When I want something cheap, I usually hit Aliexpress (website). As I was looking at the Aliexpress app page on the Google Play Store to check its privacy details, TEMU came up as a recommended app.
Now, my wife has used TEMU in the past, but since she often can’t find her way around things, I downplayed her negative experience as “user error”. That said, I went to the TEMU website and started looking around.
I found something that was a reasonable price, but then get this message saying I could get this item free through the app… sigh. OK. I sign up with my usual fake/random credentials and add this “free” item to my cart.
A spinning prize wheel comes up. Hey, I can get THREE free items now! Sweet. I spend the next 3 hours looking for stuff I can actually use, doom-scrolling through everything from women’s underwear to t-shirts with assault rifle print. Literally something for everyone. LOL
Then I select my third “free” item, and another spinning prize wheel comes up. “100% off the next $35”. Ok.
I didn’t need more stuff, but hey, 100% off sounds like more free stuff!
I spend another hour looking, keeping an eye on the amount “saved” (apparently $600+, for stuff that is sold on Aliexpress for maybe $25).
When I finally get to check out, I get another spinning prize wheel. “100% off $100”!! Goddamn, I’m on a roll here. How do these guys make any money?!!
More time looking… I must have spent well over 4 hours on their app. Time to check out.
$67? Huh? What about 100% off and all that nonsense? Enter your phone number*
- You must agree to get promotional texts, or you can’t check out… hmm, maybe my wife wasn’t wrong.
In any case, there was no way to actually get anything “free”. I deleted the app, deleted my account, and will never touch this scam ever again.
Do people actually end up getting anything from Temu? I thought AliExpress was bad, but the experience is 1000x better.
Why the hell is it so popular??? I don’t get it. Do people like these never-ending promotional games without actually being able to buy something easily?
Temu uses illegal marketing tactics. The illegal marketing tactic they used on you was the Bait and Switch. These tactics are illegal because they are effective. Many people with weaker wills would just say “fuck it” and check out anyway, rather than deleting the app. These people prop up Temu and give them the funds to continue running their illegal business the way they do.
I’m just wondering why the FTC hasn’t fined the app out of operating in the US yet
Yeah, that pretty much explains it. Sad state of affairs when you have too many people willing to support such an unethical business model. I can imagine that anyone with a gambling addition could spend thousands of dollars quite easily on their platform.
Marketing. It popped up for you and has marketing taglines suggesting it’s substantially cheaper than other options. Some people are willing to jump through a lot of hoops for the possibility of savings
Sounds like a lottery! Even jumping through hoops resulted in no sale for them, and no product for me. Such a stupid concept for a “store”.
I don’t ever spin the wheel. I just go there to buy cheap stuff I don’t need to be the highest quality. Never buy anything like a digital camera, but you can buy plastic brushes to clean your wheels all day long. Stuff like that. But yeah, it IS pretty scammy.
In this case, I was forced to spin in order to get this item “free”. I mean, it was the whole point I downloaded the app! But they keep giving you more and more spinning wheels, and at some point you have to decide to check out. Then you’re hit with a much larger total than they led you on to believe you would have!
Yup, I understand the comment. I was merely pointing out that I don’t think TEMU is 100% scam. It has its uses. To be honest, when I saw the wheel, I just thought it was an annoying pop up and never really considered taking it seriously. LOL. Just clicked on that x.