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The original was posted on /r/nostupidquestions by /u/Captpan6 on 2023-08-11 17:13:46.

My family has been using Temu for shopping the whole summer. I was first introduced to it after my wife implored me to download this version of the app that had me pressing a button every five minutes, which she said would get us free money. I did as she asked but as soon as a time came to “cash out” I found out you have to send it to other people and when they reach that point, only then do I get the money. That immediately left a bad impression.

Then my wife started talking about how much better and cheaper it was than anything she’s seen, showing me these items and designer goods that were going for a fraction of what they usually go for. It was interesting, but something in my gut was telling me there’s something not right about it. Some of these items include Lego sets that sell for a tenth of what they usually go for, which makes me suspicious about whether they’re the real thing and, if so, why are they being sold for these prices? There’s only one explanation that comes to mind: theft.

Some time ago my wife was into Shein shopping but she stopped when she learned the clothing designs on that site were stolen from the real creators and being manufactured and sold at a lower cost and poorer quality, which convinced her to stop shopping there. There has been no such news like that about Temu but I’m convinced that’s exactly what’s happening. Patents are being stolen and the respective goods manufactured cheaply. That or the goods themselves are stolen from the product line and sold through Temu.

I’ve spoken to my wife about these concerns but she’s rebutted by saying that we need to think about how we spend money (even though we are not having money problems) and that if there’s no proof, there’s no problem. I’m not going to force her or the rest of my family to stop using the service but I don’t like how much they’re using it, especially since my mom has for years decried the theft of intellectual property by China and yet this doesn’t raise any flags.

I’m not just trying to adopt a moral high ground; I also think a service whose app looks particularly dingy, whose shipping is atrocious (the goods are shoddily wrapped and taped up in a bag like a 5-year old did it), who is pulling off this pseudo pyramid scheme, who has poorly-produced mobile ads, and who is selling goods at extremely suspicious prices can’t be trusted with my credit card info.