this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2024
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[–] Etterra 66 points 5 months ago (7 children)

I can't believe anyone would buy from Temu. I knew they were Chinese knockoff bullshit the second I saw their first obnoxious ad.

[–] Oaksey 18 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Plenty of items on eBay are just people who buy from China directly and mark up prices. If it is likely made in China and I don’t want it quickly, I’ll buy off aliexpress. That said, alibaba wanted me to upload photo ID which I noped out of. Temu started spamming my email address when I’d never used them. The unsubscribe link went to their website said to adjust your account settings if you didn’t want spam… I never created and account and avoided them completely following that.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Shit, most of Amazon is that as well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Amazon is usually OK if you buy things that are sold by Amazon or sold by the manufacturer (if it's a well-known brand). The third-party sellers on Amazon based in China are almost always reselling stuff from Aliexpress/Alibaba with a significant markup.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Half of them aren't in China though. It's dropshippers, so you still get your cheap death traps, but you get them in a few days, Amazon get their enormous cut, and they get to take no responsibility when it burns your house down.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

That's why I said "sold by Amazon". The drop shippers are all third-parties. Instead of the item saying "Sold by Amazon", it'll say something like "Sold by [some third party] and fulfilled by Amazon".

Stuff sold by Amazon themselves is generally okay, since they're directly responsible for it (no third party they can blame for any issues).

I try to avoid Amazon where possible though. B&H is pretty good for electronics, and I know I'm not going to get cheap Chinese knockoffs when I search their online store.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Seems like >70% of seller have the imprint in china or hong kong

[–] Etterra 3 points 5 months ago

I don't buy anything from eBay that I can get elsewhere. I didn't even use those other sites. Sure, everything is made in China, but I'm good not trusting China without a more reputable middleman that's subject to American laws regarding things like refunds and such.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Isn't that the site that's AliExpress but worse?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Apparently for some people (my mom) the search or filters work better on Temu. No idea why, I only ever use AliExpress.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Alis search is really bad.
Somehow the auto translation is active for the product names but if you search they don't seem to apply.
For example:
Searching for Cherry MX switches brings up articles that are named "Mechanische Kirsch Schalter für Tastatur" (essentially the name but translated). Problem is: Cherry the company is like it's in english as well, also the fruit amd thus will not be translated correctly.
Trying to search more niche stuff quickly gets annoying when trying to find something specific.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Ok, that's fair. I just use the english terms anyways and usually also change the interface language to english.

[–] Fades 8 points 5 months ago (2 children)

somethings people don't care about quality. An example, the one time I checked out Temu way back when it first made its splash I bought some targets for shooting... Hard to fuck that up and got em cheap as fuck with that promo deal they do to hook you. Uninstalled it right after, probably not worth it but I feel like that is a common experience. There are items where you just simply can't fuck up so the ultra cheapness works out.

With that said, an obligatory FUCK temu and those like it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Aliexpress seems most straightforward, and not quite as gimmicky.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Have you seen the wheel spin and Fomo coupons?
Maybe not as much but still highly gimmicky in comparison to normal e-commerce sites

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

They don't seem to give overall preference to a given supplier beyond their obvious coupons and paid rankings. Alibaba is better, but who needs 144 of any specific widget..?

If you compare to one of the most preferred e-commerce website, which I would consider Amazon, it's still not that bad. I have found less lies on Ali express v Amazon. If it comes to any cheaper electronics the Ali description is the real deal as far as I have seen. Amazon I have been shipped differing products, the description or features have just been a lie, or it didn't come with the things implied. For the most part Ali descriptions are exactly what you will expect when opening the product... in fact many times I discover extra features when receiving the product that seemingly just couldn't explain in their marketing.

Ali>Aliexpress>Amazon... just depends on needs

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

My only reasons to buy on Ali is when I need something simple like velcro that can be cut to length or other small scale stuff electronics (e.g. Rasperry Pi 0) and it doesnt have to be fast.
Ironically the shipping is either free or so cheap it's better than domestic amazon.
I often suspect they sell the same item but order it with DHL shipping (our domestic shipper) with high priority shipping included in the price (2€ item + 8€ shipping = 10€ on Amazon + "free" shipping)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

A huge amount of products are just generic Chinese products that have a brand slapped on it. If you've ever bought a random small USB device (i.e USB hubs, etc) from a major brand like LogiTech and others, if you crack it open it is just the same device as cheap resellers with a branded coating. It's not worth it to many companies to bother manufacturing their own small tat so they just sub-contract out.

And sure, it likely works, but it's the exact same hardware with the same capabilities as a product a 10th of the price.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The cheap Chinese stuff often uses knock-off ICs tho.
They can be fairly difficult to detect, and will work for a short time or under very light loads. But they will be nowhere near the spec of the data sheets.
They might massively overheat, not provide the correct currents or voltages, run at lower speeds. All sorts of corners being cut to turn a $2 IC into a 50¢ IC. Or a 50¢ ic into a 5¢ one

So yeh, might be the same PCB layout inside, it might visually look the same (or very very close) but the parts are likely to be counterfeit.

Of course, it's also probable that name brands might be hit with counterfeit parts inside as well. Hopefully their QA picks that up

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I've found this when trying to get a decent USB>9-pin Serial connector.

You think it's your software, or something weird going wrong. Then you swap over a name-brand adapter, and the thing just works.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Maybe not Logitech as a whole but small scale or low-end stuff

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Yeah, the small tat items and accessories, as I said.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

That’s all online shopping

[–] trolololol -2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I can't believe people pay full price on cheap stuff. The only reasonable thing to do is pay cheap on cheap stuff. And the delivery times are unbeatable .

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I can't believe people buy cheap trash that would be sold on Temu.

But here we are, people buy cheap ass trash off Temu. If China started picking through the trash we shipped them and sold it back to us on a site like Temu, something tells me people would still buy it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

People would buy an actual turd on temu if it's cheap enough. Just read these comments here... But it's cheap. Congrats, you bought cheap garbage and it got send around the globe by a company that sells your data