I first ordered this rug from another source but had to return because I thought it was damaged.  Received this one from Wayfair and it had the same issue but not as severe.  At first we thought it was from the shrink wrap and that fluffing up the fibers would help.  It's as if the shrink wrap actually bleached out the color. We turned the rug around and it's not visible to guests entering the house so we decided to keep it.