My experience buying rods using Buyee BEWARE

[Rippin-lips]

I have made about 12 purchases through buyee. All have went smoothly but none have been rods though. I'm too scared after seeing similar things happen to others. Hopefully they will issue you a refund for your purchase. From some of the things I've read online it might be an ordeal though. I've heard you are pretty much sol with buyee and refunds.

[jjones0118]

I feel for you man, I myself have seeked out hard to find JDM rods, reels and tackle on Yahoo JP using buyee. I've ordered rods through buyee and they have always been shipped in a tube similar to what tackle warehouse uses with fragile and do not convey stickers all over the tube. Recently I got an email from buyee regarding user/ buyer changes agreement I had to agree to , maybe buyee has lowered their standards when it comes to checking the product and packaging it properly. I live in Cincinnati and buyee past rod shipments usually ran $50.00-$60.00 . I will say this the last rod I ordered from buyee Sat at customs in Chicago for almost 2 months, was never given a reason why and it just showed up on my door step one day unharmed, I could tell that someone who has never shipped or owned a nice rod had been in the tube. There is a post on BBC today in the rods section, members on BBC are saying the shipping company employees are cutting open the rod tubes and checking out what's inside and using different tape to tape it back up. I cringe every time I read a post like this and when I ship or buy a rod online. Did you pay opt for the b premium shipping plan ?

[BARRAMANIAC]

I know of a guy. He has bought 14 megabass rods through buyee and is yet to have an issue so it is not all bad news.

[ayo8]

man, I can relate. Ive bought from buyee a dozen times or more and had broken rods; shimano ultimas , c40 evo, and a raid technics rods. It wasn't so much the packaging, but rather the carrier. One common theme when my rods come in broken, its always been UPS. One rod tube had a boot mark (size 11) imprinted where it broke the tube, Lol. others go through customs where they need to open, and poorly repacked. And sure, you get these novice/and or lazy Japanese that dont know how properly ship rods.

@anyrate, hope you get this unfortunate indecent promptly resolved and taken care of.

[Bootytrain]

man, I can relate. Ive bought from buyee a dozen times or more and had broken rods; shimano ultimas , c40 evo, and a raid technics rods. It wasn't so much the packaging, but rather the carrier. One common theme when my rods come in broken, its always been UPS. One rod tube had a boot mark (size 11) imprinted where it broke the tube, Lol. others go through customs where they need to open, and poorly repacked. And sure, you get these novice/and or lazy Japanese that dont know how properly ship rods.

@anyrate, hope you get this unfortunate indecent promptly resolved and taken care of.

Broken Ultima? Ouch! I agree it's the carrier. I got a 2 piece rod today from Japan and it came in a rectangular cardboard box and only had packing paper on one end, I was expecting the worst but it was fine. It was the USPS.

[ayo8]

man, I can relate. Ive bought from buyee a dozen times or more and had broken rods; shimano ultimas , c40 evo, and a raid technics rods. It wasn't so much the packaging, but rather the carrier. One common theme when my rods come in broken, its always been UPS. One rod tube had a boot mark (size 11) imprinted where it broke the tube, Lol. others go through customs where they need to open, and poorly repacked. And sure, you get these novice/and or lazy Japanese that dont know how properly ship rods.

@anyrate, hope you get this unfortunate indecent promptly resolved and taken care of.

Broken Ultima? Ouch! I agree it's the carrier. I got a 2 piece rod today from Japan and it came in a rectangular cardboard box and only had packing paper on one end, I was expecting the worst but it was fine. It was the USPS.

I dont worry too much about it these days- its really out of my control. Its just hassle going through the process of replacing them.

As far as the Ultimas, I just had 2 come in this week free of any damage..Fedex. I was really surprised, because It was packed pretty poorly; for my standards.

Just got to cross your fingers when it comes to importing rods from over seas.

[JerryC]

I have a rod coming in today from Japan.. well see how this goes but my last 2 orders came extremely packed and in great condition..

[mundo]

Update:

I got an email from Buyee saying that the claim should proceed and I can be reimbursed, I am awaiting to learn how and when this might happen.

[JerryC]

Good news! My rod arrives yesterday in a cardboard tube.... no damage, rod arrived in perfect shape!

[jmb27]

They charged you $300+ plus dollars to ship and didn't even put the rods in a proper tube!? Being able to source these rods and have them shipped in proper shipping tubes is the whole point of using Buyee. I ordered a Jackson Super Trickster STC-63UL off Amazon and thing arrived all beat to hell and broken in multiple segments and am now looking to acquire the rod through Buyee just so I can tell them to put it in a real damn shipping tube.

I can't believe that box. Did they even contact you to offer to upgrade to a better shipping tube? I thought that's how it works.

1 Rod arrives at Buyee warehouse in crappy japan box

2 Rod gets placed in a proper shipping tube as advised by Buyee for additional cost

3 Rod arrives in the US in one piece

4 Buyee rakes in mad cash for their ability to insert an object into a tube

That was my experience. I paid $174 (!!!) for shipping. Thankfully, I got a killer deal on the rod (an older, new MB that I've wanted for a while), so even with shipping it turned out to be ok.

Buyee's "service" fees seem reasonable, but the shipping cost leads me to believe that they are making $ there as well.

Now, I know that I am going to get hosed on the shipping for a rod, so I only bid on unicorns.

Sorry for the OP's experience, that is brutal.

[LowRange]

Crap I won a bid on a XMTF JPN for I saw this thread and now I have to pay for it. My CC thought the transaction was fraud and killed the card. I thought I was safe and able to back out of using Buyee but I got an email saying that the rod was at the warehouse. Buyee already payed the auction seller and wants my money. Long story short stay away from Buyee if you're after rods:

They can not/will not combine shipping on rods

They no longer offer Protective Packaging to fishing rods meaning that whatever crappy japan tube the rod arrived in at the warehouse is what's coming to your door

It's expensive


I just payed like $500 shipped to my door for XMTF JPN.

[LowRange]

A bit of an Update: Buyee and rods are definitely a no go in my book. My Megabass XMTF JPN arrived today from Buyee and was in a filmy triangular Megabass box wrapped in bubble wrap. The box was broken in two and taped back together but rod managed to survive. It was as if their idea of protective packaging was to wrap whatever box the rod arrived in at their warehouse in bubble wrap and send it out the door.

Interestingly the rod arrived at my door in middle America a scant 3 days after paying Buyee. Payed Buyee on Monday Sep 19 and the rod arrived Thursday Sep 22. This is an impossibly quick delivery time. Lol, did they ship the rod before I payed for it? I don't understand.

[Tokugawa]

A bit of an Update: Buyee and rods are definitely a no go in my book. My Megabass XMTF JPN arrived today from Buyee and was in a filmy triangular Megabass box wrapped in bubble wrap. The box was broken in two and taped back together but rod managed to survive. It was as if their idea of protective packaging was to wrap whatever box the rod arrived in at their warehouse in bubble wrap and send it out the door.

Interestingly the rod arrived at my door in middle America a scant 3 days after paying Buyee. Payed Buyee on Monday Sep 19 and the rod arrived Thursday Sep 22. This is an impossibly quick delivery time. Lol, did they ship the rod before I payed for it? I don't understand.

Stuff from Japan arrives in about three days for me too. Bass Pro takes a week.

Remember, when it is flying east it arrives here before it left Japan due to the date and time change.

[Dark3]

Im confused. Why are you guys doing this type of service rather than having the OG seller ship in a rod tube using ems/usps??

[LowRange]

Im confused. Why are you guys doing this type of service rather than having the OG seller ship in a rod tube using ems/usps??

The OG seller may not ship internationally, speak English, have rod tubes ect. Buyee is a 3rd party import service that allows you to purchase hard to source items from Japan. Used or discontinued JDM rods are nearly impossible to buy from the normal Japanese proshops making Buyee an attractive option but the safety of the rod is questionable at best. It seems like they no longer offer protective packaging and will send rods out in whatever box they happen to be in.