Otsukai レビュー 

I have used Otsukai over several years as a complement to my main proxy services when buying from Japan (particularly for items that need to be acquired in-person). Initially, service was acceptable, even good, but as time went on, the quality of support and service has degraded in addition to the pricing. It has now reached a point where support is downright atrocious. Despite claiming price transparency, Otsukai will not disclose how they arrive at their horrendous exchange rate of ~110 yen to the dollar. (The exploitation of a non-standard exchange rate is precisely how they hide their means of profiting from transactions in addition to the existing service charge.) This is only made more apparent by the fact that they will not allow you to pay in yen directly either.
Furthermore, if any shipping issues arise, company support will practically leave you out to dry; they will deflect responsibility and direct you to either contact the shipper or the shipping company, refusing to help facilitate any problem resolution. While shipping issues can often truly be out of their purview, their approach to simply default to a scripted response is lazy and poor customer service-- especially since they market themselves was a low-hassle and easy proxy service and already have limited contributions to the overall transaction. Responses are often canned and not tailored to the relevant party, which is unhelpful and oftentimes patronizing. The design of the platform is also highly skewed towards inflating the ratings of the providers. Firstly, the rating only provides a binary option, limiting any possibility for nuance in case there are minor issues, and instead forcing the user to opt for the nearest alternative (which would in most cases be "Good"). This effectively hides any negative elements of the transaction within the final rating, which only shows a percentage of "Good ratings". The system will automatically rate sellers positively, and the buyer negatively if the buyer does not wish to rate the transaction either strictly good or bad-- there is no neutral rating option. Worse still, they will issue this automated rating without notice to the user, a rather underhanded move.
Otsukai claims that any additional costs that may be requested from the provider are optional, and do not need to be paid. While this is strictly true, this would be a misrepresentation of such situations, as time-sensitive or time-limited orders in particular would then be able to be held hostage after the initial offer acceptance by the providers and leveraged to extract higher pricing from the buyer through exploitation of their want for the item. People want the items they order, not their money back, especially when the subsequent second-hand market can be priced even higher still. They have put all their resources into marketing rather than actually improving the platform.

If I had known that many of these sellers were just gonna go to Mercari, I would have just gone there and snagged the items myself using a buying agency (buyee or etc). Even with the extra fees and shipping charged by the buying agency, it's still ultimately much cheaper than the gougey prices I kept being given on here. If I call them out on it they just dodge and make excuses. I saw Otsukai's reply to one of the other bad reviews and that reviewer had all the same ideas in mind that I did, and Otsukai's reply just looked like the same type of excuses the sellers make just repeated all over again. With the "time" idea they pointed out the idea of doing extra shopping in a physical location which in that case it would be fair but they conveniently dodged the actual complaint which was that they said this about mercari listings, not those exceptional cases. Indeed, it does feel like they are trying to take advantage of people's ignorance, when called out on it they dodge it in the same type of way a troll would in an argument. You know, the "they're just gonna come back at you with something else no matter what you say, so you can't win" type of thing.

Stay away from user nodoch-Japan!!!!!!

I used Otsukai recently to request their help with separating an item on a Mercari Japan listing, as I’m unable to obtain an account myself. I asked beforehand if this was allowed and if they didn’t mind I purchase the item on a proxy website. This person was happy to help at first, got it on a separate listing for me. Soon I realized they had bought it before I was able to. Now trying to offer it to me for $57 on Otsukai..when it was bought for $7 on Mercari Japan. They knew what they were doing, accepted my request thinking they can get over on someone overseas. For how small/light the item is, international shipping is still not that much..so they are charging me quadruple on the item itself. They said “I am very sorry to find out that you were going to make me work as much as I could and leave without any benefit”. If messaging someone on my behalf is working as much as you could, work harder haha. They were 12 hours late to messaging me back but still active as I could see, if you don’t care just turn me away. That would have been so much easier. I planned to purchase from their Mercari Japan account when the item they separated for me got bought out of thankfulness. I understand it’s a let’s make a deal world but that was pure greed. They got extremely rude when I asked them if it was possible for them to list it to their Mercari account. Stay away.

I've had so many problems with this site i don't even know where to begin with. The first time i had a problem they refunded but said that it was only on that opportunity. Then i ordered other things and the seller started to ask me a lot of questions and i said just send what i payed for, but we couldn't come to an agreement so i got so tired of fighting with the seller i stopped answering the messages (i know, i kind of screwed up) I just waited for them to send what i asked for and they did, but when it arrived in my country i got asked for taxes (that's pretty normal) so i payed, but now they won't send it and for some reason the seller asked for a return?? Otsukai said i didn't pay and that they won't give me a refund, all i have to do is try to talk to the seller but i can't do anything more.... DON'T EVER USE THIS SITE, THEY ARE SCAMMERS!! THEY WON'T GIVE YOU A REFUND AND WILL BLAME YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!!

Pre-ordered a limited edition item that sold out after I accepted an offer on Otsukai.

Working with the 'friend' was straight forward and there were no issues until the item arrived.

They received the item, then requested an additional $100 in delivery costs due to increases in delivery charges. The item's parameters were larger than expected and a different delivery method was required as well. It was true that Japan Post did increase their delivery charges and another delivery method was required, but not to the amount estimated by the 'friend'.

I contacted customer support and was told that this should be expected. If I was unhappy with the price increase, then I should cancel my offer and get a refund. They offered me a 10% discount on my next purchase as compensation, as a sign of 'good faith', then resolved my ticket.

As I wanted the item and the item was sold out, I paid the additional amount. The item arrived in good condition. The 'friend' packaged the item well and it survived the trip outside of Japan.

As advice to those who want to use the service, do not expect help from Otsukai customer service if you believe the 'friend' is scalping you after the initial purchase with additional delivery costs. I checked the Japan Post website to verify that the friend was overcharging me for the additional delivery cost. Otsukai did not check whether the increase was justified. If they had checked they would have mentioned how the delivery price increase was different to what the 'friend' had proposed. It is what the 'friend' is asking for now, so pay up or cancel the order. They do not care if you agree with the reason for the price increase, those are your only options.

I got my item, but the overall process was poor and Otsukai clearly does not care if you are paying more than what was agreed. I do not blame the 'friend' for this bad experience. If they were scalping me for more money, Otsukai should identify this and hold the 'friend' to the correct delivery cost increase when compared to the original offer.

Otsukai appear to want the benefits of running a middle-man/ proxy service without the responsibility of verifying whether the customer is being taken advantaged of. They are very anti-consumer from the very limited communication I have had with the customer service team.

I am now going through the process of deleting my account information from their systems.

I like the idea of the service, but beyond the prices being beyond insane even including the shipping and all the rest of it (this coming from me who also uses buyee), even making a request is like rolling the lottery on if the 'friends' even understand the basic jist of the request. I would hope that a website specialising in exporting products from japan to foreigners would have a bit of a better understanding of a request if it is more specific than another. I see many offers to requests that absolutely do not match the original request, even if the original request was extremely simple. Requests I have made have been misconstrued even when given images of the products in question. So not only would I not recommend the website because you have to have extremely high amounts of money, I also wouldn't even recommend it on a basic level, since the way they respond to requests is honestly abysmal in the time i've been there.

I used the service once to buy items from an event exclusively held in Tokyo. The price was really good, considering the "Friend" had to go to that place and stand in line to buy them for only me (I didn't see any other requests made for the event on the website) and had no guarantee that the items wouldn't be sold out. The shipping was good and fast, it was well packaged and the "Friend" even put in two of the event posters/leaflets supported by a cardboard so it doesn't get folded. So considerate, I was very happy! Otsukai feels like a very personal way to receive fan goods if you know how to use the website. Also, it's perfect for rare items or items that need you to be in the country to buy them - might not recommend buying stuff you can buy in your own country/general websites. Other than that: Thumbs up! 5*!

I use this site to purchase dagashi assortments, as I like helping small businesses receive business. I usually have a budget written in my request and each person I've accepted offers from have stayed within that budget and respected my food allergies. The fees are not bad, shipping is usually fast by dhl and from my assumption the shipping for my orders is roughly 50$ by "otsukai shipping"(by dhl). Overall, I've never been scammed and I find otsukai friends trustworthy.

The website concept is wonderful, however customers are being charged an insane amount of money. Sadly, products are mostly being sold by scalpers taking advantage of customers.

I say this because I understand the value of the things I requested since they’re still available on the Japanese market and I’m a collector.

A $20 keychain that is still available in stores in Japan should not be $70+ in offers. It is ridiculous.

A $360 bracelet was also overpriced for $500+ even if it’s still available in Japanese stores. Please look on Buyee, Mercari Japan, or FromJapan for more reasonable prices.
I later got the same keychain for $15 on Mercari Japan rather than the $70+ offers I got on this website.

I tried using the website to get items that are not very accessible to me only to be disappointed by scalpers.

REPLY 3/30/2022:
#1 Thank you for the reply. I understand that shipping costs can be added to the offer, but it shouldn’t have been an additional $50 for the $20 keychain. It comes to a total of $70. At most I can see shipping a keychain from Japan can be $20 for EMS.
The “friend” also had this keychain in-hand. There was no domestic shipping to them necessary.

#2 In the situation of the $350 bracelet that was still available, asking for over $500 (and some $700) was also too much. This could only be obtained via online order in Japan, so the “friend” simply just had to charge me for their domestic shipping charge that they paid and the shipping to me.

That alone should not be almost an additional $200-400 for a small bracelet even if they had to travel to the post office.

I may end up flagging a couple listings for the $700 ones as you suggested since this behavior isn’t allowed.

The company's service fee is a little bit expensive.

The company takes 30% of hidden fees(13% transaction fee, 7% mysterious forex fee, 10% mysterious PayPal fee).

Example:
Proposed Fee: USD 45.74(JPY 5,000)
PayPal Fee: USD 4.53
System Fee: USD 5.96
Forex fee: USD 3.28
Foreign customer pay: USD 59.51(JPY 6,505)

So, the foreign fiends pay 130% of proposed fee by Japanese friends.
The PayPal fee including forex fee is only 6%, so I think 7% forex fee and 10% PayPal fee is a little bit expensive.

The Japanese friends' profit is just a few dollars per item, but the company's profit is dozens of dollars!!

P.S.
Please use proposal fee calculator, then you will know it.

P.P.S.
Thank you for the explanation. What I mean is your "specified rates" is a part of so-called "hidden fees".

If you disclose that the total Otsukai fee is 30% and foreign customers understand it and still use your service, I don't think anyone will complain.

This is just a bunch of sellers who prey on the fact that westerners don’t know the value of the items from Japan. The sellers go on mecari or yahoo action, find the items for dirt cheap and increase the price minimum 4x. They will claim that it’s cos of “hidden fees” don’t be fooled cos even buyee has hidden fees and it’s waaayy cheaper! They clam they charge high prices for their time, even though it takes them seconds to go on mecari and upload photos that they didn’t even take!

I’ve seen people pay £70 for items, when the true cost is can be £13!! It’s pure greed! Just use a proxy service like buyee and translate what you want into Japanese and you will get more results!

I bought 5 packages they all thankfully showed up. I used the app version. It's pretty cool how you can request items and some on from Japan will buy it for you and ship it. There are sometimes customs fees because it's coming across seas but I got constant text updates on if I needed to pay that. I would buy from here again.

I bought something for double retail. It said it was gonna be to me in 11-15 days. Which was the whole reason i paid that. Now theyre saying it could arrive end of may or end of july which is three months from now. I told them that thats really unreasonable and not what i agreed to. Their help and refund policy mentions a handful of different ways you can get a refund but now that i bring up that policy theyre saying since the item was already ordered that theres nothing that can be done. Of course their cancellation policy doesn't say that. Their policy says if your items passed its shipping estimate that you can ask for a refund... but they dont tell you that the person on the other end can just keep changing the dates so it pretends like everythings on time. -I want to add since they replied. 9700 yen is reasonable, not for an item thatll arrive in three months. I am pretty sure that i did not purchase it under the premise that it was a preorder(people specifcally sell preorders on there, and they specify that before the person buys) i think that once the item was about three weeks out from the 11-14 day estimate THAT was when it was changed to preorder in the description.

I was looking for a figure and I received many offers I took the cheapest one and yeah it took the 'friend' a bit of time to get the figure. But as I got it, I even didn't have to pay any custom duties! and the 'friend' also put in 2 gifts

if you look for something quite rare, try otsukai, they might find it for you!

I made international purchases with Otsukai during Covid. It should have been okay, I received some items, but not others. Otsukai was not helpful at all for shipping issues. They were unkind and unfeeling and did nothing to help. They blamed me when their service did not even offer any way to change shipping, yet they still blamed me. Their service sucks if they blame their customers. On top of that, they closed my order WITHOUT shipping my items and did NOT issue me a refund. They stole my money and did nothing to help me. Do not use Otsukai.