A mum and her son were left disgusted after ASOS sent them a pair of shorts that were 'smeared in poo.'
Suzanne Baum said her 21-year-old son had ordered a pair of £17.99 summer shorts from the online retailer but when they arrived they noticed a pungent poo smell coming from the package, My London and Wales Online reports.
Speaking to My London, she said: "My son said 'oh my god mum, I can smell s***'. I went to his room and I could smell poo. I thought, 'has my dog done a poo on the carpet?' because I couldn't understand where the smell was coming from."
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The parcel was delivered to their North London home on Wednesday, August 31 with the shorts fully packed and sealed inside with the tags on. However, the pair were horrified to find that the back and the side of the shorts were covered in poo.
Suzanne added: "My son just wanted to chuck them out the window.
"It's basically poo smeared over the back and up the side and leaked through the other side and through the packaging. I just felt sick and angry because I have spent thousands of pounds at ASOS over the years and I just couldn't believe this was happening.
"I've bought from ASOS since it first existed and I've always encouraged my kids to buy clothes on ASOS once they started earning their own money."
Suzanne, who is a journalist, attempted to contact ASOS' customer services but was directed to an automated online chat.
She continued: "Every time I was going through the robot system online it wasn't getting anywhere, because obviously, they've never had a customer typing 'I have poo on my item'. In the end, I just gave up, I was determined to try to speak to a human being but I couldn't get anywhere."
Suzanne decided to post a photo of the shorts on her Instagram in an attempt to reach out to customer services.
"I got an email from customer services eventually saying: 'We're looking into this, this doesn't meet our standards' and that was it," she said.
"I didn't want to hold on to a s***-stained pair of shorts that were stinking my house out."
ASOS has offered Suzanne a refund of the item and a voucher as a 'goodwill gesture'. It has also confirmed that the issue is being investigated with the warehouse team and additional training will be put in place for staff.
But Suzanne says she wants to work out how it could have happened and admitted she still has the shorts at home "wrapped up far at the back of my garden, just in case it's queried"
"This is one that's really baffled me," she said.
"I've no idea if someone did a poo in them, or wore them and didn't wipe their bottom, then decided they didn't want them and sent them back. But I don't know how a person repackaged them, sent them out, and didn't smell the packaging. It stank the minute it was opened."
She added: "My revulsion has gone down. I'm just more concerned with how on earth this can happen. All I want is to speak to a human being."
A spokesperson for ASOS told MyLondon : “We apologise unreservedly for the experience Ms Baum and her son had when shopping with ASOS. It’s clear this item fell far short of the standard we would expect to deliver.
"We’ve been investigating the issue with our warehouse team as a matter of urgency to understand how this happened and have also put additional training and checks in place to ensure this does not happen again. We’ve issued a full refund to the customer alongside an ASOS voucher as a gesture of goodwill.”
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