‘Look at this’: Amazon customer orders $240 Shark hair styler for Christmas. Why did they receive this instead?

A couple orders a Shark hair styler from Amazon as a Christmas gift to their daughter. What they get in the mail is not at all what they expected.

In a TikTok with over 173,000 views, TV correspondent and journalist Chris Hansen (@haveaseatwithchrishansen) and his wife Gabrielle Hansen (@gabrielle..hansen) share their experience after ordering the Shark HD430 Flex Style Air Styling and Drying System for their daughter.

The couple says they ordered the product from Amazon. The hair styler came in an Amazon package, which Gabrielle initially assumed would contain a Shark product box inside. It didn’t.

What was actually inside the Amazon package?

In the video, Gabrielle opens the Amazon package they received with gloves, and for good reason. What she pulls out of the Amazon package is a Ziplock bag full of used hair styler parts.

“I’m seriously afraid to touch this,” Gabrielle says, holding the bag up to the camera. The main piece of the packaged hair styler includes a yellowed cord with a European plug. There are also additional pieces, including a brush attachment that has broken bristles.

How did this happen?

In a follow up video, Chris calls the hair styler product the couple received “worthless and grotesque.” 

They share comments from users who have similar experiences ordering items from Amazon and receiving low quality products in their delivery packages. 

Chris reads one such comment, “This is why Amazon is getting tougher with returns. Somebody probably put that in a Shark box and sent it back. No one checked what was inside the return box.”

“This is what we think happened,” Gabrielle chimes in.

Have the Hansens received a refund from Amazon?

The couple updates that they have sent the product back and are awaiting a refund. They also bought the desired Shark product from Costco. 

“I think anytime you have such a huge marketplace of goods and products and services, there will be scammers involved,” Chris points out.

Viewers weigh in

In the comments section of the original video, viewers had quite a bit to say about Amazon’s products.

“Nothing could have prepared me for what came out of that box,” one viewer reacted.

“This happened to my friend recently who ordered a laptop from Amazon,” a second person shared.

“I ordered a $300 carpet cleaner, received a dirty moldy one. It was awful,” came a third person’s response.

“I’m so afraid of getting scammed,” a fourth person noted.

What is product laundering?

This particular Amazon scam, which some users are calling product laundering, happens when counterfeiters exchange fake units for real ones. 

“They can offload knockoffs and receive authentic goods that they can then resell at huge profits,” Entre Resource reports.

Scammers first buy a product from Amazon, then replace the real item for a knockoff and send the knockoff back to Amazon as a return. The fake product then goes back into sellable inventory where it is not caught as a knockoff, and is sold to another customer awaiting a genuine item. When that customer complains, Amazon often punishes the seller, and the actual scammer stays undetected. The scammer then sells the genuine item they received for pure profit.

@haveaseatwithchrishansen Scammed by Amazon #blackfriday #amazonfinds #amazon #scam #sharkairwrap @gabrielle..Hansen ♬ original sound - Chris Hansen

How can buyers avoid Amazon scams?

To avoid getting caught up by such scams, the Hansens recommend that whenever possible, people should buy local and in person.

“We can get caught up, but we really should [buy local],” Gabrielle says.

The Daily Dot has reached out to Amazon via email and the Hansens via Instagram and TikTok direct message for more information.

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