Is it only refunding the money to make money? Buyers: Temu is a good platform for "0 yuan purchase"

——Temu, profits are calculated in gross, losses are calculated in thousand…

——Since I started Temu , I dreamed of buyers bargaining ...

Temu sellers suspected of being "wholesale freeloaders": only refunds to fatten up freeloaders

Temu, which replicated the Pinduoduo model, did not omit the domestic strategy of "refund only, no return".

"Temu philanthropists have suffered for a long time just to get a refund." When interviewed by En.com, Li He, who was harmed by this clause, joked helplessly .

In early June, Li He's Temu store suddenly received a burst of orders. "We sold about 100 orders in a period of time, which is usually the amount of orders in a week."

"I was so happy at that time! We finally had a huge order volume," Li He said. Yien.com could still feel his excitement at that time. "After that, our store had a huge order volume again on the third day, nearly 120 orders."

"I quickly arranged to restock the product. I didn't know if the product was in line with any promotion or demand, and I didn't think too much about it."

According to Li He, the total value of these 220 orders was nearly RMB 2,600. "The profit is definitely not very high. Temu follows the path of small profits but quick turnover."

The joy of this booming sale did not last particularly long.

At the end of June, Li and his store suddenly received a large number of refund applications. "Now I can only see a total of 190 refund applications in the backend, from three different types of the same product. I don't know if they were bought by the same person. "

The seller currently says that he is in contact with the buyer, but the outcome is still unknown.

Li He also said, "If the buyer chooses to return the product due to quality issues, we will face a five-fold fine. However, Temu is not so easy to just refund the product now. In most cases, it will also ask the buyer to return the product. "

On a social media platform, Yien.com found that a group of Temu sellers had almost the same experience as Li He. As for this experience, most sellers tend to believe that it was the same buyer in the same store who "purchased wholesale and then refunded". " This kind of large-scale refund is definitely not for personal use. It is more likely that they will resell it on other platforms after purchasing it for free. "

Buyer: Only refunding makes me a freeloader, and I feel uneasy

In the eyes of sellers, the "refund only" policy is the best evidence that the platform is trying to please buyers.

Facts have proved that this policy has indeed captured many buyers in the early stage . On a certain social platform, overseas buyers have shared their good impressions of Temu's "refund only" policy.

——The glass I received was broken. I reported it to Temu and received a refund shortly after.

——The store missed a product, and Temu gave me a full refund, so thoughtful

——The product is not as good as I expected, but I can make do with it. I gave feedback to Temu and they refunded me without returning it.

…

In the early days, such favorable comments were overwhelming on social platforms. However, some buyers also said that this policy "forced" them to become "freeloaders."

A buyer said on a social platform: " Four of the products I bought on Temu were damaged to varying degrees, probably due to transportation . The problem is that every time I return the products, it says I don't need to return them and they just give me a refund . I heard that the cost is borne by the merchant . What do merchants who sell Temu want? This is clearly the fault of the transportation . "

——If every user does this, then there is no need to spend money to buy things? What kind of method is this …

——If I don’t refund, I feel like I’ve lost out. If I refund, I feel like the merchant has lost out. I can’t feel at ease.

——I don’t like the things I bought and want to return them. Sometimes I have to return them, and sometimes the system gives me a “refund only”. I am almost a freeloader.

——Temu is really a good platform for “0 yuan purchase”, many people around me got it for free

…

There are many complaints like this.

For buyers, the quality of products on Temu is worrying, but from the seller's perspective, Temu officials have been tightening their quality inspection efforts since this year. If there is any problem with a product, the sellers will have their entire boxes returned, and they will have to pay huge shipping costs.

It is conceivable that in order to pass the quality inspection, the sellers must have put in a lot of effort, but in the end when the products reach the hands of buyers, there are still a lot of quality problems.

"To be honest, if it's our own problems with the materials that don't meet the buyers' expectations, then we can just refund them. But many times it's clearly because of 'violent' delivery during transportation, and we are still blamed for it. How can this not make people angry!" an interviewed seller told Ennet.

At the same time, Een.com also found that recently some buyers said that "price reduction compensation" appeared on Temu . When buyers select order on the Temu page, a request for price adjustment option will appear. If the price of the purchased item is reduced within 30 days, the price difference will be refunded.

Many buyers have already made up the difference, "even though it's just a few dollars, but a little is still money."

It is not clear whether the platform or the seller paid for the price difference refund, but most sellers tend to believe that the seller should bear it. "The platform fine is not clear, there are no valuable details, and based on Temu's usual practice, how could it be that they are "bleeding"."

The price cuts were not the subjective will of the sellers , but they still have to pay for them . "The buyers are very aggressive in pushing down the prices. If we don't agree, we can only remove the products from the shelves or lose traffic. But now there is no profit margin after the price cuts, and we have to subsidize the price difference to the buyers. There is really no way out."

Buyers and sellers continue to complain, and the US and Canadian government departments are also keeping a close eye on Temu

On the one hand, Temu is complained by sellers and disliked by buyers, and on the other hand, multiple sites on the platform are also facing close scrutiny from local regulatory authorities.

Not long ago , the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S.-China Strategic Competition released a report accusing Temu of violating U.S. tariff regulations and exploiting loopholes in tax laws to evade taxes.

Under the de minimis import declaration regulations of Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930, goods are exempt from import duties if their retail fair value does not exceed $800.

In 2022, about 600,000 items of imports into the United States were eligible for duty-free every day . This number may be higher now . Among them , the products of Temu and another overseas e-commerce giant may account for more than 30%, and nearly half of all duty-free packages shipped from China to the United States .

At the same time , the report also accused Temu of selling small packages that avoided scrutiny from U.S. Customs and Border Protection , posing a risk of selling goods suspected of forced labor .

Shortly thereafter, Canada 's relevant regulatory authority, the local Ministry of Health, announced a recall of several child car safety seats sold on Temu because they were not certified under the safety regulations of the Canadian Ministry of Transport.

The recalled products are the TONGXINLE universal two-way car safety seat for children and infants, the Reyi portable child car safety seat and the Jibaobao car seat.

Health Canada stressed that the recalled products were made in China, did not display the national safety mark of Transport Canada, may not have been certified, and did not meet the safety requirements of the Motor Vehicle Restraint Systems and Booster Seats Safety Regulations. As of the time of the recall, no incidents had been reported for this product.

In markets such as Italy and the UK, Temu has faced considerable controversy from the market and official positions . Today , Temu , which is growing rapidly , is also followed by more and more dissatisfaction and opposition ...

( The seller Li He interviewed in the article is a pseudonym )

Temu

Refund only