THE ACCOUNT MAINTENANCE SYSTEM

1. What Those Status Codes Mean?

In Stock We currently have plenty of stock of this item.
Low Some stock is available, but we currently have more orders for this item than we have stock on hand. Stock is assigned to orders in the order that they ship (see below), so if you order this and request shipping now, there is a chance that you will receive one, but we cannot guarantee this.
Very Low The same as above, but the number of orders we have for the item is more than double the amount of stock on hand. You may order this and/or request immediate shipping, but it is likely that we won't be able to send the item until more stock comes in.
Backorder We currently have no stock of this item, or the stock we do have is already being prepared to ship to other customers.
Future Release This item has not yet been released by the manufacturer.

Keep in mind that stock status of items changes on a daily basis, and whether something is currently low, or backordered has nothing to do with how long you will need to wait before we are able to get more stock.

How we assign stock to customer's orders: Overall, HobbyLink Japan assigns stock to customer's order on a "first come (ordered), first served" basis, but the principal of "first shipped, first served" also applies. The details follow:

Several times per week, we go through all customer orders in order from oldest to newest. If a customer's order is completely in stock, it will be automatically shipped. In addition, if the order is more than two months old and any part of it is available, we will make a partial shipment. However, we will also ship the orders of any customers who have requested a partial shipment of their available items.

What all this means is that if you're in a hurry to get your merchandise and don't mind the extra shipping charges, you should put the items you want quickly on separate orders, or you should regularly monitor your order status using the Account Maintenance System and ask for a partial shipment if you see any stock at all available. On the other hand, if you want to keep your shipping costs down, and don't mind waiting, go ahead and place one big order.

Lastly, regarding shipping costs, keep in mind that whenever we ship anything to a customer, we always check to see if there are any available items on any other orders in order to make the largest (i.e. most economical) shipment possible.

2. I had an item that was "in stock" on your system, but now its status has changed. Aren't you holding it for me?

At HobbyLink Japan, we always reorder and work to restock any merchandise that is low or backordered, meaning we have more customer orders on hand for the merchandise than we have stock. So even if the inventory status shown on our pages goes up or down, we will work to get you a piece as long as we have your order on our books.

At the present time, we distribute stock to customers in the order that their orders are shipped. That means that even if you see something in stock on your order, the level may change if your order is not shipped because it is waiting for other items before it goes out. As such, if you have an in-stock item on your order that you want to make sure you get as soon as possible, you should request a partial shipment of available items. However, if you don't want to pay the extra shipping charges and/or you're not in a hurry, feel free to wait, and we'll ship your items to you when everything is in stock, or we'll make a partial shipment when more than two months have passed.

We understand that many customers wish we would hold items specifically for them, or hold everything until their entire order is available. However, because of the spotty production and distribution in the hobby industry, this would mean that shippable items may end up sitting on our shelves for months waiting for backordered things to come in. Unfortunately, our cash flow is not unlimited, and it is very difficult for us to finance this stock (we have to pay for these items shortly after we receive them!). That's why we allocate stock to our customers on a first-paid, first-served basis. We feel that this is the best balance between our customers' need to keep shipping costs down, and our need to be able to pay our suppliers for what we buy. We hope you can appreciate our position on this.

3. I just used the system to make a change to my order, but when I check the system again, nothing has changed.

That's because the order display on our Account Maintenance System is not a real-time display. The data on our web site is updated once or twice each business day. As such, if you input a change on late Friday, you may not see the change reflected in the system until Monday. In most cases, you'll see it much sooner, however.

Don't worry. If you see the "thank you" screen and/or receive a confirmation mail from us, you can rest assured that we're acting on your request, even if the online data is not immediately updated.