ISHIBASHI Music - Japan. Anyone imported a guitar to the UK from them? - > NGD

Gizmo

I have NEVER

RaymondLin said:

It's best to pay in local currency, in this case, in JPY.  If you pay in GBP then you still pay fees, but instead of the bank, its the fee set by the merchant which is almost always in every instance, more than the fees from the bank.

Don't believe me, go to Amazon JP and add anything to the basket, toggle between GBP and JPY.  And then use XE.com and check the GBP price if you pay in yen.  The JPY price is always less.

I've NEVER gotten the rate that XE.com show anywhere,that be on overseas purchases or online/in person money exchanges.....I brought a battery from Germany the other day, £10.65 if i payed in euro with the £/euro exchange fee or £9.85 if i payed ebay in £ and let them do the exchange...but check with your bank and e-tailer on what fee's they charge YMMV

SquireJapan

Yup - bought a few Ibanez Japanese only guitars over the years. Very professional. 

At least one guitar I asked the weight and more photos, they replied promptly. 

As an aside, I’ve just this minute won a guitar on a proxy service for yahoo.jp - as is my want for odd Japanese guitars. First time, will see what happens. 

RaymondLin

Gizmo said:

I have NEVER

RaymondLin said:

It's best to pay in local currency, in this case, in JPY.  If you pay in GBP then you still pay fees, but instead of the bank, its the fee set by the merchant which is almost always in every instance, more than the fees from the bank.

Don't believe me, go to Amazon JP and add anything to the basket, toggle between GBP and JPY.  And then use XE.com and check the GBP price if you pay in yen.  The JPY price is always less.

I've NEVER gotten the rate that XE.com show anywhere,that be on overseas purchases or online/in person money exchanges.....I brought a battery from Germany the other day, £10.65 if i payed in euro with the £/euro exchange fee or £9.85 if i payed ebay in £ and let them do the exchange...but check with your bank and e-tailer on what fee's they charge YMMV

The rate XE shows is without fees, the VISA and Mastercard rate is just below it.

It's is MUCH closer than the rate if you pay in GBP and let the merchant set the rate.

icu81b4

Thanks for all your excellent replies, You only live once,  I've pushed the button now.... so let's see what occurs. 

Neilybob

icu81b4 said:

Thanks for all your excellent replies, You only live once,  I've pushed the button now.... so let's see what occurs. 

Well done. 

Tracking is good via EMS/Parcelforce international. 

For ref I've imported 2 guitars from Japan within the last 9 months. 

October 2022 I paid £703 for the first guitar, £130 international shipping via EMS and £159 customs. 

May 2202 I paid £175 for the guitar, £110 EMS international shipping and £49 customs. 

Hope this gives you an idea. 

RaymondLin

Honestly, £100 or so to ship a guitar is cheap.  I've paid about £36 to ship a couple of LED lights the size of a grain of rice, some figures cost me £70 to ship and it's about the size of an old 15" CRT TV but weight about a pair of shoes.

£100 to ship a guitar, that weight, is a bargain in comparison.

icu81b4

chris78 said:

Yes and yes and they're great.

Over 2k for an AVRI though? Are you sure?

The build quality of the 2012 -2014 AVRI’s and attention to detail is well documented,  and if you can get your hands on a 59  maple neck in the UK then good luck, because I’ve been looking for ages. 

I played an early 59 Strat in New York which was fabulous but I didn’t have $23k in my pocket at the time 

icu81b4

The guitar has been sat in Coventry custom’s since the 3rd July, although I think the Customs office is actually in Birmingham, probably waiting for Parcelforce to sort the paperwork out! 

Not the easiest people to contact. I just have to sit and wait apparently. 

fretmeister

icu81b4 said:

The guitar has been sat in Coventry custom’s since the 3rd July, although I think the Customs office is actually in Birmingham, probably waiting for Parcelforce to sort the paperwork out! 

Not the easiest people to contact. I just have to sit and wait apparently. 

That's only 4 days!

That's nothing! You can get a little annoyed in another 10 days, upset in a month, and properly cross in late September.

icu81b4

fretmeister said:

icu81b4 said:

The guitar has been sat in Coventry custom’s since the 3rd July, although I think the Customs office is actually in Birmingham, probably waiting for Parcelforce to sort the paperwork out! 

Not the easiest people to contact. I just have to sit and wait apparently. 

That's only 4 days!

That's nothing! You can get a little annoyed in another 10 days, upset in a month, and properly cross in late September.

Aghhhh Don't say that!  I just hope they don't add storage charges on top.  

RaymondLin

I’ve had a pedal (EQD Cloven Hoof) from CME that was sat in customs for almost a month, I thought it was lost honestly and then it turned up.  Sometimes it’s like 2 days, it all depends how busy they are.

jeztone2

Yes done it many times. Although courier costs have increased in recent years.

icu81b4

jeztone2 said:

Yes done it many times. Although courier costs have increased in recent years.

And did your imports happen to enter the black hole which is Coventry customs? 

Power-Beef

RaymondLin said:

I’ve had a pedal (EQD Cloven Hoof) from CME that was sat in customs for almost a month, I thought it was lost honestly and then it turned up.  Sometimes it’s like 2 days, it all depends how busy they are.

Same. My GFS pickups took a month as well. They only had to fly from Florida to the UK. Then again I did have some very bling Ibanez picks that did go missing, they were posted from Japan.

On the other hand, I once sent something to New England by courier, I dropped it off on a Thursday morning here in UK, and the box was DELIVERED over there on Friday midday their time. And that was via el-cheapo Parcel 2 Go.

I might consider flying cargo myself next time... j/k

jeztone2

icu81b4 said:

jeztone2 said:

Yes done it many times. Although courier costs have increased in recent years.

And did your imports happen to enter the black hole which is Coventry customs? 

No. The first one I never paid duty on. As the Parcelforce counter was broken, that was in 2005. But each guitar only took a week to get here. Custom’s was 2 days tops. So I suspect that’s a Brexit related thing. As my last purchase from Ishibashi was May 2017. 

icu81b4

Still stuck in customs, that’s two weeks now.  Customs says the delay is due to Parcelforce, PF says Customs are lying. 

icu81b4

Still waiting for customs to release this! And there doesn’t seem to be any way of speaking to anyone who knows what’s going on. 

I emailed the PF customer experience advisors a week ago, and apart from an automated reply. Nothing. 

Offset

Pretty appalling, frankly.  No real excuse for it.

DuploLicks

Wonder if there are job opportunities? One of us tFBers can apply & prioritise certain parcels

icu81b4

I have now at least had a reply saying that they have all my documentation that I provided some time ago and that they are very busy, because the guitar I bought is Aztec Gold, they wanted to know how many grams of gold are involved and because it’s listed as a 1959 they are considering it as a vintage instrument, although it was made in 2014. (Anything over 30 years old is considered an antique)