Wish是世界上最大的在线购物(online shopping)平台之一，但它的名声有些可疑。Wish 购物到底是什么，你真的能买到有趣的产品而不会被烧毁吗？
我们将尝试回答这些问题以及更多问题。我们要去买东西，所以你不必买。
Wish是骗局吗？(Is Wish a Scam?)
让我们在这里绝对清楚：Wish.com 网站(Wish.com website)不是骗局。Wish是一家合法的公司(legitimate company)和电子商务平台。这意味着：
- 您可以放心购买。
- 你会得到你的产品（最终）。
- 您可以退回您的产品并获得退款。
换句话说，从广义上讲，Wish 购物与从亚马逊(Amazon)这样的平台购物没有什么不同。然而，它有许多与亚马逊(Amazon)相同的弱点，事实上，由于Wish 使用 了独特的商业模式，它们被放大了。(business model)
如果您了解 Wish 购物的全部内容，那么它可能是一个非常好的购物场所。如果你盲目地去，可能会有很多艰难的教训需要学习。
像亚马逊这样的平台有很多通过(Amazon)亚马逊(Amazon)提供产品的第三方卖家。然而，亚马逊(Amazon)主要以直接采购、存储和销售产品而闻名，这就是为什么它拥有庞大的仓库，里面装满了人、机器人和好东西。这是您今天可以从亚马逊(Amazon today)订购(order something)商品并在明天拥有它的原因之一。
愿望不是这样的。您看到列出的产品基本上都来自独立卖家，通常是产品的实际制造商或(product or someone)非常接近它的人。这在很大程度上是 Wish 以如此低的价格销售产品的原因——中间商已被移除。
然而，这并不意味着产品本身是合法的或质量好的。Wish卖了很多便宜的垃圾。当然，你会在任何平台上找到大量廉价垃圾，但 Wish 的市场和商业模式吸引了很多垃圾。当涉及到假冒产品时，您还必须非常小心，我们稍后将更详细地讨论这一点。
Wish Shopping 不适合敏感的购物者(Wish Shopping Is Not For Sensitive Shoppers)
在我们进一步讨论之前，您知道 Wish 似乎对您将看到的产品完全没有控制权，这一点非常重要。浏览产品时，我们被明显属于成人类别(adult category)的明确产品图片击中。
这本身并不是世界末日，但如果您是一个敏感的人，您可能希望避开该网站，因为您可能会在没有任何警告的情况下看到一些露骨的图像。我们当然不建议您让孩子浏览Wish。如果您对看到奇怪的顽皮图片感到满意，那么让我们继续前进。
Wish为谁购物？(Who Is Wish Shopping For?)
Wish背后的人花了数年时间收集经济数据。他们一直在关注人们的消费、他们需要什么样的产品以及它可能会吸引谁。通过我们自己的产品选择(product selection)，我们认为 Wish 最适合那些想要::
- 可以完成基本工作的廉价产品。
- (Genuine)对其他地方更贵的产品进行真正的讨价还价。
- (Weird)您在其他任何地方都找不到的奇怪、有趣或其他独特的东西。
那么让我们看看在Wish上买东西的过程。
报名(Signing Up)
我们使用我们的Google 帐户注册，事情(Google account and things)进展得非常顺利。几秒钟内我们的帐户就创建好了，我们可以将产品添加到购物车中。但是，应该注意的是，在结帐时，我们的帐户被暂停等待身份验证(identity verification)。
这涉及向 Wish 发送我们的政府 ID 扫描件。我们不知道这是否只是随机验证检查(verification check)，或者是否每个新客户都会发生这种情况。然而，这是其他网站过去作为一种欺诈预防(fraud prevention)形式所做的事情，所以这并不是特别不寻常。该帐户在创建后大约五天被解锁，我们终于可以去 Wish 购物了。
寻找产品
当您点击Wish的(Wish)主页(home page)时，并不清楚您究竟是如何找到任何东西的。我们发现，诀窍是点击“品牌”，这将显示一组更传统的类别和品牌部分，以帮助您找到所需的内容。
此外，请注意“经过验证”的品牌(” brand)部分。Wish保证这些是实拍产品。在主页上击中您的产品流没有多大用处。
产品选择(The Product Selection)
这很可能是在网站上购物最重要的方面。Wish 网站(Wish website)运行得如何并不重要，真正重要的是是否有您真正想要购买的东西。
一方面，这显然意味着每个人在浏览Wish上可用的产品时都会发现不同程度的价值。坦率地说，我们在浏览该网站时看到的大多数产品都很便宜、垃圾或两者兼而有之。然而，也有很多有趣的东西和良好的用户评论。所以不要用同一个画笔绘制整个目录！
Wish退货政策(The Wish Return Policy)
[破电话]([Broken Phone])
与所有其他合法的在线购物平台(online shopping platform)一样，Wish拥有全面的退货政策(return policy)。绝对值得详细了解他们的政策。确保(Make)退货(return align)标准与您打算购买的产品类型一致。
我们对本政策(policy)的解读（我们不是律师！）似乎不支持在证明产品是假冒产品时退还您的钱。尽管政策确实规定与列表不符的物品有资格获得退款。但是，这并不意味着最终不是您认为的品牌的产品会很重要。
Wish 确实明确禁止销售假冒商品(counterfeit goods)，但它们有非常具体的指导方针，您也应该熟悉。
再一次，如果某件事看起来好得令人难以置信，那可能就是。你永远不会以 10 美元的价格买到一件价值千美元的高端商品。但是，如果列表中明确列出了该商品的品牌，我们非常确定如果它是假的，您可以获得退款或退货。(refund or return)否则，请坚持使用经过验证的品牌类别。
Wish仍然很冒险(Wish Is Still Pretty Risky)
虽然您的信息不会被盗，也不会因有缺陷或丢失的产品而无法获得退款，但对于粗心的购物者来说，Wish仍然是一个雷区。在评估产品的价格和它是假货的可能性时，请使用你的常识。
我们认为某些类型的产品通常可以从该网站购买。像雕像或纪念品这样的新奇(Novelty)物品在涉及到假货与否时并不总是重要的。如果您的商品看起来符合您的预期，并且主要是一种美学产品，那么您可能会对您支付的价格和收到的商品非常满意。
在该网站上购买的最糟糕的产品几乎可以肯定是电子产品。虽然总能找到一些毛坯钻石，但您将在本网站上找到的绝大多数电子产品质量较差或性能非常差。即使是像音频线或USB(USB)配件这样的简单物品也可能无法正常工作，或者制造质量不佳。
所以，让我们总结一下Wish的购物体验(shopping experience)：
- 该网站是合法的，您将获得您订购的商品或退款。
- 然而，该项目可能具有误导性，并且不会违反 Wish 的条款和条件。
- 您的物品可能需要很长时间(long )才能到达，具体取决于您居住的地方。
- 您可能需要向当地政府支付额外的进口关税。
- 我们看到了很多有趣的物品，例如新奇的 T 恤、令人讨厌的雕像和一些非常独特的小玩意儿，值得一笑而过。
与任何事情一样，Wish会随着时间的推移而发展。现在，请继续在亚马逊(Amazon)等平台上购物(money shopping)，但不要害怕浏览Wish奇怪而美妙的世界。
提示和减速带(Tips & Speed Bumps)
在终于为我们的物品付款后，一个受欢迎的电视节目(TV show)中的塑料人偶，我们有一些技巧、减速带和观察要分享，以便您获得更流畅的体验：
- 在您付款之前始终使用Google for Wish 优惠券，我们节省了 20% 的购买费用。
- 您只能使用该应用程序申请某些优惠券。
- Wish可以通过网络使用，但该应用程序提供了更好的体验。
- 我们遇到了付款问题（信用卡或 PayPal(credit card or PayPal)），因此请重新启动应用程序并等待几秒钟让PayPal出现，即使看起来没有任何反应
到目前为止，在撰写本文时，我们还没有收到我们的订单，但我们会在它到达时更新这篇文章，让您知道我们 Wish 旅程的最后一站是什么样的。
What Is Wish Shopping? Get Interesting Products For Cheap
Wish is one of the largest online shopping platforms in the world, but it has a somewhat dubious reputation. What exactly is Wish shopping and can you actually get interesting products without getting burned?
We’ll try to answer these questions and more. We’re going to buy something, so you don’t have to.
Is Wish a Scam?
Let’s be absolutely clear here: the Wish.com website is not a scam. Wish is a legitimate company and e-commerce platform. This means that:
- You can make a purchase with confidence.
- You will get your product (eventually).
- You can return your product and get a refund.
In other words, Wish shopping is, broadly speaking, no different than buying from a platform like Amazon. However, it has many of the same weaknesses as Amazon and, in fact, they are amplified thanks to the unique business model Wish uses.
If you understand what Wish shopping is all about, it can be a pretty great place to shop. If you go in blind, there can be quite a few hard lessons to learn.
Platforms like Amazon have a lot of third-party sellers who provide products through Amazon. However, Amazon is mainly known for procuring, storing and selling products directly, which is why it has massive warehouses filled with people, robots and goodies. It’s one of the reasons you can order something from Amazon today and have it tomorrow.
Wish isn’t like this. The products you see listed are essentially all from independent sellers, usually the actual manufacturer of the product or someone very close to it. This is largely why Wish sells products for so little money – the middlemen have been removed.
That does not mean the products themselves are legitimate or good quality however. Wish sells a lot of cheap junk. Of course, you’ll find plenty of cheap junk on any platform, but Wish’s market and business model attracts a lot of it. You’ll also have to be very careful when it comes to counterfeit products, something we’ll discuss in more detail shortly.
Wish Shopping Is Not For Sensitive Shoppers
Before we go any further, it’s very important that you know Wish seems to exercise no control at all over the products you’ll see. We were hit with explicit product images that clearly belonged in an adult category right off the bat, browsing through products.
This isn’t the end of the world by itself, but if you’re a sensitive person you may want to avoid the site since you could see somewhat explicit images with no warning. We certainly don’t recommend that you let children browse Wish. If you are OK with seeing the odd naughty picture, then let’s keep going.
Who Is Wish Shopping For?
The people behind Wish have spent years collecting economic data. They’ve been looking at what people spend, what sorts of products they need and who it may appeal to. Looking through the product selection ourselves, we think Wish is best for people who want::
- Cheap products that will do the basic job.
- Genuine bargains on products that are more expensive elsewhere.
- Weird, interesting or otherwise unique stuff you won’t find anywhere else.
So let’s look at the process of buying something on Wish.
Signing Up
We signed up using our Google account and things went pretty smoothly. Within seconds our account was created and we could add products to the cart. However, it should be noted that at checkout our account was put on hold pending identity verification.
This involved sending Wish a scan of our government ID. We have no idea whether this was just a random verification check, or whether this happens to every new customer. However, this is something other sites have done in the past as a form of fraud prevention, so it’s not particularly unusual. The account was unlocked about five days after creation and we could finally get to Wish shopping.
Finding Products
It’s not immediately clear when you hit the home page of Wish how exactly you’re meant to find anything. The trick, we found, is to click on “Brands” which will reveal a more traditional set of categories and brand sections to help you find what you’re looking for.
Also, look out for “verified” brand sections. These are guaranteed to be real-deal products by Wish. The stream of products that hit you on the homepage were less than useful.
The Product Selection
This is quite possibly the most important aspect of shopping on the website. It doesn’t matter how well the Wish website works, what really matters is whether there’s anything on offer that you actually want to buy.
On the one hand this obviously means that every person is going to find different levels of value when browsing the products available on Wish. Most of the products we saw while browsing the site were, quite frankly, cheap, junk or both. However, there was also plenty of interesting stuff with good user reviews. So don’t paint the entire catalogue with the same brush!
The Wish Return Policy
[Broken Phone]
As with every other legitimate online shopping platform, Wish has a comprehensive return policy. It’s definitely worth going through their policy in detail. Make sure that the criteria for a return align with what you plan to do with the type of product you’re going to buy.
Our reading of this policy (we’re not lawyers!) does not seem to support getting your money back if it turns out that a product was counterfeit. Although the policy does say that items which are not consistent with the listing are eligible for a refund. However, that does not mean a product which ends up not being from the brand you thought it was would count.
Wish does specifically forbid counterfeit goods from being sold, but they have very specific guidelines you should also be familiar with.
Once again, if something seems too good to be true it probably is. You are never going to get a high-end thousand-dollar item for $10. However, if the listing specifically names the brand of the item we’re pretty sure you can get a refund or return if it turns out to be fake. Otherwise, stick to the verified brand categories.
Wish Is Still Pretty Risky
While you won’t get your information stolen, or fail to get a refund for defective or missing products, Wish still represents a minefield for unwary shoppers. Use your common sense when assessing a product’s price and the chances that it’s a fake item.
There are some types of products which we think are generally OK to buy from the site. Novelty items such as statues or memorabilia don’t always matter when it comes to being fake or not. If your item looks the way you expect and it’s mainly an aesthetic product, you might be perfectly happy with the price you paid and item you received.
The worst kind of product to buy on the site, is almost certainly electronics. While there are always a few rough diamonds to be found, the vast majority of electronic gadgets you’re going to find on this site will be of poor quality or perform very badly. Even simple items like audio cables or USB accessories are likely to not work as well as they should or have bad build quality.
So, let’s summarize the Wish shopping experience:
- The site is legitimate and you’ll get the item you ordered or your money back.
- The item may however be misleading and not in a way that violates Wish’s terms and conditions.
- It can take a long time before your item arrives, depending on where you live.
- You may have to pay additional import duties to the local government.
- We saw plenty of interesting items, such as novelty T-shirts, geeky statues and some pretty unique gadgets that are worth buying for a laugh.
As with anything, Wish is going to evolve over time. For now, keep your serious money shopping on platforms like Amazon, but don’t be afraid to browse the weird and wonderful world of Wish.
Tips & Speed Bumps
After finally paying for our item, a plastic figure from a popular TV show, we have a few tips, speed bumps and observations to share so that you have a smoother experience:
- Always Google for Wish coupons before you pay, we saved 20% on our purchase.
- You can only use the app to apply certain coupons.
- Wish can be used via the web, but the app provides the better experience.
- We had issues with payment (credit card or PayPal), so restart the app and wait a few seconds for PayPal to appear, even if it looks like nothing is happening
As yet, we have not received our order at the time of writing, but we’ll update this article when it does arrive and let you know what the final leg of our Wish journey was like.
