Family accidentally buys 2300 toilet rolls prior to national panic
The family's loo roll stash took up an entire wall in their garage. Photo: ABC
This is what 12 years’ worth of toilet paper looks like.
Toowoomba’s Janetzki family have thousands of rolls of Australia’s most sought-after product, after mistakenly ordering 48 boxes of 48 rolls instead of their usual box of 48 rolls from online delivery service Who Gives A Crap.
They received 2304 rolls and were charged $3264 instead of $68, something that went unnoticed until the two-pallet order showed up on their doorstep days later.
The family estimate it is enough to last them 12 years.
The accidental hoarders made the purchase in early February, weeks before fears relating to coronavirus sent the country into a toilet paper-buying frenzy.
Now, they’ve got more toilet paper than most supermarkets have on the shelves.
“It’ll take a while to live down,” said Haidee Janetzki, who placed the order.
“We’ve told our three daughters that if we’ve still got all this toilet paper when they get married this is what they’ll have as their wedding decorations.”
The Janetzkis have been ordering one box of 48 rolls every 12 weeks for the past two years.
Two pallets of loo paper
After Christmas, they decided to change product and set up a new subscription.
Haidee Janetzki sits atop her temporary lounge room throne. Photo: ABC
“It asked for the quantity and I wrote 48 thinking I want a box with 48 rolls in it,” Ms Janetzki said.
“A couple of days later, I got an email saying the order was on the way, and that was all good.
“On a Monday there was a knock at the door at it was the courier. He said, ‘I’ve got two pallets of toilet paper for you.’
“We checked the credit card statement to try to figure out what’d gone wrong and turned out I’d ordered 48 boxes, so it was legitimately my mistake.”
Ms Janetzki said she had paid off her credit card the day prior to being charged, and only checks her statement once a fortnight.
“So I didn’t notice there was a large amount on the card and it didn’t max it out,” she said.
‘Holy crap’
Husband Chris Janetzki said he could not quite believe the size of their order.
“At the time I thought, ‘Holy crap,'” he said.
Little did they, or anyone, know that weeks later a toilet paper shortage would make national headlines.
Both Woolworths and Coles have limited the amount of toilet paper rolls customers can buy.
Toilet paper manufacturers have also ramped up production to meet demand.
“I couldn’t believe that people have been mass-buying toilet paper like that. I still don’t understand why they’re doing it,” Mr Janetzki said.
“I’m a pastor of a church and so a friend said, ‘How prophetic are you to be able to see the future and know there was going to be a toilet paper shortage?’
“We’re going to get a laugh out of it for a while.”
Unable to contact the online-only company via phone, the Janetzkis had no choice but to accept the delivery.
The Janetzkis eventually sent off an urgent email about their unusual purchase and the company responded with an offer to take back the unwanted boxes.
But by that time, the family had come up with a cunning plan.
Supermarket shelves across the country have been stripped of toilet paper this week. Photo: Twitter
Rolling with it
The family is now selling their excess toilet paper to help raise money for their daughter’s school.
Ms Janetzki said she jokingly offered up the toilet paper as a fundraising initiative for the school’s trip to Sydney and Canberra later this year.
Days later it was a go.
“Lots of people we know offered to buy them off us,” she said.
“We’re getting lots of jokes though now. Every other order form I’ve put in for other fundraisers people have said, ‘Just check the quantity, make sure she’s ordering just one, pie not one box of pies.'”
WGAC has also refunded $400 in postage for the boxes, which the Janetzkis have put towards their daughter’s trip.
“It really has worked out for the best for us in the end,” Ms Janetzki said.
While they wait for stock to sell out, the family have been having fun with it – building a wall in their garage, and then a throne in their lounge room.
A spokeswoman for WGAC confirmed the Janetzkis’ story.
“Haidee and Chris were so patient about this situation. I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to have a whole pallet of toilet paper turn up at my front door,” the spokeswoman said.
“I can imagine there’d be some folks around Australia this week who wouldn’t mind it right about now.”
The spokeswoman said the company was unable to check all orders manually.
“When we were a smaller business, we’d run manual checks twice a day on all the orders we received and a mistake like this would usually jump out during that process,” the spokeswoman said.
“Then we’d reach out to the customer before sending the order to the warehouse to make sure it was correct before shipping.
“But as the business has grown up, we’ve had to automate how we process orders.”
