So what happens if the item I buy isn't the same one that's delivered? What happens if I've paid but the Seller doesn't send the item? What kind of guarantees do I have? What kind of protection? To answer it all in one word: none. Working with a proxy service usually means your on your own in terms of risk. The proxy service is just the middle man. They don't guarantee anything because they aren't the one buying it. You are.
This is a reality with doing business with a proxy service. There are no guarantees. How could there be? The proxy can't take the risk and protect you from every Seller on the internet. The fee they receive if for the work of communication, payment, and shipping. They aren't selling an item for you. They didn't choose the item or tell you which Seller to buy from. They're just helping you with the transfer of the item from the Seller to you in your home country.
Did I just get scammed?
The odds of being scammed on Yahoo are fairly slim. I talk about that in another article here. Mostly you have to worry about items not being as described or not working properly. That's something you might be able to live with, but in the end if you had known the real condition perhaps you wouldn't have done the transaction. It just goes with the terriroty of using a proxy. Proxy companies usually check to make sure the item is compelte, but there's no testing or verification involved. You might buy an item that's described as fully working only to find out it isn't, and you're only going to find out after you've paid all of the fees, commissions, and shipping to your country.
Proxy companies will also not offer much help in terms of resolving issues with Sellers. They don't want any negative feedback on their record because it might prevent them from using the Yahoo account in the future. Yahoo has the ability to ban users who have too many negatives, and if a proxy haggles and gets a negative rating they'll be forced to close down that account and add a new one to the system. Their ability to conduct business for 100 customers is more important than your ability to get satisfaction on your one transaction.
No Knowledge of Products
Another risk is buying rare or specialty items that need care and attention. A lot of people buy collectibles and a good portion of the value can be contained in things that a proxy company wouldn't know about, for example original shipping boxes, receipts, special documents. A friend of mine bought a new Nintendo item still sealed in the original Nintendo shipping box. The Seller put a label directly on the box and mailed it to the proxy. The proxy thought it was just a regular shipping box so they opened it, took out the item, and put it in a different box for international shipping. There went half the value....
Another danger is older collectibles that might have issues with age. I have a customer who buys older dolls and it's important to have each doll sealed to protect against any bug damage. Bugs will destroy the value of a doll, and putting one doll into a shipping box with 9 others can easily infect all of the dolls in the box. Cases like this might be rare, but often times Buyers don't think about the special needs their products might have. The people receiving them and forwarding them to you have little to no knowledge about any special attention that any particular product might need.
Shipping
Other dangers involve shipping. Different countries have different maximin sizes and weights for shipping. Since automated proxies have no way of policing what you're buying, it's entirely possible that you buy an item that's too large to be shipped to your country. Or it's too large for a cheap shipping method (SEA, for example), and you end up paying a lot more for shipping than you expected. It can easily change a money saving purchase into a money losing purchase. It's also possible that you buy an item that it prohibited for import into your country.
No Claims Process
With all of the risks mentioned above, you should understand that there is no claims process. You aren't buying from Yahoo or eBay, you're sending your payment to the proxy company. You can't file a PayPal claim against the proxy since it's not an eBay transaction. Some people think using eBay is risky because you might not get what you pay for, so imagine the same problems with a proxy system except you have no way of making any kind of claim against the company.
Limited Access to Yahoo Fuctions
A regular Yahoo account user has a lot of options in terms of adding items to a watchlist, asking the Seller a question, etc. A lot of the larger companies offer to add items to a watchlist but they often limit the number of items you can watch. Most companies also do not allow you to ask questions directly to the Seller.
No Bid Retraction
Yahoo doesn't have a system for retracting your bid like eBay. The only way you can have a bid retracted is to contact the Seller directly and ask them to cancel your bid. Most proxy companies will not offer this service to you. Once you bid, the bid stays.
