Not at all unusual on inexpensive ukes, especially on the C string. Most of those inexpensive ukes have molded plastic nuts with all the slots the same width and they never adjust the slots individually. The wider C string sits higher and pulls very sharp when fretted at the first few frets.
Just needs a setup, though honestly having someone do that is probably going to cost more than the uke cost. You might look at going with an inexpensive uke from HMS, Mim, Uke Republic, etc. where they set up ukes before they ship them.
You could also try changing strings especially to some fluorocarbon strings as they tend to be thinner - you might get lucky and the string might then sit low enough to be tolerable, though it probably still won't be "good."
John