Part four · the record
The vocabulary of an agent order
Nineteen terms, defined as Tomebuy uses them rather than as a dictionary would. Where the official pages are inconsistent, the entry says so.
Terms explained, A to W
Most confusion on a first order is vocabulary rather than process. Two words cause more of it than the rest put together: stored, which starts every deadline you have, and chargeable weight, which decides the freight price whatever the scale says.
Agent
A firm you hire to do the buying inside China, take delivery, look the goods over and send them on to you. Tomebuy is one of these.
Arrival check
The inspection done when goods reach the warehouse: model, style, size, colour and obvious damage. Not a function test and not an authenticity judgement.
Balance
Money held in your account. Freight adjustments after packing are taken from it, and refunds are paid into it rather than back to a card.
Chargeable weight
The larger of the scale weight and the volume weight. The figure freight is actually priced on.
Combining
Putting several stored items into one outbound parcel to pay one first-weight charge instead of several. Also called consolidation.
Declaration
The value and description given to customs. Tomebuy offers a personalised or a system declaration at the point of submitting a parcel.
Domestic shipping
The seller's delivery from their warehouse to the agent's warehouse inside China. Paid with the goods, not with international freight.
Forwarding
Sending goods you bought yourself to the agent's warehouse for onward shipping. Freight and packing only, with no purchase for the agent to make.
Free storage
The period goods sit on the shelf at no charge. Tomebuy prints three different lengths for this; see the errata.
Hand-filled order
An order typed in by hand for a marketplace the system cannot read automatically. Tomebuy labels this a DIY order.
IOSS
The European import scheme for low-value consignments. Tomebuy says it has registered a number and plans routes around each carrier's requirements.
Minimum order
The smallest quantity a wholesale seller will sell. Common on 1688 and a frequent surprise on a first order.
Parcel charge
About RMB 8 per outbound parcel. Called a customs declaration cost on one official page and a packaging or packing fee on two others.
QC photos
The photographs taken at the arrival check. Three to five come free with an order according to most official pages; more can be bought.
Restricted goods
Items that can be posted but only on some routes: batteries, liquids, powders, magnets, aerosols and oversized pieces.
Shortfall
An extra payment requested when the seller's price rises between your order and the purchase, or when the packed parcel weighs more than the shelved goods.
Stored
The order status meaning the goods are checked, weighed and on a shelf. Every deadline on this site counts from this day.
Volume weight
What the box costs in space rather than mass: the three sides in centimetres, multiplied, over a divisor the carrier picks between 5,000 and 8,000.
Waybill
The outbound shipping instruction you submit to send stored goods abroad. Submitting it is what turns shelved goods into a parcel.
Three sets of initials no inspection can settle
Three sets of initials turn up constantly in buyer conversations and almost never on official pages, which makes them hard to look up.
QC is quality control: the arrival check and the photographs that come with it. It is the one piece of jargon Tomebuy itself uses, as in the free QC pictures promised on its home page.
GL stands for a green label and RL for a red label, terms from the packaging of certain goods that buyers use as shorthand for different production runs. Neither appears in any Tomebuy policy, and neither is something a warehouse appearance check can confirm or deny.
Batch is used by buyers to mean a particular production run of an item. Tomebuy never uses the word, and no appearance check can establish which run something came from, so treat it as seller vocabulary rather than anything verifiable.
The practical point for anyone ordering: initials like these describe things the inspection does not assess. If a distinction matters to you, it has to be settled on the seller's listing before you order, not from a photograph afterwards.
The full index of this editionWhat the inspection does assessQuestions in plain language