Help desk and word list

What this site can help with, how to reach us, and a plain-language word list covering agent orders, inspection photos, freight and payment disputes.

Help desk: the reach of the Lifeboat editors, and its limits

If something goes wrong with an agent order, most of the help you need is on the stage pages and in the outage kit builder. This desk is for the rest.

We can correct a page, add a missing case to the kit builder, or explain where a fact on this site came from.
We cannot see any agent account, contact an agent for you, judge what you are owed, or recommend an outcome for a dispute.

To get in touch, write to [email protected] with the page address. We read every message; we do not ask for order numbers, payment details or documents, and you should not send them. Anyone claiming to act for this site who asks for those is not us.

Quick routes: place an order in its stage, questions readers send, the Pandagoo record, recent changes.

Signpost card: stage pages, kit builder, questions, Pandagoo record and the correction address, each with what it answers — Where each kind of question is answered on this site.

Word list for agent orders and outages

This glossary defines the vocabulary of agent sites, community threads and this site in plain words, for someone meeting it for the first time.

Shopping agent: A service that buys from Chinese marketplaces through its own local account, holds the goods at its warehouse and later posts them abroad. Pandagoo was one.
Forwarder: A service that only ships: the purchase is yours, made directly with the seller, who posts it to the forwarder's warehouse.
Spreadsheet (in this hobby): A product catalogue site: listings sorted into categories so you can browse goods and open each one. This site is one.
Offer ID: The long number in a 1688 product address. It identifies the listing on 1688 itself, independent of any agent.
Item ID: The equivalent number for Taobao (after id= in the link) and Weidian (itemID). Keep it with your order notes.
QC photos: Pictures taken by the agent's warehouse when an item arrives. Proof of arrival, identity, condition and count.
GL and RL: Community shorthand for a verdict on QC photos: GL to keep the item, RL to send it back or swap it. Not agent terms.
First payment: Pandagoo's name for paying for the goods. Covers the item, the seller's domestic shipping and the handling fee.
Second payment: Pandagoo's name for paying international freight once a parcel is quoted.
System quote and manual quote: Two ways Pandagoo priced a parcel: pay an estimate first and settle later, or pay after staff weighed the packed box.
Rehearsal package: A paid trial packing that shows a parcel's size and weight before you commit to shipping it.
Declared value: The value written on the parcel for customs. Pandagoo's form accepted 1 to 120.
Volumetric weight: A billing figure calculated from a parcel's dimensions. The carrier compares it with the scale reading and charges the larger.
Top-up and balance: Money paid into an agent account in advance. Refunds usually land there too.
Seller Sent: An archived Pandagoo status: the seller has handed the goods to a courier bound for the warehouse.
Domestic tracking number: The courier number for the seller-to-warehouse trip inside China.
International logistics number: Pandagoo's label for the tracking number of a parcel leaving China. The one to keep.
Dispute: A request to your payment provider about a payment. Each provider sets its own process and time limits.
Chargeback: The card network process by which an issuer can reverse a card payment. Whether it applies is the issuer's decision, not ours.
Cloudflare 522: An error page meaning the Cloudflare front door answered but the server behind it did not.
Minimum order: On 1688, the number of pieces the first price step requires. Some listings start at 2 or more.
Jin: A Chinese weight unit of 500 grams, common in size charts that give a body weight range.

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