The guy standing in the window assured me that we could send the whiskey in the post

We didn’t want to lug these heavy bottles of liquid around and nor did we want to drink them all. This was some pretty expensive stuff, after all! Going to a second post office in the Kansai area (we figured they’d be the most likely to bend the wishy washy rules) we finally found success. Someone can ship our whiskey to the US! Or… so we thought.

I think you can guess what happens here. It didn’t ship. A couple days later I got a phone call from the post office. It was the same lady who helped us ship things. After apologizing profusely, she said they couldn’t ship it and they were so sorry for the mistake. She then said she’d try to look into other shipping methods for us to see if she could find an alternative and then offered to ship if it she found one, using a rival shipping service (to the Japanese post office). I agreed, of course, and she said she’d call the next day at 9am.

Lo and behold, right at 9am I get a call from the same lady again. She apologizes a lot more and then says she isn’t able to ship it. I suggest she send it to my hotel, though perhaps it would be good to wait until I’m in Tokyo so that way I can just check it in easily onto the plane. I had to figure out where said hotel will be first, though. “Okay! I’ll call back tomorrow at 9am,” she says. “Also, I’m so sorry for all the trouble” ← this times 30.

Next day, I get a call at 9am. This time I have the hotel address and name. I tell it to her, and she asks how I want my refund. Now, color me pink, but I didn’t really expect a refund for some reason. I guess I also didn’t expect to ever hear back from anyone at all if it couldn’t ship. It’s an international telephone number for them, after all. She did have to take out 800 yen (around $8) for shipping it to Tokyo, but that was nothing compared to the $100 or so we paid to get it to America.

So awesome, we get a refund too. Also, she’s still super apologetic.

Then, on the day I arrive to my hotel, she calls again, just to get the room number just in case. Wouldn’t want there to be another problem, right? I let her know my room number and she sends it out in overnight mail. I don’t think we got charged for overnight mail, nor did we need it get it overnight, but it was nice. Maybe that’s where Zappos got the idea from.

But, it doesn’t end there. Inside our box is a handwritten note, once again expressing how sorry she was. On top of that is a tenugui (how did she know that I lovvve tenugui?) as well as some udon and a Kumamon sticker.

Did I mention that I love tenugui more than just about anything? I was pretty blown away with this. Sure, in my opinion doing all this and coordinating with me on the phone was already above the call of duty. But, a handwritten apology note, plus presents (probably came from her own home and moneys), plus a Kumamon sticker… that’s customer service at its finest.

Japanese Customer Service

In general, I do think Japanese customer service is pretty incredible, though. Going beyond the call of duty is something that seems to happen quite often. There have been multiple occasions where a server from a restaurant will chase me down even when I’m a block or two away to give me something I’ve forgotten. Or, if I ask someone at an information booth / shop for directions, I’ll often get walked there. I remember one time when someone probably walked me a good 5-7 minutes, which seems to be overdoing it a bit. There have been so many other similar instances like this as well. The level of customer service in Japan is very high quite consistently.

Then you compare it to America. While there’s great customer service here, it’s hardly standard. In a very similar comparison, I ordered some beer from Rogue Brewery to get it shipped to Japan as a present for someone. The beer never arrives. Then, around a month after I ordered it, I get an email saying that “they can’t send it because the characters for the address are in Japanese.” First of all, I don’t know why I didn’t get this email a couple days after I made my (very expensive) order. Second, I haven’t heard back after responding saying I don’t need it shipped anymore but would like it to be refunded. The difference is night and day.

Also, coming back (literally just an hour ago, we’re sitting in LAX waiting for our connecting flight now), the first thing we noticed was how grumpy all the workers were. This is probably just because we’ve been in Japan for over a month, so the difference feels a bit shocking.

But, I wanted to thank the Japanese post. You guys are awesome. Even though they made a mistake they made it more than right, and I wish more people were like them.

What Tenso is doing is one of those ideas where you think “dang, I shoulda thought of that.” It’s simple, it’s helpful, and provides a really good service. I tried it out recently, and they let me pick out a Japanese t-shirt and ship it via their service, so that I can give it away to one of you. More information on that at the end of the post.

So here’s the rundown on Tenso: 1) You go to a Japanese website that sells something. 2) You order the item, and have it shipped to your tenso.com address (the address is free). The package is then sent to them, located in Tokyo. 3) They get the package, and then send it to you at a discounted rate.

Now why is this service convenient? Why is it better? First of all, a lot of places won’t ship internationally. If they do, it’s stupidly expensive to do so. Tenso is a shipping company, and all their specialty is shipping outside the country, which means you get a discount. Shipping from a store in Japan to Tenso is very cheap. I know I wish I had known about this service when I was shipping Christmas gifts from Japan. Would have saved a lot of money :(

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8TqdE0gpYM]

They also provide a list of shops to give you some good ideas on where to shop. My favorites are Amazon.co.jp and  Yahoo Auctions. With these two sites alone, you can pretty much find anything you want. There’s a ton of other specialty shops listed, though, as well as a list of shops that accept Paypal, if that’s how you roll.

Go check it out – there’s a lot of good stuff out there waiting to be bought. There may be hope for all of you who wish you had a ridiculously warm panda hat like mine.

Win a T-shirt

Tenso was indeed kind enough to buy and ship a t-shirt to me so I could give it to you folks. There is a tiny little catch, though.

You have to write a haiku for me. Well, actually, it’s a haiku for Tenso, since they were the ones who paid for the shirt. I also want you to write it on Twitter (feel free to put it in the comments below, too, but it won’t count towards the contest). In your haiku tweet, you must include the hashtags #tenso #haiku at the end of the tweet to make it count. For example:

Tenso, my heart wanes / for your shipability / love me ship me now #tenso #haiku

That way, when I search for it on Twitter, I’ll be able to find it! While you’re at it, follow me on Twitter for brownie points (which won’t help you at all in the contest, but will give you awesomely stylish brown noses!). You have until the end of the week to write this haiku (We’re talking Friday, here!). You can write as many as you want, but of course, you can only win one time :)

The t-shirt is a size Medium, but fits kind of large (I imagine it’ll shrink a bit, though). I’ll ship it to anywhere in the world, even back to Japan if I have to, so everyone please give it a shot! Haikus are 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables, and if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask and I’ll help you out.

If you’re looking for some inspiration, or just want to get a hold of a Godzilla head, check out Tenso for all your Japanese shipping hopes and dreams.