I spent $50 on the Temu app — and I'm surprised by what happened

By Kate Kozuch
last updated

Ordering from Temu didn't go exactly as expected

Temu package
(Image credit: Future)

I first heard about Temu during the Super Bowl. The on-the-rise commerce app ran a 30-second advertisement highlighting cheap prices that encourage “Shopping Like a Billionaire (opens in new tab).” With a slogan like that, it’s no wonder the Temu app is currently the number one free app on the iOS App Store.

Out of curiosity — or should I say, skepticism about whether it’s legit — I downloaded Temu to my iPhone. The app instantly bombarded me with lightning deals, shipping discounts and other promotions, many of which sounded too good to be true.

A pair of earrings for  $1.34? Gym leggings for $6.79? A garlic press for $2.88? It seems Temu sells every product under the Sun, from homeware and fashion to sports equipment and electronics. 

Temu’s prices undercut Amazon deals and Walmart deals, making it difficult for me to resist adding some products to my cart. I wound up giving myself a budget of $50 to buy items in the Temu app. Just over a week after placing the order, my Temu package arrived and I have to admit, I’m surprised.

Update: We have published a guide to Temu's shipping and return policy that's worth a read.

Yes, the prices are really that cheap

My $50 went pretty far on Temu. I ordered more for that price than I could from Amazon across a range of kitchen products and toys. The Lego-lover in me simply had to have miniature Pokemon “inspired” building bricks — I bought four for less than $3 each.

I justified my order with some practical items, too. I got a bench scraper for $4.48, silicone tongs for $3.98, a decorative glass straw for $3.68 and two coffee glasses (that looked like they could be from Crate & Barrel) for $4.99 each.

Temu order contents

(Image credit: Future)

A few days after my purchase, I checked the order status and saw Temu offer a partial refund since some of the items I bought had since dropped in price. I got $2.71 back which, in the wide world of Temu, can actually get me a thing or two.

Don’t expect premium packaging 

Whenever I order something from China, I expect it to take at least two weeks. I was pretty shocked when my Temu order arrived only eight days later, wrapped in an orange bag and taped tightly.

The package overall looked a little worse for wear. You could say it had character, I guess. I had a gut feeling that two glass cups didn’t make it unharmed, and I was right — well, half right.

Temu order broken cup

Yup, that's a pile of broken glass. (Image credit: Future)

One of the cups was completely shattered, though the other packed in identical bubble wrap was fine. The glass straw wasn’t damaged either, though its packaging was so unassuming that I initially mistook the styrofoam rectangle as protective material for all the contents of my order. 

The brick-building kits appeared to be shoved in the bag without concern for the product boxes. Luckily, the bricks were sealed in plastic, but the cardboard on two of the kits was seriously bent out of shape. 

Would I order from the Temu app again?

Temu does have a return and refund policy, but the effort of sending back a pile of broken glass isn’t worth $5 to me. Plus, with the money I got back from the price match refund, I feel like I broke even.

That said, I don’t know if I will order from the Temu app again. Sure, the prices are ridiculously cheap, and I could get lots of gifts and such for much less than I’d spend on Amazon. But at the end of the day, everything I bought are things I don’t really need. Call them impulse purchases, if you will.

In hindsight, I think I would’ve rather put the $50 towards a memorable dinner out in New York City or finally splurged on Kirby and the Forgotten Land for Nintendo Switch. Plus, I can’t imagine there are rewardable ethics behind why everything on the Temu app is so dang cheap. 

But I guess I should never say never. With the continued popularity of the app and expanse of products available to purchase, it's possible Temu has staying power. That said, I'll avoid ordering any kind of glassware from the app in the future.

More from Tom's Guide

Kate Kozuch
Kate Kozuch

Kate Kozuch is an editor at Tom’s Guide covering smartwatches, TVs and everything smart-home related. Kate also appears on Fox News to talk tech trends and runs the Tom's Guide TikTok account (opens in new tab), which you should be following. When she’s not filming tech videos, you can find her on an exercise bike, mastering the NYT Crossword or channeling her inner celebrity chef. 


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15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Tat2ddiva
    I have bought from Temu a few times. I know that the one time I did want to return something they credited my account and told me to keep the item and use it, donate it or whatever I wanted to do with it. No need to send it back. I'm sure if you would have contacted them about the broken glass, they would have given you a partial refund.
    Reply
  • MeeLee
    I've seen the store. It's clickbait. The first few items are nearly free. Like $7 sneakers. They didn't have any in my size. The majority of their stuff you can already get on alibaba, aliexpress, or even ebay, for the same prices or less.

    Temu has like about 5 to 10% of products that are worth their price. Problem is, a lot aren't available in the size, color of options, or are just not something I need to buy.

    Also, most of their products are "wish" like in quality. Meaning subpar crap that won't last long.

    Once I realized their prices are clickbait, because 90% of their products are at least 200-250% more expensive than the prices on their ads, I uninstalled the (cr)app.
    Reply
  • Phyzzi
    If you are going to use Chat GPT to "assist" in writing articles, please do your readers a favor and delete the redundancy and cliche, and if you really have to meet a minimum length, give us details like whether shipping was free or if Temu even sells things besides knock-off kitsch (for instance). I genuinely appreciate the details that were in the article about the author's experience but the "padding" just really throws me off, especially when it sets such a short, clipped pace and digresses into redundancies and meaningless aphorisms so regularly and I am sure there is more actual content to be included.
    Reply
  • sunshineisdway
    I have ordered a few things from Temu.
    I shouldn't say a few things. It's been a LOT actually.
    A couple of times things came in damaged, and when I asked for a refund they told me don't send it back and they gave me a full refund. Even things I just didn't like we're refunded without having to send it back. Only one time have they required me to send something back. Of course it depends on what you're buying.
    I tend to stick to the cheaper things because they're things I would like to try -- like some of their organizing gadgets- or have really wanted, but don't want to spend $5, $10, or more on it just to find out I don't really like it, or need it.
    They have a lot of items for organizing things in a very small space. Things I've never seen or heard of. Very helpful to me.
    If the quality is not good but I like it then I'll spend more money somewhere else.
    Most of the stuff I have ordered from them has been nice quality. Everything from baby blankets, car accessories, kitchen gadgets, to jewelry.
    I've been very surprised at the quality and very pleased. (On most of it).
    Of course you get what you pay for. If you paid 47 cents for something, don't expect it to be top quality. But if I can get 10' C-type phone charger cords for a $1.47 and 100 self adhesive wall hooks for 47 cents I'll do it, rather than pay so much more elsewhere. Great place for craft supplies.
    I wish they didn't package with plastic, just because it's plastic. But it is recyclable as well. However, it's not any better than all the cardboard and OVER packaging that Amazon does.
    They offer a lot of free things if you invite friends, don't even try it. That's a waste of time, unless you don't mind bugging your friends with links they might not want. I don't like doing that to my friends.
    I think TEMU is worth the price and they are very fair if something is damaged.
    I just recently discovered that you can look at your past orders and hit the "request price adjustment". It will go through everything you've ordered and give you the lowest price that it has had since you bought it and give you the credit. I made over $11 when I figured out that button.
    You can make up your own mind, personally I enjoy ordering from TEMU.
    I also enjoyed discovering this article and that I could have respond to it.
    HAPPY DAY TO ALL AND IT'S ALWAYS FREE SHIPPING
    Reply
  • sunshineisdway
    MeeLee said:
    I've seen the store. It's clickbait. The first few items are nearly free. Like $7 sneakers. They didn't have any in my size. The majority of their stuff you can already get on alibaba, aliexpress, or even ebay, for the same prices or less.

    Temu has like about 5 to 10% of products that are worth their price. Problem is, a lot aren't available in the size, color of options, or are just not something I need to buy.

    Also, most of their products are "wish" like in quality. Meaning subpar crap that won't last long.

    Once I realized their prices are clickbait, because 90% of their products are at least 200-250% more expensive than the prices on their ads, I uninstalled the (cr)app.
    I don't think you can judge something by looking at it one time. Dig a little deeper
    Reply
  • RufusVS
    MeeLee said:
    I've seen the store. It's clickbait. The first few items are nearly free. Like $7 sneakers. They didn't have any in my size. The majority of their stuff you can already get on alibaba, aliexpress, or even ebay, for the same prices or less.

    Temu has like about 5 to 10% of products that are worth their price. Problem is, a lot aren't available in the size, color of options, or are just not something I need to buy.

    Also, most of their products are "wish" like in quality. Meaning subpar crap that won't last long.

    Once I realized their prices are clickbait, because 90% of their products are at least 200-250% more expensive than the prices on their ads, I uninstalled the (cr)app.
    The fact there is no shipping makes it far cheaper than Aliexpress, where shipping fees can be multiple times the cost of the item, and adding additional items of the same thing, no matter how small, updates the shipping cost.
    But I very much dislike when an entry has multiple items, the mailings and search results show the price of the lowest options, while showing the picture of the higher priced item. That part is definite clickbait, intentional or not.
    Reply
  • The1Lion
    I just received my first Temu order today. Mainly water filters for my refrigerator but saw some good PC RAM memory that I thought I'd get to upgrade my PC. It was listed as CL 10 which is fast memory, but I tested it and it's only CL 19 which is much slower.

    Thankfully it's free to return. May not use Temu again if you can't trust the listed info. Or just use it for simple things.
    Reply
  • Lolee2771
    sunshineisdway said:
    I have ordered a few things from Temu.
    I shouldn't say a few things. It's been a LOT actually.
    A couple of times things came in damaged, and when I asked for a refund they told me don't send it back and they gave me a full refund. Even things I just didn't like we're refunded without having to send it back. Only one time have they required me to send something back. Of course it depends on what you're buying.
    I tend to stick to the cheaper things because they're things I would like to try -- like some of their organizing gadgets- or have really wanted, but don't want to spend $5, $10, or more on it just to find out I don't really like it, or need it.
    They have a lot of items for organizing things in a very small space. Things I've never seen or heard of. Very helpful to me.
    If the quality is not good but I like it then I'll spend more money somewhere else.
    Most of the stuff I have ordered from them has been nice quality. Everything from baby blankets, car accessories, kitchen gadgets, to jewelry.
    I've been very surprised at the quality and very pleased. (On most of it).
    Of course you get what you pay for. If you paid 47 cents for something, don't expect it to be top quality. But if I can get 10' C-type phone charger cords for a $1.47 and 100 self adhesive wall hooks for 47 cents I'll do it, rather than pay so much more elsewhere. Great place for craft supplies.
    I wish they didn't package with plastic, just because it's plastic. But it is recyclable as well. However, it's not any better than all the cardboard and OVER packaging that Amazon does.
    They offer a lot of free things if you invite friends, don't even try it. That's a waste of time, unless you don't mind bugging your friends with links they might not want. I don't like doing that to my friends.
    I think TEMU is worth the price and they are very fair if something is damaged.
    I just recently discovered that you can look at your past orders and hit the "request price adjustment". It will go through everything you've ordered and give you the lowest price that it has had since you bought it and give you the credit. I made over $11 when I figured out that button.
    You can make up your own mind, personally I enjoy ordering from TEMU.
    I also enjoyed discovering this article and that I could have respond to it.
    HAPPY DAY TO ALL AND IT'S ALWAYS FREE SHIPPING

    I actually don't see inviting friends on Temu a waste of time. I have won 3 products free of charge with free shipping bc of inviting people. I won a $109 drone that's really, really nice, a $100 spiral hair curling barrel and a $39 security light bulb. The bulb was kinda cheaply made but the drone and curling barrel were surprisingly very well made. But that being said I have already invited all of my friends that will play along and click on the link so I just can't get the final amount of people needed to win any prizes now. I really don't know why they keep getting you to try to invite friends after you've already invited as many as someone like me has. I'm just saying it may not be worth it to you but to me it tickled me pink to actually win 3 prizes that were not just small junk items. So I say if you want to win, give it a shot bc you never know who will actually click on the link to help you win. Especially if you explain to them that it's not a trick and that you're actually gonna win something. Most of my friends wanted to help.
    Reply
  • sunshineisdway
    Since I'm new here, I think I wrote my reply in the wrong place.
    So I was asking why I don't get any credit even though I have invited quite a few friends and even had a couple of them download it?
    What am I doing wrong?
    Reply
  • kshensley71
    I have ordered from then a lot, I'm almost addicted at this point. I've bought towels, cables, cases, adapters, shelf brackets, shoes, and many other things. So far no issues, all really cheap, nothing broken, all received quickly. I bought some wire connectors I was paying almost $15 for on Amazon for $3 and they are identical.
    Reply