Pending

Pending is the order status that means the panel has accepted your order and taken the charge from your balance, but delivery has not started yet.

An order goes pending the moment you place it, and the cost is deducted at that point, not when delivery begins. During this stage the panel forwards the order through its API to a provider, which may be another panel that forwards it again, and the order waits in each queue until it reaches the supplier that actually delivers it.

Pending covers several different situations that look identical from your side. The order may simply be queued behind others. It may have failed to forward, for example because the reseller's own balance at its provider ran out or the upstream service was switched off. Or the supplier may be holding it because the link is private or in the wrong format. The status does not tell you which, so an order that has sat pending well past the start time in the service description is worth a support ticket rather than more patience.

Pending is usually the easiest stage at which to cancel, because nothing has been delivered. It is also the stage where duplicate orders happen: a buyer who assumes a pending order is lost and places the same order on another panel can end up with both delivering, and paying for both.

What it does not mean

Pending does not mean the supplier has received the order, and it does not mean your money is merely on hold. The balance has already been charged. It comes back only if the order is later cancelled or marked partial, and that happens only when the status actually changes.