Lolobuy QC photos, read against the inspection rulebook

Every slip on this site has a "QC photos to study" line. This page is the rulebook behind those lines, taken from Lolobuy's own inspection articles.

QC, short for quality check, is the step where an agent's warehouse opens your item, compares it with your order and photographs it before storing it. Those photos are your one look at the real piece before it crosses a border, and the only point where a return is still cheap. Lolobuy's inspection is free and happens before storage; whether it catches a problem depends on knowing what it looks at.

What Lolobuy's inspection covers

Lolobuy's standard inspection article lists what is compared against your order: quantity, style, colour, size label and model. It also says the main logo on the front and back is looked at for severe flaws, along with breaks and obvious damage.

It gives sizes for what counts as a visible flaw: a round mark wider than 0.5 cm, any other mark longer than 1 cm, large stains, dye bleeding, scratches, ladders in knitwear and outer damage. Restricted items are filtered out at the same time.

Sealed products, and anything other than clothes, bags and shoes that carries a seal or sealing label, are not opened. The warehouse checks the outside and the packaging details instead. Items from 1688 follow separate rules: class A products are sampled rather than checked one by one, and class B products get no inspection unless you pay for sampling.

Two close-up inspection photos with red circles around a torn patch and a small stain on pale fabric — Flaws marked in red, from Lolobuy's help article on problems with received goods.

Six things the inspection skips

The same article closes with a list of things Lolobuy does not inspect. It is short and specific, and it explains most of the extra requests on our slips:

size error, meaning whether the garment measures what the chart says;
which phone model a phone case or screen film fits;
the strength of glasses lenses;
the lining of clothes;
the appearance of the product box;
the quality of printed letters, or letters missing.

For electronics, digital products and their accessories, authenticity, function and quality are outside the inspection. Action figures in sealed boxes or fixed in foam are checked from the outside only; figures in unsealed packaging are unpacked.

So if a slip asks you to request a measurement, a lit screen or a close look at printed letters, it is because the default check will not cover it.

Three inspection photos of boxed collectible figures photographed from the outside in their packaging — Figures inspected in their boxes, from Lolobuy's standard inspection article.

Photo counts: five, or three to six

Lolobuy's pages disagree on the number. "What is LoloBuy" promises five inspection photos per item by default and three more for each international parcel, all high resolution. The standard inspection article says three to six photos. Expect at least three, and judge the set by what it shows rather than by the count.

The same promise page says further photos are free on request. The service price list in the site configuration also includes a detail photo service at CNY 1.50 a photo, up to five. Ask support which kind your request counts as before you pay for anything.

If you skipped inspection when ordering, a secondary quality inspection can be ordered for goods already in storage. Which orders get standard photos at all is set out in the table below: ordinary shopping agent orders and 1688 class A do, 1688 class B does not.

Lolobuy table showing which order types include the standard photo service: yes for ordinary orders and 1688 class A, no for class B — Standard photo coverage by order type, from Lolobuy's Standard photo service article.

A QC checklist by item type

This QC checklist is the short form of the slips. Use it when the photos arrive: one line per item type, the shots to look for, and the slips it applies to.

QC checklist by item type, drawn from the 41 slips
Item type	What to look at or ask for	Applies to
Trainers and high-tops	Both shoes from above, the sole joint on each side, heel tabs	Slips 01 to 03
Jackets and knit zips	Zip fully open and closed, collar points, pocket corners	Slips 04 to 06
Hoodies and tees	Colour code against the remark, print edges, rib cuffs	Slips 07 to 11
Shirts and kits	Collar laid flat, crest and badges, placket pattern alignment	Slips 12 to 14
Denim	Model number against the remark, rip positions, back pocket	Slips 15 to 17
Bags	Bag standing, handle joins, clasp open, included pouch	Slips 24 to 26
Caps, belts, eyewear	Inside band and size sticker, buckle side view, lens surfaces	Slips 27 to 32
Jewellery	Stones in focus, clasp, each piece on its own	Slips 35 to 37
Perfume, watches, gadgets	Seal and cap, screen switched on, model written in the remark	Slips 33, 34, 38 to 41

Look at colour last. Warehouse lighting shifts colour, so compare the QC photo and the listing photo side by side on the same screen, and only query a colour that is clearly a different shade, not a slightly warmer one.

Close-up of a denim shirt collar with its neck label and a hang tag attached — Labels and hang tags, from Lolobuy's help article on received goods. Printed letters on labels are outside the standard check.

A fault in the photos: the clock and the refund

Return or exchange requests must be made within 5 days of the Stored date, and only for items the seller accepts back in resellable condition. Lolobuy responds within 24 hours for orders In Process, 72 hours for orders already bought from the seller, and 48 hours for items shipped, delivered, arrived or stored. Refunds go to your Lolobuy balance: within 24 hours for In Process, 72 hours for Ordered, and about 7 to 15 days, depending on the seller, once the item has shipped.

For goods already in the Chengdu warehouse, Lolobuy says it pays the warehouse handling fee for a return or exchange agreed with the seller. Second-hand items and warehouse "treasure hunt" orders cannot be returned; neither can items whose packaging you had removed, nor stock a seller sold as discounted with no returns, as on slip 04.

The table below is Lolobuy's own guide to who is responsible for which kind of defect.

Lolobuy table of common defects with example photos: stains, colour differences, discount goods and printing flaws, and how each is handled — Defect examples and handling, from Lolobuy's article on defective products.

The inspection bench, from Lolobuy's channel

Lolobuy's YouTube channel posts short clips from its warehouse. One of them follows a new inspector on the first day: items unboxed under a lamp, checked against the order, photographed on a plain background. It is half a minute long and gives a fair idea of how your photos are taken.

Two things it shows are useful when you read your own set. The photos are taken under one bright light, so colours can look cooler than in a seller's styled shots. And the inspector photographs against a plain surface, which makes stains and loose threads easier to see.

Keep that lighting in mind when a QC set arrives. If a colour looks off, ask for one more photo near a window before you call it a defect; the inspection rules treat a clearly different colour as a mismatch, but a slightly cooler shade under a lamp is not one.

The clip plays only when you press it, through YouTube's no-cookie player.

More clips, including a warehouse walk-through, are on the updates page.

Still from the video: Day 1 as a QC inspector at LoloBuy — Video: Lolobuy official channel, September 4, 2026, 0:30. A first day on the inspection bench.