TEMU WARNING

[frozencarlotta]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65990529?fbclid=IwAR3IjNnvlU7S_izagSEZyz5Tmo-ZSR3p6NwN-cVp7JbW_Fav9vnKv3I2sTU

and this was on social media, Its a little 'facebook warning' type

Radio talk show hostess, Kim Komando, did some digging about TEMU and this is what she found!
Seemingly overnight, everyone’s talking about Temu (pronounced “tee-moo”), an online shopping app that boasts deals that seem too good to be true, like $17 wireless earbuds, $1 “gold” necklaces and $23 wedding dresses.
Over 50 million Americans have downloaded Temu since it launched state-side in September 2022, after it gained traction with expensive Super Bowl ads promising to let you “shop like a billionaire.”
Today, Temu is the most popular shopping app in the U.S. behind Amazon. But most of us don’t know much about the app’s true origins. Reader Daniel Mayer asked an important question, “Is [Temu] something we should be concerned about?”
So, I did some digging. And as it turns out, yes, you absolutely should be. Here’s what I found:
Where did Temu come from?
This isn’t some fly-by-night operation. Temu is based in Boston, Massachusetts, by PDD Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: PDD). PDD is headquartered in Shanghai, China.
PDD also owns the e-commerce platform Pinduoduo headquartered in — you guessed it — China. So, Temu is a Communist China-based app and site.

What you need to know before using Temu
First, you’re buying goods directly from manufacturers in China and other parts of the world. That’s why shipping times are often 12 days or longer. The prices are low because the goods are cheap. The pictures of what you see advertised may not be what you actually get.
Temu’s BBB rating is 2.21/5. Reviews at TrustPilot are interesting, with 38% 5-star reviews and 41% 1-star reviews.
But that’s not the worst of it.

Temu is downright dangerous.

The app is a clever, pervasive digital stalker. As you shop, Temu monitors your activity on other apps, tracks your notifications and location and changes settings.
It gets worse. Temu gains full access to all your contacts, calendars and photo albums, plus all your social media accounts, chats and texts. In other words, literally everything on your phone.
No shopping app needs this much control, especially one tied to Communist China. If you’re using Temu, delete the app from your phone ASAP.
On iPhone, Long-press an app, then tap Remove App > Delete App. Tap Delete to confirm.
On Android, touch and hold an app, then tap Remove App > Delete App > Delete.
Pro tip: If you downloaded Temu, to be safe from Chinese spies, you really need to do a full factory reset.
But wait, there’s more! Temu’s sister app was removed from Google Play because of malware.

Do not buy from this company, or use their app

I was quite disappointed to see it being advertised here on MN.

As long as the kiddies can have their elf on the shelf, their Christmas eve box, mountains of presents and a new outfit every day for social media, who cares about piddling little issues like enslaved children, right?

I mean. You can roll your eyes at people who boycott Nestle over the baby milk issue. Or who spend hours researching the most ethical bank account. But "avoiding slavery" is a pretty low bar.

up the Kingdom 💚💛

I don't have Temu, don't want it and do t trust it....but can't quite put my finger on why.

It is cheap shite though, and I am particularly against the shipping of obscene volumes of cheap shite halfway around the world.

The app stuff though...,other apps are also selling on data.

Don't trust communist China, but also don't see what I could have on my phone that could be of interest to them.

Either way though, I won't be downloading the app or buying from them.

Thanks for the warning, it keeps coming on FB. Feels like the SHEIN one and thankfully I have stayed away from buying. I did browse through the site. Would it have got my Facebook details?

I steer well clear of all those sites. Morally dubious, all.

I don't buy from Amazon either, because of the way their workers are treated & how much cheap Chinese made shite is on there. Etsy has similar cheap Chinese made shite so I avoid that too.

China flooded our markets with shite decades ago. You just have to be careful what you are buying.

I dont think anyone can be naive nowadays about where their clothes are coming from on the high street.

So I feel there is a lot of hypocrisy in this thread over those who would never buy from temu, seeing etc. But will buy from COS, Zara, M&S etc.
We know we can't avoid unethical practice in the majority of our goods.

I for the past 3 years have bought 95% of my clothes 2nd hand - but then that takes more time and effort. And I'm not fully convinced about the amount of airtravel required for parcels bought off ebay etc. I dont really like online shopping for the same reasons.

But if someone who is purchasing sensibly what they need and not want off temu...then it's no greater fault than buying it from the high street. Especially when the cost of living is so high.
Ideally we should all be able to shop ethically but for most it's impossible.
A temu £3 top vs a Zara £30 top is no different ethically.....its just feels superior to say I didn't buy this off a Chinese website

I wanted a macrame wall hanging for my kitchen so I went on Etsy - I sell on there myself and like to support small businesses where I can. Found one I liked for £50, added it to my cart to buy later. Not even an hour later I received a code off the seller for 50% off...this made me a bit suspicious, like I said, I'm a seller myself and couldn't knock 50% off my makes, how come they could?

Anyway, I googled the item and the exact same one was on Temu for £8 😐 I took a chance and ordered it, it came within the week and was beautiful, I'm really pleased with it.

So, I tried to shop ethically, I tried to support small businesses but they were selling the same chinese stuff at massively inflated prices pretending they were handmade. My main competitors on Etsy sell stuff from AliExpress/wish claiming they're handmade, it's annoying AF - it's difficult to avoid them.

I would've been gutted if I'd been stung for £50. They can have my data if I can cut out the middleman making hefty profits by misleading customers. I'm not that interesting really!

So I feel there is a lot of hypocrisy in this thread over those who would never buy from temu, seeing etc. But will buy from COS, Zara, M&S etc.
We know we can't avoid unethical practice in the majority of our goods.

1. Shein and Temu are clearly worse that M&S.

1. It's not hypocrisy. We all need to wear clothes. Fair enough, 100% ethical clothes are very expensive. Still, the pricing and disposability of Shein makes it fast fashion whereas some other retailers like M&S aren't. Even Zara does some garments that people keep and others want to buy secondhand. Shein does not.

1. Temu is not a clothing shop and not essential

1. The shady practices of Temu and Shein are well known.

1. Buying new isn't always bad. As in point 2, the problem is buying cheap polyester garbage in large volumes, that has no resell value and the owner won't want in a year.

1. Temu and Shein steal designs from small businesses

1. We can avoid unethical stuff by not resigning ourselves and buying Shein. Buy less new, buy secondhand. Repair stuff. Swap with friends etc.

1. The hypocrisy argument is very fucking tiring. Let me guess, I haven't donated to a food bank this week so I have no right to complain about poverty that people suffer. I dont allow myself to freeze to death so I'm no better than oil companies

It’s quite likely that temu ripped off the design from a real designer. They do that a lot, putting real people out of business - by buying from them you’re part of the problem.

I guess you’ll find out if whatever you sell gets ripped off and suddenly nobody is buying from you.

This sounds like typical American paranoia - note the phrase "Communist China".

You don't need the app to buy from Temu, this seems to be mostly concerns about the app being on your phone. I've bought through their website before, I don't get the fuss to be honest.

Lots of high horses in this thread. Some people can't afford to choose m&s or John Lewis over a cheap website. Check your fucking privilege for god's sake.

How do you pay then? (What other option is there?) thanks

Please tel me this is satire. Recognise your privilege!

Oh live in the UK and can afford Shein. You're in the top 10-20% of global earners.

You exploit poor people in other countries to have your BS Shein products rather than buy secondhand or buy fewer items!

You don't want to spend an extra £10 for M&S or exert slightly more effort to browse Vinted. So you buy from people who work like slaves including children in some cases.

I'm dirt poor. I don't use TEMU at present, but I would if I saw something I wanted. I use pound shops without feeling any attacks of conscience, so why not?

One thing, and this is entirely objective - their advertising is genius. 'I'm shopping like a Billionaire' is probably the first advertising slogan that's actually managed to grab my focused attention in the last 10 years. It's snazzy, hints at inclusivity without tediously using the word, and it becomes an ear worm really quickly. Their other Ads are also clever in tone.

I admire their marketing strategy. It reminds me of We Buy Any Car that was a clever marketing strategy also. That's it.

What puts me off is having to download another app and sign up with a password in order to use. So I can't be bothered.

That's about the sum of my concerns. In terms of Chinese spy apps, the Chinese government already have have all the data they could ever want via TikTok so I see no point in being concerned as the horse has bolted the stable a long time ago.

Of far more concern is the data YOUR government and 'benevolent' internet entities like Google and Facebook may be compiling on you via your internet activity without you knowing it. People have been arrested for posts on Twitter and Facebook.

Just to make a point that second hand where I live us far more expensive than Shein would ever be.

In fact you can buy several items at Primark for the price of a second hand top or dress from M&S in my local Heart Foundation or St Christophers Hospice. Not an exaggeration. South East Surburbs.

Second hand is pricey where I live too (inner London) but it's only really insanely priced if the items are designer in the first place.

Luckily, there's more than one place or way to buy/maintain clothes ethically

The point is though, people in the UK (with the exception of those actually living on low incomes or homeless) have no right to be pleading poverty as an excuse to buy Temu. Temu! It's not even clothing!

However cheeky charity some shops are, it's not an excuse to use slave labour.

With fast fashion though it's not just the low price that's the issue it's the volumes people buy.

For someone who is really struggling financially I can see where they are coming from when they need to shop cheaply. It's not ideal and I wish better alternatives were more affordable but they aren't.

So many people I know who regularly buy fast fashion and lots of it don't fall into this category. They wear something once then bin it or sell it then replace immediately. Shop on the app which has a clever bastard algorithm which throws endless "deals " at them and because they love a bargain at all costs they buy more. I'm pretty sure most of their yearly clothing w end up in landfill.

Did you know for example that charity shops can't sell on Shein stuff as the price to buy new will always be cheaper? So it all end up being offloaded onto a 3rd world country who don't have the resources to manage its redistribution so either land fill or incinerate? Mmm all those lovely man made chemicals going back into the atmosphere.

That's not cost of living shopping it's mindless consumerism and the contribution those individuals make to slave labour is appalling.

Great post

Temu has put me off amazon after comparing a couple of items. I can't afford to shop at places that I know are safe so my approach has been to massively cut back on buying crap as I don't think any of our high street stores are particularly ethical. I now actively avoid amazon though having seen that they are basically selling the same stuff as Temu

@Pawpawpatrol this needs to be pasted onto every thread on this topic (and any environmental topic, change a few bits around)

I used Temu once with a brand new credit card, first purchase on it.

Shortly afterwards it was billed for a £50 purchase from Wayfair, which I've never used. It took 6 weeks for my credit card to reimburse me the £50 as they had to investigate as "your wayfair purchase had the same credentials so you this is why we must look into it"

It's been refunded now but it's too strong a coincidence that it happened on a brand new card... 🙄

Never again.

Laughing at the mental gymnastics people perform to try to justify buying from Shein and Temu.

It's not OK. It can never be OK. 99% of it is stuff you can do without, it's a discretionary not an essential purchase. At least own it and admit you're prioritising your own desire for a cheap bargain over slavery.

It doesn't surprise me that they track you but the most annoying thing is seeing that advert of the miserable over made up woman unboxing over and over again. I knew from that, that it was like Wish or something. (Although I love wish just to laugh at the products they sell)