AN ALDI customer was left fuming after her new Christmas tree ‘fell to pieces’ as soon as she took it out of the wrapping.
Ginny Zieba couldn’t believe her eyes when she lifted the £24.99 sustainable tree from its packaging on Saturday and noticed thousands of pines dropping to the floor.
The 30-year old counsellor from Stockport, Greater Manchester had just picked up the 7ft tree from her local branch hours before.
She noticed a small trail of needles behind her while carrying the tree from her car boot to her home.
However, it was only when she lifted it out from its protective packaging that she realised the majority of the tree was coming away – and all over her floor.
Images show Ginny’s sparse-looking tree put up in her living room surrounded by a huge pile of pine needles around the bottom.
The top part of the tree looks particularly bare around the top area.
On their website, the supermarket describes their same trees as: “Aldi’s most popular and largest luscious tree is full of dark green glossy needles, sure to bring magic to any household this Christmas.”
Ginny ended up going back to the store for a refund but later took to Facebook to show off the disastrous tree.
On Sunday, she wrote: “Don’t get an Aldi tree. I had not even had a chance to put this twig in water yet.
“As soon as I opened it from the wrapping it all fell on the floor.”
Over 1,000 people liked and left laughing reactions on the post.
Hundreds of social media users also left comments after being shocked by the state of the tree.
One said: “OMG, that’s bad – I mean, really bad. Take it back and demand your money back.”
Another wrote: “I don’t think it’s funny at all. They have paid for it and it does that!”
A third added: “I would take it back and ask for my money back, it will be bald by Christmas. I would shop elsewhere and get one with a root on.”
A fourth said: “That’s awful.”
While another person joked: “For sale…3D Christmas tree jigsaw.
“Oh I’m sorry I shouldn’t joke, I’d cry.”
Speaking today, Ginny said: “I bought the tree from the store, while it was in its packaging.
“I couldn’t see how much fall out there was and when I got it through the door there was a train of pine needles coming from the car.
“I opened it up and it all fell on the floor, there were clumps of pine needles that had fallen and collected in the branches.
“I was pretty upset as I love putting up my tree but it was a disaster.
“I scooped most of it up into carrier bags and took the tree back to the shop.
“I sent a complaint but did not hear anything back from customer services or their Facebook page.
“This was a weekend when I was supposed to have a lovely tree which I thought was a great bargain, but ended up as a nightmare of cleaning up and no response from Aldi.
“The staff at the Poynton Aldi didn’t really acknowledge how much of an inconvenience this was at all either.
“They refunded me no problem but now my car is a state and so is my home”.
