My Experience with Buyee: they steal ye stuff and make ye pay!
So I have encountered a pretty big problem with using Buyee.jp, which is sort of a middleman service to help you buy things from Japan if you’re not in Japan.
I have used them before to buy a Rilakkuma plush, and because it was just one item and it was light enough to be post it via airmail relatively inexpensively. So it arrived and it’s awesome, and so I decided to give it a go again and ordered a bunch this time. Which led me to paying a ton of crazy sounding fees and overcharging shipping, and that was sea freight, so idk. Anyway, two and a half months later I receive my box from Japan. This box has about quarter of the items I ordered missing, so I go to Buyee customer service and message them saying hey my item numbers so and so are missing can you please check in your warehouse.
Buyee response (copy paste):
This is the Buyee Customer Support.
Thank you for your email.
We are sorry to hear that there was a problem with the package you received.
We investigate each case according to the applied plan, and we have confirmed that you applied Lite plan to your package [00000000000]
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*LITE PLAN
Items that are purchased with [Lite Plan] are not eligible for compensation, even if the item is different from the seller's page, been damaged, or been undelivered during international shipment. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept any complaints or requests for refund.
We apologize that we are unable to help with this matter.
We sincerely suggest you apply for [Standard Plan] when you order or bid on items in the future, so that we can assist you with cases like this.
Thank you for your kind understanding.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any other questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Angelu
Buyee customer support
So the Plan they’re talking about is the additional fees charged when you are bidding for items at the time, you can select from various options which mean absolutely nothing and when you are bidding it only shows this line: “Lite Plan means there is no Insured Delivery or Item Inspection service included”.
So, while hey I’m here thinking well, I’m okay if the item is not insured or inspected when it gets to your warehouse, I’ll get insurance when I’m posting it to myself for sure! Only when you go to the depths of the website and dig out more information you find this:
Lite Plan means there is no Insured Delivery or Item Inspection service included.
Please understand that with Lite Plan, you are not eligible for the following services:
Receiving refunds in the event that your item(s) is delivered damaged, different from the auction/shopping page or different in quantity
Receiving refunds or requesting a claim/investigation in the event that your item(s) is lost during shipment
You are highly recommended to apply for Standard Plan if you would like to be eligible to the above mentioned services.”
So honey, they’ve got it all covered from step one. As you are bidding for your stuff, they’re already saying that they can make claim to any of your shit that you pay for.
There is absolutely nothing stopping them from stealing the things they like the look of, while also making you pay for everything.
I know how exciting it is to buy things and bid on things and get things! Trust me, I’m with you on that! But in addition to the above, Buyee has a shitton of charges that they keep on adding and adding, so even if you think that you’re getting a bargain, you’re probably better off getting things on ebay or an import shop - not even kidding. After I added up the costs, it would’ve been cheaper for me to just get it from physical store at like a 50% markup :/
The charges and mistakes:
- initial service fee, 500 yen
- Plan fee - varies but you get the idea that if you “cheap out” on the Lite Plan, you won’t get your goods
- Consolidation fee - when they put stuff you ordered in one box.. - 1000 yen
- VAT + TAX charges added on top
- Ludicrous shipping fees - I have travelled a lot, and I know that you can ship a 66lbs/30kg box via sea mail for less than $80... But Buyee charges anywhere between $120-$250, I guess as they feel like?
- Miscalculating weight of the box. I am a stickler for things, so I add things up carefully, based on their own numbers that they provide on the website, and calculate the fees using the calculator provided on their website. Then I get slapped with insane shipping fees for a 37lbs/17kg box, which arrives and everything says it’s 20lbs/9kg....
- If you want them to check that the item is not damaged - that’s a fee
- They can take photos of your item, for a fee
- You want them to hold your item for more than 30 days? - Daily fee
- If you want “protective packaging”, that’s another 1,500 yen on top of everything!
- I had a bizarre email to change the value of the package?? because it returned to their warehouse after I already paid the shipping fees and they have confirmed everything. Turns out they’ve misclaculated something again, and charged me another $60 on top.
- Obviously, think about the customs duty you have to pay when your goods arrive in your country, which leads me onto my next point:
- Miscalculating the cost/ incorrectly filling out customs form. I paid $60 customs for something that cost me $30 in total. How? Because Buyee slapped an incorrect price on the declaration. Again, no refunds or complaints pls
After going on review sites I’ve noticed a similar pattern. So unless you are ordering a single item, shipping it using airmail (DHL, EMS), and prepared to bear the costs - Buyee should be a pass.
Anyway as my saga comes to a close I am looking at alternatives, but unless I find something less horrific I’m sticking to ebay. It’s not ideal, but at least there is some protection for you as a buyer.
Beware, stay safe, don’t use Buyee.
Just posting this out in the vast reaches of the internets, hoping that this will help some people out!
titsay
vaporwave
