Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/03/it-might-be-a-bad-idea-to-orde.html
…
2 Likes
Is this one dude a significant sample size to support this conclusion?
5 Likes
Was it direct from Google, or is this one of those cottage industries where it’s just one guy in his garage and your order arrives wrapped in the Sunday funnies? And no packing material? Everything I order from Amazon now comes in a box from Tony’s Basement, LLC.
7 Likes
Perhaps he accidentally ordered a defurbished phone
25 Likes
He keeps saying mail when it’s clearly FedEx. None of this can be trusted.
5 Likes
How do you de-furbish something?
9 Likes
This kind of shit is exactly why I have to return 1/2 of the items I order from Amazon. A recent order, which arrived packed only in a lightly padded envelope, and no reinforcement:
8 Likes
Funny, I rarely have packaging issues with Amazon (knock on wood) … now, that cermic sink I ordered shipped by Home Depot is another story…
5 Likes
What do you expect for a software company?
(Disclaimer: a customer just received a Nixie tube from me that was crushed in transit, although it was in a box in a box with padding.)
8 Likes
That’s funny because I had the same experience with Home Depot - I had four cases of ceramic tiles delivered to the local store and they were shipped with zero packaging at all - just the lightweight cardboard enclosure. Of course 3/4 of them were completely smashed.
Nobody along the supply chain thought “these are pretty fragile, maybe we should wrap them up”? And the people at the customer service desk didn’t think “I wonder if this customer will want to receive 4 cases of useless smashed ceramic tile? I don’t know, lets wait till he makes a special trip out here to the store and we can ask him then”
10 Likes
If it comes from Amazon itself, it’s usually packed within an inch of its life. Third-party sellers without Amazon fulfillment, though …
4 Likes
A few years ago I ordered a Kindle from Amazon for my wife’s birthday. They didn’t put it in any packaging, just stuck the address label on the kindle box. So it ruined the surprise and I had to give her a present in a dented box with the label torn off the side.
3 Likes
I recounted the ceramic sink affair on our neighborhood Facebook page, and someone in our neighborhood’s family owned a plumbing supply company … they price matched, and she personally delivered it right to our door.
5 Likes
My experience with Amazon’s packing is frequently very different.
It has plenty of packing, but it is either all above or all below the product. Almost as if you had a machine weight the package and fire anyone who didn’t use enough packing, and also time people and fire ones that did it too slow…but didn’t actually bother to check to see if the packaging was applied usefully, or if some packers had noticeably higher failure rates then others…
Hmmmm, you get what you measure for.
5 Likes
I’m with Stripes. I can remember a time when Amazon shipping was as you describe, but recently it seems like there’s a lot of corner-cutting in shipping, particularly with books, CDs, and blu-rays. I’m talking about Prime shipping, not third-party stuff. Used to be you could expect packaging that was made specifically for the item being shipped, and would protect it well. But somewhere along the line I suppose they figured that most people aren’t very picky about the condition their items arrive in, so now (for example) every CD I order arrives in a flimsy oversized envelope. If it’s in a jewel case you can count on it being broken. Books arrive beaten up and dog-eared. Recently I had to return a book three times before I got one in acceptable condition. Luckily Amazon’s return policy makes it easy.
2 Likes
My Amazon packaging issues are more likely to be over-protection. Cat kibble doesn’t really need padding, though it would be nice if they didn’t pack the 15 pound kibble with the 25 pound litter…
7 Likes
Hey! It’s Tony’s Basement Inc. Get it right. And we don’t use Sunday funnies. They’re expensive. We use quality papers from the boxes marked “FREE.” Also bubble wrap that looks suspiciously used.
5 Likes
Used for what?
3 Likes
How should I know? I didn’t put it in the dumpster near a crack den.
5 Likes
Did he say that was his 5th Pixel? I wonder what happened to the other 4. They’ve only been out 4 or 5 months I think.
