Molly-May Watson, 27, bought the shorts for just £8.57 from a seller on the app – she wore them for the first time to a baby shower and was left in agony
A woman said she was left with second-degree burns after shapewear she bought online “melted” into her skin. Molly-May Watson, 27, bought the £8.57 shorts in May last year via a seller on TikTok Shop.
A couple of months later she wore them for the first time under a dress while attending a baby shower for her sister. Molly-May said she thought a bee had flown into her dress after she “felt this burning” on her upper right thigh.
She rushed to the bathroom to see what had happened and said she had to rip her shorts off after the elastane stretchy material had “melted” into her skin. She went to A&E at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, the following day, where she was told she could be “scarred for life”.
After complaining to TikTok Shop through the help function on the app, she says she was given just a £10 coupon as compensation.
Molly-May, an executive assistant from Kennington, south London, said: “I felt this burning on my upper bum cheek and side of my leg. For some reason I thought a bee had got into my dress.
“I went to the toilet to see what the hell was going on. The shorts had melted into my leg.
“So I’ve had to rip them off and I’ve been left with first and second-degree burns. I’m unable to walk properly at the moment. The hospital where I went said I could be scarred for life at this point.”
Molly-May had only donned the shorts once before, for a quick fitting ahead of her sister’s baby shower. After enduring the rest of the event in discomfort, she sought medical attention the next day.
“I thought ‘I’ll just leave it’ but it was agonising and had gotten worse,” she said. “I had to go to AandE on the Monday and had to be treated in the urgent treatment centre for burns.
“I’ve been bandaged up ever since. They confirmed it’s definitely a burn and that’s what happened. They said ‘it’s strange, we don’t really know if it’s a heat burn or a chemical reaction’.”
Molly-May continued: “I now can’t find the seller on Google – which makes me think it wasn’t legit in the first place. I sent TikTok Shop a message with pics of all the burns and the melted shorts and said ‘this is what happened’.
“I spoke to an agent and said they’d need to pass it on to a specialist team. I sent another chaser message.
“They came back to me and said, ‘We can refund you and give you a £10 coupon’. I said ‘I don’t feel comfortable accepting a coupon from you to be honest’.
“I’ll never be shopping from that shop again. It’s insulting. They said, ‘Unfortunately nothing we can do’.
“When I’ve been talking to friends and people at work and stuff, they’ve told me they’ve bought similar things and said ‘we felt really irritated’. It’s just made me overly aware now.
“You think ‘that’s a nice little bargain’, but it could leave you like me scarred for life. Any sort of budget or third-party sellers I won’t ever order from them again. I’m starting to scar already from some bits of the burn”.
Molly-May has been forced to work from home whilst she heals and has been told to visit her GP if she notices any changes.
TikTok confirmed the listing and seller page was taken down from the platform in June last year. A spokesperson said TikTok had already responded and provided compensation to the purchaser following the complaint.