Have you heard of Temu? On the surface, it appears to be an e-commerce site similar to Amazon, but things are not always fully what they appear to be. I discovered Temu a few weeks ago, while looking for a way to control the water flow on my newly remodeled shower. A variable flow valve popped up in my search, and the price was quite reasonable, so I ordered it. I also perused the site to see what else they offered.
I found everything from shoes to tools to clothing items at seemingly outstanding prices, but not really needing anything at the moment, I clicked off and turned my attention to other things. The next morning, I was surprised to find an email from Temu, stating that my purchase had been refunded, but with no explanation as to why. A further examination on the Temu site revealed they had unilaterally canceled the order due to "irregularities" with my payment via Paypal. While Temu encouraged me to resubmit payment, I instead bought the same item from Amazon for a dollar more and received it far faster than Temu was promising.
Immediately following that aborted transaction, my email inbox was flooded with promotional emails from Temu, each touting their wares at outrageously cheap prices, and discount coupons on top of that. I finally decided to give Temu a second chance and ordered a package of five long sleeve t-shirts for a whopping $15 with free shipping.
This order went much more smoothly, with the package arriving in a timely manner from overseas, but I was glad I had paid a mere pittance for the shirts. The sleeves were way too long, and the shirts were made of polyester, not cotton. Looking back at the product description, fiber content had not been specified. But for $3 each, I can roll up the sleeves.
Thinking that the previous problem was just a glitch, I decided to dig deeper into Temu to see what else they had to offer. I eventually ordered a pair of comfortable looking casual shoes. In doing so, I learned something about their pricing. Often, the low, low prices advertised in their emails bordered on, well, false advertising. For instance, the shoes I ordered had a very low price that turned out to be good for only one size and color, neither of which were what I wanted. The rest were at a good, albeit not spectacular, price.
Once again, this order went sideways. Temu again canceled my order, which I had placed with the same PayPal account I had used for the shirts, citing the same "unusual activity" they had used as an excuse with the aborted flow valve order. Undeterred, I re-ordered, using a credit card for payment, and the transaction was held up as they asked me to verify ownership of the account, which I did. The next day, I received yet another email, requesting that I send them a picture of my credit card statement as further proof of ownership, but at this, I drew the line, canceled the order, unsubscribed from their emails, and bought my shoes elsewhere.
Besides being a general pain, the repeated requests for additional information set off alarm bells for me that this just might be a scam. This 2022 article from Time would seem to bear that out. https://time.com/6243738/temu-app-complaints/
In all, I have never had such a negative experience with a shopping site, and I want nothing more to do with Temu. I would advise others to steer clear as well.
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