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

The above photo (which you can enlarge by clicking on it) says it all.
I have been an Amazon Prime member since the program began. I order thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from them each year. I also work for the Postal Service and handle their packages. You may say that I have seen it all when it comes to this company.
One thing that I can say for sure — they don’t give a shit about properly packaging items. Without saying more than I should, I will keep it to just my personal concerns — and that is the fact that they will stuff a huge box, comingling large and fragile items together without batting an eye.
To throw two Blu-ray/4k titles in the same box as two 15lb. bags of dog food and a case of canned items? What the hell were they thinking?
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...

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I no longer receive any media I order from Amazon in a sturdy cardboard container anymore, with the exception of books. DVD's, blu-ray's and CD's all arrive in a one-size-fits-all plastic envelope.

I generally order pretty much only discs, so I don’t have the issue of other products being mixed in, however the packaging material they use is very minimal and quite frequently falling apart on delivery. I’m just lucky that the discs themselves aren’t damaged.

Blimpoy06 said:

one-size-fits-all plastic envelope.

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Plastic? I'm surprised.
Everything from Amazon comes in recycled and recyclable cardboard here in the UK....

I thought Amazon would be more environmentally friendly all over the world? - or is it only places where they feel they have to..?

KeithDA said:

Plastic? I'm surprised.
Everything from Amazon comes in recycled and recyclable cardboard here in the UK....

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My Criterion blu-ray of Being There arrived in this package.

They once put my Yellow Submarine blu-ray in the same box as an Epson Workforce 11x17 scanner/printer. It came in a coffin-sized box, and the blu-ray was just floating around in the box with this HUGE scanner. There was also no packing material inside the box to keep the scanner from shifting around. The blu-ray wasn't damaged, which was really amazing.

I too have reservations about Amazon packaging, particularly form the UK arm. I have many a package rewrapped by local customs or post office. However, there have been invoices missing, discs missing and I have had to get a replacement which is willingly given. I try to tell them. When you have ends that are tucked in then it can come open at either end, perhaps a shock of something heavy dumped on it or some person can quickly slip the flap out and take a disc or two. Not happy. What could be costly in the future for me from July 1 2018 is that my country(after a delay of 12 months) is bringing a sales tax on imported items from $1 upwards(10%) and that is going to be complicated. Until now for a number of years it has been Free into store to A$1000. Now it will also include 10% on delivery as well, an unfair situation. We would be, thus, punished for buying stuff unobtainable here or in special editions or blu ray in my country. A major retailer pushed and pushed for it. He is not clean taxwise as my late sister found out as an accountant at his HQ and was promptly fired. He has some stores off shore including Slovenia. So there it is.

I have had wet and damp packages but no damage to goods. With replacements, Amazon does not require me to return goods but will I be made pay the sales tax again or get a credit for the faulty item tax? I don't know but business like Amazon are being forced to collect tax on behalf of our government and remit the funds on my behalf!!!!! Amazon does not want this and we know how they feel about charging sales tax on domestic US sales and gone to court about same and lost.

Blimpoy06 said:

My Criterion blu-ray of Being There arrived in this package.
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My discs used to come in padded yellow envelopes, but my last one came in this type of package. Amazon will occasionally package my discs with other items if I have ordered something else, but I cannot recall having a disc package ever damaged by the way they packaged it.

Scott Merryfield said:

My discs used to come in padded yellow envelopes, but my last one came in this type of package. Amazon will occasionally package my discs with other items if I have ordered something else, but I cannot recall having a disc package ever damaged by the way they packaged it.

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Same here!

I've had packages in envelopes where the spine was crushed or case was damaged on multiple occasions.

I have had the most trouble since they started shipping discs in those cheap bubbled paper envelopes. I would say I have about a 40% return rate on damaged product. When they ship in boxes with proper packing, I have seen very little, if no damage. They have kindly changed all of my shipping to UPS, since I have reported more issues with damage and late delivery by the USPS. If I thought I could get them to change to box-only, I would.

I receive 2-3 deliveries from Amazon weekly....blu-rays, health and beauty items, etc, along with the occasional large electronics item. Usually, if multiple items ship I'll get the small Amazon box with it all in there with the little air cushion packaging material inside. A single blu ray used to come in the brown padded envelope, now they're using the white/blue plastic bags shown above. I've never received anything damaged in all the years I've been a member.

I only get cheap bubble wrap envelopes (both the paper and plastic kind) for Blu-rays now. They haven't been damaged and I'm not that precious about the condition of a box so I don't really mind them using bubble wrap envelopes for them.

However, I routinely buy $50 MSRP hardcover books and they use a bubble wrap envelope for those too. They almost all arrived damaged to varying degrees (from small dings on the corner that I can live with to flat out smashed). I complain, they tell me how they're going to take care of it & not use bubble envelopes for my orders any more and then the next one arrives in a bubble wrap envelope. I even make the offer to pay more money if they'd just use a box for my books (which is a ridiculous suggestion just to get an undamaged product but I'd be willing to do it) but that would be basically be admitting that the envelopes are crap so that will never happen.

I've never had any issues or damage to my media. I too am a Prime Member.

Richard V said:

I've never had any issues or damage to my media. I too am a Prime Member.

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Ditto.

I've been pretty lucky overall here in Texas, but we've had a few "WTF" moments. My wife ordered some padded mats for the kitchen to stand on while she's cooking, and they shipped a 8' long one folded in half, so it arrived with an ugly permanent crease. Customer service usually takes care of it - but I agree that their packaging has gone downhill in the past couple of years.

I remember the days - and hope they return - when a heavy book or DVD/Blu-ray set would get plastic-wrapped to an oversize piece of corrugated, then that would be packed into a larger box with lots of air pillows. Now, they just toss the set into a too-large cardboard box with only one or two air pillows which lets the contents slip and slide their way across the country. Single disc orders have been coming either wrapped in a flimsy plastic envelope or a too-large bubble envelope.

I just received an order containing heavy NiCad batteries for some outdoor power tools and they just stuck the inner box containing the batteries into a big box with one air bag. It was so poorly packed the UPS driver had marked it "check for damage" before he handed it to me. Luckily, nothing was broken but it could easily have split open and lost the contents.

I usually receive my Blu-Rays in bubble-wrapped envelopes with no problem. Several years ago, I had a series of Blu-Rays arrive with broken cases (the discs themselves were fine) when shipped in plain paper envelopes. I called Amazon more to point out a need for better packaging rather than to complain, and the customer service rep took it upon herself to issue me a credit for an odd amount of money, which was the amount they were currently charging for a 10-pack of empty Blu-Ray cases. I thought her solution was brilliant and ordered them on the spot. I still have seven cases left.

I was just speaking about this on the Outer Limits blu-ray thread.

My set arrived in the plastic bubble wrap bag as shown in the photo above in post 5. The set arrived with a broken hub and a dog eared corner on the booklet. This damage I believe was on Kino Lorber and could be issues when the set was assembled. I asked Amazon for a replacement and asked for a box and they didn’t use a box! The replacement set arrived in the same plastic bubble wrap bag. The new set had a slightly crushed box but the discs were ok. So I swapped the Outer box of the Outer Limits set from the first set.

It seems other posters in the thread got their sets from Kino Lorber direct and they shipped in a box with the set properly protected.

My recent dvd and Blu ray purchases have arrive from Amazon in the yellow padded paper envelopes. I do recall the earlier days when they used boxes and had the small airbags inside but those didn’t do much to cushion the contents.they just used one airbag and it wasn’t enough to hold everything in place.

It seems the skimping on packaging might be due, and it’s my own speculation, as a time saver to meet the crush of time limits to get packages out the same day or in two days. It must be faster to stuff an envelope and takes less space then bulky boxes in the Amazon fullfillment facilities. (Maybe the price we pay for instant gratification)

I’d prefer they take the time to use a box and place sufficient packing materials. But I can see that being a possible downside as it costs more and might be environmentally not as good. More landfill filled with packing materials.

In the end, I wish they’d use better ways to ship stuff. In Ron’s case above, they could have packed the Blu rays in a padded envelope at least to protect them. For me I wished they’d better protect the contents, use a box, add some bubbles inside to cushion stuff. Go back to those early days of shrink wrapping the contents into a piece of card board before inserting it in a box. That actually worked well.

But I suppose the returns they get for damaged goods is part of the cost of doing business. I don’t know if we as a group can band together and push them to change. Take Jeff Bezos to face questioning by Congress!

Half the time I am unable to order 4K discs from Amazon (cough, cough Disney), so they aren't getting as much business from me as they used to. We don't order groceries from Amazon so the discs I get usually arrive unscathed in a bubble mailer.