HooBuy Spreadsheet: Reading the One-Star Reviews Before You Order

What do HooBuy's reviews really show?

A 3.8 average hides a split. Almost two-thirds of reviewers give five stars, and nearly a third give one. Few give anything in between. That pattern usually means most orders go fine and the ones that don't go badly, with little recovery in the middle.

Source: Trustpilot, read September 2026; reply rate from KakoGuide's June 2026 review.

For comparison, AliExpress has 29% one-star reviews across 188,401 — a similar share of unhappy customers, on a vastly bigger base. The difference is what happens next: AliExpress has a formal dispute process with fixed windows; at an agent, what you can do is mostly limited to the QC stage and your payment provider.

What goes wrong in the one-star reviews?

Reading the one-star reviews, the complaints fall into three groups, none of which is unique to HooBuy but all of which you can plan around:

• Shipping costs above the estimate. The quote was lower than the bill once the parcel was packed. Ask for the packed weight and dimensions before paying, and compare with the calculator.
• Slow or absent support. Tickets unanswered for days. Put every request in writing, with the order number, so the thread is usable later.
• Items lost to the storage clock. After 90 days HooBuy treats items as abandoned. Set a reminder at day 60, and ship on time even if the haul feels incomplete. A light parcel shipped on time costs less than a full one that expires.

Verdict: Most HooBuy one-star reviews describe problems you can prevent with a quote check, written tickets and a storage reminder.

The 8% clause in HooBuy's terms

HooBuy's marketing says there are no hidden fees. KakoGuide read the user agreement and found a clause reserving the right to charge 8% of the purchase price and 8% of the shipping cost. We haven't seen reports of it being applied across the board, and many checkouts show no service fee at all. But a right in the terms is a right HooBuy can use.

The fix is simple: screenshot the fee breakdown every time you pay. If a charge appears that wasn't there before, you have the evidence to ask about it — and a reason to move your next order elsewhere.

Sources: AliExpress Buyer Protection page; KakoGuide HooBuy review (June 2026).

Making the most of six free photos

Six HD photos per item, with more at ¥1 each, is more than most agents give and far more than an AliExpress listing ever shows of your specific item. For trainers and fitted clothing that is HooBuy's real strength: you can check stitching, sole colour and a tape-measure width before paying for international shipping.

Use them. Ask for the angle you care about — toe box, logo placement, inside label — in the order remark, and request an exchange while the item is still in China if something's off. That's the moment an agent is better than AliExpress; after the parcel leaves, it isn't. Photos taken on a plain background under warehouse lighting also show colour more honestly than most seller pictures, which are often edited.

Keeping a HooBuy sheet portable

HooBuy links in shared spreadsheets usually look like hoobuy.com/product/… with a platform code and the marketplace item number inside. That item number is the part worth keeping: it's the same on Weidian or Taobao whichever agent you use. Run the column through the link converter once and your sheet stops depending on HooBuy.

If you decide HooBuy isn't for you after reading the reviews, the rows move in minutes. If you decide to stay, keep the converted column anyway. Agents change fees, lose Trustpilot scores and occasionally close; a sheet of original links survives all three, and it also makes it easy to price the same basket at two agents before you commit. HooBuy searches also throw up several misspellings of the name, so bookmark the real address rather than searching for it each time.