USA Gundam Store — Local services in Daytona Beach

There' s nothing special about how USAGS operates compared to their competition. USAGS is par for the course and do ok w/ shipments. I've ordered regularly from them for a while. Two things they do different from their competition is they have more discount sales and they don't do discount sales on damaged boxes they receive from manufacturers. If they do, i've not heard of it. The main issue I have with USAGS is they struggle with initiative in communication outside of anything automated. The other issue is it seems they will use their policies to absolve them of responsibility when they can. The following are issues i've had with USAGS. Anecdotal at best but insight to what one may encounter w/USAGS. I cancelled all my unfulfilled orders w/USAGS and won't use them again.

I made a preorder for the Megami Device Hell Blaze Launcher in Dec 2019 with official release in Feb 2020, there's about a month delay for the states but covid started. I was patient giving benefit of the doubt b/c of covid. After being delayed for 4 months, still giving benefit of the doubt that things were out of their control, I started calling to get more info about the delay each time the expected arrival date was changed. Support didn't give any info wasn't on their website and said the info came from Kotobukiya. Nov 2021, I tried email to see if there I'd get more info than what the person on the phone had but no. I still kept the preorder believing there was an active effort to get the item in since support said the model had yet to arrive. Spring 2023, I sent Koto a dm on twitter asking if Koto had info on the kit delays b/c support kept telling me Koto was delaying the item. Koto went directly to USAGS about this and only then did I get an answer about why the preorder was delayed 3+ years. Their supplier at the time cut items from a shipment and that's why the order didn't get filled. USAGS failed to notify me about the issue when it happened. I was offered shipment of the remaining order items, cancellation of the preorder and a $25 gift certificate. The $25 & shipment wasn't a worthwhile consolation for waiting 36 months thus far but I accepted b/c it was probably the best I was going to get. I didn't cancel b/c it was a matter of principle to see how long USAGS was going to let this preorder go unfulfilled. Koto had no plans to produce the kit anytime soon according to USAGS. They finally filled the order in Sept 2025 after Koto reproduced the kit. 57 months after the order was put in. During all this, I purchased a megami kit that USAGS advertised on their site that it came with a special item from the initial release. The special item was missing when I got the order. When I contacted them about the missing item, they said the special item wasn't guaranteed even though advertised on USAGSs site. I give them credit for giving me a return shipping label. Aug 2024. I put in two orders back to back. W/o telling me, USAGS combined both orders into one shipment. I learned this when I got the package about a week after shipping. Only after calling them, was I refunded one shipping charge. USAGS took no initiative to notify me of their decision or refund one shipping charge. I assume I wouldn't have gotten a refund if I didn't contact them. One figure box was damaged due to how they packed the items. On the same call about the refund, i asked if I had any options b/c of the damage. I wanted a return or exchange with them providing shipping b/c there was evidence the damage was from how USAGS packed the items. As expected, "we don't consider box damage a defect". To an extent, I understand the policy but in this situation it didn't seem it should apply. My options became keep the item even though I was unhappy with it or spend another $30 to ship it back and trust USAGS to decide the item condition to determine the refund. I didn't trust them. I took the 10% discount they offered, which support acted like they were being gracious, on the discounted price. So, it was actually 7% but I was done dealing w/USAGS and...

Only reason they get a second star is for having water slide decals. If that doesn't concern you then this is a one star. Anyway, I guess they don't keep their stock up to date until they have to go look for something. Which in my case was the day it was supposed to arrive btw, a single item order that was placed over a week ago. This makes some sense since they work with larger retailers. But if it does happen to be out of stock they just cancel your order with zero contact as they quietly move the item to out of stock, that is unless you bark at them before hand. This is in line with every warning I received about this store from friends a few years back, this isn't a COVID thing, it's a them thing.

About that warning, there is more to it. If you order direct you'll be instantly charged, no processing holds until shipping, which means you'll probably have to pay the 5% cancellation fee. The reason they can do this is that they'll print the shipping label THEN cancel the order as stated in other reviews. I won't say this is purposeful, it could very well be a system quark, like maybe you can't cancel the order in the system until you print the label or something. However, an online store as established as this not having a payment hold system in place at this point is suspect. Remember they don't keep inventory up to date so if something happens to actually be short and it's a single item order, guess what? 5% cancel fee. Because out of date inventory they'll have listings for stuff that's marked up or out of stock elsewhere. So if you're looking far and wide for that ONE THING you'll see them pop up and before you know it you'll have your own USAGS story. Now from the look of things if you spend big and get lots of stuff they'll do you solid and ship what they have, which is nice.

I got lucky and did the transaction through a second party that held my payment. I didn't even know I was ordering from them until after I made the order and high key knew this was going to happen.

I'll gladly pay the mark up that usually comes with the better stores to avoid this kinda stuff. Maybe if the owner spent more time checking the stock instead of emailing people who already got their stuff this site would be less...

Delayed shipping times. Terrible customer service and support. Buyer beware. Wanted to cancel order after a week of no info and two delay emails stating an additional 4-5 day wait after already waiting a week and some odd days. I sent an email to support and then sent the same request through Paypal since I never got tracking info - even including my cancelation request on the Paypal message to seller. Paypal did a full refund automatically.

The very next day support contacts me and refuses to cancel any order even through Paypal unless you pay 5 percent fee despite it not being on a credit card. Then they proceed to offer store credit for a full refund? For what? Still at this point, they have not shipped the item I had ordered.

As the refund was already done through Paypal, I continue to request that they cancel and not ship the order. The support person then says that there is a charge back and that the order is not canceled. They then proceed to ship the order 4 days after this email interaction. I email them back asking why this is not canceled and they say their "fraud team" will deal with the charge back. An absurd experience overall.

I received the order this morning, and undid the Paypal refund so they will get their money for the item, but I will never order another thing through them.

It's a bummer that simple interactions are deliberately made difficult by this kind of unhelpful, unreasonable interaction with people who are so desperate for a few bucks they ruin the entire customer experience. I am only thankful that I didn't place a larger order as I had originally planned since this was my first time buying with them, I wanted to use caution. I wish them luck in their business, but I won't be giving them...