I feel like I should add my experience here. I do NOT recommend you do business with this guy or KOTOYS... and here is why...

I placed big orders with GenZhao a few times in the past, when he was starting out. He was a bit slow getting back to me, but he always came through. Because of this, whenever people have asked about using KOTOYS, or people have criticized him publicly, I've stood up and defended him based on my own experiences. In all the personal mudslinging that has been going on between him and some TFW boardmembers lately, I've remained pointedly neutral, and not gotten involved.

BUT...
Just once, in passing, I mentioned innocuously in a thread that I might be open to buying KO toys from another board member based in China. Mike is actually banned from this forum for making death threats (!!!), but apparently he still spies on it, because within a day or two I was suddenly BANNED from the KOTOYS forum and website. Couldn't visit, couldn't see the online store, nothing.

Not only that, but I didn't receive a single notice or e-mail about it. He didn't ask for an explanation or tell me he'd rather I not buy from one of his competitors for personal reasons. He just banned me right away, as if the fact that I was one of his first customers and that we were on first-name basis was irrelevant.

When I posted in a thread about this surprise banning on this forum, he DID contact me by e-mail, and lifted the ban... but only long enough to tell me that if I ever wanted to use his site, I would have to edit my post, and instead make personal attacks on the other seller for him!!!

I replied that I wasn't about to do that, and that any personal conflicts going around in the community were not my business. I just like my plastic robots, and I'd reserve the right to buy from whoever I want, but as far as all the infighting and slander went, I wanted to be left out of it. Needless to say, I got no answer, but was promptly re-banned from his site.

SO... think about what kind of person conducts business this way, and what kind of pettiness is at work there. Think about whether this is the kind of person you'd want to deal with... chaotic, unreliable, vindictive and possibly quite paranoid.

This is entirely my experience with him as a customer. It has nothing to do with some of the OTHER things people have said about him, on a more personal level. So I'm not muckraking or jumping on the lynch-mob here. I really thought things were cool with him, and he turned on me INSTANTLY, and started trying to bribe me into slandering other sellers on his behalf, and I had nothing to do with this little KO seller war going on.

So even if he did grant me access to the site again, after being treated this way with no justification, I have NO reason to trust this guy, and I don't think there's any chance of me ever wanting to buy anything from him again.

I'd warn others to think twice about buying from him as well. There are other options, better sellers, and considering how badly he's hurt his own reputation with his actions, I don't see any reason why anybody should support KOTOYS.

I'm sorry it happened this way, but he really screwed me for no reason. It's too bad.

zmog

 

If this guy's service hasn't improved by now, I think we're all better off taking our KO business elsewhere.

 

I just received my third order from KOToys - my first loose products. Package, as per usual, was beaten up, but amazingly the rainmakers were intact. Had written a few times without getting a response, but as above, did receive my items.

Based on reading a few pages here, I feel lucky and am done with purchases from this site

 

I had an issue , which saddens me because I like KoToys.

I ordered a figure and a week later had money to get more things I needed. I was refunded the secondary shipping fee and told everything would go out in one package. Well I received the intial order but nothing else. I was polite and asked 3 times about the second package and got no response. So I filed a claim with paypal. They (KO) countered by giving the same tracking number as the first package. I wrote to paypal about the obvious scam and won the claim.

What sucks is I never had a problem before and there are figures I want that I can't seem to find elsewhere and I want to order more from KO but apparently you have to order ONE item and wait until you receive it before getting another item. Quantity orders and orders close to each other apparently have a risk of issues like mine.

If anyone would be kind to PM a more reliable KO source I'd be very appreciative.

 

I wouldn't. Too risky. If you do use paypal.

 

This feedback thread made me very wary to order from KOTOYS, but I am happy to report that I placed an order for a KO DIA Commander, and it arrived well packaged and less than a month after ordering. I have no complaints whatsoever.

 

Here's my experience with KPToys.com. In short: items arrived quickly and well packed, but there was a problem that took a paypal dispute to solve.

I place and order for 5 items. It was shipped within a day or two, and arrived really quickly (about 3 weeks, i think) and the items were packed well.

I ordered a chms seeker, the regular colored classics mirage, and 3 legends. First problem: one legends was wrong (I ordered classics bumblebee, they sent animated bee), and Mirage broke during the first transformation (cheap plastic).

I emailed them the day after the package arrived (with pictures), 3 days later got a response asking for pictures. I resent the pictures with a MS Paint applied arrow to point out the broken part, and 6 days later (today) I had no further response.

So at about 10am this morning I opened a paypal dispute and escalated it to a claim (since I had already waited 9 days) asking for either: replacement bee & part of mirage or a partial refund (cost of items plus 2/5ths of shipping cost).

At 5 or 6 pm tonight they refunded me and the partial refund went through.

So, if nothing goes wrong you're in the clear, if something does you'll likely have to go through paypal to get a response. I'm guessing that's pretty much how they (kotoys) operates. So, in the end its ok, and considering they're KOs to begin with, I'm content.

====

Toys quality:

CHMS Skywarp: loose leg ball joints the only real major flaw, but that's easily fixable with the glue method. Paint aps were ok, not perfect, but not terrible. Wing stripes and decepticon logos are good, the eyes were the only weird thing on mine.

Regular classics mirage: this isn't the same mold as the clear version, and it shows. Cheaper plastic (the small part that's the "cockpit" on the car snapped right off) and the neck doesn't swivel. Paint is terrible, but the "stamped" logos and lettering are good. For $8.99 (loose) its not too bad.

Legends: cheap plastic and bad paint aps, but generally tight joints and ok for display. If you give them to your kid they might suffer, but for $2.69 (loose) I'm happy. I'll re-paint the one with the worst paint aps probly. Also: I got the standard colored classics jazz legends, on the site he's in car mode, but for some reason his legs are casted in green plastic (?). For $2.69 I'm not going to complain, but its weird.

 

Not good

Hey guys, just wanted to say that I ordered a superion giftset, dinobots and a devastator giftset from this guy and this is my first order and I didn't even get my superion! I have started a claim and will probably escalate in the next few days as there has been no response for a day now. But yeah I am a seller myself on e-bay and the whole time over 3 years that ive been selling stuff ive only ever stuffed up an order ONCE..... I mean for this guy to be getting it as wrong as i hear he is is just really damn sloppy. I don't even want him to post out the superion just want a refund for that item now... on another note I ordered some other knock offs from a guy called t800pro on ioffer he was about the same in price and really quick to post... Anyway thats just my experience, and btw imo the devastator is probably the only KO giftset worth getting the others are so cheap and light that you feel like your carrying a box of feathers...

 

Jamesbenjamin - I'd advise everyone to follow your way of dealing with KOToys - if you have a problem, and your mails are not getting answered for a week, do not wait. Escalate a claim to Paypal. Mike and his gang are much faster to react to those. I learned this the hard way.

As I know now thanks to his webdesigner, Mike does these things on purpose with buyers who once left him negative feedback, even if they retracted it later. Frankly, I don't care... nothing in the world can make me buy from him ever again.

 

Agreed... he is incredibly petty, vindictive and paranoid, as I discovered quite innocently. I can't believe I used to defend the guy. He really lost my faith.

zmog

 

agreed that paypal claims do help in getting an issue resolved. However, keep in mind the new cassettes will probably be a preorder. Since they will be sold out quickly, many people will jump on them and preorder them before they come out. The window to generate a paypal claim now starts from when you preorder. By the time the figure is actually released, there is a good chance the window to generate a claim will have expired.

 

Well, let's hope some other guy in China can get those sold as well. After all, I doubt Mike is the only contact the factory making those has.

 

it sounds like Mike footed the bill to buy the originals to be used for the casts. If that is so, I would assume KOToys would have these as an exclusive.

 

Oh dear me. Here you go Paul. Though he never mentions the actual site name. Strange is that not xD.

 

I had emailed them MONTHS ago about doing their "wholesale program" which according to that long rant looks more like 1 guy than a "program". I've bought from Daelite and he's AWESOME, but why I never got a straight answer from KOTOYS even though I was ready to go turned me off to the whole deal and I stopped trying to get in touch with them.

Does anyone know who makes these KOs and how to contact them? Because frankly if KOTOYS is such a problem I'd be happy to try to go through CHMS or whoever directly and offer another alternative.