Buyee lets you buy items from different online shops based on Japan including Yahoo Auctions. You don't need to understand Japanese to order items just give them the URL of the item they will bought it for you and ships the item with their Japanese address and forwards your package overseas. So I got curious and since I'm a fan of online shopping I might as well try it.
The first time I use Buyee I was amazed on how they respond back with my inquiries as they respond back with english and its really good you can communicate with them easily. Their service is easy to use and understand however with this pros mentioned there are also cons.
With their shady business tactics, there are a lot of hidden fees they throw on you. If it weren't for the convenience on buying "rare" items that are not locally available I wouldn't use Buyee at all. A word of caution to those who will first time using their service.
Now to the cons, first is the consolidation fee they are offering, this consolidation fee let's you combine 2 packages for 500 yen and 3 and above packages for 1000 yen (fee as of 11/12/2016) which is good if you don't want your items to be individually shipped. Now before you use consolidation service make sure to include 3 and more of your packages otherwise they'll charge you again for an additional 1000 yen and note you cannot cancel the service.
I think its just an excuse so they can milk money from you. Honestly you don't need to pay that service as I've been using other online buying service proxy and they don't have that option. Any package with your name and address is yours and why do you need to consolidate different packages just to make sure its yours. Pft what a rip off.
Second thing I hate about Buyee is that they don't tell you exactly the weight of your package. I noticed that when I tried to order a bunch of model kits from a different online shop, at their checkout, it shows the weight of each item you bought then estimates the shipping fee. For 8 items, it weights about 2.5 kgs approximately on the other hand Buyee here says 3 of my model kits I won in Yahoo Auctions weights about 2 kgs and it should have been less than 1 kgs (note 3 of the model kits I bought at the online shop are the same with the model kits I won in Yahoo auctions Buyee and when my package arrive I tried measuring their weight just to see if its accurate and it was less than 1 kgs).
They also got optional options to milk you money services such as Insured Plans where they insured the delivery of your package in case of damaged items they'll refund you an amount of money another is the inspection plan wherein they inspect your item just to see if its complete. Lastly, another optional service is the protective packaging where they will repack your package in a secure manner which I found out that other user reviews online claiming Buyee use papers instead of bubble wraps to pack the packages. I don't really know since I didn't avail all of the optional service.
I’ve got these 3 items from Yahoo Auctions via Buyee and it was very expensive. you'll have to pay fee for the auction, shipping fee from the seller to Buyee warehouse, consolidation fee (items I bought are from different sellers), shipping fee from Buyee to your home.
Break down of cost:
Item 1 = 1000 JPY
Item 2 = 500 JPY
Item 3 = 1511 JPY
Domestic Shipping Fee = 2044 JPY (3 domestic shipping fees from 3 different sellers)
Package Consolidation Fee = 1000 JPY (for 3 items)
Insurance Plans = 0 JPY
Protective Packaging = 0JPY
International Shipping Fee = 2450 JPY
Total: 8505 JPY
Buying things is such a hassle especially online, buyers risk their time and money to look and buy for an item that's not locally available to them. Never again I will use their service (or perhaps if they have low fees I might reconsider). I just wished that Buyee can learn to love their customers.
That's it for now.
EDIT: Don't use buyee when you plan on shipping a big package.
EDIT: Don't use buyee when you plan on shipping a big package.
