A HooBuy row at MuleBuy: one Hold for another
In principle the same row can go through MuleBuy, because the row boils down to a marketplace item number. In practice this is a move between two agents we label Hold. HooBuy's site worked on 26 October 2026, though reviewers wrote of paid orders sitting at "Purchased" over the summer; the HooBuy status page has the dates. MuleBuy's site did not load on 26 October.
Hold means the same thing for both: pay per order, start small, and leave nothing in storage or in an account. It is not a closure notice. We call neither agent closed, and we did not find a confirmed reason for MuleBuy's errors.
A move to MuleBuy swaps one Hold for another; use it only with a cheap first order.
What MuleBuy's site did on four dates
| Date | What we saw |
|---|---|
| 6 October | Cloudflare 522 (origin unreachable) for about 45 minutes |
| 12 October | Site error recorded in our status table; type not noted |
| 18 October | "Upstream request failed" (502) twice |
| 26 October | "Upstream request failed" (502) again |
Errors on four dates across three weeks do not prove the agent has stopped. They do mean we could not read MuleBuy's own terms, so its fees and storage below come from a third party. The raid reports circulating in spreadsheet communities were unconfirmed in our 5 October notes, and we found nothing official afterwards.
Repeated errors are a reason to wait, not a ruling on the agent.
A 4.7 score that hides the newest reviews
On 5 October 2026 MuleBuy showed 4.7 on Trustpilot from 2,962 reviews, and every review dated 29 August to 11 September was one star, about stuck orders. That is reviewers' words, unverified by us. A large old base keeps the average high:
4.7 × 2,962 = 13,921 stars (rounded)
Add 100 one-star reviews: (13,921 + 100) ÷ 3,062 = 4.58
Even a hundred bad reviews would barely dent the headline. HooBuy's page shows the reverse: 3.7 from 571, with its latest reviews, dated 27 July to 15 September, all giving one star. Both pages tell you to read dates.
Judge Hold agents by their newest reviews, not their score.
MuleBuy and HooBuy on one sheet
| Term | HooBuy | MuleBuy |
|---|---|---|
| Our label | Hold | Hold |
| Service fee | Conflicting: none, or 8% in the agreement | 0% (rep.tools, unconfirmed) |
| Free storage | 90 days; paid extension | 90 days (third-party) |
| QC photos | "Usually 3"; detailed ¥1 | About 4 to 5 HD (third-party) |
| Warehouse | Xiamen | Chengdu (third-party) |
| Site on 26 Oct | Loaded | 502 error |
rep.tools earns agent affiliate commissions; its MuleBuy data was last checked on 1 July 2026. For a shipping baseline, HooBuy's estimator quoted ¥196.40 (€28.42 at ¥6.91 per €1) for 2,000 g to Germany on one DHL line on 26 October 2026, weight only. MuleBuy's prices are not in our notes.
On paper the two agents look alike; the evidence behind MuleBuy's page is older.
If you still try it, a way to limit the loss
- Rescue the marketplace address from the HooBuy link: its first digit says whether the item is on 1688, Taobao or Weidian, and the rest is the item number.
- Check the item and yuan price on the marketplace itself.
- Place one cheap order only when the site loads, and pay for that order alone.
- Screenshot the order page, and ship the parcel as soon as the item is stored.
MuleBuy's link format is not in our notes. Our link converter does the first two, and the move checklist records each step. If an order stalls, a card or PayPal payment may leave you a dispute window, so note the date.
Pay once, ship fast, keep screenshots.
Better first choices
If the aim is simply to leave HooBuy, an Open agent is the cleaner move. HooBuy alternatives compares nine, including Oopbuy and GTBuy, and the agents hub lists every page. With no agent account wanted while both are on Hold, the contact page explains sending us the row; payment stays per order. Import rules are the same wherever you buy: see HooBuy to Germany for VAT and the €3 duty. The HooBuy spreadsheet home page shows the rows.
Choose an Open agent first; treat MuleBuy as a last resort, not a rescue.
What HooBuy buyers ask
Was MuleBuy raided, and is it shut down?
We cannot confirm either. Our 5 October 2026 notes record raid reports as unconfirmed, and we found no official closure notice. What we did see is a site that failed to load: a Cloudflare 522 error for about 45 minutes on 6 October and an "upstream request failed" error on 18 and 26 October. That is why the label is Hold, not Closed.
Why is MuleBuy on Hold when its Trustpilot score is 4.7?
Because a score built from about 3,000 reviews moves slowly. In our 5 October read, every review dated 29 August to 11 September was one star and described stuck orders. The average was still 4.7, since 100 extra one-star reviews would only lower 4.7 from 2,962 reviews to about 4.58. Read the newest reviews, not the number.
Does MuleBuy charge a service fee, and how long does it store goods?
A third-party directory, rep.tools, which earns agent affiliate commissions, listed 0% and 90 days of storage on data last checked 1 July 2026, with status rechecked to 22 September. We could not read MuleBuy's own terms, because its site returned errors. Treat both figures as unconfirmed, and keep nothing stored.
Can I still use a MuleBuy link from a spreadsheet row?
Possibly, but we could not test it: the site returned an error on 26 October 2026. If a row still holds a MuleBuy link, the marketplace item behind it is the useful part. Rescue the Taobao, Weidian or 1688 address, check the price on the marketplace itself, then price the item at an Open agent.
Is MuleBuy a better move than staying on HooBuy?
Not on our evidence. Both carry our Hold label, but they hold it for different reasons: HooBuy has recent complaints about orders stuck at Purchased and an unanswered Reclame Aqui record, MuleBuy has failing pages and unconfirmed raid reports. If you must use one, pay per order with a small first order, and prefer an Open agent.