grivet

Perhaps this thread would be better for Book Talk so feel free to move it, but anyway:

I ordered and received some books from Amazon for the first time in some while and was disappointed in the packaging job they performed. They shipped four mass market paperbacks(4for3 promotion) and a small hardcover loose in a box with only a couple of those air-filled plastic packets for cushioning resulting in some nicely bumped book corners and some dust jacket wrinkling. While the box wasn't grossly oversized by any means, there was still enough dead space for the books to knock around a fair bit on their journey.

As I recall from previous orders, Amazon used to stack the books on a sized cardboard sheet and encase everything in a kind of vacuum sealed plastic wrapper before placing them in the shipping box thus eliminating the kind of damage described above. If they've switched from this method to simply throwing in a few air packets, I don't think I'll be ordering again.

Before I consider another order or simply swear them off for awhile, I wanted to ask some others about their recent experiences. So are you guys getting loose shipments, plastic-wrapped shipments, or perhaps a combination of both?

Goldblum

I'm pretty sure the last two books I ordered from Amazon (about 2 months ago) came in the airtight plastic wrap encased in a cardboard sleeve.

Laser Movies

What you described with the air bags sounds pretty much how Amazon ships most of my orders with both books and DVDs. I don't particularly care for how they pack things but I have not had to make many returns for damage during shipping. I preferred the other packing method you mentioned but it has been a long time since I've received anything packed like that by Amazon.

dablueguy

Shrinkwrapped on 4 paperbacks a few weeks ago...

JB7

Its been awhile since my books have come shrinkwrapped. You should see how they ship 1 book to you, just wrapped in cardboard. Don't know how to really explain it, other then its a poor way. Everything I have been ordering these days just comes thrown in a box with a air bag or two.

fitlissa76

Yeah, that's how just about all of my orders from them arrive. Pretty loosely packed, box too big, books & cds or DVDs all on a cardboard plate sort of thing wrapped in plastic & a few of those air pillows. Still enough room for the cardboard plate with the goods attached to rock around in there quite a bit. It's pretty typical for them.

Walter Neff

I've gotten Amazon shipments both ways, but even when it's been loose with the air bags, the books have arrived strangely undamaged -- and I'm kind of picky about these things. Maybe I've just been lucky, or my UPS drivers are gentle or something. It's always surprised me that they've always been in perfect shape despite the packaging.

RonG617

Where did your order ship from? I get most of my stuff from Delaware and it comes shrink wrapped. Every once in a while I do get a package from them that is lose like you describe.

MovieExchange

I've made 2 recent book orders from Amazon:

Heart Shaped Box (hardcover) delivered on March 21. Shrinkwrapped to a cardboard backing.

4 paperbacks of the Dresden Files series, delivered on April 9. Packaged with airbags, no major damage as the books were snugly fit into the bottom of the box and the air bags didn't give them any room to shift around.

grivet

Well, apparently it's just a crapshoot these days as to whether or not Amazon plastic-wraps their books which seems just plain odd. It's strange seeing dablueguy & MovieExchange post identical order configurations yet receive different packaging. Perhaps not all the fulfillment warehouses have the wrapping systems or maybe when they hit a busy period they go to the air bags. Regardless, it seems shortsighted that Amazon is no longer consistently utilizing a safer shipping method that really differentiates them from other e-tailers particularly when those other guys are explicitly knocking Amazon on price.

Since others are still having good results with both shipping methods I think I'll give them another shot at a simple paperback order and see what happens. I suspect I'll ultimately determine that my comic collecting in the 80's has ruined me for mail-order books and I'll end up paying the taxman at a local store

Thank you for all the responses - I never would have guessed they would point to such randomness, but at least I now know that I'm rolling the dice with Amazon and can act accordingly.

grivet

The package came from Campbellsville, Kentucky. I also found an old box from Louisville that had the plastic-wrapped cardboard inside so who knows

Tarantino

Heh. It's comedy when right under the original post is an ad with this picture...



= J

Artman

Never had a problem with damaged goods from Amazon... sometimes the book pages are warped from the cold, but that's pretty common for shipped books.

I am both annoyed and humored at the oversized boxes... sometimes a cd will come in a cd-sized box (as it should), but sometimes it'll come in the book-sized boxes. I guess it's whatever's closest to the person filling the order....

Kevin M. Dean

I once had 1 dvd come in one of their really big boxes... like 2 or 3 feet by 1 foot tall or so. It was filled with tons of air pillows. I couldn't believe it. I guess they ran out of small boxes that day.

DVDFreaker

I get that most of the time

Nth Power

Most of the time my shipments are loosely packed with those air bags. Maybe 1 out of 10 packages comes with the plastic wrap. Luckily I haven't had any damaged goods, but it would be nice to have them use the tight plastic instead.

dablueguy

That's interesting. In my order I had 4 paperbacks (2 of which were from the "Dresden Files") and they were shrinkwrapped. Unfortunately I don't recall which distribution center they came from...

MovieExchange

An update - since my last post in here (about 2 weeks ago), I've received several DVD shipments from Amazon ranging from 1 title to their deal of the day of Family Guy volumes 1-4, and every time my shipment has arrived packaged with the air pillows instead of the shrinkwrap. The DVD's were always shrinkwrapped before this, even the larger sets (like when I ordered the James Bond deal of the day that had all 4 collections).

JB7

Update: I just got a book on friday from amazon. It was just thrown in the box with 2 air bags on top. The book isn't in mint condition, but I don't think i'll complain because of the price I paid. Which is the cheapest I have found. However, still am disappointed in how much stuff has been coming packaged.

Inhumans99

Why keep damaged goods, Amazon's return policy is practically the best on the web, simply throw the product back in the original box with whatever shipping materials it came with (if you are nice, you will fill in the rest of the space with crumpled paper/whatever), include the paperwork they ask for (easy to print out on-line at their site), and whambo bambo...you do not have to pay for return shipping (I return damaged TPBs all the time, if a product was purchased new, then I have a right to at least try one-more time to receive an undamged book).

Just as frustrating as a lack of airbags/shrinkwrapped goods, is when the box is so tightly packed that a good drop during transit could effect the corner of a ton of books in the box...again, due to the ease of returns, I go through my ritual of being annoyed, and simply get ready to return some damaged goods.

matome

Hmm, weird. All my amazon packages from at least the last six months have been with the shrink wrap, including 4 DVD's I received yesterday.

JB7

How often do you return or what percent do you return? Just curious because I don't like returning often because the return may be worse the what I got the 1st time or they will start getting strick with returns if I make too many. So I just kinda pick my battles....