Is Temu Legit? We Ordered 24 Items To Find Out

Is Temu Legit? We Ordered 24 Items To Find Out

Yes, Temu (pronounced Tee-moo) is mostly legit:

  • The site sells real products and on average, customers receive their orders within 10 days.
  • However, you get what you pay for. As you might expect from its very low prices, sometimes there are quality mismatches.
  • Overall, we were impressed with the quality for the price, but it did fall down on a few other factors.

We ordered three hauls to test out how legitimate Temu is for ourselves. Read on to find out how we scored Temu on shopping experience, delivery, product quality and more.

We spent $130 on 3 x hauls from Temu that included quirky kitchen accessories, off-brand electronics and clothes.

Temu’s Legitscore™️: A Breakdown

While assessing Temu’s legitimacy, we focused on four key areas: ordering, delivery, product quality and the company, its ownership and location. This is what we found. 

  • Overall LegitScore: 3/5

We gauge the legitimacy of a store based on a range of factors that are most relevant to you, the customer. Read more about our LegitScore methodology.

Legit 

  • Speedy delivery meant our orders arrived in just 7 days, beating the estimate by 3 days
  • The checkout experience was a breeze and even better with a discount code
  • Our credit card info was uncompromised after we made our purchase
  • With its Purchase Protection Program, Temu has your back if something’s not right
  • Product quality exceeded dollar store level, even rivaling Amazon in some cases
  • If an item drops in price within 30 days, Temu’s Price Adjustment Policy lets you request a refund for the difference

Not Legit 

  • The shopping experience felt chaotic due to constant disruptive and annoying pop-ups
  • Navigation is a confusing maze with endless scrolling and look-alike products
  • Our deliveries arrived in damaged and generic gray mailers
  • Our inbox was bombarded by Temu post order thanking us for shopping
  • There’s an excessive use of plastic in the packaging
  • Labor concerns are real; the Select Committee has issued a warning that Temu products could be made with forced Uyghur labor

Temu Ordering

We ordered three hauls from Temu to test out a range of its best selling categories and products.

Our hauls included four best-selling, off brand electronics items for a total price of AU$56.60 ($36.60 USD)…
Twelve kitchen gadgets for a total price of AU$49.92 ($32.28)
Eight items of clothing for the total price of AU$96.96 ($62.72)

Shopping on Temu, whether via app or site, is intense due to its massive range and chaotic navigation, so finding what we were looking for took some effort. 

Sometimes we found things we weren’t looking for at all. 

Like this AirPod-shaped smoking pipe.

The site unabashedly pushes you to buy big with endless deals via pop-ups, we found this digital noise annoying, which detracted from the shopping experience. 

We opted to shop mostly from its Best Sellers range because it felt easier to find what we wanted and, as most products have lots of reviews, it felt like we’d get better-quality products too. 

Temu does have a Purchase Protection Program in place, so you can get refunds for items that don’t match their online listings, arrive damaged or fail to arrive at all.

Adding items to our cart was a breeze, as was checkout, where we applied a Wethrift discount code for extra savings.

Also, if your order takes more than 10 days to arrive, Temu gives you a small store credit (we were promised $5 within 48 hours of the exceeded estimated delivery date).

Temu Delivery 

Our orders all arrived faster than expected. Temu’s official shipping estimate is 8 to 21 days, but we received 75% of our order in seven days and the last 25% in eight days.

Admittedly, the last package’s delivery was peculiar. A driver called after 9pm on a Friday, unable to find our easily-identifiable building and asking us to meet them outside. 

Despite the speedy delivery, the packaging of our Temu orders was a let down. 

Even though the internet would have you believe every Temu order comes in bright orange branded bags, ours arrived in plain gray, plastic mail bags. 

EXPECTATION: Our orders to arrive in shiny, Temu-branded mailbags

REALITY: Receiving our Temu order in generic, gray mailing bags felt less than legit

One bag had a 4.5”-wide (11.4cm) hole that looked like it had been caused by the bag being over-filled. We pulled two of our products through it easily. 

The gray bags and the gaping hole did not feel legit at all.

After our orders were delivered, our inbox got super noisy with daily offers from Temu to “thank” us for shopping there. 

We feel Temu could do with a bit of chill on the post-order email front.

Temu Product Quality

Across the 24 items we ordered from Temu, the quality was hit and miss.

While we studied product images and kept the low prices in mind when we added to cart, there was still a gap between what we expected and what we actually received.

Here are our standouts and disappointments from our hauls unboxing.

Electronics: Exceeded Expectations

We selected four of Temu’s top-selling electronics, all under $35, and came away mostly impressed.

THE STANDOUT: The 4 Gen Headphones, priced at $12.98. Visually and functionally, these came very close to Apple AirPods. While the sound quality wasn’t as crisp, for $13, they exceeded expectations. 

Expectation: A pair of convincing Apple AirPod knockoffs.
Reality: A pair of convincing Apple AirPod knockoffs, albeit the 3rd generation model.

THE LETDOWN: The Mobile Phone Holder/Selfie Stick, at $14.43, wasn’t a complete failure, but its damaged box, lackluster branding and instructions made it feel less than legit.

Expectation: A slick mobile phone accessory that wouldn’t look too posey if pulled out in public.
Reality: A great-looking product in a shabby box you’d never pick up in a physical store.

Kitchen Gadgets: A Mixed Bag

Inspired by Temu’s quirky stock, we indulged in a playful haul. While the quality wasn’t great—especially with battery-operated and magnetic items—foolproof stuff like an ice cube maker and fruit containers didn’t disappoint.

THE STANDOUT: The banana-shaped Banana Storage Box, $2.18. It’s yellow, sturdy, and prevented a banana from turning into a mushy mess after a full day spent in my daughter’s diaper bag. A win in our book.

Expectation: A potentially crappy but only $2 so what the heck banana case.
Reality: A bad-ass $2 banana holder that made mom life a bit easier.

THE LETDOWN: The Snack Sealing Machine, $2.65, was concerning right out of the box. Its flimsy plastic and heat-based sealing felt like a hazardous mix. Upon use, it emitted a strong, toxic odor. Like wow, it stinks. Obviously re-sealing a bag requires some level of melting plastic, but this really smells toxic.

Expectation: A handy little gadget that would help reduce food waste for $2, bargain.
Reality: Looks true to the website, but disappoints in function and emits a terrible odor.

Overall, Temu’s product quality exceeded that of a typical dollar store and matched Amazon’s standards.

If you’re interested in a deeper dive into the quality of each haul, read our roadtests of the Temu kitchen gadgets, off-brand electronics and clothes we bought.

Clothes: You Get What You Pay For, We Guess

Sizes generally ran one size larger than indicated on Temu’s guide. Fabrics were all thin, there were lots of loose threads and nothing seemed like it would last beyond a few washes. But that’s nothing extraordinary for cheap, fast fashion like this, right?

THE STANDOUT: The Solid Basic T-shirt, $5.97, was generally good. In that it was well-structured, shaped and stitched. BUT…

Expectation: A basic black tee for dirt cheap 

Reality: A basic black tee for dirt cheap, that picked up every bit of lint and, despite steaming it twice, this is as good as we could get it to look on a flat lay.

THE LETDOWN: The Tribal Print Dress, $18.89 disappointed the most; its polyester fabric contradicts the promise of a dress that “will keep you cool and comfortable in the summer heat” and could be uncomfortably warm on a hot day. We’re sending this one straight back.

Expectation: While the photos on Temu suggested a soft, breathable fabric akin to a crepe in a neutral cream…

Reality: â€¦the actual material is a shiny polyester that’d likely be uncomfortable and less than fresh-smelling on a hot summer day. It’s also transparent and a different colour from on site.

Temu Company, Ownership, Location

Temu is owned by PDD Holdings Inc, which also owns the wildly successful Chinese shopping site Pinduoduo, as per the US Securities and Exchange Commission. 

According to insights authority YipitData, Temu’s sales jumped from $3 million in September 2022 to $192 million by January 2023, pre-expenses.

Temu’s own website also boasts significant financial strength, emphasizing its cash reserve and volume of annual orders under its ‘unique strengths.’

There’s no explicit info about Temu’s parent company on its site but under ‘About Temu’ it claims it was founded in Boston, which the Better Business Bureau (BBB), states is also the location of its HQ.

The BBB also details that Temu has a company name of WhaleCo Inc and, although it’s registered in Massachusetts as a Foreign Corporation, most items it sells are shipped from China.

More Stuff to Know About How Legit Temu Is

Good

Price: Strong point. Temu offers more competitive pricing than rivals like Shein and Amazon, plus a 30-day adjustment policy that refunds you the difference if an item you bought becomes cheaper. The catch? You need to request this refund yourself.

Bad

Navigation: Hectic, featuring endless scroll. Using search for an item yields thousands of nearly identical products, often sharing photos but with different names and prices.

Pop-ups: Non-stop. Temu keeps you hooked with games and deals through constant pop-ups. Though they’re distracting, they may make you linger on the site longer and encourage a fuller cart than you’d have on Shein or Amazon.

Plastic: Items arrived individually wrapped in soft plastic. Obviously no-one is shopping at Temu for its eco-creds, but the plastic count felt excessive.

Ugly

Labour practices: Under investigation. The House Select Committee has gone on record to caution American consumers that there’s an “extremely high risk” that Temu products could be made using forced Uyghur labor, which is in direct violation of a 2021 US law. 

This is part of a wider US investigation into Chinese-made products amid rising political tensions; Nike, Adidas and Shein are also under investigation.