6 days ago
Mom Unboxes Dress Bought Online—No One Was Ready for the Reality Check
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
A woman has gone viral for making a "classic" mistake while online shopping, and sharing it online so others could have "a giggle at my expense."
Bec, 41, lives in Perth, Australia, and was recently on the hunt for a suitable outfit to a friend's outdoor wedding with a formal dress code.
Relaxing at home one night, with a "wine or two," she searched online for "affordable evening dresses" and came across the website Ammethy. Newsweek has contacted Ammethy multiple times via email for comment on this story.
As she told Newsweek: "This is where common sense would have had me googling the website's reviews, but it had abandoned me that night—probably around the time the wine got opened."
Bec, who gave her first name only, ordered three dresses, including a blue midi gown for just over AU$50 ($32.65), and a few weeks later, the blue dress was delivered.
"As soon as I saw the parcel, without even opening it, I knew," she said. "It was very thin and flimsy. I was on my way out with one of the kids when it arrived, so we opened the parcel in the car and just started laughing! It was so, so bad!"
Determined to make the most of it, Bec also "gathered the rest of the family" and presented her new dress to them—and "they laughed for a solid 10 minutes, especially after I tried it on.
"After having a good laugh at the whole situation with friends and family, I thought the internet could do with a giggle at my expense too, so I posted on Reddit."
The dress as advertised on the website Bec bought it from.
The dress as advertised on the website Bec bought it from.
On August 10, Bec posted to r/ExpectationsVsReality via her account u/chemicalmum, sharing "what I ordered vs what I got," and began by showing the advert of the dress: a gorgeous silk midi gown with a silver fastening, appearing to be the perfect choice for a formal wedding.
But then came the reveal: a shapeless dress made from very light fabric, and instead of a silver fastening, there was artwork of a silver star. Better yet, Bec shared a photo of herself wearing the dress—and the difference between that photo and the advert was stark, to say the least.
She captioned the post, which has more than 18,000 upvotes: "When will I learn to check reviews before making silly online orders!? Not today."
Reddit users were quick to point out that the original advert looked as though it was created with AI, with one writing: "I think it's safe to say that no one is going to be able to produce clothing from a GenAI image."
Some pointed out what appeared to be an extra thumb on the model's hand, and a strangely long index finger, while another said the cheap price would have made the dress "too good to be true."
One laughed at "the clasp being printed on," while another wrote: "And it has the audacity to not fit too!? Insult to injury."
And one user wrote: "You don't need reviews. Try to consider how much things should cost to make and compare that to the price. Mismatch here and it'll be a dud."
The dress once it arrived, and right, Bec wearing it.
The dress once it arrived, and right, Bec wearing it.
Reddit u/chemicalmum
Bec told Newsweek she has emailed the company asking for a refund and has received no reply, while the other two dresses have still yet to arrive—"so it turned out to be a pretty pricey lesson in due diligence on my behalf."
She also revealed that this has "never happened" before—"I shop online fairly regularly, and have always received what I have ordered.
"I am a little bamboozled as to why they bothered to send anything at all. They already had my money, so why send something so clearly disappointing?"
She appreciated commenters taking the post "in the lighthearted way" it was intended, but in response to those stating that particular dress could never be right based on an AI image, she has decided to be "petty."
Despite not being a dressmaker herself, she said she is "going to try and make the dress myself, and just self-check my own sanity."
"Should I be lowering my expectations as suggested by so many Reddit commenters? Or should they be raising theirs?
"This could all go terribly wrong and I'll be eating my words, but we will see!"
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