ZenMarket

​I am writing this to warn the community about my current experience with ZenMarket.
​I purchased two used items from Mercari: a vintage pen ($58) and a pearl necklace ($27). ZenMarket allowed the purchase and took their fees, but now they are blocking all affordable shipping methods (Small Packet, Air Mail).
​They are forcing me to use DHL, which is more expensive than the items. Most importantly:
​They refused to ship via standard mail at my own risk.
​They refused to ship to a domestic Japanese address.
​It feels like my property is being held hostage. I have many screenshots of my correspondence with their support but they just repeat internal rules.

Package was returned to their warehouse, through no fault of my own. They required I pay a fee to 'repackage' it, and when I asked if they could just ship it on the same package with a new label, they insisted the packaging was damaged. So then I asked - can I have my current stored items packed and bundle it all together, to save shipping? Might as well, since they're repacking the other box anyway, right? Nope. Not only did they tell me I have fo pay to have my returned box 'repacked', I also can't pack new things with it. It's because they weren't going to repackage the returned box, they were just going to charge me for it. This place nickel and dimes you with hidden fees. AND they charge 200 yen more per item than Buyee. Not worth it. In the end, I refused to pay the repackaging fee. My box was thrown out.

I strongly caution anyone considering using ZenMarket. My experience started normally — I placed two separate orders, fully paid for both, and raised a legitimate concern about one item that was clearly counterfeit, supported by extensive photo evidence and identical listing reuse from another seller. Instead of working constructively to resolve the problem, ZenMarket held my unrelated, undisputed order hostage to pressure me into abandoning my PayPal dispute. When I stood my ground and refused to double-pay or back down from protecting myself against a scam, ZenMarket retaliated by canceling my fully paid, unrelated order (which was not in dispute) and threatened to block my account entirely after resolving the case I filed — punishing me simply for asserting my basic consumer rights. Their behavior has been grossly unprofessional, retaliatory, unethical, and in violation of basic good faith principles. ZenMarket wants to act like a "neutral middleman" when it suits them, but then punishes customers by seizing unrelated packages if a dispute is opened — even when the item is objectively counterfeit. They made it impossible to proceed cooperatively, choosing instead to retaliate against a paying customer. If you value your money, your rights, and your peace of mind, avoid ZenMarket at all costs. There are better, more honest proxy services available.

The price shown on the website is not final, you have to calculate the shipping cost using their misleading shipping cost table and end up paying almost double the item's value (50€ item and 80€+ shipping). Also, since they don't mark book orders as books or editorial mail, you might have to pay an extra fee to retrieve it from customs. (Extra 25€-60€ where I'm from, books aren't held in customs).
After you've made your purchase they will hold your order hostage until you've payed all their absurd and miscalculated fees and deny you a refund if you don't agree with their request.

I buy some card I paid first the product then a shipment or whatever was. Since the beginning was weird then I need to make another procedure to make the delivery was slow and impossible to afford unfortunally after 75 day they start to charge me to keep the product so silly I don't ask money to them to keep the money alredy give so then I need to cancel my item and find out my account is -1800 I know but is the true I get the money to pat 5000 ¥ the product but bad luck I don't imagine the shipment is 5499£ this is a scum 100% I don't have any problem with other site I pay that's it here they make complicated and alredy ready to steal you money at any occasion shame! Ask minimun words like I come here because I'm fake isn't true story no paid review this is only be honest

I ordered Smooth Body Butter from them on January 14th, 2024. The package came and the tube of cream was damaged IN transit and the cream was ALL OVER the inside of the package. It was a mess, and half of the tube was emptied out in the package. I immediately wrote an email with pictures to them, asking for a replacement tube to be sent to me. I paid $29.99 plus shipping.
I have never heard back from them, and have sent NUMEROUS EMAILS to them asking for a response, but have not heard ANYTHING from them.
Do NOT order from these people!

I don't normally go out of my way to write a bad review, however, my experience with Zen has been very poor and i am deeply unsatisfied by the lack of help and support regarding an issue over my Trading cards going missing. The agents don't listen and often copy & paste the same response, its so poor. They have also ignored my request for my case to be escalated to management and each agent contradict each other.

On the 10th January, my parcel stopped tracking. I gave it several days then contacting Zen, explaining the above. There agent told me to contact UK Royal Mail and report it (which i did), and that Zen would also contact JapanPost in another couple of weeks, as they have to wait a bit longer.

I waited, heard nothing so reached out to them as it had now been 4 weeks, after i complained i was told by an agent called MIA they would now contact JapanPost and start an investigation to try and track down my missing parcel.

Mia "We appreciate that you have taken action to launch a claim with Royal Mail.
We have forwarded the issue to our team and we have contacted Japan Post to launch an investigation."

So yesterday after another 3 weeks since Mia replied, I've had no update, no contact from Zenmarket whatsoever, so i reached out to them AGAIN asking for an update, if they had heard anything from JapanPost etc and that I'm not happy my the lack of support and i would like my situation to be escalated to management.

An agent called ASMA replied, basically ignored everything i asked, ignored my requests and it was clear she didn't properly read my message.

Asma reply:

"Unfortunately, ZenMarket is unable to expedite the process nor inquire the status of your parcel from our side.

We ask that you contact your local post office Royal Mail directly regarding the whereabouts of your parcel. (I've told them i already done this)

If it has not reached your destination after 60 days since the day of shipment, please contact us again and we will initiate an investigation for compensation."

This is completely different to what Mia said 3 weeks earlier, i had already told MIA 3 weeks ago i had contacted royal mail, where was the investigation?
Zen agent Asma didn't even check to see what Mia the previous agent had said, which was they were apparently doing an investigation (JapanPost) 3 weeks earlier.
Asma, just copied and pasted from 6 weeks ago.
This level of support is horrendous, i will be taking this further and spreading the word about these cowboys.

Boring, mundane, disgraceful people to work with. Expect jank professionality and a lame experience overall. Want an operator to resolve your problems with Zen-Anything? Good luck

Zenmarket packed item and when received was damaged and only offered part compensation for their mistake dont use Zenmarket use Buyee instead.

Ordered rom ZenMarket before and I expected this time to be the same as last time. However, the money I transferred out of my bank account but wasn't placed on my ZenMarket account. I contacted costumer support since it's been longer than a week without receiving anything. They said they couldn't do anything about the issue and they didn't have any sight on when (or if) the issue would be resolved.

I understand that issues can happen from time to time, but the money has been taken and they refuse to take any responsibility for the mistake. Honestly I just want my money back.

If you have been scammed Zenmarket will do nothing to help you. No refunds, no help, just automatic generic responses. They do care about you paying fees.

I'm going to start off and say this is my first time using a service like this. The first problem is time. They take their time with this. My package was in packing for almost 2 weeks. Sure, that's understandable, I'm not the only customer. Also, one of my items is pretty big. But then, I get the shipping cost after they have packed my items. The shipping price is more expensive than the items themselves. The reason I even used this service is because buying the items already in the U.S. would be way more expensive! At this point, I might aswell just buy those instead of buying it through Zenmarket. 6,600 Yen for shipping items worth 4,830 Yen in total? This outrageous. I see a lot of people talking about how it's good for Yahoo! Auctions and whatnot, and while I can't speak for those, I can certainly speak for Amazon items. This is a terrible service. Unfortunately, I will simply have to take this loss and pay up. I learned from my mistake. Lots of people recommend Buyee, so I guess go there instead of this awful website. 2/10. Only put 2/10 instead of 0/10 because item prices are pretty low.

I am from Peru, South America and love Japanese culture and music so much. Unfortunately, there are no stores in Peru that sell the stuff I like. It's so hard to buy directly from Amazon Japan! Or Yahoo! Shopping Japan but ZenMarket was my salvation: They can order their stuff on my behalf from so many Japanese online shops with a very little service commission fee of around 3 dollars per item and all the items go to their warehouse in Japan and they can ship them to me. There are several shipping methods to choose from. Lately, I've used the surface method (by ship) which takes longer but it's very cheap if you buy a lot of stuff. The packages always come without any problem and their customer service is the best. They all speak in English and reply very fast. I highly recommend it.

My experience was pleasent and quick. I ordered plushies from a store that doesnt ship to the UK. They were packaged securely and they came quick. Very pleased with my order and will use again.

I used ZenMarket for the first time to order trading card and other products from Japanese sites such as Mercari and Yahoo Japan Auctions, and the process was very smooth and transparent. Adding funds to my account was simple, and any questions directed to customer service were answered promptly (within 1 business day). The packaging was also stellar! Packing the parcel takes a few days, which I wasn't expecting, but after receiving the package, I can understand why it takes a while. Shipping with the Zen Express option was also good. I received my parcel within 2 weeks since the shipment date. Overall, a great experience, and I'll continue to buy with ZenMarket!

I've saved so much on shipping using ZenMarket as my proxy. It's so simple and fun to add funds and browse all the shops. I really love it.

I bought an artbook and figures that I wanted for a long time, everything went smoothly, they arrived in less than a month and without any problems!

I've had a positive experience with this company. I've skimmed through the reviews here and honestly don't really understand where most of them are coming from. Some of the more egregious ones seemed to have happened around during peak COVID or so, but I've never had anything outright terrible happen after using them since 2021.

Now there are mentions of high shipping fees, and all I can say about that is these people probably have never had to deal with international shipping. Various shipping companies have different ways to assign prices to there packages. Some highly emphasis weight, while others care more about the size of the package itself.

Also there has to be a mention for how this is a PROXY service, and not a FORWARDing service. Look up the differences.

The only major fault that I have is that the exchange rates for converting money into yen sometimes isn't that accurate for the money you put in. Even including the deposit fee, you still end up having to pay a bit more money than what you might expect.

Always remember that people more than likely won't bother reviewing if they got a great or good service from a company, but will always jump to complain when they feel slighted of their money.

Been using ZenMarket for over four years now. Very easy to use! I love their credit system! Customer service is great! Shipping has been amazing! Haven't had any issues with any of my items!