AArdvark wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 3:06 am Amazon told him to just keep the stuff because it's too much of a pain to return it all.

That is the absolute best thing about modern eCommerce: they usually don't want it back.

Last christmas I gave a RC car to an unemployed dad because I figured out I could fix the original so why not give away the good one in the box.

Does Karma get better than free?

My boy got his credit card information stolen a week ago. It seems somebody started buying a lot of stuff on Amazon with his card. BUT they were too stupid to change the shipping address because all this stuff started showing up at his house he didn't buy.
Six hair dryers! The high end kind they use in salons. A bunch of bedsheets (ugly ones at that) and some other crap.

Since he's been taught to balance his checkbook daily by his banker mom and all his purchases alert him on his phone, he knew about it right away and filed a dispute and shut off the card.
Amazon told him to just keep the stuff because it's too much of a pain to return it all.

I guess all his friends are getting hair dryers and ugly sheets for Christmas this year

I'm on your side with it.

pinback wrote: Wed Apr 09, 2025 5:28 am

Casual Observer wrote: Tue Apr 08, 2025 7:53 am Because the Chinese government enslaves its people, stackweed.

You're committed to "stackweed", huh?

Ok, kill me I like movie quotes. Here's the backstory as if you GAS

Mosquito Coast, Harrison Ford movie

Guy is a mad scientist kind, moves his family to Brazil to start his vision of a utopian society.

Early scene, local missionary kids ask his twin daughters (same twins as in the movie The Great Outdoors with Dan Ackeroid (sp) and John Candy BTW) why they moved down there and the one twin says something like (I can't find the exact script today) "He came here so he can build a village in the jungle, stackweed"

Loved the insult ever since, fuck me.

Casual Observer wrote: Tue Apr 08, 2025 7:53 am Because the Chinese government enslaves its people, stackweed.

You're committed to "stackweed", huh?

Flack wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 8:38 pm but now we're getting into "wife shopping savings" price logic.

I was already thinking "This is becoming girl math."

Casual Observer wrote: Tue Apr 08, 2025 7:53 am Because the Chinese government enslaves its people, stackweed.

They look fine to me.

RealNC wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 11:09 pm I don't know how they can ship stuff that cheap. I bought velour earpads for my headphones for 1.26€, a remote control for an LG TV for 3.40€ and a PCI to PCI-e adapter card for 7.67€, all on different occasions.

These prices included shipping (which was always listed as being free.) How the fuck is that possible? And these things weren't fake either. The earpads are now two years old, and I washed them quite a few times but they're still good as new. If I had ordered them from amazon.de, which compared to China is practically next door, they're like 15€ for the earpads + another 15€ for shipping. So it's 1.26€ from China vs 30€ from Europe.

Because the Chinese government enslaves its people, stackweed.

They've publicly admitted selling and shipping things at a loss as a way to get their foot into the online shopping world but... how long can they do that? One of the things I just ordered was a camping chair with free delivery for $11. Free, from China. When i deliver Christmas cookies to my next door neighbor I hit them up for a buck or two for walking them over.

I don't know how they can ship stuff that cheap. I bought velour earpads for my headphones for 1.26€, a remote control for an LG TV for 3.40€ and a PCI to PCI-e adapter card for 7.67€, all on different occasions.

These prices included shipping (which was always listed as being free.) How the fuck is that possible? And these things weren't fake either. The earpads are now two years old, and I washed them quite a few times but they're still good as new. If I had ordered them from amazon.de, which compared to China is practically next door, they're like 15€ for the earpads + another 15€ for shipping. So it's 1.26€ from China vs 30€ from Europe.

Funny you would mention this. I just ordered four things from Temu and feel slightly jilted.

Here's the thing. I really only wanted one thing, but I guess if you order less than $25 worth of stuff they won't even ship it from overseas. So to get the one thing I had to order three things: the thing I wanted, a thing I've sorta been wanting but not bad enough to order it, and something I didn't even want just to get the total over $25.

When i went to check out it said the order still didn't quality because only two of the items were shipping from China and one was coming from the US separately. Two separate shipping bills and the one from China was < $25. The thing I sorta wanted was a camping stool and since I could use two, I doubled up which added $11.

That put the total at 30-something, then there was tax, and I still got charged shipping for the US item, which brought the total to $50.

I checked Amazon and the two stools alone would have been $32 + tax and the thing I wanted was $20 vs. $8 on Temu so it was in fact cheaper, but now we're getting into "wife shopping savings" price logic. Yeah, it was cheaper to order the four things from Temu than it would have been to get them from Amazon, but if I had only ordered the one thing I wanted on Amazon vs. four things on Temu... well.

I still find it reassuring and somewhat comical that people are literally drop shipping things from Temu on Amazon and just marking them up 50%. A lot of the electronics I looked at were the exact same brands with the exact same photos.

I bought a RCA 3-to-1 adapter for $8 off Temu. Amazon has them for $40. It arrives in less than a week and works perfectly.

I would have been happy to participate in the economy proper. But they radicalized me.

Flack wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2024 6:21 pm I haven't ordered anything from Ali in a while but I've made three orders from Temu over the past couple of months. I don't trust putting the Temu app on my phone so I only order from an incognito browser window. Before ordering things from Temu I compare prices against Amazon and most of the time they're using the exact pictures and descriptions. A lot of the third party sellers on Amazon are just ordering from Temu and reselling things. I don't mind waiting a week or two to save 90% by ordering directly from the red dragon herself.

My new thing is ordering lifetime supplies of stuff. On Temu I just ordered 100 car valve stem caps for $1.68. I'll never use all 100 of these before I die. I'll never have to worry about buying stem caps again. One less thing to worry about for the rest of my life.

Thanks Flack, I wasn't sure if I could trust them even with my card number. I've had my eye on some stupid toy drones for awhile.

Everything arrived and works so far. INCREDIBLE. Why are we spending 10x more on sdcards? WHY?

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2024 10:57 pm I had not heard of Temu! I'll check it out tomorrow!

Don't tell them that! They ran their ad 10 times during the Super Bowl.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2024 11:04 pm They have a Pac-Man plushie for kids!

Funny you should mention that.



This was $9.99 on Temu. The literal exact same thing is for sale on Amazon for $24.99. I have one friend in particular who keeps saying, "yeah, but everything on Temu is cheap Chinese junk" and I'm like... do you think there are kids in Boston making Pac-Man plush dolls? It's ALL cheap Chinese junk! That's where all (okay, some) of the stuff on Amazon is coming from in the first place! He's also concerned that these Chinese companies are stealing his data. He literally told me that from his gmail account so, the irony is thick there.

On my last order 50 of those little plastic "plugs" used to hold car interiors together. A 25-pack on Amazon was like $10 and a 50-pack on Temu was $1. When they arrived they accidentally sent me a 25-pack instead of a 50-pack and when I complained, they sent me another 50-pack for free.

Amazon is essentially Walmart at this point. It's the place you go for good products where you know you'll get a receipt so you can return it in 30 days if you need to. Temu is like that guy at the flea market that always seems to have official merch for super cheap and if it breaks there are no refunds, but you took the gamble and most of the time it paid off.

I already had an account on Temu!
They have harmonicas for kids!
They have a Pac-Man plushie for kids!
They have snow suits for kids! Damn, thanks Flack, this seems like a slightly more reputable AliExpress.

Flack wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2024 6:21 pm I haven't ordered anything from Ali in a while but I've made three orders from Temu over the past couple of months. I don't trust putting the Temu app on my phone so I only order from an incognito browser window.

I had not heard of Temu! I'll check it out tomorrow!

AliExpress was doing the same thing. I could have bought dozens of cheaper sd cards for $0.99 a piece if I so desired, but I wanted to see how this went first.

Ok, maybe I will check out Temu now. AliExpress did not have a USB joystick, only USB gamepads, and it's now been 5 hours so I have the gimme gimmes again.

I haven't ordered anything from Ali in a while but I've made three orders from Temu over the past couple of months. I don't trust putting the Temu app on my phone so I only order from an incognito browser window. Before ordering things from Temu I compare prices against Amazon and most of the time they're using the exact pictures and descriptions. A lot of the third party sellers on Amazon are just ordering from Temu and reselling things. I don't mind waiting a week or two to save 90% by ordering directly from the red dragon herself.

My new thing is ordering lifetime supplies of stuff. On Temu I just ordered 100 car valve stem caps for $1.68. I'll never use all 100 of these before I die. I'll never have to worry about buying stem caps again. One less thing to worry about for the rest of my life.

I have purchased sports jerseys on knock off sites before. I am so passionate about it. The experience is always really great. With the race to the bottom that the company "Fanatics" is currently engaged in, there is no point in a guy like me trying to get something authentic. Fanatics makes poor quality clothing and they are having the professional baseball players wear them this year and they hate it!

My third greatest passion is that of human rights.

Luckily, just edging that for second place is buying cheap-o electronics, most likely soldered together by children, children that probably smoke. So let's try Ali Express!

Trying to recover the account I had years ago was a waste. I made a new one. I suspect they strip special characters out of passwords when they save them. Luckily I am experienced in web applications and I know all the incompetencies.

I bought tonight:

2 (2) SNES-style USB gamepads. You have to get them as a pair. They were a $6.57.

2x Lenovo 512GB SD Memory Cards. I don't think there is a chance these aren't fake. I just want some backups around for stuff as, as noted in other threads, the only thing that gives me pleasure any more is sticking mass storage into old computers. These came to a total of $8.09.

1 USB flash drive. 128GB. Sometimes you need a flash drive where the little connector sticks out with no BS. Again, if I only get 32 megabytes out of it reliably that is probably fine. My Playstation 2 can use a drive like this, but the one I have now has a weird connector. This drive was $1.60.

This is all an experiment. I can throw $18 away, or whatever it was, thankfully. We'll see if any of this stuff shows up! If it does then we can send technology to Tdarcos on the cheep. CHEEP!