Third-party Amazon seller allegedly passes off photo of doormat as actual doormat
A one-star rating has perhaps never been more apt.
Comedian Emily Heller ordered two new doormats on Amazon late last month, opting to buy from a third-party seller to score a great deal.
What she got was ... not two doormats. Instead, she received two photos of doormats glued to two pieces of foam.
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"They took so long to arrive that I had honestly forgotten that I ordered them," Heller told Mashable. "That, on top of the fact that the package was weirdly light, meant I had no idea what I was opening."
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When she realized she was the new owner of two doormat photographs, Heller contacted the seller for a refund. "They claimed it was a photo resolution problem and offered me a partial refund," she said. No thanks!
So Heller went to Amazon itself, which promptly gave her store credit for the purchase. Then, she posted pictures of the offending doormats in a Twitter post that has since been retweeted over 10,000 times.
"The response to this has been pretty overwhelming," Heller said. "I had no idea it would strike such a chord with people."
Among the commenters have been what Heller refers to as "doormat truthers" — people who think she's making the whole thing up. People have also accused her of not reading the reviews before she made the purchase, but Heller insists the doormat reviews were positive, even great. (They still are. The product's average rating at the time of this writing was four stars.)
In the end, though, she got two images of a doormat for zero dollars, so, uh, all's well that ends well?
BTW, if the doormat piques your interest, you can still purchase a real Astroturf version from Amazon proper.
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Chloe was the shopping editor at Mashable. She was also previously a culture reporter. You can follow her on Twitter at @chloebryan.
