Is Temu a bad company to buy from?

[2025willbemytime]

I want something and the price point there is good but a friend says it's not a good company.

It’s not bad - just be prepared for very poor quality, cheaply made tat

Obviously! Think how low the workers' wages must be - total exploitation.

Depends on your definition of “bad”. You’ll likely receive something. The quality varies, it won’t meet safety requirements, the items usually test highly for chemicals that are often forbidden here, and they’re linked to slavery and poor working practices… but yes, some things are very cheap.

I would say it's highly likely the people making the products are not paid or treated well, given how cheap the products are. I would imagine that's what your friend means when they say it's not a "good" company (ie it's not very ethical)

I didn't know anything about them and told a friend I'd bought a couple of bits that are fine. I've googled what I want and it's come up with them.

I want something large individual adhesive letters but don't need the full alphabet.

Tat tat and more tat, of course there will be a human cost somewhere but British people dont care about that.

I'd like to support a small individual company but don't know where to start. So far, not sure if Etsy have the right thing and I don't know anywhere else.

Temu trust pilot read this.
Was also going to say data harvesting as have others.

Yes. Temu is Chinese data mining masquerading as a business. The products are extremely cheap because they are made by exploited people in subhuman conditions.

If you can't find adhesive letters anywhere else, maybe you can just live without them or come up with an alternative.

If you’re happy to support slave labour and hasten the demise of companies that make an effort to meet safety standards and decent products it’s all gravy.

If you want children to make your cheap tat, then Temu is the place to go.

It's widely known to use child and poorly paid labour, provide poor working conditions, and no human rights.

To be fair, Etsy seems to have loads of resale stuff from Temu (at much, much higher prices) so although it's obvious people are being exploited to make that stuff for Temu, I think it's similar for a lot of companies - just the companies charge more and make more money.

They also rip-off designs and artwork from small British businesses (maybe other countries too) and then sell it at a ridiculous cheap price that small businesses can't compete with.
Awful company

What is what you’re after

Earth is the bad place at this point. No they aren't the most ethical company but who is? Etsy is just a bunch of dropshippers who buy product from the same place, we all know about Amazon and shein. If you aren't over consuming to a ridiculous degree and it's not possible to get the items locally then do what you need to do. Just be careful to not store your debit card details on the site and check reviews before you buy anything.

Amazon and Etsy are now filled with people trading Temu items.

Well think how is it physically possible for this to be produced and cost this price! Personally I think Temu and the other crowd should be shut down, terrible for the environment and absolutely promoting shopping for non essentials

Clearly I do care as I'm asking and haven't bought from them once I was told about them.

It probably the exact same factories making everything else we get from China, the only difference is less quality control and you cut out the £££ profit going to the British company who import it.

Large adhesive letters.

I'd be especially careful that whatever I bought wasn't potentially dangerous / toxic. As you're bypassing retailers, there's a chance that safety regs are not being followed in the same way, depending on the product/s

Yes. Dodgy app and quite possibly using slave labour.

Etsy is definitely not the small business supporter it once was, full of drop shippers and fakes.

There are some legit ppl on their but expect to pay an appropriate amount of money for someone else's skill.

You couldn't get any LESS of a small individual company than T.E.M .U (MN used to auto block it).

Or people could just not consume unnecessary tat? Nobody needs adhesive letters, or the other zillion things that Temu is selling.