Kakobuy Spreadsheet Seller CheckQC photos, buyer photos and what the inspection skips
Quality control at an agent warehouse means one thing: staff photograph and look over what arrived before it sits in storage. The official inspection rules are narrow and specific. The check covers appearance, model, style and size. Packaging gets opened for garments, bags, suitcases and shoes; anything in a sealed pack or carrying sealing strips stays closed and is judged from the outside. For household appliances, digital products and other electronics, the inspection explicitly excludes authenticity, function and quality.
The check itself is free, listed in the help centre alongside free consolidation. What it is not is a guarantee. It catches the wrong colour, the wrong size label, the visibly damaged box. It cannot catch a speaker that will not pair, a fragrance that smells off inside its shrink-wrap, or a jacket whose zip fails on the third pull.
That boundary is why round three matters so much for seller choice. Whatever the inspection cannot see, the listing evidence has to cover before you pay.
Where photos live
How to check QC photos when they arrive
The photos appear under My Warehouse once the order status reads stocked in. Reading them well is a short routine, and doing it the same day matters because the seller's return window is already running.
- Match the variant first. Colour, size tag, model code on the label. Check each relevant photo; one angle may miss a mismatch.
- Compare against the saved listing and relevant buyer photos. Check that their variants and dates match. Neither set replaces inspection of your own item.
- Look at the seams the camera caught, logo placement, print alignment, stitching density at stress points.
- Check the count on multi-piece orders, remembering that wholesale orders are counted by box and not by piece.
- Decide inside the window. The October 10 help snapshot lists personalised photos at two yuan each with a stated 24-hour processing target, and a free parcel-photo option at submission. Confirm the current service and allow time before the return deadline.
Before payment
Reading buyer photos as evidence
Because the inspection stops at appearance, the pre-order evidence carries the rest of the load. Relevant buyer photos can add context, but reviews may be incentivised or recycled and do not inspect the unit you will receive. Three habits get the most out of them.
Read for the hidden dimension. If the item is a fragrance set, nobody inspects the liquid; look for buyer comments on scent and leakage. If it is electronics, nobody tests function; look for buyers mentioning pairing, battery and charging. The question is always what the warehouse will not open, and whether buyers say anything about it.
Match variants. A glowing photo of the black version tells you little about the cream one if the shop sources them separately. Pair the review photo with the variant name printed beside it.
Weigh recency. Shops change suppliers. Recent matching photos may be more relevant than older ones, but neither proves your order comes from the same batch. Compare several reports and ask about unresolved differences.
Limits worth knowing
What QC cannot settle, and how the choice changes
The help centre even spells out the edge cases. The dated article excludes inspection and after-sales for gifts not recorded in the order remarks. It separately excludes gift quality from after-sales, so noting a gift does not turn it into a quality guarantee. The pattern is consistent: the warehouse checks what you paid for, at the surface, and nothing more.
Some categories make the inspection boundary decisive. Sealed goods may only be assessed from their exterior; electronics are not function-tested under the stated inspection scope. An acceptable exterior photo does not establish that the contents work, and a later discovery abroad may fall outside the applicable seller-remedy window. For those categories the seller choice should lean harder on buyer evidence and on the after-sales posture in round four, because there will be no meaningful second look in China.
Gifts deserve a sentence too. The help centre has a separate article on giveaways bundled by sellers, and the practical reading is simple: free extras are not what you paid for, so do not let a promised bonus tip a close call between two shops.
Finally, the inspection is not an authenticity service, and the operator says so in plain words. Under the platform's anti-counterfeiting policy, the buyer carries responsibility for buying authentic goods. A shop whose listing raises that question does not get rescued by a clean QC photo; it fails round three on its own page.
Put it into practice
Review the actual order in sequence
Compare model and colour, inspect visible damage, check requested measurements and retain labels or packaging needed for a return. Ask for a relevant extra angle if the existing photos do not answer a specific question. Act while the item is still eligible.
Eight-step ordering guide →The convincing photo belongs to another variant
Keep three records separate: the seller’s gallery, a buyer’s review and the warehouse set associated with your own order. If the useful review shows a different size, material or model revision, it is background context rather than proof of the version you selected. Ask the seller for the missing specification before payment instead of carrying that certainty into the next round.
After arrival, use the saved specification to formulate one answerable request: show the model label, measure a named seam or photograph the unclear area. If the required property is function, composition or authenticity, a clearer appearance photo still cannot establish it. Decide using the inspection limits and the actual remedy available from that seller.