There’s only 2 things I know about Temu: their ads pop up after virtually every game I play on my phone; and their name has entered the lexicon as synonymous with “cheap knock-off” (and it can be applied to humans, which I think is hilarious.)
Does anyone have any actual experience with them? What’s it like?
Yes.
The website is difficult. They keep changing the screen to entice you to play their foolish crap for non-existent discounts.
I read the small print, you’ll get the lowest price offered whether you do the crap or not.
If you order anything you’ll have to block them. They are relentless.
I looked at cherry socks. I got 75 come ons with different cherry socks before I threw 'em out.
If you need to return an item they will do it easily. Well not easily, but they will refund you. Usually without having to return the cheapo item.
Shein is even more fun.
Their crap is a cheap knock-off of a cheap knock-off.
Note: 1. There are now substantial tariffs on Chinese stuff. 2. Shipping charges have massively increased for them (changes by treaties, regulations by the U.S. Postal Service). So they are now substantially more expensive than a few years ago.
Crap is pervasive in the world, much of it under more expensive well-known brand labels.
I’ve never gotten tariffs on Temu or Shein.
They are eating the costs because their shipping is cheap enough. Of course free is better.
OTOH, if you have a Dollar Tree near you can get most of the same junk there if you don’t mind digging thru the stuff there.
I buy many things from them. Mostly clothes & shoes. IME over 2+ years of experience. …
They are a reliable online retailer and have a very liberal return & refund policy for the inevitable glitches, wrong sizes, etc. Many items are shipped from warehouses in the USA and you get them in a few days. Other things come from China and you get them in more like 8-10 days. Nothing is overnight. Shipping is generally free = included in the price but see below for more.
IMO much of their cheapness comes from eliminating middemen. If you buy a shirt at the mall for $50, it cost the US retailer $25 who bought it from a US middleman who had paid $12 for it from a Chinese factory. From Temu you get the same shirt with different labels right from the factory for $13: $12 to the factory and $1 to temu.
For non-clothing products most of the stuff is distinctly low-end. But I’ve bought serviceable tools about the same as Harbor Freight for less than HF’s price, cellphone cases for $5 as good as the ones the mall kiosk charges $30 for, fully functional simple electronics, etc.
Downsides: They have a $20 minimum order for stuff coming from Temu itself. Like amazon, they sell under their own name and you also see other branded “stores” in there. Those stores mostly charge $2.99 shipping per order and waive that for orders over $20 or $30. Their site will always disclose the shipping before you’re committed to buy. Unlike amazon I have never seen a low price offset by exhorbitant shipping.
Within the US they tend to use no-name courier companies, not UPS or FedEx. SpeedX, GoFo, and SprintX are three I see around here. Delivery can be spotty if there’s anything difficult about your address or location. A misdelivered package is essentially lost with no recourse. The courier stonewalls and Temu says that’s all on the courier, not them. The good news is they offer comprehensive email tracking of your package from their factory to your doorstep. And they automatically credit you $5 credit if any order takes a few days longer than they originally predicted.
I find the app useless & the source of lots of promo notification spam, fake wheel of fortune expiring coupons and crap like that. The website is much more customer friendly; it lacks almost all that crap.
Product search is real hit or miss. I think they game the results; just because you find this particular product today, the same search an hour later may not return that product again. I suspect that’s about making you feel you gotta buy it when you see it since you may not see it again. OTOH, just like amazon, any product you can display you can save in your “wishlist” so you can find it later.
Overall, I find Amazon has more enshittification, but is better for mainstream US branded consumer products or anything where quick delivery matters. But for stuff that’s plenty good enough and really really cheap for what you get, Temu is honest & honestly great.
it seems to me that Temu is the crappier cousin of aliexpress . com …
Like so often in those e-comm spaces: do your own research before …
but in my experience:
The trick is stay out of the 70% zone …
Also I live in a 2nd world country, where many of those (seemingly) million products are just not to be had (of if they are sold, they are the very same from AXpress, stuff like 4.4mm symmetrical plug and cable for a Sennheiser HD6xx headphone - so pretty specific things) …
In short: those chineses websites are a god-sent for me and I use them quite a lot, mostly to avoid going to home-depot and pay 2-3 times the price for the identical product.
Just avoid their apps (not just theirs, but all apps) - and use the website and your life will be way easier …
The desk I’m at now. It’s fine really.
When we bought our new house I was working from home. so I needed a new desk at the new house. I didn’t know anything about Temu.
The desk arrives and had 18 different little bags of little screws and nuts and bolts. My drill (screw gun) was 100 miles away at our old house still. Well, now I have two 1/2 inch hammer drills, so it worked out fine in the end.
The desk from Temu is fine for my purposes, but I probably should have just built one.
A commercial real estate broker/friend told me yesterday that a 500,000sf Temu warehouse burned down recently. Losses were expected to climb to as high as a thousand dollars.
I heard it was in the tens of dollars.
IME it’s more hits than misses, but I’m extra wary of clothing.
For the everyday knick-knacks, it’s pretty good; often the same stuff that’s on ebay / amazon etc, just cheaper.
One borderline rant on the clothing thing: I wish wish wish someone would tell Chinese manufacturers that you can’t put the actual words “fashion” or “sport” (or related stuff like “casual”) on clothing. Frustrating when there’s an otherwise decent quality item but they’ve sewed something on to tell the world it’s actually cheapo.
That present has since turned up on Amazon and elsewhere.
Got to carefully read the product descriptions. If it’s not clear, pass on by.
Everyone has a friend who ordered a chest of drawers and it’s doll house sized.
Clothes. If you’re a hard fit you’ll have problems. Chinese clothes are pretty small. I ordered some long pj pants. They are capris, on me.
And fabrics can be iffy at times. Look closely and read the reviews(which I don’t really trust much).
Eh, I’ve bought a few things. A hoodie I’m very fond of: purple with a peace sign. They call disposable, but I’ve had it for 4? years now and it hasn’t faded, frayed or any other issues. I’ve also bought a few tshirts there. Yeah the silly wheel of fortune thing with “you got the best prize” is annoying, but once I spot the exit button all is well. My only issue is sometimes the shipping takes a lllloonnnng time.
… that - and more importantly: read the feedback from previous buyers (the longer and more verbose, the better) … also the fotos there often give me a way better feeling for size, materials, textures and quality of the product.
This seems to be key to improve the “hit-rate” by a huge margin.
Since you asked…nope. And never will.
NO!
NO ! NO ! No ! NO!
There are NO REFUNDS!
I have an old dispute with them. The failed to deliver a jacket to my Brother.
There was NEVER a refund.
Only a store credit from a firm I will never do business with again.
DO NOT SHOP AT TEMU!
As I noted, if it gets shipped and the courier drops it somewhere that’s not your house, you’re screwed. Ditto if it gets stolen off your porch. IME Amazon has exactly the same policy: not our problem; take it up with the courier. Who will tell you to pound sand. If you can ever get a human on the line. Temu’s package tracking is significantly more detailed than is Amazon’s while the package is in transit.
I have returned dozens of Temu items I bought and received. Full refund, no return shipping cost. Wrap it up, take it to a FedEx, UPS, or USPS outlet as the case may be, show the clerk the return QR code, and it’s gone. Even items where I clearly told them “I bought the item by mistake; it’s fine, I goofed.” For low value items they’ll often say “Here’s your full refund; keep the item anyway. Not worth it for us to pay to ship it back & process it.”
Sometimes they’ll say things like “The item was $15. If you want we can give you a $3.75 refund instantly and you don’t need to return it. If you want more refund, you have to return it and still may not get a full one; the vendor needs to inspect it’s condition first. And that won’t be until after they get the item back.” This seems to be almost entirely from stuff coming from some other retailer, not Temu proper. In that case I say “I want the full refund. I’ll return it and wait.” So they give me a no-cost shipping label, I return it (they’ve always gone to a stateside address), and I get a full refund a week later.
I’ve also had several refunds initiated by them when an ordered and paid-for item hasn’t left the seller after whatever the stated timeline is. Which they disclose before you push “[Buy].” Typically 2 weeks worst case.
And no, refunds are not store credit: they go right back on my credit card.
So you’d recommend them as a good vendor?
I pronounced them “not blessed”.