Help desk: where to ask, the words you will meet, and short answers
Three things in one place: the right contact for each kind of question, the vocabulary of the readings, and quick answers about charges.
Where to get help with a Tigbuy order
Questions about an order, a payment or a parcel go to Tigbuy. Its Contact page offers live chat through a Contact Now button, listed as available from 9am to 6pm; the page does not say in which time zone. The same page gives the email address [email protected].
Announcements and events go out on Tigbuy’s official Discord server, which its own footer links to. For written rules, start from its help centre.
Questions about this site, or a reading you think is wrong, come to us at [email protected]. We answer about the readings and the dial; your Tigbuy account is out of our reach, so order questions belong with Tigbuy.
Glossary of terms used on this site and on Tigbuy
The words below appear on these pages, on Tigbuy’s site or in the catalogue. Where a term is ours, the entry says so.
- QC
- Short for quality check. At Tigbuy it means a general look at the item against its listing, plus weighing; photos may come with it.
- GL and RL
- Green light and red light, the shorthand buyers use after reading QC photos: GL means ship it, RL means ask for a return or exchange.
- Charge base
- Item price plus China freight. Tigbuy’s service charge is ten percent of it.
- Price side
- The service charge on a find. It grows with the charge base and ignores the weight.
- Weight side
- The line freight on a find. It grows with the grams and ignores the price.
- First step
- What a line charges for anything up to its first weight, 200 g on every line we sampled.
- Step
- Each further 200 g, or part of it, after the first step. One UK SW line uses 199 g.
- Price per gram
- Charge base divided by weight, in yuan per gram. The figure every reading starts from.
- Crossover
- The price per gram at which a line’s two sides are level on the per-gram reading: step price divided by twenty. Our arithmetic, not a Tigbuy figure.
- Ship-alone reading
- The weight side counted as if the find were the only item in the parcel, first step included.
- Per-gram reading
- The weight side counted as the step price spread evenly over the find’s grams.
- Line family
- Lines that share a name pattern in Tigbuy’s estimator: SW standard, YT-OU-DHL-PY, YT global postal and SDH-US-USPS.
- China freight
- Delivery charge from the seller to Tigbuy’s warehouse. Often zero; part of the charge base.
- Delivery request
- Submitting warehouse items for shipping: you choose a line and options, and pay freight plus the service charge.
- Fill & Buy
- Tigbuy’s manual order form for links its search cannot read. You enter the price and China freight yourself.
- CNY, yuan, RMB
- Three names for the Chinese currency. Every price here is in yuan unless marked in dollars.
- Chinese characters in line names
- Some SW line names include characters such as 标快 or 带电. Tigbuy’s English pages do not explain them, so we show the names as written and draw no conclusions from them.
Answers to frequently asked charge questions
Short answers, each one tied to the readings on this site. Open a question to see its answer.
Does Tigbuy charge a fixed amount per parcel?
Not in the quotes we read. On 17 October 2026 all 196 quote lines, across sixteen destinations and four weights, had zero in every fixed-charge field. Optional extras such as packing and insurance are priced when you submit a parcel.
Is the crossover a figure Tigbuy publishes?
No. It is our arithmetic on Tigbuy’s quote fields: the step price divided by twenty. Tigbuy publishes the ten percent rate and returns the step prices; the crossover follows from those two.
Why can a light, expensive find still show freight in front?
Because the ship-alone reading charges the whole first step. On the US line that step is ¥65, so a find up to 200 g needs a charge base above ¥650 before its service charge is larger. The per-gram reading shows what the find adds once something else has paid the first step.
Does the exchange rate change which side leads?
No. Tigbuy converts both sides with the same table rate, so both bars shrink or grow together. The rate changes what you pay in your own money, not the ratio between the two charges.
Can I see Tigbuy quotes without an account?
Not on the estimator page: on 17 October 2026 it sent signed-out visitors to the login page. Our readings came from the quote service behind it. The dial carries those readings for sixteen destinations.
Why does the dial not give a total?
A total would need the extras you choose at submission and the payment fee for your method, none of which the dial can know. It compares a standard-rate service-charge example with weight-based freight under the selected dated assumptions.
Does a membership tier change the reading?
Lower membership rates make the price side smaller, which moves every crossover up and shifts finds towards the weight side. The dial uses the standard ten percent throughout.
Which weight should I type into the dial?
The listing weight for a first look, then the warehouse weight once Tigbuy has weighed the item. Freight is billed on the warehouse figure.
Does box size matter?
On some SW lines, yes: they bill by box size when the box is large. The dial and the crossovers use actual weight only, so a bulky, light find can cost more on those lines than the dial shows.
How often are the readings re-checked?
The line readings are dated 17 October 2026 and due for a re-read by 31 October 2026. Changes are recorded on Updates.
