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

[Todd Erwin]

And this is not the first time this has happened. I complained to Amazon two months ago when they did the exact same thing with the last pet food shipment they sent me. I was assured by customer service that this kind of thing would never happen again --- and guess what --- it did​

Amazon's outsourced overseas customer service reps love to make this promise time and time again. I will then ask them how they can possibly make such a promise, are they going to personally pack my next order themselves?

This is why when there is an issue with an Amazon order, I request a call back, then once connected I ask for a US representative. 9 times out of 10 I get someone competent and understanding who then takes care of the issue by either refunding the order outright and/or placing a replacement order. Not once has s US rep promised me that something would never happen again . I've even had my Prime membership fee refunded completely due to a run of damaged and late shipments.

 

[Samcor]

I only started getting damaged Blu-ray's (Cracked/broken cases etc) when Amazon switched to sending me my orders using the yellow padded envelopes a few years back. The odds of me getting my order undamaged then became really low (I live in New Zealand). A few months back I decided to see what would happen if I paid for one of my Blu-rays in an order to be giftwrapped. It caused the entire order to be upgraded to a cardboard box. Since then I've always made sure to have at least one of the Blu's gift wrapped and this has ensured my order is shipped in a box. it doesn't gurantee undamaged items but the likelihood of my items being intact has shot up.

 

[Carlo_M]

I guess maybe living in L.A. where Amazon has a strong presence has given me good shipping luck. I’ve rarely if ever had anything damaged in transit, but I also don’t order overly large things through them. Mostly books and discs and they generally arrive in good to mint condition. One odd thing did happen a couple of weeks ago. Something was supposed to be delivered same day (Prime member, free one day if over $35 offer) and it was canceled and my card was refunded. When I looked at the reason, the Amazon driver (it was through their shipping service with the TBA tracking number) reported it was damaged and refused delivery on my behalf due to the damage. That was kind of cool. Reordered and a new one arrived the next day.

 

[Kent K H]

I mostly lurk here, but this discussion raised my hackles and sucked me in. I, too, have had a much bigger issue with Amazon's shipping packaging and policies recently (especially the last year or so) which have caused me to consider dropping Prime altogether since that's the main reason I get it. I've had some of the same complaints as the folks here, like discs thrown in boxes full of canned goods (a 12-pack of Surge and a 12-pack of Ecto Cooler in the same box, no less) and constantly getting damaged sleeves or cases due to the flimsy yellow bubble mailers they've been using. The worst experience I've had yet was with an LP however. Usually these are pretty safe as they put them in stiff cardboard mailers, but I received one that hadn't even been packaged. They just slapped a label directly to the shrink wrap and threw it in the mail. I just about died when I got it.

That said, I don't think it's just Amazon's fault. For some reason in the last few months, I'd say at least half my packages are arriving looking like someone has sat on them. In the last week, I had a package that was torn open, an eBay order where most of the side had been torn off the box (this one at least had a "damaged condition" stamp and thankfully had been packaged very carefully inside by the seller) and a Loot Crate order with a huge gash in the box.

 

[skylark68]

I haven't had any issues to be honest. A hardback book I ordered a few months ago had a slightly rolled corner but otherwise it's been pretty much perfect.

 

[Traveling Matt]

I purchase desktop hard drives on a semi-regular basis, with my most recent purchases over the first few months of this year, and can confirm it is not just Amazon.

E-tailers in general have decided shipping electronics is no different than shipping t-shirts. From numerous companies I have had a hard drive placed inside a shipping box that is either 1, much smaller than the shipping box with no protective material inside -ZERO - so it bounces around or 2, in a shipping box almost the exact same size as the product box which means no room for protective material.

It's almost like there is a global shortage of bubble wrap and packing peanuts or something.

The one company I had luck with, and I had to place my order over the phone to be sure a production note was added, was B&H.

There is going to have to be a determination that this future is unacceptable if we are expected to transition more and more to online shopping for all things, including media.

Maybe that means actually paying for shipping?

 

[mark27b]

The worst one I have received in the U.K. from Amazon USA was the latest The walking Dead statue limited edition S7 boxset where the shipping box was fractionally smaller that the statue box so they had to bend the top to fit and it offered no crushing protection to the statue box.

I believe warehouse packers are told by the picking system the packaging to be used for that specific order so the packers themselves don't choose of their own free will a box or padded envelope.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Here's a package I got from Amazon yesterday.

The too-large box contained two items: A dog toy and a small baggie of 50 small button batteries (hence the big label on the side of the box warning about its contents). There was also a single strip of those air bubbles (which had three sections--but the middle one was deflated).

Why bother pretending that you are including packing material? Here's a shot to give an idea of the size of the contents vs. the size of the box:

 

[Jake Lipson]

I usually only order Blu-rays, CDs, and books from Amazon, so I've been pretty lucky in that most of the time the packaging is fine. Since I live with my parents and we order from the same account, occasionally one of my items will get bundled in the same package as one of Dad's orders. But that happens only rarely and hasn't been a problem.

Last year, I had the then-new Harry Potter illustrated edition (a 3.7-pound oversize hardcover book) and A Ghost Story Blu-ray coming to me on the same date. I ordered them at two different times as two separate orders and was concerned enough about the possibility of the book crushing the Blu-ray that I did an online chat with customer service and requested that they be packaged separately. The guy at customer service said this would be the case, but of course he wasn't actually in the packing facility, so they did in fact ship them together, which is what I requested they not do.

It was still okay because I lucked out in that the Blu-ray was not crushed by the book at any point in the process of getting to me. So I dropped the issue.

But it could have been, and was not well-handled by Amazon overall.

 

[Carlo_M]

With the recent revelation that the median annual salary for Amazon is $28.4K (meaning half are below that point, and most of those are warehouse people) it’s amazing we get any luck with shipped items at all!

 

[Brian Kidd]

You are putting way more thought into a return than I ever would. And I doubt anyone at Amazon is going to care or notice how you pack the return or whether it was shipped USPS or UPS. It will just get scanned and then disposed.

You might think so, but in a lot of cases, you'd be incorrect. People constantly return things saying that they're broken or defective when they aren't. They may be perfectly fine except for, oh, I don't know, a Blu-ray slip cover with a scuffed corner. Amazon goes through everything that is returned to them, firstly, to make sure the item that was returned was what was supposed to be returned, and, secondly, to see if the item can be resold. Those items you see listed as sold by Amazon Warehouse Deals? Those are returns that can't be sold as new, even if they were simply opened and never used.

 

[Nelson Au]

Amazon doing limited deliveries to your car trunk. Looking at the article below, looks like they are still using those envelopes.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech...ering-your-car-wherever-its-parked/499900002/

 

[Carlo_M]

Haha I have a coworker who would totally go all-in for that (if her car qualifies). She is constantly complaining how her local USPS office is either losing, mangling, misdelivering or otherwise mistreating her and her fiance's Amazon deliveries. I've known her for 3 years now. It started as a casual joke between us (because mine arrive flawlessly) but it's been so consistent I'm convinced her local PO is a mafia front or something.

Luckily an Amazon locker opened up less than a mile from where we work, so she's now resorted to always having things delivered there versus being delivered to their apartment.

 

[Nelson Au]

This seems like an opportunity for the crooks. I can see them surveying the Google trucks. If they spot one putting a package in a car, they could break into the trunk and take the package.

 

[Carlo_M]

Well, not that I share an overly optimistic view of humanity...but if that article is correct that the eligible cars have OnStar...isn't anti-theft built into that? I'm not sure, I don't have OnStar. But man thieves would be banking on breaking into a car with an anti-theft, GPS enabled device like OnStar...for what may be a Blu-Ray? Sure, could it be a $5000 AV Receiver? Or a bag of dog food? That's a lot to risk for a thief.

 

[Nelson Au]

Carlo, I want to believe that man is essentially good too. And I believe it’s true.

It’s a good point about OnStar. I’m not too familiar with it. So maybe not too many bad guys would risk it.

 

[Carlo_M]

All that said, it was disheartening this last holiday season to see so many package thefts from front doors now that a lot of people are installing outdoor cams around their houses.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

All that said, it was disheartening this last holiday season to see so many package thefts from front doors now that a lot of people are installing outdoor cams around their houses.

Luckily, we have not experienced that in our neighborhood. FedEx even left our 49-inch Samsung 4K TV on our front porch during the holiday season. We were attending a hockey game when I got the shipment received notice on my phone, and told my wife I hoped it would still be there when we got home -- it was.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

My UHD copy of Grease was delivered today in one of Amazon's padded yellow envelopes -- a change from the past couple of orders which used the white plastic envelopes.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Amazon is raising the cost of Amazon Prime to $119.99 per year.