No. Misleading images, dogshit quality. Learn from the mistakes other went trough, and dont use it.
this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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it's terrible
I love watching Vargskelethor’s Temu Trash streams where he browses the site looking at funny awful products. (clip from one of them that I cut together) That’s the closest I’ve gone near it.
Temu is owned by PDD aka Pinduoduo, a Chinese company with a long history of either accidentally or deliberately ("accidentally") putting malware in their apps. Malware that tends to dial home to PLA servers for some odd reason.
E.g. something like https://krebsonsecurity.com/tag/pinduoduo/
People's Liberation Army?
99% of modern, mainstream things are brainrotted, clickbait scam. Including Temu, ofc.
You're much better off supporting local, physical business, if you can afford it. Because I can guarantee you that Temu shit will not last for much longer than their return policy.
Temu, the online equivalent to Harbor Freight.
This is blasphemy. Harbor Freight is a saint compared to Temu.
HF tools are not designed for the long term, generally. If you need a tool to work at least once, for one job that you are never going to do again, HF is "good enough".
The rule of thumb is to never buy a tool there that could result in a gruesome death if it fails to protect your life, like jack stands. (Invest in quality safety equipment first if you get something like an angle grinder.)
When getting into a new project or hobby, I tend to go to HF for the tools first. The tools are inexpensive, and I'm probably going to be dropping the hobby or thing soon after my hyperfixation dies off. So, that means I didn't spend a lot of money on this thing that I'm not going to keep going on. If the tool dies, and I'm still into it, it's not just hyperfixation and I can get a better tool, but now I understand what I'm looking for. Sometimes, the tool from HF is just fine for the long term, and honestly this happens more than you'd think. I have some drills that aren't the best, but get things done for near a decade, and some yellow, teal, and reds that have died within 6 months.
My wife bought me a HF (Port Cable) pancake air compressor for a father's day. It wasn't the best, but it was from her and what she could buy without pinging the account in a way that alerted me. It's just now starting to die off and it's nearly 12 years old.
Harbor Freight has come quite a long way and has multiple tiers of product quality now, including stuff that can be compared to SnapOn, Matco, etc (the Icon line). Some of it is really good without requiring you to pay insanely inflated tool truck pricing and the rest of the market outside of tool truck brands is also built in China now so it's fairly slim pickings if you don't want to pay outrageous prices. If you use your tools for a living, there's a good argument to use mainstream brands like SnapOn for their convenience, but for hobbyists and the like HF will suit you well. For power tools I mostly use DeWalt mainly because they're better quality and because of the battery lock-in, but I do have a few Bauer power tools and they work great and cost half as much along with batteries being half the cost. DeWalt wants you to pay $100 for four 18650 batteries which is insane. For stuff like griding disks, cutoff wheels, or other consumables, I do tend to go with name brand since they're all universal and the cost difference isn't that much.
I do agree to be careful with stuff like jackstands, but I always double them up keep the jack under the car, put a tire under the car, and avoid being completely underneath them when possible. I actually bought a set of ramps just to avoid having to use them when I don't need the wheels off.
I bought a Harbor Freight brand SawStop and honestly I'm almost typing at full speed again on 9 fingers now
Which is owned by Amazon.
I do tend to do most of my purchasing locally if I can and I don’t shop at Amazon and I’m actively trying to boycott American companies.
I am curious about quality though. China makes everything pretty much so it’s likely most of the stuff comes from the same factories making good stuff?
I'd guess the difference is quality control. Temu and the like sell completely uncontrolled, no labels of approval, no standards and without consumer rights.
your local businesses sell you the same stuff at a fat upcharge
You get what you pay for and your local business is going to provide customer service that is most likely worth the markup
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But supports actual people and not bezos and such
thats fine only if you dont actively screw yourself over to do it, most ppl just want to maximize money they make off of you and arent saints
those actual ppl buy off the same source, suppliers that sell to amazon
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Cheapest shit on the internet...and you really do get what you paid for. Buy ten and one might work, or spend twice as much and be certain.
I think you’re probably better off constructing whatever you need out of trash and free debris, lol
My guy has been living under a rock for the past 5 years. Nah don't get it, just buy it off aliexpress
Apparently so 😂
It's essentially an app to cause as much addiction as possible, with 10-20% discounts to allow for it
It was cheaper than resellers in local sites, but you could usually find the same thing but on AliExpress instead (much more honest of a site)
Thanks for this info.
I’ll check out AliExpress next time I see something interesting.
They're still not great, but better. If you don't hear from in a week or so, check your order. It might have been cancelled. They do give refunds within a certain window though.
Prices have got up a LOT with the tariffs
Yeah I vastly prefer AliExpress, there are items in a similar vein with the 'pick three!' type, but those are in the significant minority.
And if you check for good sellers then you'll get good products, like all the other buying platforms. I usually buy stuff on there if there are no fair labor made alternative
If they have to market something, it's probably not worth it.
I tried Temu and Wish around the same time and had mostly the same experience:
Tons of misrepresented garbage, often with varying prices for the same, exact product, that you may or may not even receive after several months.
I've imported things from other countries before, even China, using other services such as eBay and never had it take the better half of a year to receive anything, and I almost always got what I expected. These sites suck even for trying to get cheap crap.
Honestly I really can’t believe people would use this place at all.
Why? Have you seen what people in general are up to? How easily every one of us is manipulated?
Valid. I should have stuck to my disbelief in this as a viable business model, but clearly people are using it.
I bought a toy for my nephew on temu and have since been getting constant emails offering deals. I've ignored them cause I suspect it's some kind of scam
I've never been able to get to the end of their gamification to actually check out, I'm not seeing that as a bad thing.
Not at all. Certainly saved me buying something on impulse for no reason at all.
Temu and wish are just aliexpress with less options.
I got a keyboard, keycaps, and some switches for a work keyboard. I wanted something cheap cause it is just supposed to get me off a shitty ergo one they provide. Spent maybe $40 and it's pretty decent. I got quiet switches, connectibility is good. No complaints. But I got it solely for this purpose, I haven't been back on it again, and I researched what I was wanting to get, so nothing was surprising.
It worked well for it's intended purpose, but they bombard you with sales and stuff to get you to spend more. It's definitely a trap system
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Haven't used temu, but I have used Wish a lot. It's a lot of misrepresented low quality stuff. But if what you're after is impossible to misrepresent and quality doesn't matter it's alright.
I bought two things on temu through a friend. I got what I paid for. One was a pack of origami paper for 0.60€, it was crap. The other was a pack of 4 typewriter ribbons for 6€, the quality was bad but good enough to use, I may buy them again.
I find how they try to make you feel like a winner every visit there as laughably bad. Always hitting the right spaces on the spin the wheel? Always getting sales? Always this and that with Temu. Okay then...
I wouldn't ever buy anything big from Temu at any cost. They're great for stickers, enamel pins and just general, casual level items. If you're willing to wait however long it takes to get them to you, obviously from where they're sourced.
nope
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