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The 21-year-old, from Sydney’s eastern suburbs, was unpacking his delivery from Woolworths on October 14 – something he had done routinely for almost two years. This time, sitting alongside his fresh fruit and vegetables, was a Powerade bottle, which confused him as it was not an item he ordered. “I was going through the order, putting everything away and got a bit excited because I saw a free bottle of Powerade,” the university student, who wished to remain anonymous, told news.com.au. However, upon closer inspection, the young man realised the bottle did not contain a sports drink and was, instead, filled with urine. “Then I picked it up and saw it was half full, and I was a bit less excited – then I got even less excited when I realised the grape flavoured Powerade was yellow and foamy,” he said. He quickly realised what the mystery liquid was and took a photo before throwing it out. “It’s not something that you see every day,” the 21-year-old said. “It was just completely disgusting, because I’m touching it, it’s touching my veggies. I put it down on my table and it’s touching the table. It’s like there’s biohazards in my house.” Astounded by the “quite gross” find, he said he spoke to Woolworths customer service support via its online chatbot before receiving an over-the-phone apology and refund for the bag of fresh fruit and vegetables. Not satisfied with the compensation, he was later given a $250 Woolworths gift card as a “courtesy”. A spokesperson for Woolworths said the incident was “completely unacceptable” and that the company was currently investigating. “We sincerely apologise to the customer for this horrible experience,” they told news.com.au. “Woolworths sets firm and stringent standards for all our delivery partners and there is no tolerance for this behaviour. “We have refunded the customer, and replaced the items in their delivery. “Our team has made contact to apologise and provide any further support.” The young man said it wasn’t the first time something had gone wrong with his delivery order, which he splits $15 a month for with his roommate. However, any issues he has had in the past were typically minor and easily resolved and he certainly had never received anything like this before. The student said he was told by the supermarket giant that the delivery driver was “meant to look in the bags and check nothing was damaged” prior to the delivery. “They actually put the driver on suspension for five days which was an interesting course of action,” he said. News.com.au understands the driver has since been terminated.
