Weekly RoundUp 3-14-2017 (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

David, that does sound awful, but has not been my experience with Amazon in general. (Then again, all I ever buy from them are Blu-rays, CDs or books, so they almost always come in bubble envelopes or boxes if the order is more than one thing.)

Have you tried contacting customer service at all? They're usually very receptive to my comments and concerns on the rare occasion I have to contact them. I usually just say nice things about them like how long I've been a Prime customer, and typically the service is very good but I was surprised in this incidence by whatever the problem was, and they are usually quite helpful.

On the orders page, I think there's an option to leave packaging feedback. I've never needed to do that, but you might see if filling that out a few times gets you any results in the future.

But again, I've never bought a hard drive or something that would need that degree of protection from them. Good luck.

 

[David Norman]

David, that does sound awful, but has not been my experience with Amazon in general. (Then again, all I ever buy from them are Blu-rays, CDs or books, so they almost always come in bubble envelopes or boxes if the order is more than one thing.)

Have you tried contacting customer service at all? They're usually very receptive to my comments and concerns on the rare occasion I have to contact them. I usually just say nice things about them like how long I've been a Prime customer, and typically the service is very good but I was surprised in this incidence by whatever the problem was, and they are usually quite helpful.

On the orders page, I think there's an option to leave packaging feedback. I've never needed to do that, but you might see if filling that out a few times gets you any results in the future.

But again, I've never bought a hard drive or something that would need that degree of protection from them. Good luck.

I gave up arguing on the bubble mailers 3-4 years ago after multiple semi damaged cases/holes in case art/floaters/forget slipcovers. I remember in 2005-2010/11 almost everything came in a box and often inside with a cardboard page with the items heatshrunk to it so they could move if they tried. The they went to boxes without the internal support then to baggies or envelopes unless you order 3+ items for sort of defeat much of the purpose of Prime. Either returning items or just accepting the damage got old -- this wasn't just dinged slipcovers that I just expect on any mail order. I talked with them on the phone, I wrote letters and emails, with little results other than the usual "We;re sorry for., but ... " Among other reasons i moved 95% of my bluray purchases elsewhere. So far for the hard drive -- I've left packaging feedback, a handwritten note to include in the return box, and the explanation on original Return request.

This isn't the first time I've had non Blurays poorly packaged -- oversized boxes with no packing material in the most common, but this was the worst offender with something semi-fragile. the other combination is packing heavy items and fragile items in the same container so that the latter can be bashed to pieces -- it's bad when you have to separate orders so those things can't be sent together. Mostly I just order things these day that aren't breakable unless I have to. I've dropped from 100+ orders a year to a total of 10-15 last year and 2015. Interesting that I'm already up to that 10-12 this year with only 2 returns for damage.

Maybe go back to "not fulfilled by Amazon" and let the merchants pack for themselves -- usually those seem to come better packed.

The convenience isn't worth the inconvenience -- just go to the store and pick out the stuff I want. Last night I just went to Best Buy (25 miles one way) to pick up a new Kindle for my wife instead of ordering from Amazon. I was able to combine a couple other things I wanted so that helped a little with the overall trip, but everything I bought last night could easily have been ordered. Cost even including gas isn't appreciably more, plus I get a 30-90 day return and price protection.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Wow, can't blame you. That would drive me away from Amazon, too, although fortunately they've been better to me with my discs. It's hard for me to go to the store frequently so that's why I tend to order online as much as possible, but clearly I have lucked out in both places I recently lived (both of which also have big Amazon warehouses in-state, where I guess the packing on mine have usually been pretty good.)

If the service for you is as bad as you're describing, why continue to pay for Prime? I wouldn't if I had that kind of repeated issue and was taking most of my business elsewhere.

 

[David Norman]

Wow, can't blame you. That would drive me away from Amazon, too, although fortunately they've been better to me with my discs. It's hard for me to go to the store frequently so that's why I tend to order online as much as possible, but clearly I have lucked out in both places I recently lived (both of which also have big Amazon warehouses in-state, where I guess the packing on mine have usually been pretty good.)

If the service for you is as bad as you're describing, why continue to pay for Prime? I wouldn't if I had that kind of repeated issue and was taking most of my business elsewhere.

Inertia as much as anything. I was one of the original trial Prime when it was a free service. Through 2011 and maybe 2012 it was well worth it though even by 2012 you could see the slippage.

I kept it most of the last few years b/c I'm grandfathered in to the old sharing program and my College Kids were on the plan which made it very worthwhile for them to get things on campus sometimes at the last minute even as my use plummeted. Now that both have graduated and are just getting jobs lined up my questions over the value now becomes much more serious for the next renewal point. I guess I keep hoping they'll get better. The last cycle or two I may have eeked out a break-even amount

 

[Hank_P]

After seeing "Passengers" at the theater, not sure anyone could pay me enough to sit through that again. That was painful and couldn't end fast enough.