Temu legitimate website or scam?

[disneysteve]

Looks to be the same product.

Those don’t look the same at all. They’re clearly two different items.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I want to order one but it's hard to tell the quality from those pics which looks good but I don't want to be disappointed when it arrives. Maybe I should go to a store where I can feel it before buying it.

[kork13]

Random thing I've learned over time through my career-long association with aircraft & heavy machinery ... metallurgical standards matter ALOT. There are very few products made today that are not an alloy of multiple types of metal. The production quality & accuracy of the base metals that go into the alloy are just as important as production standards of the alloy itself. Ex: there's dozens of "flavors" of steel, each forged with different levels of iron, carbon, nickel, chromium, and other components. The purity of the iron, carbon, and other elements will drive the quality of the resulting steel. If the base components aren't forged properly, they'll bring contaminants into the final product.

When you buy items with metal involved .... cheap knockoff junk will ALWAYS (zero exaggeration, 100.0% of the time) skimp on the metallurgy. Sheet metal will be thinner, alloys won't be manufactured to the same standards, and base metals won't be forged to the proper purity. These seem like little things, but purity & elemental accuracy is critical. Without it, you end up with soft, dull, or brittle metals; lower tensile/compressive/torsion strength; lower temperature capacity; and a litany of other problems. Even down to little things like poorly machined bolts/screws/rivets can result in early or catastrophic failure. Case in point: Boeing's emergency exit door fiasco.

All of that to say .... buy a cheap knock-off, and I'd wager that the blade(s) wear out quickly, get bent/malformed, or simply dislodge from the base. And on a kitchen tool that is already infamous in amateur & professional kitchens alike for slicing/disfiguring/dismembering fingers ...... Yeah, I want something quality that will be reliable.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Bought this $10 shoe size 8.5 and three bike bells $1.28 each. Temu dropped its $20 free shipping to $10 again. I guess $20 was too high and Temu needed to attract business again. Worked on me, lol.

[QuarterMillionMan]

My next order on Temu only needed 1 backpack but it's so cheap I'll buy two and some other accessories. Free shipping w/ min $15 purchase.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I have to say I don't find items on temu any different than cheap chinese crap on amazon.

[QuarterMillionMan]

My next order from Temu.

[myrdale]

I heard on the radio this morning, Arkansas is suing Temu. Their claim is that Temu is a data thief business, and the cloths they sell are just a means to an end to collect and sell your data.

[disneysteve]

I heard on the radio this morning, Arkansas is suing Temu. Their claim is that Temu is a data thief business, and the cloths they sell are just a means to an end to collect and sell your data.

Is that illegal? Lots of businesses aren’t primarily what they appear. McDonald’s is primarily a real estate company. The majority of Amazon’s operating income is from providing cloud services. Google’s main source of income is advertising.

[james.hendrickson]

From the Arkansas Advocate:

Arkansas attorney general sues Chinese-owned Temu for deceptive practices

State lawsuit is first of its kind in the country

BY: MARY HENNIGAN - JUNE 25, 2024 4:47 PM

Temu, an online shopping platform with Chinese ownership, is the subject of the latest lawsuit from Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin.

Griffin filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in the Circuit Court of Cleburne County under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the Personal Information Protection Act and for “unjust enrichment.”

The lawsuit seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions to prevent Temu’s parent company, PDD Holdings, from acquiring, maintaining and utilizing information from Arkansas residents. It also demands a trial by jury and requests the state receive $10,000 per violation of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

“We are the first state to take this kind of action,” Griffin said at a press conference. “I anticipate, I predict, there will be many, many more.”

When asked about the decision to not file a multi-state lawsuit against Temu, Griffin said he “wasn’t interested in waiting on others.”

Temu launched in 2022 and sells discounted products to buyers worldwide. Products range from clothing and automobile accessories to kitchen appliances, furniture and more. Several products are listed for less than $1, and prices also reach $1,000. The phone app has several million downloads, and the site can also be accessed on a computer.

Griffin said Tuesday that Temu has targeted young people, such as with its animated super bowl commercial.

The 51 page complaint alleges that Temu’s app is “purposefully designed to gain unrestricted access to a user’s phone operating system” including the camera, location, contacts, texts and other apps. It also claims that users without the app on their phone are at risk if any of their information is on the phone of a Temu user.

When using Temu, Griffin said, a user is not only opening up their consumer and purchasing behavior, but their whole lives.

“You may have seen … these unbelievably low prices, and you may be thinking, ‘How can they sell that so low?’” Griffin asked. “Because it’s not their business. Their business is the data.”

The alleged monetization of collecting data and selling it to third parties is “at the direct expense of Arkansans’ privacy rights,” according to the lawsuit.

“I have a responsibility to ensure that Arkansans’ data is protected, and that’s what this is about,” Griffin said.

The lawsuit includes screenshots of Arkansas-related products sold on Temu, claiming that PDD Holdings has “purposefully availed themselves of the privilege of doing business in the State of Arkansas.” Products include state flag lapel pins, Razorback merchandise and keepsakes related to the April 8 total solar eclipse which passed through Arkansas.

Griffin also cites the poor quality of products customers receive from Temu as part of its deceptive practices. Goods often are of low quality, contrary to the company’s marketing, and sometimes items received do not resemble online photos, according to the lawsuit.

Furthermore, the “discounted price” of Temu’s products are deceptive through false-reference pricing, Griffin writes. The lawsuit also alleges that the site includes fake reviews to attract and maintain users.

Griffin spoke Tuesday about what he said was a general increase of awareness of practices from China.

“People who have been following China’s rise over the last few decades, have known for a long, long time that they’re not just a competitor economically, they’re up to no good militarily, they’re up to no good in terms of a hegemon in the east,” Griffin said. “There are a number of ways they’re doing this, and data is part of that.”

Source: Arkansas State Advocate.

[myrdale]

Is that illegal?

In Arkansas, it is.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Question: anyone know if this inverter will run a 1000 watt microwave oven? Peak power 4500 watts, continuous power 1500 watts.

[myrdale]

Question: anyone know if this inverter will run a 1000 watt microwave oven? Peak power 4500 watts, continuous power 1500 watts.

If it has a continuous output of 1,500 W, and your microwave is 1,000 W, then yes it will.

Personally I've never used an inverter. I have used a small power bank, but I doubt it would do what you need. There are larger power banks, but they are $600-$1200.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Thanks, I'll order it then. Will use it to heat up my lunch in my car or make instant coffee while in my car.

[myrdale]

Thanks, I'll order it then. Will use it to heat up my lunch in my car or make instant coffee while in my car.

Strange..... but OK.

I am assuming you travel significantly for work?

I did see a guy with a gasoline powered generator strapped to the roof of his car once, with an extension cord connected to a window mounted AC in the back seat. But it looked like he was living in it.