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NEWS: Japan Crate's 'Doki Doki Crate' Ships With Bootleg Items; Company Responds


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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 4:17 pm Reply with quote
Well, new services and products sometimes can have unexpected problems, but when you are talking about figures and other stuff that suffers from bootlegs, this is one thing they should have had a QA check before shipping. Doesn't sound like they did.

Last edited by TarsTarkas on Tue Feb 16, 2016 1:09 am; edited 1 time in total
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Engineering Nerd



Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 897
Location: Southern California
PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 4:53 pm Reply with quote
And their candy crate is actually worse, shipping candies with ingredients that are illegal in USA (some of them were manufactured in Japan, some from Thailand, Vietnam and China?! Come on, safe or not, that is NOT what JAPAN crate means or promises)

This company is really shady and untrustworthy, good thing that I am being careful on the crate business.


To the ones who are copyright laws-savy, I need confirmation on this: Continuously shipping bootleg goods while they are aware of the whole fiasco; refuse to respond to the consumer complaints until more people are aware of the fraud; shipping illegal goods (in a health and copyright sense) that USA laws clearly forbids; deleting negative comments on their FB page and try to control their PR forcefully, those do warrant a lawsuit, right?


Last edited by Engineering Nerd on Sun Feb 14, 2016 5:06 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Stuart Smith



Joined: 13 Jan 2013
Posts: 1298
PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 5:01 pm Reply with quote
Not that surprising. All these monthly box things are pretty much just excuses for companies to get rid of overstock or just throw bunch of cheap stuff in a box. It's better and cheaper to just buy the stuff individually. Their supplier probably gave them a really low bid and they jumped on it without thinking anything of it. If you see 40+ dollar figures selling for 15 dollars on eBay or other websites it's probably a bootleg not an actual good deal. These aren't exactly those Funko Pop figures whcih are mass produced on the cheap you see in other crates.

-Stuart Smith
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AJ (LordNikon)



Joined: 14 Apr 2009
Posts: 502
Location: Kyoto
PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 9:08 pm Reply with quote
Had been thinking about the candy crate deal during the half year at a time when I'm back in the states. Meh, will just have to keep having the waifu send me care boxes then.
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Cutiebunny



Joined: 18 Apr 2010
Posts: 1746
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 12:14 am Reply with quote
Engineering Nerd wrote:
And their candy crate is actually worse, shipping candies with ingredients that are illegal in USA (some of them were manufactured in Japan, some from Thailand, Vietnam and China?! Come on, safe or not, that is NOT what JAPAN crate means or promises)


I recommend dropping your membership and going to Oyatsubox instead. All items are direct from Japan and you'll receive packages sent to you directly from Japan. I've been using them for over a year and I've been very happy with their service.
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Dessa



Joined: 14 Jul 2004
Posts: 4438
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 12:15 am Reply with quote
Stuart Smith wrote:
Not that surprising. All these monthly box things are pretty much just excuses for companies to get rid of overstock or just throw bunch of cheap stuff in a box.


Lootcrate, at least, often has exclusive items, and I know they've specifically ordered things like the first issue of the new ongoing Star Wars comic last year, so it wasn't stuff trying to be gotten rid of.
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Freyanne



Joined: 06 Nov 2014
Posts: 216
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 12:32 am Reply with quote
They've had bootleg figures in their (Premium) Japan Crates as well. I know back in June or July they had sent out bootleg Totoro figures in the crates, and I had read that the Legend of Zelda figures they put in their premium crates a few months back were fakes as well. I actually had subcribed to them when they handed out the June boxes and completely forgot about the Totoro figure until someone brought it up a few days ago.

Even after reading what the JC staff has mentioned about the situation, I just can't fully buy it. I can understand with their supplier sending them high quality items at first then getting duped by them, but they didn't think to quality check the items they received before putting them in the boxes afterwards? And what made them think it was still okay to send out the bootlegs for the February box?

Not to mention that to my knowledge they never publicly "announce-posted" their blog on their FB page to let their customers know about the situation - they had put the blog link in some people's individual comments/complaints back in January. Because of that, many people didn't even know about the issue in time for February unless they stumbled across the link themselves. Don't get me started on deleting people's comments on FB, as someone mentioned here earlier.

If they wanted to gain people's trust again, the way they've been handling the situation these last few months isn't helping at all.
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AnimeLordLuis



Joined: 27 Jan 2015
Posts: 1626
Location: The Borderlands of Pandora
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 1:06 am Reply with quote
These people seemed shady from the start although I'm pretty sure that they checked the crate's but decided that it would be cheaper to just ship them out instead of replacing the bootleg items. Neutral
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v1cious



Joined: 31 Dec 2002
Posts: 6199
Location: Houston, TX
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 9:49 am Reply with quote
Engineering Nerd wrote:
And their candy crate is actually worse, shipping candies with ingredients that are illegal in USA (some of them were manufactured in Japan, some from Thailand, Vietnam and China?! Come on, safe or not, that is NOT what JAPAN crate means or promises)


Illegal Ingredients?
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3426
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 10:15 am Reply with quote
Cutiebunny wrote:
I recommend dropping your membership and going to Oyatsubox instead. All items are direct from Japan and you'll receive packages sent to you directly from Japan. I've been using them for over a year and I've been very happy with their service.

Thank you. I'll take a mental note of it, should I ever opt for such a service.

There are other similar services, but as said in this thread it's a bit left in the dark when it comes to knowing who's trustworthy and who's not. It's a bit shame Japan Crate has gotten so much exposure, and left better services in its shadow.


Last edited by Blanchimont on Mon Feb 15, 2016 10:15 am; edited 1 time in total
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 25 Oct 2003
Posts: 7578
Location: Wales
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 10:15 am Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:
this is one thing they should have had Q&A'd before shipping. Doesn't sdound like they did.

Did you read the same article?

"We were sent samples that were of pristine quality and were reassured that the items were indeed licensed and completely authentic"

My employer recalled hoverboards because they discovered the charger supplied wasn't the same one in the samples tested prior to fulfillment.

v1cious wrote:
Illegal Ingredients?

IIRC the colour tartrazine had been banned in the US for decades but is still found in sweets made/sold in the UK. I think I've even seen it in children's medicine.
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#852169



Joined: 15 Feb 2016
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 11:36 am Reply with quote
Well, they are at it again! Everyone who has posted since yesterday about their doggy way of giving away things has been deleted as well. All my comments shedding light on the fact that they don't actually look and deliberate on their contests that they just Use a random winning generator with the names. So everyones hard work is for nothing. Cause yeah they deleted every single one of my comments among countless others. And also yeah this last moths crate specifically had chips with a warning label that the products used in the chips were illegal in the state of california and that is where they are based out of!!



Engineering Nerd wrote:
And their candy crate is actually worse, shipping candies with ingredients that are illegal in USA (some of them were manufactured in Japan, some from Thailand, Vietnam and China?! Come on, safe or not, that is NOT what JAPAN crate means or promises)

This company is really shady and untrustworthy, good thing that I am being careful on the crate business.


To the ones who are copyright laws-savy, I need confirmation on this: Continuously shipping bootleg goods while they are aware of the whole fiasco; refuse to respond to the consumer complaints until more people are aware of the fraud; shipping illegal goods (in a health and copyright sense) that USA laws clearly forbids; deleting negative comments on their FB page and try to control their PR forcefully, those do warrant a lawsuit, right?
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Freyanne



Joined: 06 Nov 2014
Posts: 216
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 1:29 pm Reply with quote
Blanchimont wrote:

There are other similar services, but as said in this thread it's a bit left in the dark when it comes to knowing who's trustworthy and who's not. It's a bit shame Japan Crate has gotten so much exposure, and left better services in its shadow.
I've had Skoshbox for over a year, and quite like them. I only have their basic $12 box, but I do like how they actually put in savory snacks in their boxes, not just sweet ones. Plus they actually list each item's ingredients inside the little booklet each month, which helps if you are allergic to certain ingredients.

When I had Japan Crate, one of my issues with them is that they suuuure love to put gum and gummies in their crates. Plus I think with the DIY kits, you had to go online(?) to get the instructions for them, if at all, since it was in Japanese.

All this said, I admit that because of the Japan Crate/Doki Doki Crate situation, it makes me a bit nervous about (JPN) food crates in general.
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3426
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 1:34 pm Reply with quote
Shiroi Hane wrote:
IIRC the colour tartrazine had been banned in the US for decades but is still found in sweets made/sold in the UK. I think I've even seen it in children's medicine.

Actually, going by FDA guidelines, tartrazine is allowed as a color additive in US, but must be declared on the product(in which case it is labeled as FD&C Yellow No. 5 and with a warning attached that it may cause allergic-type reactions in some susceptible people.). Also, it's use in products within US must be preapproved by FDA.
(see http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECFR?gp=&SID=17723345ba7c363ef25a68e9776aa2cd&r=PART&n=21y1.0.1.1.28#se21.1.74_1705 )

In Europe(where it is labeled E102 on products), some countries have banned it altogether(Norway and Austria) while others have strongly limited its use. UK has widespread use, as a re-evaluation of a previous study by FSA(UK Food Standards Agency) by EFSA(European Food Standards Agency) didn't find a conclusive link between it and behavioral effects(UK FSA had opted for voluntary measures by industry prior to that).
(see http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/1331 )
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silentgrace7



Joined: 24 Jun 2014
Posts: 59
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 3:32 pm Reply with quote
Maybe I'm just a bit more forgiving than most people, but I've already forgiven Japan Crate for what happened. I was a recipient of the December and January crates: the former because I needed an exam treat and the latter because I got a big holiday coupon. There are a few things that this article fails to mention, such as how there were a lot fewer complaints about the December crates and only about a few of the items, and that when they first addressed the issues in their January blog they explicitly stated that there was no way to change the February order (whereas the article states that they only noted this after people complained about the February crates). I could have sworn I followed the blog link directly from their Facebook page, but maybe they deleted and privatized it shortly after they posted it. I don't know.

Quite frankly, I think they deserve a chance to redeem themselves. I want to see what next month has to offer before I go pointing fingers and flailing with hatred. I've experienced very good communication and quality in the past with their regular crates, and the only issues I've had up until this point was a shipping delay (and the one crate with 3 gum items, but that's a personal distaste more than anything). Will I be getting another doki doki crate any time soon? No, I would rather see how things look before buying another, and either way I need to save money towards going abroad. But I certainly don't think they should be burnt at the stake until they're given the benefit of the doubt.

But, again, I may just be overly forgiving.
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