The status line is the only thing that knows where your item is
There is no tracking on the Chinese leg that you can see. There is a word, and the word is precise if you know what it was written to mean.
PonyBuy publishes the status vocabulary in one article. This page takes it apart and puts the waiting times next to it, including two places where the operator contradicts itself.
In this guide
- The statuses before anything has been bought
- The statuses that mean something needs you
- Which statuses are waiting on you
- How long each stretch usually takes
- The three waits that are not progress
- Two places where the published figures disagree
- An older article that still quotes different numbers
- Four questions about a status that has not moved
The statuses before anything has been bought
The first half of the vocabulary covers the stretch between generating an order and the item reaching a shelf, and the distinctions are sharper than they look.
Payment Pending means the order exists and nothing else. Process Pending means you paid and a human has not looked yet. Order Processing means the order has been assigned to a named purchaser who is preparing to place it with the seller. Purchased means the money has gone to the seller and nothing has physically moved. Shipping Local means the seller has actually posted it, to the warehouse rather than to you.
Then the warehouse half begins. Received means it arrived and is waiting for inspection. Stock Arrival means it has been inspected and weighed and is waiting to be put away. Stored means it is on a shelf and can leave whenever you decide, for as long as the free storage window lasts. The whole list is published in one place and is worth skimming once before the first order rather than three times during it.
The statuses that mean something needs you
The second half is the interesting one, because most of these are not progress. They are a stop with a reason attached.
Balance Payment Required means the real cost came out above what you paid. Invalid Order is PonyBuy refusing the order, and it lists why: the submitted price and the product name do not match, the listing has no pictures or description, or the item is virtual or prohibited. Order Canceled covers your own cancellation, a customs restriction, and anything else, with the refund going to your PonyBuy account rather than back to your card.
Then the return family. Returned means the seller agreed and the item went back and you are waiting on the seller to refund. Refunded closes that loop. Exchange means a swap was negotiated. Split Shipping is the one nobody expects: the seller decided to send parts of your order by different couriers, and the purchaser has to verify it with them. Expired means the storage window ran out or you gave the item up, and PonyBuy disposes of it after notifying you.
Which statuses are waiting on you
Five of them block. Everything else moves on its own, and the difference is worth knowing on a Friday evening.
| Status | What it is waiting for | What happens if you leave it |
|---|---|---|
| Payment Pending | Your first payment | The order lapses and has to be rebuilt at whatever the seller asks then |
| Balance Payment Required | A top up, usually the Chinese delivery | Nothing moves. The item stays where it is |
| Pending Confirmation | An answer typed on the order page | The purchaser cannot proceed, and no reminder chases you forever |
| Stored | Your decision to ship, and a route | The free storage window runs, then the status turns to Expired |
| International Shipping Payment Pending | Payment for the outbound leg | The parcel is packed but not handed to a carrier |
Everything not in this table moves without you. Watching it hourly changes nothing except your evening.
How long each stretch usually takes
PonyBuy publishes times for every leg inside China. They are its own estimates rather than guarantees, and one of them is published twice in two incompatible forms, which the next section takes up.
Getting your order looked at
PonyBuy ties this to the clock in Beijing: orders submitted during the working day are handled within hours, and orders submitted overnight are handled by early afternoon the next day. Orders it cannot settle with the seller fall outside that.
The seller dispatching
It quotes a window of a few days for Taobao and 1688 sellers, longer for made to order and pre-order items. Where a platform runs its own logistics it quotes same day or next day, and longer again for the third party merchants on that platform.
Crossing China to the warehouse
Fastest from the Pearl River Delta, a few working days from the Yangtze River Delta, and about a week from remote provinces.
Inspection
About one working day in general, after which the status turns to Stock Arrival and then Stored.
The three waits that are not progress
Three separate articles cover the stretches where an order looks stuck, and they are the ones worth reading before you open a ticket.
Seller dispatch is the first. PonyBuy distinguishes between platforms that run their own logistics, which it says move within a day, and third party merchants on the same platforms, which it gives several days. Made to order and pre-order items sit outside both.
Pending Confirmation is the second, and it is the only status that can hold an order forever. PonyBuy says part of the information about your item needs verifying again, that the instructions appear on the order page, and that you reply there. Nobody is waiting on the seller during this. They are waiting on you.
The third is the balance. PonyBuy says an order already paid for can need a top up because the seller changed the price, and that the balance mainly relates to the Chinese domestic delivery. It appears as Balance Payment Required, with the instructions on the order page.
Two places where the published figures disagree
This is not a complaint, and neither version is being called wrong here. It is the sort of thing worth knowing before you plan around a number that turns out to exist in two versions. Both articles were live on the review date in the footer, and you can open either from the links below the table.
| The question | One article says | The other says |
|---|---|---|
| Where is the warehouse | Guangzhou, in Guangdong, on the domestic delivery article | Xiamen, in Fujian, on the order processing article |
| When does the working day open | Nine in the morning Beijing time, on the purchasing instructions | Eight in the morning Beijing time, on the processing article |
| How long to the warehouse from the Pearl River Delta | A working day or two | A working day or two, the same on both |
| How long from remote provinces | About a week | About a week, the same on both |
The regional figures match word for word, which suggests one page was edited and the other was not. Check them yourself on the processing article and the domestic delivery article.
An older article that still quotes different numbers
One article in the help centre has not been retired and predates the current shipping pages. It answers the delivery time question in two parts, supplier to warehouse and China to destination, and both ranges are much wider than anything the current pages quote. It then works through an example in which adding an item to an order restarts the clock from the day of the addition rather than the day of the original order, and states that the added items have to be purchased again.
The restart rule is the part worth carrying away, because nothing in the current pages contradicts it and it is easy to trip over. If you add to an open order, assume the processing clock restarts.
The delivery ranges in that article, on the other hand, sit next to a page that quotes a dispatch window of days and regional delivery in working days. They cannot both be current. Treat the older figures as history, read the article itself to see the wording, and plan on the current pages.
Four questions about a status that has not moved
If the status has not changed for longer than any of these explain, the order enquiry channel on the order itself is the one that reaches a person. The questions page has the rest.
My order says Purchased and has not moved in three days. Is that normal?
Yes. Purchased means the money left PonyBuy and the seller has been told, not that anything is in a van. PonyBuy says Chinese sellers generally dispatch within a few days and that it starts chasing the ones who have not by the fourth day. The status moves to Shipping Local when the seller posts it.
What is Pending Confirmation asking me for?
Something specific about your item that the purchaser could not settle alone. PonyBuy says the instructions appear on the order page itself and that you reply there. It is a blocking status, so an order can sit in it indefinitely while you wait for an email that was never going to arrive.
Why am I being asked for more money on an order I already paid?
Usually because the seller changed the price, and PonyBuy says the balance is mostly about the Chinese domestic delivery. It shows up as Balance Payment Required, and the order does not progress until it is settled.
How long do I have to pay in the first place?
PonyBuy publishes the window on the Payment Pending status itself. Leave it past that and the order stops being yours to pay for and has to be built again, which usually means a different price from the seller.