When the goods arrive wrong
Two clocks run, and they start at different moments. Which one you are on decides what you can still ask for, and the QC images decide the rest.
Everything on this page is quoted from PonyBuy own published rules, with a link to each page and the date it was re-read. How this site works
A damaged arrival is a separate procedure with its own deadline
Most people discover this page at the worst possible time, which is why it is worth twenty minutes now. Damage found when the parcel reaches you is not handled by the return and exchange rules at all. It has its own article, its own conditions and its own clock.
The conditions are on the right hand side of the screenshot below, and they are worth reading before you open anything. A claim has to meet all of them, and some are about how you handled the parcel rather than about what was wrong with it. A box opened carelessly can fail a test that the contents would have passed.
The practical rule: photograph the outer carton before you cut it, photograph the opened carton before you lift anything out, and only then look at the goods. Two minutes of photographs are the difference between a claim and an opinion.
What a return or an exchange costs in service fees
PonyBuy charges for returns on a sliding scale that counts how many you have already made in the same calendar month. The first operation each month is free for users who are not Prime members, and the scale only starts to bite from the second.
| Return or exchange operations this calendar month | Return service fee | Exchange service fee |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 1 time | CNY 0 per time | CNY 0 per time |
| 2 to 5 times | CNY 5 | CNY 10 |
| 6 to 9 times | CNY 10 | CNY 20 |
| Over 10 times | CNY 20 | CNY 40 |
Two things to know about this table. First, PonyBuy states that the fee applies only when three conditions are all met: the product has no quality issue, it is already stocked in the warehouse, and you have used up the free operations for the month. Second, PonyBuy publishes a second and different rule elsewhere: an older page gives a flat service fee on top of the shipping legs rather than a tiered one. The tiered table above carries a stated start date of September 04, 2024, so it is the later of the two, but the older page is still live. Amounts are in Chinese Yuan because that is the only currency PonyBuy publishes; this site does not convert them.
Seventy two hours, and a different photograph for each kind of damage
The window for a damage claim is short and PonyBuy states it plainly: 72 hours from arrival. That is three days from a parcel landing on a doorstep, which in practice means the claim has to be started before the weekend if it lands on a Friday.
The left half of the screenshot is the more useful one, and almost nobody reads it in advance. It is the list of claims PonyBuy refuses. Knowing what is refused before you write is worth more than any amount of persuasion afterwards, because a refused category does not become accepted by being argued well.
The right half is the photograph it wants in each kind of case. Crushed carton, wet damage, missing contents and a broken item are not interchangeable claims, and each has a shot that settles it. Take all of them while the parcel is still as it arrived.
The order to work through a bad arrival
Nothing here is complicated, but two of the steps stop being possible once you have done the next one, so the sequence is the whole point.
Photograph before you unpack
Outer carton sealed, outer carton open, contents in place. These three shots cost nothing and can be taken in under a minute, and no claim can be rebuilt from memory after the box is in the bin.
Work out which clock you are on
Damage in transit runs on the 72 hour window from arrival. A return or exchange runs on the five days from stock-in, which is a different moment entirely and usually weeks earlier.
Read the refusal list before you write anything
If the claim you are about to make is on the list PonyBuy refuses, a better sentence will not rescue it. Knowing that early saves the fee and the days.
Match the photograph to the kind of damage
PonyBuy publishes which shot it wants for which problem. Sending the wrong one restarts the exchange rather than advancing it.
File through the order, not through chat
Open the order, use the aftersales route, attach the photographs. The same screen shows the free operations you have left this month, which tells you whether a fee is coming.
For a counterfeit claim, take the other route
That one does not go through the ordinary return form. It goes to customer service or to the after-sales email address, with a specific evidence bundle described two sections below.
The fork that decides a late refund
If there is one paragraph on this site worth memorising, it is this pair. It is the clause that gives a QC photograph its real weight, and that weight is not the one most people assume.
A QC image is not only evidence. It is also a moment at which a right changes hands. Before the images are provided, a late refund request is honoured no matter what the seller thinks. After they are provided, the seller may refuse. The photographs, in other words, mark the point where the burden moves to you.
That reframes the whole of a reps order. The days when you have photographs and the parcel is still in the warehouse are not a waiting room. They are the only part of the process where you hold both the evidence and the decision.
The figure shows the other page on which PonyBuy publishes the same guarantee definition, word for word. Two pages, one definition, and a service fee rule that differs between them.
If the buyer requests a refund more than 5 days after the order was placed, and QC images have already been provided, the seller reserves the right to deny the refund request. In this scenario, no refund will be issued.
If the buyer requests a refund more than 5 days after the order was placed, and QC images have not yet been provided, a full refund will be issued regardless of whether the seller agrees to accept the return.
Quoted from PonyBuy's help centre, Return and Exchange Rules, re-read 2026-09-22.
If you believe it is counterfeit, the route is different again
The Return and Exchange Rules open with the ordinary procedure and close with something else entirely: what to do when you think the goods are counterfeit or shoddy. It does not run through the return form. PonyBuy asks you to contact customer service or write to its after-sales address, and to bring a specific bundle with you.
That bundle is the order for the purchased goods, the payment vouchers, a description of the goods, and evidence supporting the claim that they are fake or shoddy. Three of those four are already in your account. The fourth is the one you have to build, and it is where the detailed photographs you paid for earn their money.
One clause deserves a flag before you start. PonyBuy states that if authentication by a professional appraisal organisation is required, the appraisal costs are borne by you. A counterfeit claim is therefore a decision with a price attached, and it is worth knowing that price exists before the argument starts rather than in the middle of it.
Eligible, and not eligible
Before any of the procedure matters, an order has to qualify. PonyBuy sets three conditions and every one of them has to hold. The right hand column is the list of things that end the matter on their own.
All three must be true
- The seller offers guaranteed returns on that product. Not every seller does, and whether they do is visible before you pay.
- The goods are in a re-salable condition as required by the seller, which for some categories means a manufacturer seal still intact.
- They have been stocked in the warehouse for no more than five days.
Any one of these ends it
- The five days have run out. What remains possible then is decided by the fork above, not by this list.
- The category is on the excluded list: made to order, second hand, food, adult products, close fitting basics, bulk books, anything sourced outside the Chinese mainland.
- A Special Standard applies to the category and the seal has been broken.
- Tags were removed at your own request.
- The seller marked the product as not returnable.
- For products sold with free shipping you still owe the return leg; without it you owe both legs. That does not end eligibility, but it changes the arithmetic enough to change the decision.
Four questions from people in the middle of it
Short answers. Each one links back to the section above that carries the published wording.
- How long do I have if the parcel arrives damaged?
PonyBuy publishes a 72 hour window for raising a damage claim after arrival, separate from the five day return window that opens at stock-in.
- Does a return cost me anything?
Possibly. PonyBuy charges a tiered service fee based on how many returns or exchanges you have already made in the same calendar month, and the first one each month is free for users who are not Prime members.
- I asked for a refund after five days. Can I still get one?
It depends entirely on whether the QC images had already been provided. If they had, the seller can deny the request. If they had not, PonyBuy states a full refund is issued regardless of whether the seller agrees.
- I think it is counterfeit. Who do I talk to?
A different route from an ordinary return. PonyBuy asks for the order, the payment vouchers, a description of the goods and evidence of the counterfeit claim, sent to customer service or its after-sales email address.