A woman says that after she told Wayfair that her purchase was dysfunctional and needed to exchange it, the company asked her to prove that the item didn’t work with a video.
In a TikTok posted last week, Ashlyn (@piratesb00ty) shows the “idiotic” video Wayfair asked her to send of her bar stools that won’t raise. In it, she is seen attempting to raise the stools with a lever, which doesn’t work.
“I just want some bar stools to finally be tall enough for my counter,” Ashlyn wrote in her video’s caption.
On Monday, Ashlyn’s video had over 4 million views on TikTok.
@pumpkinsb00ty i just want some bar stools to finally be tall enough for my counter #fyp #viral #wilmingtonnc #catsoftiktok #girlmath #taylorsversion ♬ Funny – Gold-Tiger
In its return policy, Wayfair states that it “may require a photo(s) of the damage” to customers seeking to return a damaged item. But, as it turns out, Ashlyn didn’t end up returning the bar stools: In a comment on her viral video, she says that Wayfair responded to her video with instructions on how to fix the bar stools.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Ashlyn via contact form and Wayfair through email.
A commenter on Ashlyn’s video wrote that they used to work in Wayfair’s “wrong product investigation department” and said that they had experience with customer’s “proof pictures.”
“I love this so much,” they commented. “Saw some crazy proof pictures.”
Other commenters discussed the absurdity of “proof pictures,” particularly in cases when retailers ask for proof of a missing item, and they have to send a photo of nothing.
“It cracks me up when Amazon asks for proof that I didn’t receive a package,” a commenter said. “You want a photo of just air??”
“Once my item was missing from the box and they asked me to take a pic of the missing item,” another wrote. “I took a pic of the empty box.”
And some commenters said that they’d been asked to prove non-visual elements of damage with photos.
“My husband is a barber& his blow dryer stopped having hot air, but still turned on,” a commenter wrote. “They wanted a video lol how you gonna tell if it’s hot or not.”
“My yeti cup stoped keeping ice, it would melt within an hour,” another said. “I literally just took a picture of water in the cup with no ice as proof.”
