Temu

November

Yes Sir, Captain Tightpants
Joined
Jan 20, 2008
Messages
13,184
Location
Australia
Sineya
I've never been brave enough to buy from it. Do any of you temu? Got any horror stories? My whole town has gone nuts for it. I'm looking for dog stuff, can the reviews be trusted?
 
I haven't used it; too many stories about stolen designs and sometimes less than wonderful materials.

I do know that some have used it and thought it fine.
 
All I know of it is funny clips on YT of people showing what they bought, and then showing what actually arrived - and it's nothing like what they ordered! Feels like it's a roll of the dice making a purchase from them?
 
DeepBlueJoy
DeepBlueJoy
Gambling means "the house always wins". Temu=gambling
I have to admit that I'd be a bit concerned getting a roll of a dice, especially when you consider that all the dice I've used have had flat sides.
 
Thinking about it, I would be hesitant getting anything for pets or children, out of quality control concerns.
I agree when it comes to toys and foodstuffs. I wouldn't take the risk.

I was just looking for a car barrier, something like this
but not for that price! To be honest I havent had much luck looking on the temu site, very weird to use.

I've never ordered from amazon either, because post is usually prohibitive even when they do post here! Maybe I should just wait for kmart to catch up haha
 
DeepBlueJoy
DeepBlueJoy
Amazon delivery outside the US can be insane. In some parts of the world Ali Express is much cheaper. Best if your country has online services, of course, but not everyone is so lucky.
Yeah, anything they could or would chew or put in their mouth I'd be concerned about, but no as much for anything else.

At least Amazon delivery here is free, in many cases, if you have Prime! And usually next day. I can even get some stuff the same day.
 
I saw their ads and decided they were a scam. Nothing i have learned makes me think different.

I will stick with amazon, walmart online and (very carefully) ali express for things i dont care about.

Ali Express.
Got great knee braces wayyy cheaper than the med supply store and better and cheaper than walmart in store, swim stuff, biking stuff, earphones, various useful stuff like watch bands, an MPad (as big as a giant IPad and all the feaures; none of the price) and other electronic stuff i want but not at full price. Some is brand name quality, maybe even unbadged actual brand name without the brand on (or the price). They mostly dont pretend to be "brand" and i think that is their strength.

You do need to read the fine print before you order.

Occasionally something doesn't arrive (or is very delayed) or you get random crap but no more often than amazon and they do refunds though i rec paying with paypal.

If you have ever tried talking to a person at amazon re an issue, you would not be upset by ali 'service'. Service is not what we pay for these days. That is why discounts i think.

If you dont mind generic but functional and longish delivery times (mostly from China), you can get a lot of cool stuff cheap. I have bought tons of fountain pens (hubby collects) most for (sometimes way) under 10 usd each, most of which write well and some of which are as good as the "famous brand". Note: The china vs us issues have affected delivery costs in the last year or so, but it is not as bad as when the row first started.
 
NotASlayer
NotASlayer
Temu definitely seem to fall on the what might charitably be called ethically dubious end of the scale (IP theft, substandard materials, poorly paid staff, etc.).
I have ordered from Temu a couple of times and generally had pretty good luck. I bought a few things for my apartment when I first moved in and most of it was pretty good quality. The items that weren't good quality, I chalked up to "you get what you pay for", you know?
 
Go with Ali Express. Parent alibaba is the chinese online costco equivalent for business bulk sales... Ali express is the outlet for retail & smaller quantities to individuals.

They sell everything that can be shipped. Eg: I got a pair of trauma scissors of professional quality for a fraction of the brand name. (used by emergency medical providers) pretty sure it is identical to brand name other than not having a brand.

Their major wing is alibaba which supplies tons of businesses with bulk stuff (some of which gets store (or occasionally company) branded after the fact.

With a few exceptions, the sellers are reliable. All the better parent companies will refund you if you are prompt in your complaints, but like amazon, you must learn to work their system. Past experience with ALL online buying, is pay attention to the ads.
Both walmart and amazon (and many big sellers have gone this route) have resellers as well as direct sales and some are skeezy. Usually, the parent conpany will make you whole but it can be a pain.

When amazon started they were a very different (much smaller) company and i was much more trusting. I have had an amazon account from almost the beginning when i used it to buy *books*, which was what they originally sold.. I used to love them. Before they turned into super corporate and terrifying RL "MomCorp" (Futurama reference)

Caveat emptor: resellers are hard to manage and a few bad ones slip thru everywhere. The difference between good places to buy and bad is does the parent company make you whole and are most sellers vetted enough that most are legit?

Around christmas there was this "company" with amazing clothes at fabulous prices. We started to realize ALL the models were AI - the men all had AI "noble face" with lovely beards and "soulful" eyes. The women looked almost elven. Too perfect. Then we started research. Then they were gone.

Apparently, they morph into a new name & business regularly after taking people's credit card info.

Some of the clothes were from real pictures stolen from legit sites (with significantly higher prices). Interestingly, they were not dirt cheap, just cheap enough to be a great deal and lull you into trust. Expensive enough to be real. Other (filler?) clothes appear to be generated from textures found online.

It was a very polished scam. Because it was *allegedly* shipping from China, it would take a while before you realized you had been robbed. Even without the cc stealing, just the sales would have made them a chunk, especially if they were not shipping products.

If Temu is at all legit, they will develop customer protections and some vendor control. I dont get the feeling this is their "business" plan as of now though. Yes, criminal enterprises do have business models. Just look at gambling entities for understanding how they are meant to work. Hint: the house always wins.
 
November
November
Yeah the card stuff worries me. I will look at Ali Express, china is closer to me anyway!
My mom has ordered. Wasn’t too shabby but I’ve heard that they’ve been scamming customers, and of course with sites like these; false advertising. I would stick to Amazon.
 
I've been really temped to purchase one of their counterfeit guitars from Temu. What YT vids I've watched say they are actually very well made and sound great.
But there are some of them who say that the main body and neck are good but it's best to upgrade the pick ups and hardware for better quality replacements. The way I see that is you might as well just buy the name brand model where you know what you are getting and you don't have to do anything except tune it and play it!🎸🎸🎸🎸🤘🤘🤘
I feel the same way about Aliexpress, being a little hesitant about ordering anything from them although my band mate has gotten some stuff from them and it's been okay!
 
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I've been really temped to purchase one of their counterfeit guitars from Temu. What YT vids I've watched say they are actually very well made and sound great.
But there are some of them who say that the main body and neck are good but it's best to upgrade the pick ups and hardware for better quality replacements. The way I see that is you might as well just buy the name brand model where you know what you are getting and you don't have to do anything except tune it and play it!🎸🎸🎸🎸🤘🤘🤘
I feel the same way about Aliexpress, being a little hesitant about ordering anything from them although my band mate has gotten some stuff from them and it's been okay!
You know, if it's a bad guitar the right thing to do would be to go full 'rock star' and smash the guitar into pieces. 😉😂
 
Moptop
Moptop
I would if it was a real cheapie but that's still a lot of quid to be throwing away in the trash!
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