Toy covered in meat.

[OCOC]

AIBU? I ordered a kids toy for my baby from a well known online retailer. Upon opening it, the toy was covered in sticky saucy fingerprints which seem like some kind of Bolognese (plus some lumps!) and I nearly threw up. I am a vegetarian too. Obviously I couldn’t give to DD but I didn’t quite want the sticky packaging and meat in my house. particularly as we don’t eat it.

So I asked online retailer (the item was only £6.99) if I could throw it away because I do not want it smelling overnight in my house and also I just in general do not like meat around. They said no.

AIBU? It’s quite gross that they’d even send something like that. I just don’t want the item overnight and I could wear gloves to pack I guess?

PS please can we not turn this thread into vegetarian bashing?

How do you actually know it's meat? It could well be something else entirely. Irregardless, it shouldn't be covered with muck!

No I definitely wouldn’t wretch at this.

Package it for return & put in fridge.

It’s ok I opened a brand new electric shaver I bought for my daughter and was showing it to her before I put it on charge. Turned it on so she could see how loud it was…fucking hair came out. It had been used 🤢

Sorry, but why was it not in the original packaging? Is the seller a business or are they a private individual?

If it's a business you have statutory legal rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015

Goods must be "of satisfactory quality" and must be "as decribed". Within 30 days of delivery to you you are entitled to reject the item for a full refund under s22. (After 30 days it gets a bit more complicated but you can still get a replacement or a refund).

The seller has to refund you any return costs. (Many will supply a pre-paid returns label)

Go back to them and explain that you are exercising your statutory consumer rights as outlined above. Make it clear you are not returning as a change of mind and that you are not returning under their own returns policy. you are exercising your legal consumer rights.

It’s a business - a very well known one!

No!!! Oh my!

I used to work in retail. The amount of returns that were allegedly "I just changed my mind and it's never been opened" that clearly HAD been opened and USED was shockingly high.
If we did check before giving a refund and saw it had been used it would suddenly become "Oh actually it's faulty" 🙄

It's on the retailer to check though, before putting stuff back on the shelf. Often they just can't be bothered. I once returned an expensive lighting fixture to John Lewish because it had a vital piece missing. It was obvious once I opened the box that somebody else had already removed it from the factory packaging and then returned it. It was the only one in stock so they gave me my money back. About a week later I went back to see if they had any new ones on the shelf and what should I find, but the original one I took back. I looked in the box and yup, the piece was still missing.

I don't know what they expect - do they honestly think that if they keep selling the same item minus its missing part, eventually someone will just keep it and not care that it's incomplete?

Just recently I bought a sort of build-your-own advent calendar thing from Poundland and it should have had 24 parts to it but it only had 21. I returned it, they opened up another one, took out three of the missing components, gave them to me, then stuck the other one back on the shelf.

I despair. 😤🙄

@TwigletsAndRadishes yes sales assistants should check.
One of my jobs at the store I worked for was sorting out returns (either to resell or return to distribution if faulty) and it drove me nuts how many of my colleagues didn't check properly.
Although some people are very good at opening a box very carefully so it can be resealed and look like new. Some people are just horrible scammers.
The case of returning a dirty toy is baffling. Why would you do that? Gross.

I’d chuck it in the bin and write to their head office and tweet them / message on Insta. I’d spend 30 mins and no more kicking up a fuss. If they gave me the money back great, if not, move on and don’t order with them again.

How rank

Have we had a photo yet? Surely the obvious thing to do would be to photograph this horrific item so we could see the problem?

I'm waiting to see the evidence.

So have you told them you want a refund?

So far as I can see you've only asked them if you could throw it away. (I'm not sure why you would ask them that on it's own but you haven't mentioned asking for a refund. Did you think you could get a refund and not have to return it?)

If they won't allow you to return it for a refund then complain on social media - eg their facebook page. I don't do FB myself but I understand it's a very effective route for complaining.

(If you want to throw it away because you don't want to go through with returning it simply because you are vegetarian, I'm afraid you are being wholly unreasonable and unrealistic)

How demanding. I’m not going to post it as it’s got some of my stuff in the background so may be outing!

oh come on OP. Just lay it on the lawn or on the hall floor or something. No-one is going to recognise a bit of IKEA laminate flooring or a few patio stones. We NEED to see these meat lumps.

If you don't show us the meat lumps we will naturally conclude that you are exaggerating and being a wee bit hysterical over some sticky fingerprints.

@TwigletsAndRadishes even if it was some sticky fingerprints created by a vegan organic sauce the fact a supposedly NEW product had sticky fingerprints on it at all is disgusting.
Not on at all. The OP deserves her money back and an apology from the company.

Update - phoned them and they weren’t at all sympathetic. But said they’ll send a Royal Mail courier so I don’t have to go to the post office so that’s good!

Oh I totally agree. It's not acceptable at all. I just think she's being a bit daft making such a song and dance about it being coated in meat. The fact that it's coated in anything at all is enough grounds for a complaint. She doesn't need to hammer it home with the 'eeew it might be meat which is outrageous because I'm a veggie' thing.

The truth is she has absolutely no idea what it is. All this having to hold it at arm's length with tongs, wearing rubber gloves and a HAZMAT suit, burying it in the garden then burning the house down or whatever else it is she's done to de-contiminate herself and her home from a miniscule scrap of food that might be meat but could just as easily be quorn or dried baked beans is a bit ridiculous.

And the reason she won't take a photo is because it will prove underwhelming and inconclusive and everyone will go 'Is that it? Where are these meat lumps then?'

I would be disgusted by this too, even though I eat meat. Something sold as new shouldn't have any food of any description stuck to it. I remember ordering a snow suit for my son from eBay when he was a baby. New without tags supposedly. It turned up with a big milky stain on it which smelled suspiciously like vomit. Possibly new but definitely barfed on😬 I washed it and it came up fine, but I did message the seller to let them know that I wasn't impressed.

I don’t want to upload a photo as it has my DCs photos in the background. That’s my choice. Be kind.

Thank you for being kind unlike previous posters.

It was shrink wrapped again though. Would that normally happen? Only thing I can think is it was done in the factory?! 🤢

Honestly I nearly vommed everywhere

Aye, right.

This is a great game, OP. I guess the next step is to tell the seller you expect a refund and compensation for the horrid shock you've had, and that you won't be sending it back because you've binned it because too disgusting.