Mum jokes ‘read the bloody reviews’ after online bargain was too good to be true

A mum is warning online shoppers to ‘read the bloody reviews’ after thinking she’d bagged a trendy paddle board for a bargain price – only for a tiny inflatable for tots to turn up.

Kerry Morris took a gamble on the £13 inflatable stand-up paddle board which she saw advertised on social media for a fraction of their usual hefty retail price.

But the 47-year-old was baffled when a parcel turned up containing the mystery inflatable – which was so small that she initially mistook it for promotional junk mail.

The penny finally dropped days later for the mum-of-four after contacting the company for an update, who confirmed it had already arrived.

Photos online had advertised the paddle board, which usually start from £300, as being large enough for an adult to stand on and navigate the waters with ease.

But instead admin assistant Kerry received a small brightly-coloured inflatable measuring 70cm by 50cm covered in underwater designs that even her nine-year-old daughter could barely fit on.

Luckily Kerry saw the funny side and she created her own hilarious comparison pic showing her hunched over on the flimsy-looking inflatable while holding a make-shift paddle.

The picture was shared on Facebook and went viral, racking up more than 4,700 likes, shares and comments.

Mum-of-four Kerry, from Penryn, Cornwall, is now urging other bargain hunters to ‘read the bloody reviews’ before splashing the cash so they don’t end up bamboozled online.

She said: “I laughed and laughed and laughed – I was in shock, and initially was like ‘you robbing so and sos’.
“After the initial shock I had a friend come around and we just belly laughed about it.

“I said I have to recreate this picture and got a little spade and strapped it to a broom handle to make it longer.

“My children thought it was brilliant, they’re quite used to me acting a bit silly and they know my sense of humour.”

Kerry, mum to Alexandra, 23, Phoebe, 21, Morris, 17, and nine-year-old Poppy bought the paddle board after seeing it advertised online for £12.85.

But Kerry did have some suspicions her bargain buy was ‘too good to be true’ due to them being such a pricey piece of kit.

Kerry said: “My eldest is a real paddle board fan so I thought I’ll risk it and see what comes, I naively thought maybe it was a bit damaged or it was end of year stock.

“I ordered it a couple of months ago but kept it a secret until the last few days and said ‘Mum’s got a surprise for you’ it’s going to be arriving soon.

“This little boogie board arrived in the post last Saturday and I thought ‘that’s odd, I can’t remember ordering this’, and I was questioning whether I’d clicked on something accidentally.

“I’d read some posts recently about people receiving random items as an advertising technique to get people to buy more things.

“I actually thought I was one of those lucky people that had something sent to them, which was great as I’ve got a nine-year-old who might use it.”

The family took the ‘mystery’ inflatable on its first outing to the beach that day, and it wasn’t until Monday that she realised that was supposed to be her paddle board.

Kerry said: “I contacted the company and asked them when my delivery would be.

“They said ‘it’s definitely been delivered’ and I said ‘no I don’t think it has, I haven’t signed for anything’.

“Obviously then the penny dropped when they confirmed that it had been delivered by Royal Mail.

“I realised that the board had arrived, but it wasn’t the board that I intended to have – we did have a laugh.”

She added: “Some guy bought a car for his child to sit in and a tonka car turned up, obviously if I read the reviews I would have realised.

“I’ll definitely be reading them next time – there’s no way I’ll be wasting my money on silly things like that, I’ve learnt my lesson.”