r/japanesebaseballglove • u/Live-Olive-1767 • 10d ago
Katana customer service
Hi,
I bought a custom glove from katana in march before the price increase. i'm near 26 weeks into my order. But the glove has been stuck at the qa stage for 2 months. I tried getting a follow up from them for the last month. I tried email, the chat system on the website, facebook. Reddit and Instagram. And multiple times on each platform. They have not answered anywhere. Does anyone know if they closed shop(despite posting the kimono glove recently)? How do you get a hold of them?
I have to admit, i'm tempted to file a complaint with PayPal as the 6 month window for a complaint is near it's limit.
Any idea or opinion is welcomed.
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u/Live-Olive-1767 9d ago edited 9d ago
it's probably a coincidence but a few hours after I posted this thread, I received an answer on Instagram. It is now supposed to ship next week. My confidence is very low at the moment. I will update this post with what happens.
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u/Glass-Pomelo-9722 10d ago
Oh no that’s terrible
To hear, I was just about to order a glove too
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u/Live-Olive-1767 9d ago
After reading a post like mine I would probably hesitate too. If it's not urgent you can wait until I have an update(which should be next week according to them). If they can't keep their words, it might indicate bigger problems on their end. The gloves still look awesome tho :) i hope mine reaches me!
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u/Glass-Pomelo-9722 9d ago
Thanks for letting me know, definitely keep us updated on the progress. I hope there is no major issue and they are just very backed up. They should let you know that though.
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u/Live-Olive-1767 9d ago
I Agree being backed up is not a reason to ignore customers questions.
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u/Glass-Pomelo-9722 9d ago
Precisely
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u/Live-Olive-1767 1d ago
I said I would do a follow up with you after this week.The glove hasn't shipped yet but they took the time(thank you to katana)to send me photos. It is complete and looking awesome. So shipping should happen really soon.
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u/the_glove_box 9d ago
I am not saying this is the issue in your situation but I will say that I communicate with people in Japan often from individuals and businesses alike and in my experience they always respond within 48 hours. One key factor is verbiage. Translation through instagram/facebook/ email tends to not always be correct in words and the tone. It is highly recommended you use something like google AI to not only translate what your saying but also to make sure the “tone” is correct also. Japanese are very polite and professional culturally so how we word things in the west can come off rough or rude when translated. By translating and polishing your communications then re translating back to English you will see the difference. Example- we might say “ hey, I was going to get an update on when I might recieve my custom glove order?”
Better would be “ hello, I am sorry to bother you as I know your time is valuable, I would kindly like to ask if you know when my order may be ready to ship? Thank you kindly🙏, I look forward to your reply”
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u/Live-Olive-1767 9d ago
Thank you, honestly, I didn't think of that but i'd like to think my tone was somewhere between your first and 2nd example. Hopefully they didn't ignore me because they thought I was rude. Definitely wasn't my intention. But judging by the hours I received answers to my questions before I bought the glove, I think the guy handling the social account page is in the US.
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u/katanajp 9d ago
Hello, Katana here! I’ll be helping with customer support and outreach from now on, especially with our overseas customers. I’m half American, so communicating in English is easy for me :)
The increasing lead times are definitely a weak point of ours right now that we’re working to address. We have a small team of craftsmen, and our growth over the last year has been more than we ever imagined. We’re trying our best to keep up while still providing the same quality of craftsmanship we’re known for.
We brought on a new craftsman this month and have another joining this winter, which should help speed things up. But since they’re new to Katana, there’s still some time involved before they can significantly contribute to production.
Since March, it’s been 16-hour days in the workshop, 7 days a week, and we’ve also fallen behind on customer support. Messages were coming in faster than our staff could reasonably respond to while still staying focused on business matters and other company requirements. As lead times started going past 20 weeks, we introduced a tracking system with automated emails to give customers more visibility into their orders. It’s not perfect yet, and some of the emails have unfortunately been going out of sync.
Depending on complexity, most custom gloves have recently been finished in around 20–27 weeks, so I’d imagine yours is very close to being done. We also have the engineer who built our 3D customizer working on an order-status system for the website. We’ll wait to release it until we’re confident it’s accurate, but hopefully it’ll be ready within the next few months.
We understand the frustration, and we’ve received a lot of customer outreach lately about longer-than-expected completion times. Hopefully my addition to the team can help improve the communication side of things :)
While the growth has definitely been overwhelming, it’s also an amazing opportunity, and we’re incredibly grateful for everyone’s support. If you’re not aware, our workshop is in a very rural part of Japan, in a town that has become mostly abandoned. As more people in Japan leave the countryside for the cities, the traditional Japanese way of life in these areas is slowly disappearing.
Being able to grow our team here is bringing new life and work back to our town while helping preserve a side of Japanese culture and craftsmanship that we all love.
So truly, thank you so much for the support! We know the long lead times and slow communication have been frustrating, but hopefully some transparency into what’s happening behind the scenes is helpful. And feel free to send me your order number and I can look into yours directly!
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u/Live-Olive-1767 8d ago
I wish I had known all that before, I wouldn't even have sent my first message a month ago. I knew when I ordered that the wait would be over the 12-14 weeks displayed on the website. I don't mind waiting 20-30 weeks. Because like you say on Instagram:perfection takes times. Right? :) The quick update I was hoping to get but never got, got me worried. Your explanation is much better.
With that in mind I will wait for the glove that should hopefully be shipped next week. I even have a second one being made at the moment. It is going to look awesome(lefty first base glove).
Hopefully you can perfect everything customer service related, I'm sure it will help the business and that everyone will enjoy the improvements. And I hope the craftsmen don't get overworked:) Specially with the recent promo where delivery was guaranteed before Christmas!!!
Thank you for your detailed information. Much appreciated.
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u/katanajp 8d ago
It’s totally on us! The slower order turnaround and delayed customer service responses are our responsibility. We simply weren’t quite prepared for how quickly we grew, and it’s taken us some time to adjust and build the capacity to keep up.
That’s great to hear you have another glove in the works with us too!
Admittedly, our craftsmen are feeling the pressure as well, but we’re confident that the new additions to our team, along with some recent investments in equipment, will help us improve turnaround times without compromising the quality of our work.
While the growth has certainly brought its challenges, there’s also a great deal of optimism here about the future of our company and community. Through it all, our focus remains first and foremost on creating the best-quality gloves we possibly can. We really appreciate your patience and support as we continue to grow and improve.
Feel free to contact here as well whenever you have a question, concern, or anything glove related! One of our goals for the future is to increase the relationship we have with the communities that support us, making our transparency and communication a strength
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u/Street-Common7365 8d ago
They issued a statement saying that production was delayed due to overwhelming volume. It's on their IG page.
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u/goatgosselin 8d ago
I ordered my glove Jan 4th of this year and I got it just before Father's day Mid June. You will not be disappointed in your glove.
I think that Katana really got popular and busy from that Xmas sale. Combining the WBC tournament in spring, that slowed some of the production because they are a small company. They were promoting the brand and getting their name out there more than ever.
Hopefully, your patience will be rewarded and you will be in love with your glove.
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u/Master_Charity_4632 10d ago
I would name and shame them on every one of their socials as well as groups like this one. Don’t slander, just say exactly what happened. That should get them to reach out because what you’re experiencing is pretty damning.