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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

#611

Post by gs17 »

idopmstuff wrote: post #490
wahnfrieden wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love it in terms of consumer experience. I like several products from AliExpress and the like, but sometimes find they're available for the same price or cheaper and faster with better customer service from Amazon. I don't care that they have generic brand names in either case

I'm with you. I don't really understand the complaints, since Amazon's return policy means that you aren't really taking a risk when you buy, even from randomly-named brands.

> Amazon's return policy means that you aren't really taking a risk

Depends how much you buy. If you end up returning too much stuff, Amazon will ban you.

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

#612

Post by gs17 »

ldoughty wrote: post #556
ronbenton wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of them made out of balsa wood yet have 10,000 5-star reviews. It’s a joke

> I was very pleased with my "[brand name, if applicable] toilet seat, (2-pack), premium pure white, toolless installation", that I purchased for my family. Would definitely recommend it to friends and family. It arrived promptly and was in perfect condition. You exceeded your current quota please check your plan and billing details. The above is similar to recent reviews I've seen. It's infuriating that there is a r…

> It's infuriating that there is a reliance on user reporting to find and report COMPLETELY OBVIOUS fake reviews on Amazon.

Have they removed reviews you report? I've only ever heard of them removing legitimate negative reviews.

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

#613

Post by turtlebits »

_heimdall wrote: post #446
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

15 different variants of the same product, all obviously cheaply made from the same factory, with varying degrees of quality control and reviews strewn about the various “brands” of the product so that it’s much harder to have a negative review everywhere. Yeah, this sucks. Though the correct thing to do here is to enforce this hygiene on the platforms themselves. They have every resource and means to be able to prev…

I ended up drastically cutting back on Amazon purchases when they started getting flooded with brands like that. Its absolutely on Amazon to maintain quality. There are certain brands and types of products I'll order there because they're just harder to find otherwise, but its mostly a last resort these days given that Amazon doesn't care to curate what is on their "shelves".

If the quality sucks (or at least doesn't match expectations), return it. Shipping is fast and returns are easy. The vendor takes the consequence of the return. Rarely do I buy product that has subpar quality that I need to return it. Just do your research.

This is why I still buy from Amazon.

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

#614

Post by Spooky23 »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #526
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

15 different variants of the same product, all obviously cheaply made from the same factory, with varying degrees of quality control and reviews strewn about the various “brands” of the product so that it’s much harder to have a negative review everywhere. Yeah, this sucks. Though the correct thing to do here is to enforce this hygiene on the platforms themselves. They have every resource and means to be able to prev…

There are flecks of gold in the midst of all that dirt. I needed to make a 3/4" hole in a 1/8" thick mild steel angle to repair a cart. Didn't have a drill bit that size and quickly realized that a hole saw would be a better choice. Off to Amazon. After some browsing, found the same 3/4" carbide-tipped holesaw from a million resellers. Found a package of two for $13. Following the logic of "even if they only last for…

I think the key is to have a sort of risk framework. Things that handle data, are a fire risk or are direct knockoffs avoid.

Otherwise it’s often a good value, and sometimes the “brand” name is really the knockoff with a trademark on the box.

The carburetor on my leaf blower failed and needed a rebuild. The “name brand” kits were $40-60 at Home Depot and Lowe’s. I got some random kit on Amazon that was the same main part, with a different (and better) kit of tubes, etc than the retail one.

Same thing with clothes. I’ve had great luck with workout clothes, my girlfriend did well with dresses and other stuff. Just be smart about it — $10 jeans are gonna be garbage.

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

#615

Post by jdeibele »

qingcharles wrote: post #578
zamalek wrote: post #411

I wonder if we can look forward to the end of the letter soup brands on Amazon, it's ridiculously difficult finding real brands in between them. That would be one silver lining in all this mess, at least.

My favorite is all these letter-soup Firewire-to-USB convertors which are just glue and random wires inside and are either completely inert or disastrously damaging to your peripherals: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=firewire+to+usb+adapter It's fascinating to me that every letter-soup brand is competing on a product that is literally fraud.

I literally got a Firewire to USB converter yesterday to try and pull video off a DV Camcorder. A video capture card in the same price range had worked great for letting me stream VHS tapes through OBS Studio.

There are various YouTube videos showing a daisy chain of Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 1/2 adapters connected to various Firewire cables and adapters. I was hoping to avoid all of that but the camera doesn't show at all. Fortunately, nothing seems damaged on either side.

I've only got 6 tapes so I'm sending them off to a service and sending the adapter back to Amazon.

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

#616

Post by jacobgkau »

jen20 wrote: post #500
idopmstuff wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you. I don't really understand the complaints, since Amazon's return policy means that you aren't really taking a risk when you buy, even from randomly-named brands.

That rather depends on your ability to evaluate what you get. I have no qualms telling non-technical people "buy USB-C chargers from the Apple Store", knowing perfectly well what quality I will get. However, you can't even guarantee you'll get something genuine from Amazon anymore even if you select that exact same product.

Exactly. And most people think, "well, I'm super technical, so I'll know," but that only works for your own field. I can tell if a USB-C charger is genuine or not, but I know that I don't know enough about clothing irons or magazine sleeves or a hundred other items to tell if it's crap or not within the return period. Sometimes, I may never know if I don't try a different one for an extended period of time.

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

#617

Post by jacobgkau »

ziml77 wrote: post #515
blueboo wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It only shows what people are buying, not what they want to buy. Cheap crap might sell a ton because it's cheap and listed at the top of the search results. Which then feeds into it being kept at the top of the search results. A lot of times if the item is cheap enough people don't bother with returns and rather just throw the item out, something that will go completely unseen by the metrics. Ratings are also not ver…

> putting offers in the package to give people money back if they rate the item 5 stars,

I had something similar but more convoluted happen with the car mount I got for my phone. The box included a card stating to email them to sign up for their warranty. Emailing them signed me up for their loyalty emails, which are infrequent enough that I actually didn't mind them. The loyalty emails frequently included offers of "free gifts." One day, I actually replied to one asking for it, and they explained I'd be buying it from them on Amazon and then they'd pay me back for it-- in exchange for a review, of course.

I'd had similar things offered to me as a YouTuber with companies wanting "reviews" but making me do the purchase myself (I've done one or two of them). The fact that it's just being offered to mainstream consumers now is ridiculous. It means you can't trust any of the reviews (or at least the positive ones; I normally look for negative ones with photos these days).

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

#618

Post by ceejayoz »

Amezarak wrote: post #605
ceejayoz wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assure you the US did not import $1.3M worth of machinery from an uninhabited island. It's a data error. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/04/revea...

I don’t think anyone is claiming there’s secret industry on the islands. But a “data error” is probably understating it, that is what did actually appear on the bills of lading. Whether it was a bizarre innocent mistake or sort of some kind of financial scheme is unclear.

My strong suspicion is someone misclicked a select box in a form somewhere.

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

#619

Post by roboror »

synergy20 wrote: post #541
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want the US to spend the next few decades retooling to ... build junk?

Build essential stuff locally, not junk of course. Or else the virtual economy can not sustain forever based on borrowing money while producing very little locally.

What is "essential stuff" to you?

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

#620

Post by saalweachter »

XenophileJKO wrote: post #454
forgetfreeman wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If we enrich the CCP we just end up with an adversary capable of taking us on. That's why tariffs." This argument is absolutely accurate and somewhere between two and six decades late depending on who you feel like blaming for offshoring. Present day all we're doing is poking inflation with a stick, threatening the bond market (and eventually the dollar reserve), and encouraging economic partners to look elsewhere f…

The thing that really annoys me is tariffs could have been used SO much more intelligently. For example a 24 month increasing schedule. That gives business the kind of incentive to affect manufacturing and something they can plan against. But now we have a dumpster fire and tariffs will have an even worse reputation.

The tricky part is the goal is another tax cut.

Right now, after all of the other tax cuts, our budget deficit is slightly larger than the US discretionary budget.

Which means that, even if DOGE cut everything, there's still no way to close the deficit without raising taxes.

Enter the tariffs.

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