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Deputy/Proxy Service: shoppingmalljapan.com...beware

(5 posts)

  1. DYRL84
    Member

    For those who do not know a deputy/proxy service will bid/buy Japan-only stuffs for you for a fee and is usually used by customers who 1) do not have friends/family living in Japan, 2) do not want to inconvenience said friends/family, 3) do not plan to travel to Japan in the near future.

    I am relaying my first and probably last experience with shoppingmalljapan.com (SMJ).

    shoppingmalljapan.com

    Many people swear by this service but I feel that they jacked up the shipping rates on me and I just dont trust them and they totally ignored two of my emails requesting that my items ship directly from Japan.

    The way that their packages travel is as follows:
    Seller (Japan) ----> SMJ (Japan) ----> SMJ(Indiana, USA) ----> Customer (USA)

    I live on the west coast about 20 min away from S.F. Int'l Airport. As a customer I will have paid int'l shipping beyond my California residence all the way to Indiana via "batch shipping". and then have to request shipping from SMJ (Indiana) to me (California). Therefore double backing the parcel all the way back to the west coast as follows:

    [from Japan] parcel travels beyond west coast (USA) ----> SMJ (Indiana) then,

    me (California) <---- SMJ (Indiana)

    So shipping charges = domestic (japan) + int'l (japan) + [domestic (usa) which is an additional shipping charge comapared to other deputyproxy services that normally ship directly from Japan]

    Essentially, in my case, I am paying for excessive and unnecessary shipping fees and shipping time both int'l and domestic.

    Posted 2 years ago #

  2. DYRL84
    Member

    UPDATE:

    An idea of SMJ's markup on Japanese domestic shipping fees for my items that weigh about the same as a 1/8 scale figurine,

    item:

    1) 1410 yen
    2) 1110 yen

    Subsequently, I used another deputy/proxy service for similar items and same shipping and the domestic Japanese shipping fees were as follows.

    item:

    1) 580 yen
    2) 550 yen

    Posted 2 years ago #

  3. DeCreep
    Member

    Yeah, I've always been skeptical about their batch shipping system thing they got going on. I've always been using goody-japan.com and they've always been reliable and cheap for me.

    Posted 2 years ago #

  4. DYRL84
    Member

    I saw goody-japan.com. It's good to know that someone has used them before and had good results. Have you seen Rinkya's fees? They're off the charts! I'll give them credit though for showing their fees up front instead of SMJ who slams you with shipping fee markups. I'm done sending SMJ emails because I don't want my stuff to "accidentally" be run over by a forklift and have my stuff arrive looking like international pancakes.

    Posted 2 years ago #

  5. killpv
    Member

    Yes I agree!! Every time I receive my invoice from SMJ I am always disappointed and feel like I'm paying way more than I expected to pay and more than I would have wanted to if I had known. There internal shipping cost which included shipping to the US as a batch shipment seems as if it's enough to send the item directly to me by itself without a batch. Then there is still the shipping fees within the US to me! No more SMJ!

    Posted 1 year ago #

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