LolitaFashion.org Forums

Crescent

Yahoo! Japan: Bidding on items on Y!J is very easy. First you add a deposit using their easy to use paypal form. Deposits are $50 each and each will allow you to bid on 25,000yen of stuff (combined or single). Then you find your auction(s) and simply click "order" from up top. You can bid in real time so there is no worry about getting outbid. You cannot bid on other sites such as Mbok though.

Online Stores: This process is slightly more confusing at first. You have to go to the shopping BBS (in your account, it is green). There you put what item(s) you would like, be sure to include the main page of the shop. Then you will receive a response. If you asked any questions, they will answer them before placing your order. If you want your item right away, just say that you would like to place your order right away. They will respond and add the item to your shopping list (unless it is sold out).

Fees: Fees are about the same as Celga. They can be pretty expensive, make sure you can afford them before buying anything.

Payment: Payment is really easy with Crescent as they accept paypal and use paypal's forms. One thing that is easy to miss is when you win an auction. Be sure to check your auction list often, once you win auctions you will need to pay for them. You have to wait for Crescent to manually turn on the payment form. When it's on, there will be a box in the "pay" column in your auction list. Select the box(es) and click pay beneath. The system will then guide you through.
When you are finished buying things, you can get your deposit back by clicking the "Refund" button at the top of your auction list. You cannot get a refund when there are pending auctions in your list, you must wait for them to finish first.

Shipping: Items that you ordered/won and paid for will immediately appear on the 'pending shipping' section. Here you select the item(s) you want shipped. Generally it's a good idea to ship a bunch of items together to save on shipping costs. You can hold items here for quite a while (up to two months I think) so there is no need to ship them immediately.
Be aware that crescent will not mark down your customs form, so you should be aware of the extra cost. If you believe you will be charged customs, try to keep the total of your shipment down.

Customer Service: Customer service is generally good. There are times when the response is slow (due to them being busy) but they will always answer.

Overall: Crescent is really easy to use and it is my shopping service of choice these days. The fees are almost the same as Celga, but everything is much easier to deal with.