“Not a scam, but a bloody money sucker.
Buyee? worst proxy ever. You will be charge more expensive for everything.
Let's me tell you why.
I pre-order 6 digimon dim cards (2 x 3 set of the same type. the items are non-unique) from the same seller, placing order at the same time, buyee told me each of the dim card come on different packaging and I had to pay 250yen for EACH unit for consolidation fees. so I had to pay 1500yen on top of the shipping fees + 300 (flat fee per order) + 500 (a very expensive insurance fees).”
“I purchase a USED car fender from buyee which is not all that big and weighs about 8kg. After paying for the item and special packaging fees i was shocked to be notified that i had to pay Usd $569 as shipping fees to USA for just one car fender.The do over size the box so thay can rip out from customers. Even after requesting for downsizing no way ,refused.
A New car fender locally is sold at $400. more than just shipping fees they demanded. Horrible
I had initially parted with $185 for purchasing the items . I had to just forfeit it. The storage fees are free up to 30 days! They start charging $2 per day or more.
Quite a scam. AVOID IT!!!!”
“I been using Buyee since they started, right now they are getting worst and try to charge fees on many things. The recently added "2800yen customs clearance fee " is the worst. If you want to save money to shop in Japan, there are more options online if you willing to search it.
Also there customer service is terrible! You are like talking to a robot and you will never get your answer.
If you see any good review from them its because they are giving out coupon for good review. Stay away from them!”
“Stay away from BUYEE!! They have terrible customer service!
1. The first thing is, their English online chat is impossible to reach, I waited from 9am to 2pm, finally one guy appeared, I saw it after 10 min and he had already left. Then I received no reply anymore!!
2. When something happens, they refuse to bear any responsibilities and blame everything on customers! They are not trying to solve customers' problem, they are treating customers as a problem.
3. They also keep the coupons or refund from stores in their purchasing account and do not give it back to customers or let customers to use them.
4. Also, I grouped 2 packages of 1kg and 4kg, it became 7.5kg after consolidation!! not to mention those are just clothes and do not need any protective packaging!
I could not believe they can expand their service and partner with some famous stores with such terrible service. I believe there are much better choices out there.”
“Good selection of items, but you'll probably end up spending more money here than you'd save. The problem is that they don't tell you the shipping cost up front. You pay for the item, the item arrives at their warehouse, then it's held there until you pay whatever ridiculously overpriced shipping fee they demand. Definitely not using this site again.”
“This company is a total scam. Fees are overprice, shipping is outrageous, and customer service is an absolute joke. When an issue arises, and it will, good luck with getting any help from them. Buyee will refuse to help you when they can’t prepare proper paperwork for customs. Buyee will not help you when your package arrives damaged and missing orders. If you value your money or the product you are looking for, look elsewhere. Avoid Buyee at all costs or you wil be sorry.”
“I bought several items via Buyee over a year ago, and they were held indefinitely due to the pandemic. I get that, but I was promised that I would be notified thoroughly once shipping resumed and that I would not incur the usual storage extension fees.
They lied and are now trying to charge me hundreds of dollars for a handful of paperback books.
It's absurd, and it's theft. They should be shut down.”
“To put in simply, this is an excellent site for collectors who are not particular about pricing. This is not exactly a site for bargain purchases and the many add-on costs make it quite a premium service.
Pros:
- Extremely wide selection from Yahoo Japan Auction, Mercari, Rakuten etc
- Helps remove the language barrier and convenient payment via Paypal or credit card
- Products were well packed, good condition, exactly as advertised in the photographs. Sellers were transparent on condition. Buyee even has an algorithm to highlight keywords (eg. junk, damaged etc) to warn the buyer.
- Fast delivery, got it within 1 day from Japan to Singapore using DHL
- Customer service replied within a day when I had trouble bidding for an item
Cons:
- App has a few minor bugs that require restart
-Many, many additional costs as mentioned below:
- Service fee 300yen per item
- Delivery cost from seller to buyer warehouse of 200-1000yen per item depending on the mode chosen by seller
- Insurance 300yen per item (optional)
- Inspection 200yen per item (optional)
- Photograph of item 200yen per item (optional to see condition)
- Consolidation fee 1000yen (optional for multiple purchases, to ship in 1 package instead of multiple shipments)
- Protective packaging 1000yen (optional, try to do it with consolidation as the cost is one-off regardless of item quantity)
- Delivery for 7 items was 3400yen for me via DHL, shipping separately was 700yen via Japan post.
To each his own. All in all, I was more than happy to fork out to complete my collection. I opted for all the optional costs (except photographs) and these optional costs and delivery cost amounted to almost 30-40% of my damage. Though it was all worth it to receive them within 1 day with abundant bubblewrap. Do give it a try if you are willing to spend for your collection.”
“I consolidated my package from 2 boxes into one and the weight of my items somehow had over 800g added to it simply by taking the 2 items out of one box and putting them into one.”
“Suddenly unable to log in. 8000 usd worth of good is gone!?
It's my very first time using buyee but all of a sudden I'm unable to log in to my account!?”
“Broken goods, poor packaging, long logistics
Good afternoon, I am writing a review about the intermediary Byuee.jp. I have been working with them for more than a year and this is the third product that I actually decided to write a review about in anger. Byuee.jp. The only plus that the service provides is the purchase from auctions, without uploading the amount to the intermediary's website. However, that's all.Poor packaging and logistics, long correspondence with the company's managers. There are a lot of restrictions on the size, it was problematic to send a sewing machine, according to them, this exceeds the dimensions of sea transportation. What are you people? this is an ordinary sewing machine and it has large dimensions????
The previous 2 purchases were small, came with a creak, but whole. Sewing and embroidery machine, came smashed in full, despite the fact that I paid for the protective packaging. The protective packaging of this intermediary is a korbka + film with pimples and several plastic airbags. And they ship the product in this form all over the world??? the product was not rigidly fixed and hung on the box, there was no good protection. I'm shocked, it's irresponsible!!!! I wrote a letter of complaint for the broken goods due to poor packaging, but the intermediary refused to compensate even partially for the shipment and the cost of the goods. Therefore, I conclude that this company is not honest with customers.I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT!!!! Look for another service for buying Japanese goods, there are many of them.”
“PROCESS:
Read some absolutely awful reviews about buyee so I was nervous about buying from there but I was pleasantly surprised. Very quick to sign up. Submitted a request for an item on mercari and they had bought it 8 hours later. Had a variety of shipping options with many price points - chose registered air mail, and they had shipped it and sent me the tracking number the very next day. All together it took just under two weeks from placing my order and receiving it.
OVERALL:
I have not given five stars because of some reasons. True to what other reviews say there are a lot of add on fees, such as handling, inspection, insurance etc, that you only see clearly once you've already bought something.
I only bought one item, but package consolidation fees are quite pricy and seems like a nightmare from looking at reviews.
They had a 2000 JPY discount for mercari so the final price I payed was not exorbitant. The site layout is also outdated and needs a revamp imo. My item also arrived in a paper envelope with the item wrapped in one layer of bubble wrap. I was not impressed with this imo and they should definitely use bubble envelopes on top of wrapping the item for extra protection.
TLDR:
If you are buying one small item then I would recommend buyee, especially if they have some campaign on to save money.
Otherwise, if you are buying multiple items, or larger items, and want to consolidate them into one package, I would look elsewhere at perhaps zenmarket, dejapan, or the likes.”
“I purchased a figure from mercari through Buyee two weeks ago, and paid for item inspection and shipping insurance. The item domestic shipping is listed as "Paid by Seller". The seller told Buyee that the figure will break unless it is shipped in it's original box which is already scratched and damaged, that they will charge additional money for the box, and that the cost of shipping will go up because of the box and that I will have to pay. It took approximately 20 back and forth emails to figure out that is what they are trying to say. They are unable to tell me how much additional the shipping would be. They link me to a page in broken English that says that regardless of an item being listed as shipping "Paid by Seller", they may charge the buyer unknown quantities for domestic shipping.
Since they could not tell me the price, I asked them to tell the seller to ship without the box, and package as best they can, and that if the items arrived damage, that is why I paid for shipping insurance. Buyee then tells me that they won't honor the shipping insurance in this case because the seller says they might not be able to package it well. This ENTIRELY defeats the point of shipping insurance. It is only ever purchased to account for poor packaging and resulting damage during shipping.
Stay away from Buyee. Terrible service, poor automatic Google translations, tons of fees, and their insurance is fraudulent.”
“I use several shopping services from Japan, and they have the highest service fees. They hide it very well - you'll learn your experience to pay for inspection, insurance, protective package, ridiculous consolidation fees separately. They also overchare you for shipping cost, compared to other websites.
Also, they take no responsibility for broken and damaged items, even if you pay for all the extras, so beware if you order delicate items like anime figues or limited stuff.
P.s.: their service was top quality a few years back, but they started overcharging for everything and not paying attention to packaging at all.”
“Shipping fees are hidden.
Buyee makes you wait for shipping options then comes back with only ONE exorbidant option, forcing you to pay for it!
Customer service is full of excuses & unhelpful.
AVOID AT ALL COST”
“There customer service is lying day and night. I bought a slot machine and the weight is 43kg. They are insisting for me to pay $900 for DHL when FedEx is $430. I called DHL and the cost is only $600. Where is the $300? In Buyee account. Scammers.... Ask me and i can show you proof.”
“I ordered pants for my son, paid for them and shipping, then was asked for an ADDITIONAL shipping charge almost as much as the pants! I really wanted the pants, so I paid it, and then... they said they had no address! I sent the address in both English and Japanese, but to no avail. I finally canceled the order... I thought.
NEXT I get a notice that I am now paying STORAGE for the pants, and my credit card is being charged.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME???
I am a working mom and use online shopping because I have no time. I am taking the time to write this to WARN YOU. Avoid Buyee at all costs! This is a money pit! Once they start charging storage fees, they can keep taking your money for as long as they want, until you can set aside a couple hours to try and find the REAL order cancel page.
No pants and out fifty bucks. Someone should report these guys to a better business bureau!”
“Previously we provided a positive review from Buyee (they credited our account 500 yen to do so--paid for positive reviews are what you are largely seeing on this site). All was good until we encountered some difficulties. The first concern was several overcharges on domestic shipping, sometimes as much as 1100 yen (11.00 usd). this was corrected, however it took several dozen e-mails to show them that they were making mistakes (they initially would not admit to this). Next. We requested consolidate packaging. Rather than remove the domestic shipping materials and place the items (watches) into an appropriate size box, Buyee threw the items in existing excessive packaging into an oversized box that would have been appropriate for a two pairs of Shaquille O'Neal's Basketball shoes. This require us to use a more expensive shipping service (EMS) as a result. We asked them to use a smaller box. They refused saying we don't have small boxes. (what kind of a shipping forwarding service does not have an inventory of different sized boxes). After more e-mailing, they finally said they could provide a small box but that this box would cost 500 yen (5.00 USD). We ship watches internationally in sturdy corrugated e-commerce boxes. These cost 16 cents (USD). The bottom line is that Buyee is unwilling to meet the needs of its customers--users beware.”
