“They charged fee at every step of the purchase. Worse, they set an exchange rate for you worse than credit card exchange rate and you can't opt out. I tried consolidating my packages at 500yen surcharge. The final shipping cost, not including the surcharge, ended up being higher than sending the package individually.”
“0/5. Without a doubt the WORST Japanese proxy service.
These people run a joke of a service. They won't let you ship via FedEx, they aren't extending any storage times despite the fact that NONE of their shipping services are available except for 2 - the worst 2 imaginable (DHL and JP Seamail). They won't let you value the package to whatever you want it to be (e.g. you purchased 50k yen worth of items, yet you want the packages entire value to add up to 1000 yen, not 50k yen so you can avoid duty tax. Buyee will NOT allow this, while every single other proxy company DOES ALLOW THIS... This is why for every 100 items I buy on FROMJAPAN, one is bought on Buyee, and it always has to be under 10k yen or else I'm dinged with duty tax.
So yes, I've made a few orders on here. EVERY SINGLE TIME my hat comes in ABSOLUTELY destroyed and I need to fix it. They'll ship a brand new snapback (height of a snapback is 5in.) in a box that has a height of >>>>>0.78in”
“ESTAFA Y ROBO. QUE NO OS ENGAÑEN
He comprado un articulo y despues de sumarle los gastos de gestion y envio urgente un mes despues no he recibido NADA. Mi paquete se ha perdido. UNA ESTAFA EN TODA REGLA. mucho tracking, mucho seguimiento pero no he recibido un mojon. 30 euros de envio urgente 3-5 via avion y paquete perdido. Les exijo explicaciones y reembolso y es como comunicarse con una pared. Tenga Ud paciencia....pues eso se que la navidad y los reyes magos tengan paciencia pero a mi me han ROBADO mas de 120 EUROS.”
“Horrible high fees, you have many other fees to pay like Buyee service fees 300 yen, payment fees 200 yen, plan program fees (various options) and package consolidation fees (extra 1000 yen on top of your international shipping fee), and they charge expensive international shipping (higher than other proxy companies) so many fees ended up paying a lot more than expected. Not recommended!”
“Buying from Singapore. Beware of their shipping costs and arrangements!!! I've encountered 4 Different quotes of Shipping fees of Bicycle from SGD$1900/$490/$390 & finally $320 of 2 different shipping company Dxx & Uxx. Shipping fees of $1900 is super ridiculous and Buyee claimed is an odd size item and can only deliver by Uxx shipping firm, had to do numerous of debate with them to bring the costs down. And why and how they are able to bring the cost down too?? To go by Dxx shipping company we had to 1st give Buyee instructions to proceed and they will not be held liable for anything happens. Also Returned goods by Dxx based on $390 shipping, reason is Bicycle with tyres is dangerous goods!!. Bad buying experience and poor communication with Buyee rep. Their professionalism is doubtful. Communication with them is a nightmare.”
“First of all, I want to mention that I would not be surprised if some of their 5 star reviews on here were buyee employees. Seems like something they would pull. Now to my experience with them. From the moment shipping came into play, I knew I would never use them again. When it comes to shipping they have a user interface that basically gives you indication that you can consolidate packages until you've already paid for a few to be shipped separately. So, I spent a total of $80 to ship four small items, none probably weighing more than a single ounce, separately. When I did find out you could consolidate, 15 minutes after paying all that, I contacted them asking if it could be adjusted so that my items could shipped together, they basically replied 'no take backsies! We are already delivering them to the post office!' which I could understand, maybe, if the packages hadn't taken almost a month to be checked in with the Japanese post office after that. I had a little correspondence with them after that where I let them know that I wouldn't be working with them again, after that at which point they kept on sending me cs emails on how I could consolidate "the next time" I purchased from them, each time with me replying like 'hi did you not understand when I said the words "never again"?'. Then when tracking basically stopped dead for months after the items left Japan, I messaged them again. They basically replied 'well okay, we'll look into it, but its gonna take a few months okay!'. So yeah, crappy CS so far and too expensive, but nothing to write home about. My life is already stressful enough, so each time I just deleted the emails so they wouldn't be a stressful reminder of what I was going through with them. BUT BOY OH BOY. My first package arrived, and it hit it out of the park. The package was already ripped open when it arrived. The cat on the ring had its tail bent so much it pierced the tiny amount of bubble wrap and plastic bag they had put it in. And the front of the cat was rusted. AND I KEPT THEIR REPLY TO THIS MY GUY. I did share some personal information in my email to them, about how I was already having a hard time and they had been making my life more miserable on top of that, and 'please just don't make my life harder, just refund the item please, just treat me like a human please'. I mention this because they did speak about those issues near the end of the reply email, basically just 'that's a shame', but it's private info, so I cropped it out along with the full names of myself and the CS rep. I'm including a screenshot of the reply email, but if you don't want to read it, basically they said 'What damage I don't see any damage? AND even if there was damage, which there totally isn't any, we wouldn't owe you $#*! because you only got the standard plan and you can still technically put it on your finger so it functions as a ring!'. So yeah, last straw. The damage is really clear in the photos I sent them. I'm filing a PayPal claim. And if the other 3 items come damaged, I'm skipping their CS and going straight to PayPal.”
“Don't buy collectibles with Buyee ! They just take into account the object itself and not the box, so if it arrived crushed or damaged (the boxes)... they don"t care !! I received 3 damaged boxes and they don't want to know anything, not even a gesture, nothing. They just hide behind their Plan-page and that's all !! They don't want to understand that for collectibles, boxes are part of the whole ! Very disappointed !”
“Don't buy collectibles with Buyee ! They just take into account the object itself and not the box, so if it arrived crushed or damaged (the boxes)... they don"t care !! I received 3 damaged boxes and they don't want to know anything, not even a gesture, nothing. They just hide behind their Plan-page and that's all !! They don't want to understand that for collectibles, boxes are part of the whole ! Very disappointed ! Ah, and their protective option is just a joke ! It protect nothing at all !”
“Horrible experience. Customer service is unhelpful, they will not provide you with any information, they overcharge significantly on shipping and fees, and are just inferior to any other proxy site you could choose. The packages are not protected well, all package changes are final, and shipping can be denied up to their discretion. Do yourself a favor and find another proxy site. They pay for these reviews by offering their customers 500 yen coupons.”
“Recently they have taken a massive slide in the packing. Small packages that are 'too big to send via seamail'. I know these shrives survive by the deals they make in bulk shipping but the refusal to work with me has caused me to switch to Zen.”
“Shopping with Buyee was a nightmare. I had to reach out to customer service upwards of 50-80 times because they ignored requests, neglected to reply, misunderstood, used confusing English, changed customer service rep for every single email sent, misreported package weight and content, and in the end shipped the package with tons of mistakes. This company reeks of a scam. The customer service reps use polite terms, but that doesn't help when they refuse to give out information, or consistently offer misinformation and contradictory statements.
I ended up overpaying for a shipment lacking in contents and after 2 months delay. One parcel never made it. I'm probably looking at a $3000 loss.
There are so many red flags with Buyee that I don't know where to begin. I regret ever taking a chance on them.”
“Buyee contacted me saying that because they didn't put my full name on the package, I had to pay for shipping a second time to fix the error. I had no choice but to pay double the cost for my package, and it was delayed by 2 weeks due to a mistake on their company's part.”
“I don’t know how and why people write good reviews for buyee !
It must be rigged ! I have had hell with them , all these hidden fees , coupons rigged in a way that you can’t use to pay for a collection of items ......
And getting them to undrestand you and provide you with (correct ) answers is IMPOSSIBLE
BE WARE !!! DO NOT USE THEM !!!!”
“I had a terrible experience with buyee. I just bought clothes and after I paid for the shipping fees, they canceled my shipping method (pretending that my package was over 2meters...) to force me to choose a way more expensive method. As a result, I have to pay 3 times the price for the clothes. Plus, they are unable to make a quote. I feel like this site us a lottery... Will you get poor because of them or will you stay fine? For me, I got the bad win...”
“Scamming mostly in the price of the shipping, a piece of clothe that does not weight not even 1 kg just a few grams and they charge it has if it weights 3,5 kg!!!! Beware!! They don't answer they are scamming I even confirmed the prices with EMS the company that ships! They even charge almoust the same for just one piece of clothe compared to 4 pieces of clothes! I have weight 6 pieces of the same clothes and it doesn't even have 1 kg, the pictures say it all”
“My first order from mercari was very unpleasant, I ordered a metal build Gundam, my seller cancelled my order because of price surge... Like the fact they can do that is unacceptable. To add to the wound, that made me missed my entry date to a great coupon for free international shipping.”
“Warning: this post will be a very long one, as I will discuss the benefits Buyee brings to the table, the disappointments I had with my shopping experience with them, and possible other alternatives to try.
I came across Buyee when I wanted to buy some Pokemon cards from Mercari. Having done so in the past with another (awful) proxy called Hoyoyo, I thought that maybe sticking with a larger proxy would be beneficial, and here are my personal opinions about the proxy.
Let's start out with the fees:
1. Plan fees: 300yen per transaction for the lite plan (transactions under one seller count as one transaction. For example, buying 10 cards from different sellers in Surugaya costs you 300yen in total), 800 for the insured plan.
2. Additional Mercari transaction fees of 200yen per transaction (if you order several of the same item at once, it counts as one transaction
3. Shipping consolidation: 1,000yen per consolidated package (if they break it off into separate packages, they charge you an extra 1,000yen :))))
Let's continue with the benefits:
1. Small package shipping options. For someone buying cards it's probably best to ship through small package, so this is a plus. However, there are lots of other companies out there doing free consolidation AND have small package options (like FromJapan) sooo not really a plus
2. Coupons! I have to say, if there's one thing that MAY (highly unlikely but POTENTIALLY) make me want to buy from Buyee again, it's the coupons. I first got reeled into using this proxy because they did have a promotion with Mercari, and if you made a purchase within the time frame, you had a 1,000yen coupon off your second Mercari purchase + 4,000yen coupon for international shipping. I bought a few pieces of clothing to use those coupons (including shoes). Shipped using Surface mail (so we'll see how that goes as it has yet to arrive). Because Buyee is so big, they have coupons with Mercari and Rakuten very often, which is a benefit of this proxy... before all the fees
OKAY I'm done with the benefits. Let's talk about ALLL the things that Buyee rubbed me off the wrong way through my one, big transaction with them.
As previously mentioned, I wanted to buy Pokemon cards on Mercari (before discovering Surugaya), and was reeled in by Buyee's coupons. My first purchase wasn't bad, Buyee has a fee calculator that gives you an estimate of the total for your purchase, and all was going on pretty well. Until it didn't and all hell broke loose. First, an order I put took roughly 3 days for them to complete (on a site called Magic, a "flea market" for cards and figurines, as Buyee puts it - basically another Mercari but without the transaction fee). Of course, since it was a good deal, both cards I wanted to get were sold out by the time they FINALLY put in the order, and I was refunded by Buyee. Then, I had an order that they were completing, but was interrupted by the seller asking them if I wanted two of the same items. The convo went like this:
Me: *places order*
Three days later:
Buyee: "The seller says they have more than one set and wants to know if you want several."
Me: "If it costs me additional plan fees, then no thank you. If not, then please order two."
Buyee: "It will not cost you any more additional fees other than the cost of another set. We will proceed your order. Please note you cannot cancel from this point forward" (makes sense, right? but if the seller isn't responsive ... shouldn't I be allowed to cancel than to have a "pending transaction" for god knows how long?)
*7 days later*
Me: "I understand your policy, but you haven't completed my order yet and my coupon is about to expire. Can you cancel it for me?"
Buyee: "The seller isn't responsive. We cannot cancel your order. It is our policy."
Me: *internally* DO I JUST HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS PENDING TRANSACTION FOR LIKE A FEW MONTHS THEN WTF
*2 days later*
Buyee: "The seller has replied. 3300yen for two sets. Is that okay?"
Me: "YES that's fine please just make the order asap."
*1 day later*
Buyee: "Sorry, we cancelled your order as the item is out of stock"
bro. BRO. I mean you could probably tell the seller was fishy (or Buyee... maybe the fishy one was you) from the second message onwards but you didn't let me cancel it. At this point I'm a bit irked by their service, but I didn't think much of it, until they messed up my Surugaya order. I made a large order from Surugaya across three sellers, all under one order. I get the notification that my order had arrived to the warehouse. I check the page and realize that I've been charged a 220yen shipping fee for no reason (as it was free shipping from the store). So I email their customer service. Have you ever been on a customer service phone call where they just pass you onto the next person, and because they came in the middle of the discussion they have no clue what's going on and what you need help with? Picture that, but with email, and with replies being 1 business day apart. I first emailed them regarding the fee, and was told by an agent that because they require tracking, I may be imposed with further fees even if the seller gives me free shipping (ironically enough this was the package that arrived a week later than all the other packages that I later on ordered from Surugaya so ... what tracking are you using? NULL tracking?). I wanted to ask about which seller specifically required domestic shipping as I can see under the order that several items (under the same package ID) didn't have domestic shipping (as this was under Surugaya), so I emailed them under the same thread again. I was greeted by a different agent who asked for the ID's of the packages without domestic shipping (which is what I'm asking THEM for). I greeted the new agent and gave them the information that I can see on the page with domestic shipping of 0yen and was replied to by ANOTHER agent asking for the package number, or else they cannot help me. I gave them the package number (that I did have, but was not asked for in the previous reply), and was replied to by THE FOURTH AGENT (by far the worst), telling me "oh I see you bought a lot of cards! the others are coming soon, don't worry!" (at this point i didn't know that he was referring to arriving to the warehouse and that my order was actually incomplete) but at this point I realized that there's no point in communicating with them since it seems like they're as confused as I am, so I stopped.
Later on, I made two other orders and they all shipped by now (all for free domestic shipping, so what the hell happened to the first package, Buyee?). Anyway, I do what a normal person would do: consolidate it (as shipping in this case costed less if I were to consolidate, even with the 1000yen fee). JUST to find out later on that the first order (that "arrived to the warehouse") was incomplete. They separated my ONE order into THREE different orders. After a long email to Buyee, the other two orders *magically* appear the next day under my page, but I was told that if I wanted to consolidate these extra two packages, sure! PAY ANOTHER 1000YEN. Since these two packages each would have costed me 560yen to ship (totalling to 1120yen in total), and even if I consolidate, I'd have to pay 1000yen + >560yen for shipping, WHY WOULD I CONSOLIDATE?? Firstly, that means that if I had never bought any of the other two orders and only this one order that they messed up, I would have went in under the impression that I wouldn't have to pay for consolidation, but now I'm forced to! Because they split it up into three different packages. But ignore that, because I'm willing to pay consolidation in the first place and wouldn't mind sneaking all three packages in my consolidated order. However, I couldn't now because THE TWO PACKAGES ARRIVED SO MUCH LATER AND I wasn't even aware that they weren't under the package that "arrived at the warehouse") (mind you, this was under the same order number and under the order number it said "arrived at the warehouse"). Also, HOW IS IT that this first order that I made, that got split up into three bloody packages, had two packages mysteriously "arrive late" but both arrive to the warehouse the DAY after I sent them an email? Unless it is such a coincidence (and if so, maybe I should buy the lottery), I call BS on Buyee. Pure BS.
As I mentioned before, A LOT of other proxies do this for free. Why do I have to pay 1,000yen to consolidate? If I were buying from one seller, maybe Buyee's small packet shipping option would entice me, but let's be honest, rarely does one sole seller carry all that you want.
For real numbers, let's say that I bought 5 cards from three separate sellers (not on Mercari, which charges you an additional 200yen PER TRANSACTION), for 200yen each (let's say they were recent promo cards). Then realistically, I could have done everything in FromJapan within 1900 yen, with 300 yen being the lite plan fee, fReE consolidation, and MAX 600 yen for shipping small packet, and 5*200 yen for the cards themselves (assuming free domestic shipping).
If I use Neokyo, it'd be 250 for the plan fee (with insurance bc Neokyo insures packages without the "insured plan" bs), 600 consolidation for items under 2kg, 600 yen for shipping small packet, and 5*200 yen for the cards themselves, totalling to 2550yen.
From Buyee (drumroll please): 300yen for the basic lite plan (if the cards get edge wear/bent, rip you!!), 1000 yen for consolidation service, 600 yen for small packet (if they don't do anything wrong - read next point), and 5*200yen for the cards themselves. TOTALLING TO 2900 YEN. If I use Mercari, it'd be an additional 200yen per card, meaning it's 3900 yen.
The possible good thing is that when I bought from Surugaya, they counted the store as one seller (even though they had several sellers within the store). But boi, I would NEVER buy from them through Buyee again - Neokyo seems to offer the same benefits, but at a lower rate and more insurance.
TL;DR: these are the things that I'm absolutely FUMING about with my transaction with Buyee:
1. Horrible customer service
2. Horrible customer service
3. Domestic shipping taking forever, and magically they "arrive" at the same day (which is the day after you email them about it)
4. Horrible customer service
5. did I mention -- HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE
6. Insane fees (coupons won't help) - mainly consolidation fee of 1,000yen
7. All in all, a money-grab.
These are possibly two other alternatives I'll be looking into:
1. FromJapan (I bought one item from them and the process was smooth and very quick - will update on how the package is ... packaged later LOL)
2. Neokyo (looks very promising based on fees and policies - insurance is guaranteed! only downside is that you need to pay an extra shipping/consolidation (not rlly consolidation since you'd need to pay it for only one item) fee of 600 yen)”
“It took 6 months to get a refund for a package that got stuck cause of the covid... I sent message back and forth to the customer service and they were not answering my questions and responding super polite it became very impolite and almost like a game of insults. Like sending me links in Japanese, so I asked for a link in English and they tell me to use Google translate... seriously. I'm not doing business with buyee ever again! If I could have put no stars I would have put none.”
“Complete trash company when it comes to their “plans” that make you pay extra for.
Paid for a £750 item, one of the main items didn’t show proper condition on auction, told buyee staff and they don’t care to fix the situation even though I had the best plan with them.
Disgusted of the service, they don’t even look into your complaints properly.
I bought Pokemon cards and was told to show pictures of the box and item I received. I received the Pokemon cards in a electronic device box.
After so many emails back and fourth of “not receiving pictures properly” (I assume they were just trying to waste my time to stop me sending them emails to resolve the issue)
They then gave me a email of “due to your item being a electronic product we cannot give you partial refund/refund” or basically anything to fix the situation I was having.
Please beware when paying extra money for protection as they’ll do anything to not help you out”
