There used to be mail-order places that had catalogs reminiscent of TEMU. Miles-Kimball was one. 8 to 10 weeks delivery was bull shit 
Or Lillian Vernon catalogs. Lots of crap that looks kind of useful, but after thinking about it for a minute, you’d conclude that the stuff really is cap after all.
I don’t know if this was one of those cases, but you have to be careful when placing orders there. For instance, there was an ad for a giant stuffed spider that I saw, and on the order page you had a photo of the spider like in the ad. It is only if you look carefully that you see that you are ordering the 6 inch version for 5 bucks, and you have to use a drop-down menu box to choose from several sizes, with the largest, 2 foot one pictured being 40 bucks. (Sizes and prices approximate.)
I also remember Fingerhut, and did buy some things from them.
They were crap. Lesson learned.
there was spencers Hanover house and a dozen more …selling all sorts of junk for a buck or two
Yeah be careful of the scam I see on Wish/geek all the time …you’ll see something for 3 bucks and the dollar version doesn’t have a US-compatible power cord and the version that ii happens to be 19.,99
I’ve bought things from Ali Express namely game systems with emulated games and systems on it like the Pandora box mini… its just slow getting here
Ahh, Fingerbut. They actually sold good stuff but at highly inflated prices. Plus they gave credit to everyone with outrageous interest rates. Years ago my SIL bought a sewing machine from them. She had made her monthly payments for about a year and a half when her and my brother ran into some financial problems and she missed a couple payments. One Saturday morning there was a knock on the door, it was a couple big guys and they wanted the sewing machine. She gave it to them and away they went. I looked over the paperwork she had, the machine originally cost $320, she had made 17 monthly payments of $98 and still owed over $200. The interest rate on the original purchase was 38%, because of a few late payments it went up to 54%. They are still in business.
What? She paid $1600 for a $300 sewing machine?!?!?
No wonder she was having financial trouble!
The sad part is Fingerhut kept coming after her for the outstanding balance. They ended up filing bankruptcy, FH was the only party to contest it. Years later my then wife ordered something from FH, I refused the delivery and had it sent back. She got pissed off but I wasn’t going to go down that rabbit hole.
I have a neighbor who got those bright orange packages almost daily for a short time, but I’m not seeing them any more.
No idea on the pronunciation, but I looked at the thumbnail pic for a t-shirt, and it had a message about oral sex.
Chances are, she paid $1600 for a $150 sewing machine. Half of Fingerhut’s business model is the “We’ll give damn near anyone a credit line at the maximum allowed interest rates”. The other half is that the credit line is only for Fingerhut and they upcharge another 50% or more on their products. So a $35 coffee maker on Amazon will run you $55 on Fingerhut and you’ll be paying 29.99% interest from the moment you click purchase.
Fingerhut justifies it by saying they’re offering a chance for people to rebuild their credit and the high rates and increased item costs are to offset the risk. The more cynical viewpoint is obvious.
Not too surprising, I guess. Eventually you run out of small consumer goods and tchotchkes that seem worthwhile to purchase. I still make a purchase now and then if I’m actively interested in something but I don’t really drop by looking for an excuse to blow $15.
My TEMU customer neighbor is foreign-born, probably Nigerian, and lives upstairs with her husband and baby. I’m guessing she purchased some cheap dresses that looked nice on the website, and probably fell apart after a single washing. I would see her out in the evenings, usually with the baby tied to her back, and those outfits really did look like they weren’t built to last.
I’ve had nothing but good experiences w/TEMU. My gf got me into it. Is it the highest quality stuff in the world? Probably not. But such great deals. I have a few pairs of shoes from them that are fine - and I’ve seen the same exact shoes in one case elsewhere advertised for 2.5x what I paid on TEMU.
Welcome aboard! For now, if it works for you, why not?
I got my charging stand from TEMU. No complaints about shipping or communication (other than using “you’ve logged in from a new device” emails as an excuse to put an ad in my inbox).
Unfortunately I’m not satisfied with the charger itself. The watch charging part is only about 66% as fast as the charger that the watch came with. If I charged overnight that wouldn’t be a problem, but I put it on the charger in the morning while I shower, etc., and the slower charging means it isn’t ready in time. The charger is also not compatible with adaptive charging on my Android phone. I’m not sure if the problem is in the charger or the phone, so I’m not willing to blame the charger.
TEMU says most things “are eligible for return and refund if you are not satisfied with them” so I clicked a few things for a return. As I was half expecting, they do not want the item back. I would have been completely willing to ship it back, and I’m not happy with the charger, so instead of a “win” of getting a free charger, I know have the loss of having a brand new charger I don’t want.
So, TEMU was fine. I’d buy from there again.
A lot of the items sold at Temu seem to be from factories that make official licensed products but also make lots of extras to sell cheap on the side. I love the weird, awkward product descriptions the sellers come up with to avoid calling them what they actually are. Here, for example, are Aubrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors and Ludo from Labyrinth screencapped from an ad yesterday.
That second picture is obviously AI-generated nonsense, and I suspect the first one is also. So what are they actually selling?
You won’t know unless you order it.
The product image has been pasted into a fake background in that photo but it is a real object.