The man who paid $1,000 for a huge Scrub Daddy received a call that made him fear for the worst. Trendy John (@trendyjohnsunscreen) recently revealed in a pair of TikToks that HomeGoods caught wind of his viral purchase of the giant sponge.
A manager from the store contacted him with some “bad and good news.” This led him to believe he was going to have to give up the prized pop culture possession. He documented the nature of his talk with the HomeGoods worker in one video.
The other, shows that the transaction price many online harangued him for paying, should’ve never been charged in the first place.
Manager’s call
John explains his shock at receiving a phone call from HomeGoods. The HomeGoods manager informed John he paid way too much for the item.
“So she tells me, ‘I have a little bit of bad news and I have some good news for you as well,’” he recounts. “And I’m like, ‘OK fine just give me the bad news.’”
According to John, the manager told him he “grossly overpaid” for the giant Scrub Daddy.
“And I’m like, ‘OK, so, how much?’ She proceeds to tell me without answering that I just need to bring him back in. And that will work everything out.”
Her vagueness set off alarm bells in John’s head. He records himself walking through a store and commenting on the current status of his Scrub Daddy dilemma. For context, he even shows off a standard-sized Scrub Daddy to the camera, along with its price.
“And I’m thinking, uh-oh, is the store not supposed to have sold him? And they’re gonna take him back? He was just a PR or display? So now I’m like sweating,” he says. “So the original price for him was a thousand dollars.”
Final hour
In another follow-up, John records himself outside of a HomeGoods store prior to his meeting with its manager. “We’re gonna go in and see what the price adjustment is,” he says.
Next, he shows off the giant Scrub Daddy in the trunk of a car. The TikToker adds that he didn’t bring its product box because he’s afraid the store will want to take it back. His clip then cuts to the massive sponge resting in a shopping cart inside the HomeGoods location.
“We already had people stop and wanna take pictures with him. I’m patiently waiting with him at the checkout to find out what the actual final discount is gonna be,” he says. “But the lady told me that corporate had sent an email the day after I got him.”
According to this internal correspondence, the price John paid for the item was “incorrect.” Following this, his video cuts to a shot of a receipt reflecting the Mega Scrub Daddy’s return. “So what they did first was return the original $1,064.99,” he says.
Subsequently, John says, employees were then going to ring up the newly adjusted price for the big, smiling yellow face.
Quite the discrepancy
Immediately thereafter, John shows off a HomeGoods POS screen that displays a $106.49 charge.
“So the new price for him was 99 dollars and 99 cents for a grand total of 106.49,” he says. “So I guess I’m getting about $900 back.”
TikTokers had varying reactions to John’s videos. One person thought he was nuts to have spent that much money on a big sponge in the first place.
“I still can’t believe you paid $1,000,” someone wrote.
This was a sentiment echoed by someone else, who penned, “$100 isn’t bad at all, $1000 is crazy lol.”
For another user, the biggest takeaway from John’s experience was HomeGoods’ excellent customer service.
“I love that they reached out and corrected the price error!” one wrote. They could’ve left it, but didn’t. Great customer service!! Well done!”
@trendyjohnsunscreen Store Manager Calls about Massive Viral Scrub Daddy Part 1!?! 😳#scrubdaddy #yellow #viralvideo #update #price #guess #daddy @Scrub Daddy ♬ original sound – Trendy John
The Daily Dot has reached out to HomeGoods and John via email for further comment.
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