The six points where an order fails

Failure modes

Six ways an order goes wrong

1. 01

   The size is wrongmost common

   Asian sizing runs small and letter sizes are not comparable across sellers. Fix it before ordering by reading the measurement table and comparing against something you own. After the item is in the warehouse this becomes an expensive problem.

2. 02

   The link is dead or the variant is gone

   Product listings get delisted, renamed and restocked constantly. Open the listing through PonyBuy and confirm your colour and size exist before making any plans around it.

3. 03

   The item cannot ship on your route

   Liquids, powders and battery items restrict which lines will carry the parcel, and some are barred outright. Check the category before paying for the item, because the restriction surfaces when you try to submit the parcel, which is after the money is spent.

4. 04

   The storage window closes

   Ninety free days sound generous until you buy in January and plan to ship in May. Goods past the window with no response are treated as abandoned and destroyed. Diary the date of your earliest stored item.

5. 05

   Customs treats it as commercial

   PonyBuy flags parcels over 10 kg, and large quantities of the same item, as relatively likely to be judged commercial. Split a heavy consolidation into two parcels rather than one oversized one.

6. 06

   The item is genuinely defective

   This is the one the process is built for. The quality check photos exist so you can catch it while the item is still in China and international shipping has not been paid.

How to actually read quality check photos

Who carries the cost when something is wrong

PonyBuy publishes an after sales table that splits responsibility between the customer, the seller and itself. The pattern behind it is easier to remember than the table.

Scroll the table sideways to see every column

Summarised from the PonyBuy after sales responsibility table, read 3 August 2026. PonyBuy's published after sales rules are the authority in any actual dispute.

The mistake that turns a hobby parcel into an import

The strongest saving on this route is consolidation, and the strongest risk sits in exactly the same place. A parcel that is too heavy or too repetitive stops looking like a personal shipment.

PonyBuy is direct about the two signals: weight over 10 kg, and an excessive quantity of the same item. Either can move a parcel into commercial treatment, which means formal clearance and a very different tax outcome.

The practical rule is to consolidate for the first weight saving, then stop before the parcel gets conspicuous. Two sensible parcels usually beat one heroic one.

What to do when an order stalls

Waiting is normal on this route. These are the points at which waiting stops being normal and you should ask.

1. Seller has not shipped to the warehouse after a week

   Use the order enquiry on that order. Domestic delivery inside China is usually fast, so a long silence generally means a stock problem the seller has not admitted.

2. Item is marked arrived but there are no photos

   Ask through the order enquiry. Inspection and photography happen together, so one without the other is worth a question.

3. Nearing 90 days from the stored status

   Submit a delivery order even if the parcel is not as full as you hoped. An incomplete parcel beats destroyed goods.

4. Tracking has not moved for two weeks after dispatch

   Check whether the route had an insurance option and whether you took it, then raise it with support with the parcel number ready.

5. Carrier says delivered and it is not there

   This is the one point where the agent cannot help much. It is a carrier claim, and the sooner it is raised the better it goes.

How to read the QC photos, and what they cannot show

The photographs are an appearance check, and the help centre is unusually specific about where that stops. Four things get looked at: is this the model and version you ordered, is the size on the sewn-in label the size you picked, is there obvious damage, and is it stained. Everything else is named as out of scope, including a shade that does not match your screen and a measurement that disagrees with the chart.

Electronics are handled separately. They are treated as special commodities, which means nobody opens a sealed box to confirm the accessories are in it and nobody switches the thing on. You get an arrival picture to confirm the item, and that is the whole of it.

So spend your attention where the camera was actually pointed. Count the pieces. Read the label in the photograph rather than judging the shade on your screen. Look along the seams, the sole edge and any hardware, because those are the things a still photograph settles. Then say something before you submit the parcel, not after, because one of the Tips on that page is that unverifiable problems are assumed to have been agreed with the seller.

Where to go next

• Goes to ponybuy.com

  Order it on PonyBuy

  Paste the link, pick colour and size, pay, see the quality check photos, then combine your items into one parcel when you are ready.

  Open ponybuy.com

  Partner link. Costs you nothing extra. We cannot see or change your orders.