VN

May 28, 2024

Big Improvement Since Bokksu Acquisition - But I'd Only Conditionally Recommend

**I've included my previous update for full context. Not enough space for original post.** The last few months, the packages have actually been sent out and delivered promptly. We've actually been getting the boxes in their month, rather than like 6 weeks later. I wouldn't recommend against ordering based on the previous delays - that no longer seems to be a thing. However, this is the last update for me as the last box we got was the last box of our subscription and we're just not interested in continuing anymore for a few reasons. (Customer since 2019.) 1) For every 2-3 boxes we get, we can create another box out of all the things we don't like. Primarily this means gummy candies, gum and hard/sugar candies. There's a sense of cheap candy, but also, no one in the house chews gums and the sugar candies are just generally not interesting either. Unfortunately, they've also been including a number of things with artificial sweetener, so we don't eat those either. They just taste bad. When we visited Japan, we saw that artificial sweetener seems to be creeping into more and more Japanese candy, I just wish Japan crate wouldn't buy that stuff. 2) There's so many duplicates. We've been to Japan, there is such a huge variety of flavors and kinds of candy/chips etc. There's no good reason for the number of straight duplicates. Then on top of that, back to issue 1 - they're frequently the things we don't like. It feels like we're constantly getting those "dango mochi" with the faces that are basically pure sugar - I feel like we got that one every other month. Or the candy bottles of pure sugar. 3) The biggest problem we've had since the acquisition is that there seems to be more of a problem with the chocolates melting. Not sure if its weather or transport conditions, but the KitKats are frequently half melted. Our last box every chocolate was significantly melted and reformed. We got one of those Nintendo character chocolates where you break out the character. We have no idea what character it was. The whole thing had melted and remelted into a Kitkat sized shape at the bottom of the bag. The black thunder was also reformed into a different shape, and all the KitKats were melted and flattened. It was all still tasty but not great. And if I were gifting this, I'd be embarrassed. Tldr: I'd only recommend this to someone for whom this their first/early exposure to Japanese candy. There's not a lot of surprises or particularly interesting or good items anymore. I remember getting a small brand of potato chips that were amazing years ago - very simple chips but either nori or soy flavored and just very well done. I think they used to go out of their way before to use more brands and flavors - that seems to have disappeared. It's mostly big brands now, and things I can get at a random Asian store in any big city. The KitKats are probably the most interesting things recently. I'd only recommend it for someone who eats a lot of candy and isn't particularly picky about what they eat. In the future, I might try Bokksu. But we've basically aged/experienced out of Japan Crate is what I'd say. We've enjoyed it, and the boxes themselves were a nice thing to look forward to each month. However, given how little of it we've been enjoying or even eating lately - we just can't justify the price. ------------------------------- Update to review posted November 18, 2023 Don't waste your money - waiting months to get crate with no customer service help My September crate was finally delivered on November 7, 2023. I was originally sent a tracking number on October 19, 2023 - for a _September_ Japan Crate. It then showed nothing happened until October 30, 2023. I am still waiting on my October Japan Crate. The tracking number was created on October 23, 2023 and I was really hoping this meant that things were possibly going to catch back up - it did not. There is no new info, nothing has happened with the crate. Even if it ships out next week, the earliest I'll be getting my October crate based on the last delivery is November 27, 2023... At least crates seem to be being sent out now, but shipments are still very much very delayed. The fact I'm getting anything is a very low bar to feel appreciative about. Reply from Japan Crate 28 Nov 2023 Hi V, we are so sorry to hear that your experience with our company has not met your expectations. We acknowledge our mistake and are committed to providing you with a better experience. Customer satisfaction is our top priority, and we’re truly sorry that wasn't demonstrated to you. We will relay this message to the appropriate department. Please contact us at *redacted for Trustpilot*, so we can see what other things we can do to make it up for the experience.