A woman who ordered a towering rainbow Christmas tree and instead received a small bundle of plastic scruff warns against the lure of late-night Instagram ads
- Queen ShaDonna Haynesworth was excited to order a rainbow Christmas tree to brighten the lobby of her new apartment building.
- When the box arrived, the "tree" looked nothing like the picture on the Instagram ad that lured her in.
- Haynesworth is disappointed, but found her online shopping fail to be comical and plans to decorate he plastic ball of scruff out of spite.
Queen ShaDonna Haynesworth was preparing for a move from Philiadelphia to Senegal when she got a late-night Instagram ad for a towering rainbow Christmas tree.
Loving all things rainbow, Haynesworth was intrigued by the tree, despite not recognizing the website iridescenttoyou.com.
She put the product in her cart for a few days to think about it, then she succumbed to the trap that many people have fallen for.
"I ordered the tree for my apartment building lobby. I knew that bringing so many colors would bring joy to my residents that saw it," Haynesworth told Insider. "I was shocked when the package arrived and it was only 15 inches long."
Haynesworth made a video of her unboxing. In it she laughed hysterically as she pulled out a small bush of colorful scruff. It can't stand on its own.
"Yo this is the rainbow Christmas tree?" she says, catching her breath between belly laughs. "It's missing a leg!"
The package came with instructions, but they were in Chinese, Haynesworth said.
She says she feels like she was scammed, as there was no clear way to get back the $27.99 she spent.
An Insider message seeking comment from iridescenttoyou.com support was not immediately returned.
Haynesworth said she'll never buy from an Instagram or Facebook ad again, but that she's holding on to this one. She even had it shipped from Philadelphia to Senegal.
"I haven't decorated the tree yet because it's in a shipping container in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, bound for Africa at the moment," Haynesworth said in an email. "But I will once it comes I will! Out of spite! I have it now so I might as well make the most of it! Such is life!"
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