Over at the r/UnethicalLifeProTips subreddit, one redditor inserted himself directly into the Temu-Amazon wars by figuring out how to come out on top of both sides.
“Find something on Temu but want it the next day?” u/ftw_c0mrade proposed. “Order on Amazon and Temu!”
The premise is simple: Temu has much lower prices than Amazon, but the tradeoff is that delivery usually takes a long time. Amazon has much higher prices, but with Prime you can get things delivered the next day.
In u/ftw_c0mrade’s example, they bought some storage equipment for an event which was going for $90 on Amazon, but just $16 on Temu.
“Ordered on both websites. Amazon arrived next day, Temu arrived 3 weeks after the event. Returned the Temu purchase on Amazon. It was exactly the same item from the SAME chinese seller. Insta refund on Amazon,” they crowed.
“Actually very good idea. The only issue is, the return window maybe,” commented u/SantosFurie89. “But I like a lot.”
According to Amazon’s Returns Policy, you can send back most items shipped from Amazon.com and the company’s own Amazon warehouse within 30 days. There are a few exceptions, including digital items, grocery products, live insects, cars, printed photos, and some jewelry purchases. But as a general rule you can return most things within a month without too many questions being asked.
Other products you wait even longer though: baby items you can return in 90 days, and items on an Amazon Birthday List can also be sent back in 90 days. Even mattresses can be returned “for any reason” within 100 days of getting them.
“We found out that the return window extends substantially if the item you’re returning is on a registry (ours was for our baby shower). Everything we’ve bought since then, we add to the registry first to get the longer return window😂,” posted u/CubsIn7. Amazon’s return policy gives you 365 days to return gifts bought off an Amazon Baby Registry from the date you receive them, and products bought from an Amazon Wedding Registry can be returned within 180 days.
Read the fine print and the wedding and birthday list tricks don’t work if you’re the owner of the registry, but the baby registry doesn’t have a similar condition.
Third-party Amazon sellers follow the same Returns guidelines as Amazon.com and Amazon Warehouse.
While some redditors debated whether the move was ethical, others just appreciated the elegant simplicity of the trick.
“Deliciously evil,” posted u/corneliu5vanderbilt.
“Bezos is gonna send someone after you for posting this,” added u/akiraokok.
And other posters warned that pulling the trick too often could get you banned if Amazon is tracking it.
“If Amazon detects unusual refund patterns, you run the risk of being banned,” u/ksm270 pointed out. “It’s based on a cumulative pattern/usage (doesn’t reset yearly).”
Amazon didn’t immediately respond to questions asking whether they were tracking these sorts of loopholes, or if they’re frequent enough to make a dent in their bottom line.
Amazon and Temu have been fiercely competing for U.S. e-commerce business in recent years, with Temu aggressively trying to penetrate the market by dropping prices and running promotions. Temu sellers have also been accused of completely copying Amazon listings down to the exact photographs and product descriptions.
Temu reportedly encourages its third-party sellers to undercut Amazon by offering steep discounts on their Temu stores, where the sellers are required to mark down their products 15-35% cheaper than you can get them on Amazon.
On X the story went viral on Wednesday, with posters highlighting it as a potential arbitrage opportunity.
“I bet in 5-10 years, we see the death of ‘no questions asked’ return policies,” posted @PolliardZ.
“This may not formally be fraud but it’s at least fraud-ish,” added @GregoryBesharov.
In the meantime, if you’re inclined to tie up just under $100 bucks for a few weeks to get low-cost instant shipping, it’s not too hard to find identical items.
“Is it unethical to take from either of these companies?” wondered u/MementoMurray on the r/UnethicalLifeProTips subreddit.
“As an Amazon seller, I can tell you this doesn’t hurt either of these companies and the entire burden is on the Amazon seller,” replied u/NotAnotherScientist. “With that said, I have no qualms with this tip because buying shit on Temu and reselling it on Amazon is not a real job. You can’t do this with companies that sell original products, so it’s not a problem.”
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