Akara Labs Reviews 75

Reply from Akara Labs

Updated Mar 30, 2026

Hi Takao, the only contact we have had with you previously was on the 9th Dec 2025 and nothing since. As far as we were aware you had been refunded and all was well.

The item was sent and the tracking stated that delivery had been attempted but then returned to us. As a single attempt of delivery is a little unreasonable, despite being out of our control - we issued a refund on the same day and by the 11th the refund was apparently complete according to Shopify.

You were aware the item had attempted to be delivered as you thanked us via email. I'm happy to also share the emails if you wish.

If the money has not been returned to your bank account then this is very concerning as we also have not been paid and it would need to be raised with Shopify and your payment provider to check their ends.

If you could please double check your account around the 11th Dec and see if the funds arrived back with you. If not then please get in touch with us via email, or directly through our contact bubble at the bottom right of our website, where we will work with you to understand if there is an issue and where that issue resides.

If the refund was not completed for whatever reason, the fastest and easiest way for you to receive your money back at this point may be to issue a chargeback through your credit card company, possibly just a few taps on your credit card app?

Please see your Shopify account history log below, this is the information we have on our end. Shopify has over 5 million customers and runs a vast majority of online stores, they are an extremely reliable platform.

December 11
£37.86 GBP refund was deducted from your Dec 15, 2025 payout.
12:48 AM

Refund amount
¥7,900 JPY
Converted to GBP (1 JPY = 0.00479 GBP)
£37.86 GBP

December 10
£37.86 GBP refund will be deducted from your Dec 12, 2025 payout.
2:22 PM

Refund notification email was sent to TAKAO MAZAKI (email address redacted).
2:22 PM

¥7,900 JPY was refunded using a Mastercard ending in REDACTED via Shop Pay.
2:22 PM

Acquirer Reference Number (ARN): REDACTED

December 9
You refunded 1 item and shipping.
2:05 PM

You restocked 1 item at 1 location.
2:05 PM

A ¥7,900 JPY refund is pending.
2:05 PM

EDIT: To reply to your edit:

The refund was processed on 09/12/2025, the same day you got in contact with us. We didn't wait to receive the product back as we could see from the tracking the Japanese post were not going to try again (for reasons unknown to us).

The refund then took a few days to complete which looks to be the 11th December 2025 from what we can see from our end.

Therefore, please check your bank for a refund around the 11th December 2025, you should see the same amount you spent with us being deposited back in to your account.

We did not resend the order, you requested a refund which we immediately processed for you. All in all, you should be fully refunded and back where you started.

EDIT2: Thank you for amending your post, it's appreciated and I'm sorry that this transaction was not as smooth as either party would have liked. I hope you have a good day and if you have any further issues with the refund please don't hesitate to get back in touch, we are always here to work with and alongside our customers to resolve any problems.

Reply from Akara Labs

Updated Dec 11, 2025

Hi Wolf, thanks for your review.

The coder and pens are glued to the instruction sheet in order to keep everything together and reduce plastic packaging. We try to keep plastic waste to an absolute minimum.

Appreciate that import duty and fees can increase costs but this side of things is completely out of our control and is set by each country, we do not receive any of this money - it goes straight to your government.

The postage fees are near identical to what we pay, occasionally we will pay a few euro more and sometimes a few euro less depending on the destination.

We are not a large enough company to be able to use couriers at any reasonable rate, it would likely be 2-3 times more expensive, so for our products this is unfortunately the cheapest way to ship to you.

Hopefully over time we can tweak and improve the postage side of things, it's also frustrating for us too so we do completely understand where you are coming from.

Reply from Akara Labs

Sep 26, 2025

Hi Lars, I'm sorry to hear that the case wasn't for you. We've not heard of the case becoming loose fitting before, especially after just a few days use (I see you received it 4 days ago). It's possible you received a faulty case.

You are correct in that the case is 3D printed, but with commercial 3D printers, rather than the usual and much cheaper method of injection moulding.

Cost wise, manufacturing in the UK as a small business is unfortunately very expensive compared to China, it's near impossible to compete on price alone. We aim to produce high-quality, precise fit cases with responsive and personable customer service.

We're a small business and always looking to improve so if you would like to reach out to us please get in touch at contact@akaralabs.com.

We can raise a return for you (if you still have access to the case) and then inspect the case for any faults and issue a refund/replacement.