Global Rakuten Reviews 117

I needed a few small products for my shaver, so I decided to sign up for Rakuten Global Express. The sign-up process was unusual, because I had to upload proof of address and an actual ID to get verified as I’m based in NZ.
So, I placed an order from Rakuten Ichiba. Immediately after placing the order and making the payment, my account was locked. Rakuten then asked me to fill out a form in Japanese to check my account. In the meantime, my order was canceled.
Two days later, they sent me a follow-up email apologizing for the security measures and asking me to place an order again. I did, and guess what? The exact same thing happened again. I won’t be ordering through this chaotic platform again. Thanks God for Chinese platforms.

I am incredibly disappointed with my first experience using Rakuten Global Express. Their service is built on a foundation of misleading information that traps customers into paying unexpectedly high fees.

Here's my experience:

Misleading Calculator: Before purchasing items on Rakuten Ichiba, I used the official Rakuten Global Express shipping calculator to estimate costs. It quoted a reasonable price for Economy Air shipping to Australia.

Purchase Based on Estimate: Based on this quote, I purchased nearly 40,000 yen worth of goods and had them sent to my RGX warehouse address.

The Bait-and-Switch: Once my items arrived and I went to arrange shipping, the final cost was more than double the initial estimate. The affordable "Economy Air" option had vanished, and the only choice was a far more expensive Express service. On top of this, they added a significant GST charge that was conveniently excluded from the original "estimate."

When I contacted customer service, they were completely unhelpful. They acknowledged that Economy Air isn't available for food items—a critical detail their calculator failed to mention. They then hid behind disclaimers and policy links, basically admitting their calculator shows options that may not be available and excludes mandatory taxes.

This isn't a simple mistake; it's a deceptive business practice. The tool gives you a lowball estimate to encourage you to buy. Once your items are in their warehouse, you are cornered into paying their inflated final price, because returning items to the original sellers is an expensive and complicated process.

Customer service has refused any responsibility and offered no solution, just robotic replies pointing to fine print.

Avoid Rakuten Global Express. Their system is designed to mislead you. You will be lured in by a low estimate and then hit with huge, non-negotiable fees once it's too late.

Wish I had read these views before purchasing I can honestly say I would never go through them again far too expensive and additional costs. Will probably go back to using buyer as at least they give slower cheaper delivery options. I would give these minus stars if I could. Looked up what it would cost to ship via ems myself, and it’s way cheaper, so they’re clearly up pricing their delivery.

Very expensive. Hidden fees such as GST 10% on not only the goods value itself but also on the shipping fees. They say they will collect on behalf of Aus Gov, but who knows if they really pay to Aus Gov.
Tenso Japan, Goyokikiya, and Baggage forward are much cheaper. Don't use their service. They regularly provide 15%off coupon but still more expensive than others.
I wasted money on them. Telling the truth would help to cheer me up.

Wow, never think about this. But there's RUDE Japanese. I think all the RUDE Japanese is working in Global Rakuten, maybe they think they are above average Japanese just because they know English? Or maybe they are just using ChatGPT? Or maybe they are just racist? Listen, if you want to earn foreigners' money to help with your country economy WHICH never recover for more than 30 years now (going to 35 years next month), you don't need to be rude with us. I ask you politely, I can sense your rudeness from your email. Just answer my questions and it's done, isn't it not? And, oh God... Rakuten24 is suck. Nothing in there. It's barren. What do you want to sell to us? Your ancestor's spirit that had been die for ages? I'd rather go to Japan to directly buy from the shop than to be abused again by you like what happened during the WW2!

Have been using Rakuten Global Express since a little before pre-covid a good 5 years or so. My experience is overall good, and their service is pretty much straight forward. Their customer service is very fast to respond (email) within 24hrs. I've had numerous back and forth emails usually to clear up unshippable items. (The trick is to know what your own country can/cannot ship, let them know, and they will explain the details as to why some things are not shippable. Most time just documents, or just misunderstanding) I have had no 'weird charges' like some other people have claimed. The shipping and packing are pretty good, they allow you to keep the item boxes or have the option of stripping them to just include the items. You do have to keep in mind that this isn't a low tier cheap shipping service. It is worth your money if you want to order specialty items from japan that you cant get on the western sites.

My experience with Rakuten Global Express has been disappointing. Their customer service is unhelpful and unprofessional, often responding rudely when customers seek clarification. They once mocked me and my friends for not understanding their lengthy replies.

Additionally, claiming a refund for defective or fake products is nearly impossible, leaving customers stuck with bad purchases. Many items also cannot be shipped internationally without clear explanations.

The excessive identity verification process, requiring multiple documents and unnecessary exposure of personal information, is intrusive and frustrating. Overall, the service fails to meet basic expectations for reliability and respect for customers.

Would not recommend.

Service is good when it is good, but really bad when it is bad. I have being purchasing over $1000 almost on monthly basis. This shipping coupon always worked well and service is good.
However I decided to never use Rakuten shipping again. Last month when I requested shipping I received an email from their CS advise they are unable to pack all my items in one package (will save a lot on shipping) As I know I had some large items I replied OK and requested to separate to 2 boxes. And guess what I got, I GOT 4 BOXES, each with individual shipping fee, tax and packing fee...this is all done without any prior communication. So I requested to put everything back into "Arrived" status so if I have to pay for 4 boxes, I at least should pick which ones I prefer to ship out first. Also some items just arrived a few weeks ago I can even wait for next month's shipping coupon. And guess what I got, a solid NO. NO negotiation no consideration and this is the kind of service I got after 6 years with Rakuten, 50+ shipment. Just beware, you will pay a lot, like a lot more shipping when you not super careful with Rakuten Global Express.

I was sold a fake bag on Rakuten from seller Otakaraya Otakaraya.

I have bought many bags from Rakuten over the years and never had an issue until I got all my bags authenticated and one came back as counterfeit from Rakuten store Otakaraya Otakaraya. I put my complete trust in Rakuten as I thought they had very strict counterfeit laws but never again! I have lost over $6k!!!

I will never trust Rakuten again!!! The bag was so good it was a 1:1 copy and trust me I have a very sharp eye for fakes! It fooled me so badly! My lesson learnt is to have each bag authenticated as soon as I receive them.

Never again!!!

(english below)

Même (et surtout) si le prix vous semble très alléchant, vérifiez le vendeur, vérifiez tous les commentaires. Cette plate-forme héberge des vendeurs qui vous trompent sur la marchandise. Par exemple, des smartphones soit-disant "neufs" mais qui, après vérification technique, sont en fait soit de qualité inférieure/reconditionnés, soit dysfonctionnent, souvent les deux. Ne vous laissez pas berner par une jolie boite qui semble officielle et neuve. La pluspart des gens ne réalisent pas cela et finissent avec un mauvais produit qui finit très vite pas tomber en panne ou être inutilisable - ou pire, contenir des malwares et autres logiciels espion. Ne participez pas à cela. En droit français, cela s'appelle du dol, et c'est illégal. Rakuten, par contre, semble sciemment fermer les yeux sur ces pratiques.

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Please, even if you saw a nice price, check the vendor twice, check all the comments. Why: this platform hosts vendors that will mislead you on the product they sell. E.g selling smartphones as "new" but when checking the phone is and/or of lower quality/refurbished. And EVEN IF the box you receive looks brand new, and 100% legit. Most of the people don't see that and are happy a few week/month with a low quality / malfuntioning product (and that might as well contain malware). Do not contribute to this bad business. Those people are crooks, and Rakuten looks the other way.

Honestly I am extremely surprised by the vast majority of negative reviews on Global Rakuten/Global Rakuten Express.

Ever since the Global Rakuren Market closed its doors the only way to purchase goods from the Japanese Market was either finding the individual sellers on ebay, use a platform like buyee, or alternatively sign up for Rakuten Global Express (RGX).

I have to say, it is one journey to sign up for this service, as it will require you to send in two official documents stating your name and address, but even living with my parents and not paying any official bills, I still managed to find at least two documents.. I mean come on.. and in any case you could just use your parents credentials for purchases.

After that the process is rather easy. You receive and address, enter it for your purchases, and shop away. I don‘t buy small, cheap, items to avoid unnecessary high shipping fees in relation to the purchase price, so the 6500-10000 JPY never shocked me, but they are rather fair considering the items have to be insured as well, AND RGX needs to earn money too offering this service.

Global Rakuten Japan is great for shopping luxury items at good prices, not for buying things like snacks or cupholders.

So far i‘ve never had an issue and let me tell you, the packages to Europe arrived FAST. And that using EMS express, not DHL or Fedex (who are ridiculously more expensive by the way)

I guess I‘m one of the lucky few who hasn‘t had a horrible experience. Though I find it a bit unfair to give any service a 1 star review that delivered your item with „delay“. If anything that is EMS fault, and not Rakutens.

I do agree the customer service is robotic and, jesus, so difficult to navigate and solve issues with.

I‘d hope that Rakuten would invest in a department with english speaking staff to help costumers 1 to 1. But eh- I managed using the translation tool so far.

Registering an account requires you to provide two documents issued by the government of your country, which is ridiculously annoying, preventing pretty much all people who live with their family from being able to use their service. For instance, my government do not state my address on our ID and passport, and I do not pay for my flat's water/electricity bills, how on earth could I use their service then? Wonder if all Japanese own an apartment themselves in their early 20s? Or is this system only made for them because the Japanese have 2 government-issued documents with address excluding their flat bills?

Easy to Use but Fails at Shipping

Rakuten Global Express is a forwarding service, it helps send packages of purchases made in Japan by providing a mailing address in Japan. The tracking and consolidation service works fine and was pretty smooth.

The good stuff ends there. Despite paying a premium for express shipping under EMS, the packages were delayed for more than a week and lost in transit. The primary service is delivery, thus a late delivery despite charging a premium is enough to think twice about using this service again.

my refer balance cashback is missing. I already had $ 210.00 and I still had a balance to enter and suddenly the balance was cleared and is counting again. I need to know where my balance is, which I obtained with great effort through my referral link.

Remembering that I am already accumulating another $ 60.00 that must be added to the balance that is missing.

I look forward to a return.

I am affiliated with Rakuten's cash back program.
They recently blocked my access to my account.
Upon contacting me by email, they informed me that there were violation in accounts related to mine.
It doesn't make sense, I'm a rakuten promoter, I've been promoting the program since the beginning of the year.
Many people registered on the site through me, there are so many that I cannot control their actions.
The fact is that I didn’t commit any violations and I’m upset that they took my access after so long as a promoter and I’m still part of their partner program.

While the shopping online and communication has been efficient, I had a very bad experience in using their global express promotion campaign. The rules are complex, it costed me 5 days to deliver the goods to their warehouse (I already used a next day delivered courier but there are so many internal processes). Customer support replied quickly but all robotic, uninformative, disclaimer statements did not help much. In particular, their "mind your own business" tone is really disgusting. Don't ever use this again!

Hi, I was happy with Rakuten, but after receiving it once, I made other purchases and other indications and I couldn't get in to my account anymore, because an error appears "Oops. There was a problem. Please try again."

My account is unvailable and they didn't tell why. I justo lost all my cash.

DO NOT USE Rakuten Global Express. They do not do things other package forwarding companies do. Their consolidate service is just throw boxes into a bigger box. They told me they do not open individual packages to make the shipment smaller and cheaper.
Also, you don't know the cost until last minutes and REALLY EXPENSIVE as they do not make any effort to make the shipment smaller. AVOID AVOID AVOID from a long time Rakuten customer. Use Amazon.co.jp if Amazon carries things you want. I bought about the same amount (or more) items and Amazon shipping cost was JPY2000 (DHL duty prepaid JPJY800) as opposed to RAKUTEN JPY6100.

Not efficient and responsive. Most their products are shipped from China but they do not say it upfront. Every time I purchased an item it was broke, took too long to receive, or difficult to trace... looks like any cowboy seller can sell through Rakuten. They reimbursed the cost of the faulty products, but everytime I lost 25€ in postage costs... They do not refund you that. Moreover, don't buy from China, I haven't had many good experiences. Support your local Businesses instead. May pay a little more, but receive a much better service!