Temu immediately went viral on TikTok right after it launched. People were ordering packages and packages at a time from the retail website, getting ludicrously cheap deals on home furnishings, clothes, trinkets, technology, and whatever else they could get their hands on. Unfortunately, when those packages arrived customers generally realized they’d gotten exactly what they paid for: cheaply made products with questionable logos and designs.
Emilie and John Fernstorm learned this lesson when they tried to order some adorable Disney socks before their trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. At first, they looked perfectly normal. The socks came in different colors with pictures of Minnie, Mickey, Chip, Donald, and Piglet. But when they turned the socks over to read the names of said characters, Temu decided that rather than Minnie, Mickey, Chip, Donald, and Piglet, these characters were Mimnee, Miikey, Chib, Tonaid, and Bigeet respectively.
Naturally, TikTok is having a field day with this viral Expectation vs. Reality.
The post has more than 2 million likes and 16 million views because the thousands of commenters can’t get over just how much Temu missed the mark. Despite the couple’s warnings, one person said that this is the exact reason she likes to order from Temu. Where else can you get a pair of socks with Piglet on them that say Bigeet?
People couldn’t stop making jokes about the wildly misspelled names. One person joked that the family was actually going to Didney Worl, not Disney World. Another call is the sock set Digney socks. Some people were totally delighted by Temu’s misstep, even saying that they would pay extra for the exact set of socks with interpretive character names.
It seems that Emilie and John aren’t the only ones who have been tricked by Temu. One commenter noted that they ordered a pair of Pepsi socks from the site and they ended up saying Peepi instead.
According to ABC, these cheap, poorly made products could be a red flag. Federal regulators are calling for an investigation into companies like Temu and Shein, which are Chinese e-commerce websites. The number one reason for this potential investigation is that sites like these give Americans access to toddler, child, and baby products that are not up to U.S. safety regulations.
Consumer Product Safety Commission Commissioners have acknowledged that these cheap e-commerce platforms can be great for U.S. consumers, but they need to comply with U.S. safety standards as well.
There haven’t been any particular recalls over these not-so-Disney socks, so the commenters who are obsessing can purchase Mimnee, Miikey, Chib, Tonaid, and Bigeet to their heart’s content.