Community Chat

[JoyFilled Warrior]

I just called my (long distance) sister, to warn her about this TEMU, & share this thread info,  'cause her husband orders a lot of items, esp online.  He's a HEAVY user of his Cell & Tablet!

Turns out, he suddenly rec'd a delivery with a new cell phone inside that they didnt order.  And similar to what @bikerbabe and I  described above, this aggressive, phantom delivered box technique,  there was no identifying info to contact, to return the box/item, or correct this "mistake."  But it clearly came from TEMU, they made sure, no doubt.

Her husband knows of TEMU's sordid past, but wasnt aware that TEMU is anywhere near as invasive as described by @dooBdoo above (incl her text in red).

I've been attracted to many of TEMU's items, but held off.  Now I know why!

THANK YOU for this warning & for these details and counsel!!   NO WAY am I ordering from TEMU!

I hope my sister & BIL havent ordered from TEMU. and hope they HAVE NOT  USED THAT "PHANTOM PHONE" they received from TEMU!    Imagine the temptation?  Whew!  But then, that's the point!

N A S T Y! ! 

     I N V A S I V E! !

even a form of   P R E D A T O R Y !!

TEMU --->   

[bikerbabe]

@dooBdoo

Thank you for the info. I’ve had serious questions just based on our unwanted packages. All dollar store junk, by the way.

[JoyFilled Warrior]

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@Patriot3 wrote:

This being a Chinese business, I refuse to buy from them or any other Chinese business that has plunked itself into our country.

We get enough from them just from other retailers.  China will bury us without a shot being fired............

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Hi @Patriot3  

It's my understanding, that most all American Sellers "sold out" to China's involvement in their product, a LONGGGG time ago, commonly using China to cut their own business costs in every way possible.

And still, knowing that, we Americans still buy, buy, and buy more of these products! 

Aren't we kidding ourselves, that we wont buy products where China is most obviously involved?    

  *whisper*  But it's okay to buy if China is quietly involved in the USA product for sale?.

Or am I missing something?

[sugar plum]

@JoyFilled Warrior

To answer your question, yes you are. It's one thing to buy products made in China at a reputable store located here in the US or a reputable online seller shipping within the US.

It's an entirely different scenario purchasing a product sold directly by a questionable China based retailer. Clicking on ANY advertisement link is very risky.

All you need to do is Google news investigations or documentaies about the subject and you'll find there are a multitude of Chinese sites and flea markets in the US selling fake merchandise, particularly cosmetics. Once they're discovered, they flee to another location.

[Etoile308]

I must be doing something right because I've never seen an ad from them. My knowledge of them has come from news stories warning about security concerns. I don't understand directly providing China with my personal and any financial information. To me no savings would be worth it.

[eadu4]

@zitawins  My dumb stepdaughter is into Temu.  You get "credit" for getting people to down load the App.  So she's using it as a side gig and then orders a bunch of stuff for herself essentially for "free".  The problem for me is they are not BBB accredited and they are associated with TikTok and the stuff is straight out of China.  Their distribution center is in Boston, Ma.

   While there are plenty of people who use it without issue there are plenty that have complaints.  Their rating is supposedly 3.5 but others have them rated lower.  The shipping companies they use are the target of complaints as people don't seem to get their items (delivered to the wrong address) and when they complain to the company, they get sent a picture of the package taken somewhere and are told "it was delivered".   Getting refunded is also a problem for plenty of people.  But the lure of "free" stuff if you get people to download the app and get credit for it ($20) per person  has sucked in a lot of people.  That and the cheap pricing of their junk.  Some of their stuff is ok some is straight up junk.  It's not for me.  Easy pass. 

[sunshine45]

i have seen lots of ads for temu. i have a number of friends who have sent me referral links for temu. so far, i have not been tempted. of course, i said the same thing about AMAZON about three years ago and once i began ordering, i was hooked. LOL

[Trailrun23]

How can you avoid the Sheis ads? I can't seem to get away from them. Headless models with weird skin color and strange clothes....ewww. I have to wonder how they are made and where your money really goes if you buy anything. Your credit card probably goes into a bank of them that are sold to who knows what other countries. 

[dooBdoo]

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@bikerbabe wrote:
@dooBdoo

Thank you for the info. I’ve had serious questions just based on our unwanted packages. All dollar store junk, by the way.

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@bikerbabe, You're welcome.

Knowing this:

          "Temu bypasses your phone’s security to monitor activity on other apps, track your notifications, read private messages, change settings...  and bypasses any firewall and gains access to your location and can track you... and It gets full access to all your contacts, calendars and photo albums, plus your social media accounts, chats and texts..."

means Temu is harvesting the personal info in our device not just about us but also about our contacts and others whose personal info is on our device.

Family, friends, acquaintences, companies associated with our private messages, digital images, texts, social media accounts, and contact lists are open and vulnerable to the Temu app, which might account for people receiving email messages or packages based on the harvested data from someone else's device.

And if the company is willing to access this data with their app, I have no confidence their website is any safer.

[patbz]

I've also read a lot about security concerns with Temu; I won't risk it.