How badly does Amazon package your Blu-ray and 4k discs? (1 Viewer)

[B-ROLL]

Thanks Bryan. Well, if it is an Amazon truck coming or a UPS truck, I hope they knock on the door. I just don’t feel good leaving it outside.

I would leave a note to call or knock for the package they come as late as 9pm

 

[Matt Hough]

I got an e-mail from Amazon today advising me that an item I am expecting to be delivered tomorrow may be delayed due to the icy weather we had today (a couple of inches of sleet and freezing rain) making roads treacherous for driving. Frankly, I'll be surprised if we get ANY mail delivery tomorrow.

 

[John Sparks]

I've noticed that some of my BD cases are coming cracked, but the disc is okay. So, I've bought 5 each of the single/double replacement cases and I've already used 4 of them, a good investment.

 

[B-ROLL]

I've noticed that some of my BD cases are coming cracked, but the disc is okay. So, I've bought 5 each of the single/double replacement cases and I've already used 4 of them, a good investment.

I've ended up buying blu-rays at DollarTree, when they have them just for the cases, as I prefer to have the blu-uay logo silvered in as opposed to blank

My copy of the Phantom Thread 4K UHD came with the shrink wrap opened similar to the way the shrink wrap on a pack of cigarettes and the CLEAR case (NOT Black) cracked. I checked the 4K disc and it appeared OK but I haven't tried the code the Digital version. It was between two steelbooks (one was a 4K) and another 4K in the black case all arrive apparently unharmed in an approximately 16X12 Prime plastic bubble bag ...

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Amazon has their own trucks that do deliver on Sunday ...I don't know about them being UPS

That is not the case everywhere. In our area, the USPS has been delivering anything I get on a Sunday. If you see a US Mail vehicle in the neighborhood on a Sunday, you know somebody is getting an Amazon delivery.

 

[Gary16]

That is not the case everywhere. In our area, the USPS has been delivering anything I get on a Sunday. If you see a US Mail vehicle in the neighborhood on a Sunday, you know somebody is getting an Amazon delivery.

That used to be the case here but now it seems to be only Amazon’s own delivery trucks on Sunday.

 

[TJPC]

In Canada, we have no mail on Saturday or Sunday. Tracking etc. stops.

 

[Nelson Au]

One of the things I hate is waiting for a delivery! Only because I hate knowing a package is sitting on my doorstep and it might get stolen. Or I want to be around in case they knock so I can give them the package in this case. I knew the UPS truck wouldn’t come. The Amazon email said next business day, despite the customer service person saying it would be Sunday. Though the second lady said yes, it was unclear and she couldn’t confirm if UPS would come Sunday. No trucks ever came by my house yesterday. They didn’t leave a note either if they did.

I’ll go to a UPS store after work if I can get there before they close.

 

[Malcolm R]

That is not the case everywhere. In our area, the USPS has been delivering anything I get on a Sunday. If you see a US Mail vehicle in the neighborhood on a Sunday, you know somebody is getting an Amazon delivery.

US Mail delivered a package to me on Sunday from Deep Discount. There was no special "express" shipping indicated. I think they were just trying to get caught up from the forced day off last week.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

In Canada, we have no mail on Saturday or Sunday. Tracking etc. stops.

We do not have normal mail delivery on Sunday in the US, either. Amazon paid the US Postal Office extra for the Sunday deliveries. I have heard that the Post Office was losing money on the deal, though. And honestly, I don't know why, if the Post Office is losing money, they still do Saturday deliveries anymore.

 

[Robert Crawford]

We do not have normal mail delivery on Sunday in the US, either. Amazon paid the US Postal Office extra for the Sunday deliveries. I have heard that the Post Office was losing money on the deal, though. And honestly, I don't know why, if the Post Office is losing money, they still do Saturday deliveries anymore.

Because the American people want Saturday deliveries so Congress won’t allow them to eliminate it.

 

[Malcolm R]

Because the American people want Saturday deliveries so Congress won’t allow them to eliminate it.

I don't usually get Saturday mail delivery anymore, so I think local post offices are deciding for themselves whether they deliver or not. That's why I was kind of shocked to get a non-Amazon delivery on Sunday, since nothing came on Saturday.

My EW print magazine, which was always delivered on Saturday for years now usually comes on Monday of the next week.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Because the American people want Saturday deliveries so Congress won’t allow them to eliminate it.

That seems odd in this modern age. I get very few important items in the mail anymore. Most of my bills and statements are electronic, as are my payments. There's nothing I get on a Saturday that couldn't wait until the following Monday.

 

[Robert Crawford]

USPS has asked Congress to eliminate Saturday Deliveries more than once and have been rejected with those requests. Could it change in the future? Perhaps so we’ll see what happens in the future.

 

[Matt Hough]

As I predicted, there was no mail delivery in my neighborhood today. The snow and ice is practically gone now, so tomorrow should be OK.

 

[John Sparks]

Out where I live, I don't see USPS on Sundays anymore, just the white vans, now some u-hauls and even their private vehicles.

 

[Brian Kidd]

Here's a new one. I ordered a new copy of The Outer Limits blu ray as a gift. It arrived in a cardboard wrapped type box. Kind of sloppily folded over and adhered crooked.

View attachment 53096
So the items inside, two blu rays arrived OK. However, the Outer Limits set had torn shrink wrap on two corners and the cardboard packaging for the Outer Limits set had been dog eared a bit and the black printing was worn off the corners. Its like it had been on a shelf for some time and had been slid around over time. Because it is a gift, I hated to see it in that shape. Surprising too.

I called Amazon tonight to exchange it and it was sort of frustrating as the girl, who sounded like it was a customer service person working in America, though, it was hard to tell. ( the call back was from Seattle) She kept putting me on hold after I asked about the return to exchange. It took several times of waiting while she was doing whatever she was doing to sort it all out. The cool thing is the return will be done by a UPS guy coming to my house to get it. The bad thing is I have to re-order the Outer Limits as I'm shipping it to my work place since the item will be shipped during the week.

She was probably a new associate who was hired for the holiday season. Starting around Sept., they start to ramp up their hiring so you are exponentially more likely to get an inexperienced person when contacting Amazon Customer Service between then and Christmas. That would explain the confusion and multiple holds. Heck, she might have even still been in training.

Also, Amazon discourages their associates from offering UPS pickup for items unless they're heavy or really expensive. It costs the company a lot more money than the standard method of having the customer print out a label and drop it off at a UPS location. The option is there, but you have to jump through hoops to enable it. Since you were a "repeat contact," odds are the system routed you to a more-experienced person with more permissions to make exceptions, which explains why you got someone in South Africa. That system was implemented when I was there in order to cut down on the number of repeat contacts. It makes more sense to route repeat callers to better-equipped associates, rather than sending them to someone who is likely another newer person with limited knowledge and abilities to make concessions. Every call costs the company money, so the fewer calls required to solve a problem, the lower the final cost to Amazon. Most issues can be handled easily with a single call, since the reasons people call in usually fall into just a few categories. When that isn't the case, that's when it's important to "bump it up the line" to someone more experienced. Certainly not every new associate isn't capable, but Customer Service training time has been decreased quite a bit in the past several years.

As for the condition of your case, Amazon uses a system whereby items of the same type aren't stored together. They store things by what will fit in a given area. It allows them to maximize their storage space. Because their inventory system is so sophisticated, they're able to locate and grab an item in a fulfillment center the size of several football fields in a matter of minutes and get it to the packers. It's crazy, how elaborate it is. That's also how they're able to ship things out so quickly. The downside is that, when you're dealing with that many different items, it simply isn't possible to worry about things like the condition of the outside packaging. Most people won't care and the number of those who care enough to initiate a return are so small that Amazon just eats the cost of the return and then, if the actual item is fine, re-sells the item as one of their Amazon Warehouse Deals. They can't sell it as new, since it has been in the possession of a customer, but they can still recoup what they initially paid for the item, usually still with a small profit.

I'm telling you, working there was an incredible learning experience about operating a business on a massive scale.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks a lot for the insights Brian! That is always interesting to learn more about Amazon’s operations.

The UPS never came to my house. Since I was at work yesterday, and there was no UPS note on my door saying they came by, then I assume they didn’t stop by yesterday either.

What was nice is the South Africa customer service agent was nice enough to emailed me a return label just in case. But it wasn’t a label as I learned after the call and looking at the link she sent, it was a 2D barcode instead. So that was disconcerting. The instructions said this code will tell the UPS what the printed return label will be. I took the code and package to a UPS store and the guy just scanned the code and printed the label and stuck it on the box. I didn’t check what it said but figured it will go where it’s supposed to and I won’t be charged for the Blu Ray upon its return.

That’s interesting what you said Brian. One time as I posted in this thread earlier, the package on a DVD set was crushed and Amazon said to just dispose of it myself, don’t worry about returning it. The South Africa agent said they don’t do that anymore.

 

[Carlo_M]

I generally have good luck with Amazon deliveries, but my most recent one, the Mission Impossible 4K box set, scheduled to be delivered today by their own service (has a TBA tracking number) now is listed as "Delayed" even though package arrived in Los Angeles. Going to more detailed tracking it says this:

11:35 AM
A carrier delay has occurred
Los Angeles, US

7:47 AM
Out for delivery
Los Angeles, US

So it was scanned as out for delivery, and four hours later it was delayed. Truck get in an accident? Dude stepped on my package? Maybe put in wrong delivery truck that was headed to another area? Inquiring minds want to know...

Fingers crossed as this is an expensive set...

 

[Brian Kidd]

Thanks a lot for the insights Brian! That is always interesting to learn more about Amazon’s operations.

The UPS never came to my house. Since I was at work yesterday, and there was no UPS note on my door saying they came by, then I assume they didn’t stop by yesterday either.

What was nice is the South Africa customer service agent was nice enough to emailed me a return label just in case. But it wasn’t a label as I learned after the call and looking at the link she sent, it was a 2D barcode instead. So that was disconcerting. The instructions said this code will tell the UPS what the printed return label will be. I took the code and package to a UPS store and the guy just scanned the code and printed the label and stuck it on the box. I didn’t check what it said but figured it will go where it’s supposed to and I won’t be charged for the Blu Ray upon its return.

That’s interesting what you said Brian. One time as I posted in this thread earlier, the package on a DVD set was crushed and Amazon said to just dispose of it myself, don’t worry about returning it. The South Africa agent said they don’t do that anymore.

The barcode that you received just would have been scanned by the UPS driver who would have picked up the item. They have label printers available to them that would then print out the label that they would paste on the box; essentially what the person at the UPS location did. It can be confusing to folks if the Associate doesn't inform them of this when they're setting up the return. Again, it sounds like you were dealing with someone on the first call who was inexperienced.

The only time that customers were supposed to be advised to dispose of an item, rather than returning it, was if it involved something like broken glass or leaky containers. Obviously, that kind of thing would be a waste to return and also, in many cases, a hazard to the people handling the package. There were always unscrupulous Associates who would default to "Just keep it" because they were afraid that the customer would answer "No" on the "Did I solve your problem?" survey. Since they have to go through a series of checklists where they select the reasons for taking an action, they quickly figure out what they need to click to get the system to allow them to not require a return and abuse the system. Since Customer Service Associates' jobs depend on getting a "Yes" response on those surveys, the dishonest ones learn how to game the system. It's unfortunate for the honest ones who have to deal with someone calling back in because they were either promised something by the first CSA that wasn't possible or because something went wrong due to the first CSA's actions. The person handling the subsequent calls had a much higher chance of getting that "No" on their survey, even if they ended up cleaning up the mess of the first CSA. I saw it happen time and time again, unfortunately. I don't know the specifics of things at Amazon now, but the general rule of thumb when I worked for them was that if the person helping you was American, Costa Rican, or South African, you were likely speaking with someone who actually worked at Amazon and were held to a high standard. If you were speaking to someone in the Philippines, you were speaking with an outsourcer, many of whom would not follow policy or who would use underhanded tactics to get customers off the phone and a "Yes" on their survey. Amazon Corporate refused to admit that it was a problem, since those outsourcers cost the company pennies on the dollar compared to actual Amazon employees, but those of us on the "front lines" had lots of data that said otherwise.