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Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

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Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#291

Post by Nursie »

naijaboiler wrote: post #270
Nursie wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the outcomes here are insane - Here in Australia I can order a $10 (AUD) item from aliexpress and get free shipping from China. But as a consumer or small busines, if I want to send anything bigger than a letter within Australia it's likely to cost me way more than $10 just for the postage. It doesn't make sense and it must distort retail trade in China's favour. I'm honestly not surprised the US withdrew from t…

So how are they able to deliver at such low rates and why can’t other work it out and use that as well

Because it's subsidised or effectively subsidised by treaty - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Postal_Union

AFAICT it means that postal costs are only paid in the originating country, and receiving countries are still obliged to deliver.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#292

Post by Freak_NL »

rfmc wrote: post #144
jopsen wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Denmark imports have to pay vat (25%), regardless of tariffs (goods made in Denmark also charge vat). But the processing fee for customs is usually 20-40 USD. Which can exceed the cost of the package in the first place. So when possible I always shop within the EU, or maybe the US.

That’s all true, but you are leaving out an important piece of information that, at least for AliExpress, the VAT is already included in the price and there’s no additional customs processing fee.

Yeah, you have to try real hard to get a customs processing fee on a package from AliExpress. Customs literally can't keep up with the fire-hose of packages coming in from China, so the current deal is that they, AliExpress, charge and pay VAT and the packages just come through unscathed.

Order something from the US into Europe? Expect to pay customs most of the time. From Great Britain post-Brexit? Ditto. China? Rarely.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#293

Post by constantcrying »

0xEF wrote: post #286
constantcrying wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally am always weary of cheap power banks. Given the rest of the corners cut on the device, how sure are you that the circuitry and the batteries themselves are of acceptable safety standards. Even the batteries in expensive devices can become dangerous and I would assume that those undergo some higher leven of QA, testing and safety standards.

Paying more =/= quality, unfortunately. Believe me, I wish it were otherwise. Don't be afraid to open up those battery banks now and then if you want to be sure, put a meter on them and scope them if you know how, but you'll find what I typically find; a lot of the same cheap components all wrapped in a pretty package. But because one came from China and one was "made" in the USA, you'll pay a lot more for one than y…

Do you really believe that the same safety standards apply to all products?

I bought an Anker Battery bank, which got recalled for some safety issue. There is absolutely zero doubt in my mind that some random Chinese seller would not have bothered with any of that. Likely such a safety issue would have never come to light.

Battery production is in China anyways. Do you believe that all Chinese companies adhere to the same standards and that companies who are trying to get some kind of brand reputation in the west would still choose the complete bottom end of battery production?

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#294

Post by Freak_NL »

dep_b wrote: post #178
Freak_NL wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gets even weirder when you consider the prices of shipping even within the EU. Within Germany? €3,50 if the seller has a good deal with DHL, within the Netherlands? €4,50 with PostNL. As a normal consumer shipping something the price goes up, and when you want to ship from the Netherlands to Germany or vice versa? €9,50 at least. Vinted seems to be the exception because of their deal with Mondial Relay, so I can o…

I remember paying 25 euro to ship a bottle of wine to somebody in Belgium while living 30 minutes away from the border (just for weight and destination, wine itself had no extra taxes). And then stuff from China appears at my doorstep almost for free? I would love to buy more from European sellers, but unless you're a serious company with deals shipping is just too expensive.

Our invisible borders are quite real when it comes to shipping. It's only the really big ones like Amazon which seem to be able to negotiate lower prices across the block, and that's just depressing.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#295

Post by miunau »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #284
philjohn wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not entirely. For cycling there are now a group of trusted companies that many people purchase from - WinSpace, Magene, iGPSport, that stand behind their products. I have a Magene p505 crank-based power meter - £250 delivered. It's as accurate as ones costing 4X as much, and has not shown any signs of issues in the year+ I've been using it. The idea that AliExpress is just for cheap tat is less and less true, and pro…

> The idea that AliExpress is just for cheap tat is less and less true, and products in certain sectors coming out of China are just much better value for money (and often, as good as, or better quality) than you'd find from homegrown companies. Not just better value for money, I often find that AliExpress sells things I simply cannot find anywhere else. A recent example: I was looking for something to balance the 3r…

Yeah, there are loads of cables, converters etc. that I can't get even from Amazon. Aliex has been the only place.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#296

Post by bamboozled »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #69
glimshe wrote: post #15

Good riddance. I'd rather have fewer things I care more about. If we rethink our consumption, we could become happier, need less space and spend less money even at higher prices. And when we do need to buy things, we'll be either supporting local workers or friendly nations.

> If we rethink our consumption, we could become happier If we wished upon a star that humans were better a lot of problems would go away. In the real world, poor people will make do and those with resources will buy smuggled goods. I’m already diverting a spring skiing trip to Canada because it’s cheaper to buy kit there than here.

This is what will happen, it's why Americans and American got into the cheaper, Chinese made goods thing in the first place, there was a LOT of demand for cheaper stuff.

People will just do less, become more poor and have less opportunities or work around the system by smuggling things from Canada or something.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#297

Post by marcusb »

nottorp wrote: post #135
bufferoverflow wrote: post #50

I used to buy a lot from Temu. Till I got a product that fell apart after three months. I tried to leave a bad review, but Temu wouldn't allow it. If you're trying to leave 3 star rating or below, they redirect you to customer service. But since customer service only dealt with items under 45 days (as far as I remember), they would just tell me something like "too bad, you're out of luck". So I can't get a refund, I…

Temu/Aliexpress/etc are for buying very cheap clothing. 2 out of 3 items fit and 1 out of 3 is decent quality. That's still cheaper, depending on what tariffs your country is charging. I wouldn't buy something where a warranty would be useful from them. Ok, maybe very niche hobby products, but then I wouldn't expect a warranty.

> Ok, maybe very niche hobby products, but then I wouldn't expect a warranty.

I bought a bunch of parts for a racing drone from Aliexpress because I didn't expect a traditional retailer's warranty to really matter much. ("This frame has been in a crash. No warranty.") What's the point of paying extra in that scenario?

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#298

Post by bamboozled »

Aurornis wrote: post #79
aegypti wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do tariffs raise the quality of domestic substitutions, or do we simply pay more?

For many products, domestically manufactured substitutes still have some inputs that come from international suppliers. Could be some raw materials, the machines that make it, or the packaging. Now everything is going to be massively more expensive and it's going to have impacts even on domestically manufactured goods. There's also the substitution effect, where heavy tariffs on one thing will increase demand on subs…

I have a friend who started a snowboard factory recently, in the USA, he was able to do this because of Chinese made CNC machines and presses that were half the price and had great support.

Now everything he needs from them to keep his factory going is going to be ridiculously more expensive, probably screwing over his business as well.

This factory wouldn't have got off the ground if it wasn't for Chinese made machines.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#299

Post by vachina »

esperent wrote: post #253
vitorgrs wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Brazil there's Shopee, which honestly, I find way better than Temu...

Shopee has even worse behavior around reviews. You can't even leave a review past the first few days, and they bribe you with shopee points to leave a review. The result is people opening the box, going yep, it works, 5 stars, gimme those points. If it breaks a week or so later? Too late! No way to give feedback.

Shopee allows you to post follow-up reviews, and gives you a grace period of 45 days to post reviews.

If you want compare, at least compare with facts.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#300

Post by frontfor »

constantcrying wrote: post #260
robocat wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> create so much pollution and waste in the process Your environmental footprint depends on your income and your country. Everything bought is environmentally unfriendly in proportion to the cost. The only exception is something where the only purpose is to be environmentally good (maybe planting some trees, maybe something that reduces energy usage). Complaining about specific things being bad is almost pointless.

>Your environmental footprint depends on your income and your country. No, it depends on what you do with that income. >Everything bought is environmentally unfriendly in proportion to the cost. Plainly false. E.g. more expensive things made of natural materials and lasting for a long time create much less landfill than products which are cheap but last only a short time. I own expensive shelfs which my parent bought…

You are speaking from the position of privilege. Not everyone is as lucky as you are in your country, let alone the world.
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