Warning : SLIGHT Karen incoming but I don’t care, this could save someone money/effort
So I ordered a blu ray recently off Amazon and it arrived in pretty terrible shape. It has been dented in the front and one of the corners was all crushed.
Stupidly I ignored it and just put it down to bad luck.
I recently ordered a blu ray box set and I kid you not it was delivered in what could best be described as a paper bag. Honestly you’d think this thing has survived a war or something, the corners are all crushed and it just looks awful.
I HATE complaining, especially to Amazon as I’ve always received great service from them, but this time I fully embraced and let loose my inner karen and logged a complaint.
They offered a refund but I said why should I need to go through the effort of the label and waiting for the replacement when it’s clear they have on record that they sent an expensive item in a BAG.
Anyway, this is a warning to be careful when ordering delicate items on Amazon. I’ve had a look in various places online and this seems to be a known thing so I assume they’ve changed their packing policy or something.
Very サッド
15 comments
Honestly, claiming refunds is par for the course in the scattergun-approach Amazon takes with third-party vendors these days, so I don’t think that’s even close to unleashing your ‘inner Karen’.
I’ve had broken items, wrong items, and others that just failed to arrive multiple times in the past couple of years. If you want to bypass the crapshoot, you can always check the Prime Only box.
I’ve never had a first-party item (inappropriately) delivered in one of those bags you’re talking about, only the branded cardboard packaging.
Yeah they are terrible with their packaging. They use an algorithm to determine packaging and shipping and it’s sometimes waaaay off.
I’ve had small items arrive in massive empty boxes before.
I find myself getting stuffs from rakuten to be more reliable these days. Amazon is just full of Chinese sellers trying to rip you off.
This may be neither here nor there but it may be worth mentioning they started using the paper bag packaging almost a decade ago.
I’ve only had a couple of problems with packaging in the years that I’ve been ordering from Amazon and they have always resolved the problems to my satisfaction. You have to be careful when ordering from third-party sellers who do their own shipping, though. That’s where things can get shady. Items shipped directly by Amazon are usually no problem.
Every time I’ve ordered a book or a game or blu-ray or whatever it always comes in a padded paper envelope, and has for years.
I think they have a cheap thin paper bag recently. I noticed that too but passed as most of stuff I ordered that delivered in this bag had its own smaller box
I mostly choose items that are shipped from an Amazon warehouse so it’s packaged properly. The items that aren’t shipped from an amazon warehouse are the ones that can be badly packaged, from my experience.
Not to mention purchasing from Amzn also supports the Chinese communist regime (with the amount that comes from China) and when one returns something it goes to landfill. A tremendous number of electronics, including laptops, are chucked because that’s just cheaper to deal with.
Serious question, how do you even contact customer support? Onetime I had a package delivered to a locker but the delivery person forgot to put the passcode in my mailbox. I searched for like half an hour on the app and couldn’t figure out how to contact a human customer support agent. Eventually I was able to guess the passcode, but it was so annoying to do.
I think what would be “unleashing your Karen” is if you got to the point of reducing the customer support person to a robot and not treating them with at least the common decency that you would afford a person.
Those meltdown videos you see on the internet is people dehumanizing people, or getting violent, or taking a personal affront to the service worker in front of you as if they hate you and your extended family. Lodging a complaint about subpar service given the details you provided is normal. Should Amazon take better care? Sure maybe but they make more money just sending you a second copy since it’s cheaper so i guess it depends on what lens you look at things from
I had a gift certificate and got a bottle of perfume with it. It came wrapped in tissue paper, no bubble wrap or padding. I’m surprised it didn’t break.
Reading this thread, I must be super lucky. 7-8 years of using Amazon Prime in Japan and I’ve never received anything damaged (at least not due to shipping). And I use it regularly for all sorts of stuff.
Of course Amazon run the numbers and it’s cheaper to deal with refunds than use up the packing space and associated costs.
Having said that, I recently ordered a tent (20% off sale price) from Amazon outlet marked as damaged packaging and it came mint untouched ¥40,000 instead of ¥49,000 (over ¥80k at yodobashi). So I’ll continue to deal with the devil.
Really sorry to hear about your products. I’m just wondering if you’re talking about Amazon Japan, or if you ordered those blurays from Amazon overseas? I’ve placed I think thousands of orders on Amazon Japan since coming here (many business or child-related, hence the high number), and I have not one time received an item packaged inappropriately or damaged in shipping. In fact I often notice they’re sort of over-protected. Perhaps I’ve been lucky.
On the other hand, I think every item I’ve ever gotten from Amazon US delivered here was flimsily-packaged and arrived looking like it went through World War III. Many never even arrived.