We all know the potential trouble and imminent heartbreak of ordering things online.
They may not arrive as pictured, they may not look or function the way we expected, they might be late or never arrive.
But for Olivia Parkinson, she didn't receive anything even remotely close to the item she'd ordered.
Last month, Parkinson received a package that should have contained her brand new iPhone 12 ProMax.
Everything appeared to be fine as she removed the iPhone box from the shipping package, which still had the appropriate factory seal in place.
But when Parkinson broke the seal and opened the box, she instead discovered broken ceramic tile.
Parkinson then shared what happened on Twitter, posting a picture of the box and contents, followed by a close-up of the tile.
Parkinson tweeted:
"Don't you just love a new phone day, [only] to then receive this?"
"iPhone 12 ProMax who??"
Parkinson followed up in the thread she had reached out to Virgin Mobile, where she had purchased the phone.
The company stated she would not receive a reply until 3 to 5 business days later.
But for some reason, that didn't stop them from commenting on Parkinson's tweets repeatedly.
Parkinson called them out on the inconsistency in their service.
But to make matters worse, 7 days after submitting her initial complaint, Parkinson was informed she would be liable for the undelivered phone.
Parkinson tweeted:
"Virgin Media is making me liable to pay for the phone that I haven't received, so please retweet this, so I can get some help."
"Do not trust this company or delivery service."
"Images below will show what I 'purchased' from them, disgusting companies."
Parkinson also called out Yodel, which is a delivery service many people use in the UK.
It's unknown if the phone was tampered with before it even left the warehouse, or if someone stealthily traded out the phone during transit. But neither company was willing to take responsibility for the phone.
To say Parkinson and her followers were angry about this development would be a gross understatement.
Another company entirely, a mobile phone company called EE, ultimately took care of the problem instead by offering Parkinson cell phone service with their company and a replacement phone after everything she had been through with their competition.
Parkinson tweeted:
"Changed providers to EE [and] opened the box to find this. Now we're talking!"
"Mariya from the Preston branch has been amazing, so big shoutout to her!!"
"Virgin Media [see] yaaaa..."
A month passed between Parkinson originally tweeting about her tile phone and receiving a replacement from her new company.
This might give people pause when they choose which cell phone company to work with, or whether or not to order such expensive items online going forward.
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