Black Friday Shopper Orders Apple Watch, Gets $5 Plunger Instead

An Apple Watch is not a plunger, so you’d think it’d be hard to confuse the two. And yet, someone at Amazon seems to have made that exact mistake during the busy Black Friday shopping season.

John Browne, a sales director from London, ordered a Space Gray Apple Watch Series 4 for £299 on Oct. 22 (when Amazon’s Black Friday sales first kicked off) and was “delighted” to have found the device discounted about £100 off its regular price point.

“It was a pre-Christmas treat for myself and I have wanted one for a long time,” Browne told local UK news outlet WalesOnline. “I waited for Black Friday specifically and it was a calculated move on my part.”

Browne had the Apple Watch delivered to his work and it arrived just a few days later on Oct. 25. But when he went down to the reception desk to open the package, he didn’t find an Apple Watch waiting for him. Instead, the delivery contained a $5 black and white toilet plunger.

“I opened it in front of the reception staff and they started howling with laughter,” Browne said. “They were all in absolute hysterics.”

But, Browne added, that he was actually “fuming” and had to hold back his anger in front of the staff. He said that it was such a massive mistake that he really couldn’t believe it.

“I was very annoyed and was dreading the impending faff to get it sorted with Amazon,” he added.

Since then, Amazon acknowledged that they had gotten the order wrong. But, unfortunately for Browne, the retail giant told him that the exact color and model of Apple Watch was sold out by the time the blunder was discovered.

After spending “hours” dealing with Amazon customer service, Browne was eventually refunded the purchase price — although he said he actually only received £289 instead of £299. After another he raised the issue yet again, Amazon issued him a £10 gift card to make up the difference.

The money wasn’t the problem, Browne noted. Instead, he said that it was the fact that “all of the planning (he) put into getting the watch” had gone out the window that really annoyed him.