Anyone know anything about Temu.com?

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Antonymous

Tenderfoot
Mar 18, 2012
53
4
Yorkshire
My wife just ordered from Temu. I’ve seen some very interesting “bushcrafty” things on there but the prices are so low as to be alarming!! First aid pouch with molle attachments on a tear away Velcro panel, internal compartments, even a little “morale” medic patch. Total price £5.07!!
They could barely source the materials for that price, let alone pay someone to stitch it all together.
My concern is there is some poor Chinese kid on starvation wages sewing them.
Does anyone know any background on the company? It claims to be American but everything I saw has Chinese writing.

Thoughts?
 

mrmike

Full Member
Sep 22, 2010
345
36
Hexham, Northumberland
Personally I would be surprised if you didn't get what you pay for....

Hopefully the velcro panel is the only thing that is tear-away!
e8f1c9cc92b84cc2a76be935c0dc192c.jpg


Edited to add:

May be worth using your favourite internet search to look for trustpilot reviews?
They seem to be a mixed bag.
 
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Nice65

Brilliant!
Apr 16, 2009
6,502
2,912
W.Sussex
They’re ok, just be slightly more aware when buying. Same as AliExpress really, and Temu just pip Ali on Trustpilot. I like AliExpress, but it’s taken years to learn not to just go with the lowest price, but with an official storefront site, such as the official Steeldive store or Official Convoy Store.

What they do have is very aggressive cookies and marketing, and the store is being pushed hard on social media. If you click on anything Temu it won’t be long before your ad pop-ups are all Temu stuff. They’re literally all over the internet at the moment (now here ;)) and it’s been commented the low prices are probably loss leaders to encourage future purchasing.

 

Kav

Nomad
Mar 28, 2021
452
358
70
California
Instead of fretting over a hypothetical Chinese kid
I’d be buying British or at least commonwealth. I follow the news about your people facing extreme hardship, experience it here first hand.
I bought a G K Chesterton 1st edition today, hard to find in any form from a dealer over there. She thanked me and said the sale was covering food for her kids.
 
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Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
4,550
3,480
65
Exmoor
Buy cheap, buy twice, I've learned to save some money up, and buy the best I can afford.
Instant cheap gratification, often means instant disappointment .
If it claims to be American, but has Chinese writing everywhere... that is an obvious deception. My first reaction is, what else is deceptive?
I don't shop online. If I can't get what I need either in person, or ordering by phone from a brick and mortar shop.. ...I don't buy.

I've just seen a portable washing machine for £4.04 pence from them. No way is that ever going to be a good buy. It's impossible to make one for anywhere near that price.
My suspicious hackles are on high rise!!!
 
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Nice65

Brilliant!
Apr 16, 2009
6,502
2,912
W.Sussex
Buy cheap, buy twice, I've learned to save some money up, and buy the best I can afford.
Instant cheap gratification, often means instant disappointment .
If it claims to be American, but has Chinese writing everywhere... that is an obvious deception. My first reaction is, what else is deceptive?
I don't shop online. If I can't get what I need either in person, or ordering by phone from a brick and mortar shop.. ...I don't buy.
It doesn’t claim to be American, it is an American based company owned by a Chinese company and the information is public.

Also, if I can buy a Sofirn torch direct from Sofirn at 2/3 the cost of buying it here, why wouldn’t I? It’s not always buy cheap, buy twice. The Lixada ti pots and Firemaple stoves are good examples of quality gear most of us have heard of and seen rebranded and sold here at a higher price.
 
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Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
4,550
3,480
65
Exmoor
It doesn’t claim to be American, it is an American based company owned by a Chinese company and the information is public.

Also, if I can buy a Sofirn torch direct from Sofirn at 2/3 the cost of buying it here, why wouldn’t I? It’s not always buy cheap, buy twice. The Lixada ti pots and Firemaple stoves are good examples of quality gear most of us have heard of and seen rebranded and sold here at a higher price.
There may be some things worth the money, but would you buy a portable washing machine for less than a fiver? If you can afford to take the punt, then fine, it's only a few quid, and who can't afford to loose a fiver + postage these days.?
All I'm saying is be careful, and think twice before you buy. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
The old adages often have a serious point.
I've been ripped off too many times to be taken in anymore.
 

Nice65

Brilliant!
Apr 16, 2009
6,502
2,912
W.Sussex
I wouldn’t buy anything I hadn’t researched a bit. There’s obviously a caveat emptor involved, I totally agree with you. And it’s quite easy to drop a few extra bits in the cart ‘just to see’ when shopping on these sites. That’s what they depend on, like most shops really.

The OP is asking us if we know anything of the reputation of the company. We’ve offered him some pointers to reviews as well as clarifying the legitimacy of the site. They’re in direct competition to the mighty AliExpress, so I’d fully expect the same mixed bag of experiences regarding quality, customer service etc.
 

Kav

Nomad
Mar 28, 2021
452
358
70
California
The only ‘American based’ Chinese owned products I willingly buy are
In our many Chinatowns. It’s called
American style Chinese food, increasingly hard to find with all the sechuan spicy stuff with peanuts.
Best one owned by the parents of a friend. I’m walking to the door ona date and this man steps out with to many sacks of steaming dishes. I offer to help and grab a few. It was
Mel Brooks! We get the sacks in his car. He shakes my hand. I mumble something semi coherent about loving his movies. He smiles. ‘ one more favor? Don’t tell my rabbi, some of this isn’t kosher.’ I promise on condition he asked Anne if she had a sister. He cracked up, patted my arm and was gone waving out the window.
 

Nice65

Brilliant!
Apr 16, 2009
6,502
2,912
W.Sussex
The only ‘American based’ Chinese owned products I willingly buy are
In our many Chinatowns. It’s called
American style Chinese food, increasingly hard to find with all the sechuan spicy stuff with peanuts.
Best one owned by the parents of a friend. I’m walking to the door ona date and this man steps out with to many sacks of steaming dishes. I offer to help and grab a few. It was
Mel Brooks! We get the sacks in his car. He shakes my hand. I mumble something semi coherent about loving his movies. He smiles. ‘ one more favor? Don’t tell my rabbi, some of this isn’t kosher.’ I promise on condition he asked Anne if she had a sister. He cracked up, patted my arm and was gone waving out the window.
Brilliant. A reminder to watch The Producers again soon, proper Sunday afternoon viewing. :)
 
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TeeDee

Full Member
Nov 6, 2008
10,499
3,702
50
Exeter
So kicking this thread off again - Who has purchased from Temu and what was the experience like ?

Obviously you are not going to get Sirloin like quality for Hotdog price points but is the stuff complete tat or a case of 'it is what it is' ??
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,979
4,626
S. Lanarkshire
Me.
Twice.
First parcel came....and it's well wrapped, quickly delivered, etc., but the contents were someone else's order.
It's fairly easy to contact them to organise refund/return though.

Second parcel just arrived this afternoon. It's what I ordered, a mixed bag of bits and pieces, from 12th scale to perfume atomisers. Replacement rubber feet for my clothes line props to beading needles....weird ones I'd never seen before, centre split, so I punted them 65p to try.
On the whole everything is as advertised, it all works, it's all of the quality that I'd have bought in someplace like Woolworths all those years ago.....and it all cost me less than a pack of two rubber feet here.

M
 

Ozmundo

Full Member
Jan 15, 2023
375
278
47
Sussex
As a test I did just get a pair cargo shorts that keep popping up on my adverts. The ones that appear to be copies of the Helikon ones at about 20% the price.

Not badly sewn but under size even by their own chart and the zips were pretty low grade. Fabric was ripstop. I can put salvaged zips in and the shorts were cheaper than I can get material for so not a huge loss as they will get handed down.
 
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Hammock_man

Full Member
May 15, 2008
1,452
528
kent
I have used it once and been happy. My D in L uses it a lot and has been happy ( one parcel came with nothing she had ordered, someone printed the wrong label!)
 
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Disabled Preppers

Full Member
Apr 3, 2023
213
102
58
west midlands
The site as far as i can tell you from experience and having had 2 large orders already and wife just placed another the site is good , you do have to be careful go over and over then put in the name of the item ie i got a nice few knives off there but one person had them on for £30 i got it for £7 and i can tell you good quality , but i can also say she ordered some solar lights that we get in the uk for 10 for £20 she got 30 for £8 and they are the same i have even taken one apart to check and yup identical but there are some stuff on there that are rubbish just shop carefully before paying go over the order and copy and paste the item in the search bar and you may well get a better price .

The clothes quality is good to she got stuff she has been paying £25 for for £11 some saving so she got loads of new summer dresses .

We highly recommend it and this is from someone that is very wary of these type of sites , justa lady in home bargains put us on to it and told us wink wink get the item om temu for 1/4 the price of home bargains , we did a small order just £50 to make sure it was a genuine site it came all ok the second order they had to cancel one item they refunded that before sending the parcel and also gave her a £5 off voucher for next order and again she just did another £200 she got loads of stuff to , i got the 7 core paraco with the fire lighter tinder , fishing line and copper wire snare line and it is £2.68 compared to theb ay for over £9 and some places charging £20 yup they think us bushcraft/preppers are muppets with deep pockets who do not know how to shop around
1688837921495.png
 
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ONE

Full Member
Nov 21, 2019
251
116
54
N. Ireland
Buy cheap, buy twice,
Very frequently, but there are exceptions. I've quoted before on here that one of the finest "out of the box" outdoor knives I've ever owned was a sub ten pounds Tramontina bowie. Nasty plastic-y sheath admittedly, but if I still had it today I'd be able to rectify that.
 
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Disabled Preppers

Full Member
Apr 3, 2023
213
102
58
west midlands
Buy cheap, buy twice, I've learned to save some money up, and buy the best I can afford.
Instant cheap gratification, often means instant disappointment .
If it claims to be American, but has Chinese writing everywhere... that is an obvious deception. My first reaction is, what else is deceptive?
I don't shop online. If I can't get what I need either in person, or ordering by phone from a brick and mortar shop.. ...I don't buy.

I've just seen a portable washing machine for £4.04 pence from them. No way is that ever going to be a good buy. It's impossible to make one for anywhere near that price.
My suspicious hackles are on high rise!!!
Ok while for years i would have been like you buy cheap you get cheap but these days it is not so much , i have paid and i mean thousands on tools that yes will last a life time and beyond if looked after but these days i have been buying cheaper stuff and have even found the cheaper is better in some case food being one area and i can tell you i would have never ever brought cheap stuff to use in my dremel until someone sent me parts that they said try them in it and then tell me the expensive stuff is better , i did a test of wear and use on 2 identical projects and the cheaper product worked better and i now buy the burs by the thousand because they strip polish and clean far better .

Now to other products you say buy cheap buy twice when lcd screens came out i was a got to have it person only the best computer only the best screen i spent a lot of comps back in the day and i can tell you it was money thrown away , my nephew was the same thousands upon thousands on tv,s and stuff like that and it turns out they fail just as easy , most of the stuff you buy is just the same stuff in fancy wrappers and i have found that with rifle scope mounts spent lots on them and found that the cheaper ones are infact the same mount just not in the fancy plastic packet they come in plain brown box but when you are talking a savign of 50% or more you go figure and i can say all most everything we had of temu has been great and ihave just ordered a large number of their dry bags and at silly silly prices i will test them in the way i like to test fill it with water and hang it in my poly tunnel and see if it leaks put huge amounts of pressure on the seams that way and then look for leaks i will be honest if i find them rubbish but in your outdoor bag well dry socksand undies are a must .

You may change your mind if you do a small order of stuff you like and see but again it is a bit of a mine field you do have to shop round and watch what you put in the basket , i can say my wife loves it and i like you have never been a fan of cheap but i can say this stuff might be cheap but it is good quality , the dresses she just got she was paying £20 pound for on the A store you know the one she got these and they are indentical in everyway labels stitching you name it the very same dress for £4 on temu
 

Disabled Preppers

Full Member
Apr 3, 2023
213
102
58
west midlands
Are some of the very cheap household goods items actually sign ups to a subscription?
Hi undersure what you mean sign up , you join the site and you can pay many ways but we pay no fee infact they have so far given us and extra £10 because one item had to me removed from the shipping as it went out of stock and another £5 for it being slow to deliver hmm 1 day extra go figure that , and they also refunded the money for the item right away no messing like on the bay where you can wait weeks to get refunds , also if you do try it do a small order just over the free shipping price if you are not happy you have lost not to much but i can say the wife is mega enjoying it and a "Happy wife is a happy life"
 

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