I agree that Jpn's takuhai industry is brilliant, including Yamato. Having said that, I've had minor problems with Yamato and I'm going with ABC if I have choices. ABC often gives out discount coupons for the next order, and for some reason I often ended up being charged lower rate than the published fees. Their suitacase delivery from NRT to Saitama was supposed to be ~1700yen, but somehow they only charged me 1400+something last month. Also, I just had a second incident with Yamato where the driver overcharged me upon pick-up (charged more than the phone agent's quote). This time I complained at NRT's pickup center, where the guy admitted I've been overcharged with the explanation that some drivers don't know the pricing policy for airport deliveries. However, the NRT office apparently is unable to issue any refunds. I called Yamato's office, but then the whole process of getting the difference back seemed too onerous so I gave up... after all, we're only talking ~250yen, but still annoying nonentheless.
The problem is, when shipping from the city (hotel, konbini, etc) to the airport, Yamato pretty much has the monopoly. You can ship to the airport via Yamato from 7-11 and Family Mart, but I don't think you can with ABC or Sagawa (QL) from any konbini. Most hotels seem to contract with only Yamato for picking up and sending off parcels/luggages. You can still have ABC come to your hotel, but you have to arrange that privately and most hotels will not agree to accept payment from you so that they can pay ABC on your behalf when they show up for pick-up.
Originally Posted by
s0ssos
I was in Hakone (a little south of Tokyo) and shipped something at the Hyatt that morning, maybe around 9-10am. By that evening when I called my next hotel in Sapporo it was there.
Originally Posted by
beep88
Published, standard service guarantee for Hakone - Sapporo is 3 days (in Japanese terminology, or 2 elapsed days: shipped 16/1 delivered 18/1)
"Super speed"超速宅急便 will deliver next day.
Yeah, I'm not sure that you'd get the same-day, or even next-day, delivery betwn Kanto area and Sapporo every time. I tried to ship a suitcase from Otaru (~same as Sapporo) to Tokyo last summer... was told the standard delivery is 2 days later. I wanted the next-day delivery, but they said it wasn't possible.
Originally Posted by
shinjukuflyer
Took me a while before I realized it's possible to send stuff from the konbini. Although I've yet to try it. Do they take and deliver any type of package including skis etc? Would've been helpful to know last ski season!
I've never sent skis from a konbini (I have sent ski jackets and goggles). However, I googled and these are a couple of links that say you can send skis and golf clubs from konbini. Depending on which konbini, it'd be either Yamato or Yu-pakku.
http://torisedo.com/21100.html
http://torisedo.com/26660.html