. In which case, Bujin will be totally unable to inform you of the status of your shipment.

Who knows. I too am waiting for a Bogu bag from Bujin which has been almost a month now...Still, they make great products and it's worth the wait.

A

[Neil Gendzwill]

I understand problems with postal service and whatnot but the lack of communication is a big problem.

[PhilMcLaughlin]

Neil - thats the frustrating thing
If theyd told me there was an n week delay or there were problems that would have been ok
but ive had zero replies from them full stop
cheers

[Fraz]

Hey Phil,

I got my Shinai bag from Bu Jinn, it did take a bit longer to get here. But then it is on the other side of the world...:)

Just my 2 cents worth..:)

Fraz

[Confound]

Bujin is a little weak in the e-mail reply department. After waiting a week for a reply, I called them. They explained that their backlog of e-mail is usually rather heavy, and that they sometimes don't get to respond to all of it immediately. It seems a little lame, but from what I understand, there are only two people running the business, and they usually have a great deal of work on the go.

c

[PhilMcLaughlin]

Hi Fraser & Confound

thanks for your feedback

My problem i guess is that I work as an e- business architect and quality of service is a big issue for me (so is waiting 8 weeks for an order !)

before I got mad at Bujin I sent them an email on 18th march asking for status

look at the dates here;


"Subject Re: Bu Jin Order for Phil McLaughlin

Date Apr 7, 2003 8:56 PM Priority NORMAL
We are sorry for the amount of time it has taken for us to respond to your
e-mail. Due to the large volume of e-mails we receive on a daily basis, we
will not be able to respond to customer requests for order status. Domestic
customers, please call us toll free at (866) 444-3644, International
customers call (303) 444-7663. We will be happy to check the status of your
order on the phone. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your
business.


Bu Jin Design
Toll Free (866) 444-3644
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil McLaughlin" <Phil.McLaughlin@oracle.com>
To: <orders@bujindesign.com>
Cc: <info@bujindesign.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2003 5:57 AM
Subject: RE: Bu Jin Order for Phil McLaughlin


> Hi Guys
>
> What is the state of progress of this order as it is 5 weeks now ?
>
> regards
>
> Phil
> "

now if youre going to have to auto reply to emails it would be best to do so in 24 hours - not 3 weeks

I wanted the order as a present so of course time was an issue

Id got the idea for bujin from reccomendations from this group - id sent three mesages to bujin before is got any response - when I did here was the reply;

Date Feb 1, 2003 9:01 PM Priority NORMAL




Dear Phil:

Sorry that nobody responded to your e-mails. There is a chance that we did not receive them, you know. No reason to get angry with us and spread bad will about our company. Here is the information you requested:

Bogu Bag (padded) and Weapons Case A shipped to the UK via Fed Ex International Economy Service would cost approximately $40.00 US (this is an estimate) That does not include Customs Fees/Duties/Taxes charged by your country and Payable by you upon the receipt of the invoice by Bu Jin. I am assuming thatyou want the bogu bag padded and a weapons case A. A non padded bogu bag and a padded weapons case would cost less (less weight and bulk). After they are shipped, the items would reach you within a 4-5 day period. The bogu bag would take about two weeks to prepare (we can't keep all the possible fabric/color selections on the shelf). The Weapons case we most likely have in stock.

We do offer a service whereby you can pay a single charge that covers Shipping, Handling, Customs, Duties, and Taxes on your order. This charge adds 50% to your order subtotal (You would have to pay this much or more by the time you add shipping and the customs (etc.) fees that get billed to your credit card upon the receipt of the invoice anyway, so it just gives you the option of paying the fees up front (usually, the customer ends up saving a little money this way). We are considering using this system with all internatonal orders in the future.

If you go to our website and do a trial order, you'll see the exact charges for shipping on the items you want. Just don't complete the order if you want to avoid putting your credit card information in.

And by the way, we get compliments daily on our customer service. I'm sure you would be pleased with whatever you ordered from us. We hope we see an order from you soon. :)

Sincerely,

Peter Hill Boyer, Manager
Bu Jin Design

----- Original Message -----
From: PHIL.MCLAUGHLIN
To: orders@bujindesign.com
Sent: Saturday, February 01, 2003 7:15 AM
Subject: availability & shipping


So far ive asked this question twice

This is the third and last email Im going to send

i would like to know how much it would cost to ship a weapons bag and bogu bag to the Uk and how long would it take

if i deont get a reply to this email within 48 hours im going to spend my cash elsewhere as your customer service is really poor

I will also share my experiences with the forums of the BKA and Kendo world (where i got the reference to your kit in the first place)

yours not so happy"

you can see from this that Im a touchy bunny (read fussy) but when you advertise an e business service well I think you should deliver and I took the guy at his word and placed an order on 6th February - since then, bugger all feedback & that isnt reasonable

so I sent them an email cancelling the order - i wonder if theyve seen it ?

as far as the UK is concerned Ive used nine ciricles on multiple occaisions and their service is A1

as they say, your milage may vary but Im sincereley pissed off with this lot and wont use them / reccomend them to anyone

cheers

Phil..

[Neil Gendzwill]

Ya know, this is something that really grates on me - businesses who try to deal over the internet and are completely unfamiliar with the culture. I've dealt with people personally who feel it's OK to treat e-mail like snail-mail and respond in a week or two. But businesses should know that those of us who use the net a lot use it because we want fast response. If e-mail or web ordering is no better than a phone call or a letter, why effing bother?

BTW e-mail ordering to other suppliers I've used works well, and I have a hard time believing bujin has higher volumes to deal with than Koei or e-bogu.

[Fraz]

Phil, I'm not saying you don't have a reason to get pissed. I'm just saying I didn't have any problems when I ordered stuff...

Just playing Devils Advocate..:)

Fraz

[Confound]

I was also annoyed by the long delay in e-mail response from Bujin; however, since I already have one of their bags, I know they're good for the products in the end. It's just the waiting that is annoying.

It is admittedly very poor customer service. Maybe we should start an e-petition and mail it to them...

c

[PhilMcLaughlin]

Im sad about it as Ive seen some of the kit and it does look good However the service is lacking to say the least

never mind - there are plenty of other suppliers about (not like 20 years ago !)

thanks for all your input !

[PhilMcLaughlin]

My last posting on this thread

To be fair to Bujin, once someone had made contact they offered a token of compensation and they offered to fill the order in special time so kudos to them & if you are resident in the US then they are probably good value

however theyve changed their pricing policy and add a surcharge of 50% to foreign orders to cover them for import taxes. This is regardless of actual cost and is non refundable

That made the deal way too expensive so thanks to them for trying to sort it out but no thanks

[Fraz]

The surcharge is certainly a new thing...:( Oh well I guess I won't be getting my new bogu back from them, unless I can get a friend to order and forward it to me...:)