Therefore, you should be careful with Temu online store

Who doesn’t look forward to a real bargain in times of high inflation and rising prices? The online store Temu is currently advertising incredibly low prices – and the tagline “Shop like a billionaire!”.

On the social networks, the American company beats the advertising drum vigorously – with success. The app is the number one most popular application in the Apple and Google Play app stores. But despite the popularity of the online store, criticism is getting louder – also from consumer interests in Germany.

Headphones for four, sonic toothbrush for five francs

If you look around the website – you have to register first – you quickly notice how incredibly cheap the products are. There are Bluetooth headphones that cost just under four francs, T-shirts for three francs, sonic toothbrushes for five francs.

While some are happy with the extreme bargains, others are suspicious of such prices. How is it possible that a sonic toothbrush costs only five francs at Temu, while it can cost as much as a hundred francs elsewhere?

Users complain about poor quality

The answer: they are usually cheap goods. On “Trustpilot” you will find many reviews reporting the poor quality of the products. In some cases, the goods do not work at all, are damaged or broken.

Some users even claim that they have been scammed on Temu. They paid for their order, but the goods never arrived. There are also complaints about the ‘difficult to reach’ customer service, but also about the countless e-mails with offers and discounts.

“Customer service is usually almost impossible to reach, certainly not in German. And the return to China is expensive and time-consuming and usually exceeds the price of the goods,” warns the consumer protection center in Rhineland-Palatinate.

But there are also many positive reviews on “Trustpilot”. Despite the low prices, the quality is good, there are no delivery costs, the delivery itself is fast and the customer service is good. Whether these reviews are genuine is unclear. A voucher code for the online shop can be found in a remarkably large number of positive reviews.

Temu is based on a marketplace system

The system behind it is also responsible for the criticism of Temu. Because this is less of a classic online store and more of an internet marketplace – similar to AliExpress. Temu acts as a kind of intermediary between customers and dealers, many of whom are based in China.

Often these marketplaces offer goods from all kinds of areas: from electronics to fashion and furniture. This huge range is also possible because these providers do not have their own warehouses. The customer orders on Temu, but actually buys products from a third party.

Be careful when using the app

This also means that Temu or other Internet marketplaces cannot control the quality of the goods offered because they do not come into contact with them. With a large website with such a huge selection, scammers can also sneak in and take advantage of the hype surrounding the app.

When it comes to the Temu app, consumer advocates from Mainz warn: “You should become suspicious that a shopping app needs access to the user’s camera, microphone, photos and address book. Because this data is not necessary for the functioning of the app, for example.”

So if you really want to shop like a billionaire, you have to be careful. While Temu is not a rip-off in itself, there is a certain risk of getting trapped or receiving an inferior quality product. If you need a new sonic toothbrush or Bluetooth headphones, it is better to buy such devices from a specialty store.