Ouch. Enjoy a much shorter bulb life, if any at all.

So how did the projector fair?

We used to get our staples stuff hand delivered by staples themselves. I can't remember if we ever got a damaged box.

What is the big deal? The inner box that contains the projector doesn't seem damaged, and is probably well protected anyway. Who cares about the outer box?

Staples shipping boxes suck. I've received many a shipment in them to find the box shredded.

@mbz32190: Well there should've been *something* between the inner and outer box to protect from being crushed/dropped/etc. As we can see that isn't true so whatever.. looks like it was RUN OVER did that to the box most likely transferred much of that energy to the inner box, whence the projector may be damaged (the bulb especially)

@mbz32190: Projectors are one of those items that are expensive enough to deserve decent packing, whether its required for the item's safety or not. I've had $20 thumb drives delivered in better packaging.

we once received a box with an 11x17 ream of paper with a box of light bulbs wedged in on the side. NICE.

I'd venture to say that those projectors are shipped in quantity in larger boxes to places like Staples without any additional packaging. And that the projector's probably fine.

Good thing the larger box took the brunt of the gorillas. The contents look fine to me. What's the big deal?

Can we tie this into blaming USPS/FedEx/UPS???

@Inail: But it looks like there is too much room for the box inside to be jostled around.

When shipped in bluk, they are usually several to a pallet, packed tight, and not carried by hand by some delivery person.

There are better odds a small box gets dropped than a whole pallet. Also just because there is no damaged to the box inside, with the projector bouncing around in that box, it is possible the blub is damaged.

@AlteredBeast: I mean, too much room SO the box inside gets jostled around.

I'm thinking that the inner box should be properly designed by the company that makes the projector to protect the projector. If there was nothing else in the order, the outer box seems totally superfluous, other than perhaps to disguise precisely the contents so no one with a hankering for a projector would steal it.

The only real problem I might have with the outer box is that in being larger than the inner box, but not properly stabilized, it might have made handling a little dicier. Otherwise, it shouldn't have really needed to be there to provide protection anyway.

@mbz32190: In fairness, the projector box should have plenty of padding inside it, probably in the form of big molded styrofoam pieces. But Staples shouldn't assume that will be enough to protect it during shipping, or even assume the manufacturer was smart enough to pad their own box.

While they should have put in some sort of padding, even just leaving a modest gap between the inner and outer box would be enough to prevent most damage. Having one box fit snuggly into the other is more risky to the product than letting it slide around.

Quite a contrast from the earlier [consumerist.com] article about buy.com shipping 4 hard drives in separate boxes.

We recently had a $350 stereo receiver shipped to us in a much larger box (without padding) that was closed with one piece of tape from Amazon. We sent it back and luckily the one they sent was in a more appropriate sized box, closed with more tape. Most of the time you get someone who knows what they're doing, other times you don't.

I don't see the problem. The outer box looks like something heavy was put on top of, partially crushing it, but saving the inner box in the process.

Procurement guy here!

I buy quite a bit from Staples Business Advantage for our office supply needs and I can confirm that the vast majority of our inbound shipments come in slightly to moderately damaged boxes. This could be for a multitude of reasons mind you, but in my experience this is what I've personally encountered:

1) The products ordered tend to be packed with little to no regard for the integrity of the parcel.
2) Shipping materials used are inferior.
3) Method of transportation is 'iffy' at best.

I would get a big box with various supplies that seemed to have exploded during transit. Pens, pencils and push pins all over the interior of the box. Invoices and packing slips wouldn't always accompany the correct shipment - sometimes they wouldn't appear at all. I've had CD spindles arrive with the outer case cracked and the discs just fly out when go to grab them.

I stopped ordering paper from them because of two reasons:

1) Price wasn't below $30 a carton despite placing most of our business with them. I locked in with a supplier @ $25 a carton.

2) I would have 3-5 reams per carton damaged in transit. The corners would be ripped on the boxes exposing the paper inside.

The best thing about using Staples Business Advantage is the return policy.

@mbz32190: I think it's less about the fact that there's an outer box and more about the condition of that outer box...

This seems like a bad move by Staples. It definitely doesn't conform to UPS's shipping guidelines, which require something like double-boxing and at least 3 inches of packaging on each side. Which means that if it got damaged, UPS wouldn't pay the claim.

@mad3air: You could except UPS (can't speak for the others as I haven't worked for them) states that the shipper is responsible for making sure there is no void space between the outer box and the item (peanuts, air pockets, bubble wrap, etc.)

From the sloppy tape job on the outside (and the fact that I spy a UPS ground label), I guarantee you it came in on the Staples shipment, went through the sort aisle, got caught in a jam on a secondary belt, and was quickly taped up on the dock by a floating re-taper (which is an employee with a tape gun who fixes busted boxes on random docks) before being loaded on the truck.

Staples fault. Not UPS'. Jams happen on hundreds of miles of conveyor belt.

Was the product damaged? Is this post actually relevant to consumer's interests?

I used to work for a monitor company back in the CRT days. The repair center got in a few good ones.

1. 21" CRT packed in oil soaked newspaper/paper towels.
2. 21" CRT packed in packing peanuts
3. 21" CRT packed in a box...no packing.

Each one was destroyed in some way by the shipping process. The pictures sent would always give us a laugh.

well is the projector damaged or not? if it is not then the packaging did its job and people should stop complaining about it...

@StacheSportin'_GitEmSteveDave: Same, but we were a company ordering $300-600 of merchandise a week. Home delivery is generally sent through a package carrier like UPS or FedEx.

@StacheSportin'_GitEmSteveDave:

We get ours via UPS. I get a lot of boxes that look like that. (crushed) We tried getting it through a local courier, but they routinely failed to make the delivery on the promised day. I hate to say it, but UPS actually beat the local courier on reliability.

I often get one tiny little thing packaged in a big box and surrounded by air pillows. So far I haven't gotten any big stuff stupidly packed.

At least I get free air pillows, which I recycle! :)

@Sam Wille:

Great return policy. Crappy packing. Whenever I order markers, that always happens; they end up all over the box.

They are good about adding something to your order if you accidentally forget to put it on before you hit "Submit." :)

We get our paper from Quill. They ship next day free. The boxes always look great when they get here. Of course, we order 100 reams at a time.

Looks like the inner box is fine and survived shipment so whats the problem? You do realize that the inner box is designed to be shipped by itself and the extra box is more likely to disguise the product or for handling purposes.

Also, to the person above who said it doesn't meet UPS guidelines staples does ship with other companies as well depending on where its shipped from and how close it is to a warehouse. Locally here, they ship with Velocity Express who is terrible

I don't see any damage to the projector box? Was it arrive damaged? If not then what's the problem?

@MyPetFly: @MyPetFly: @mariospants:

If the discussion is the condition of the outer box then shouldn't this be a discussion about UPS?

@shorty63136: "Jams happen on hundreds of miles of conveyor belt."

Yes they do. It really sucks when it's soap the gets jammed and breaks open. I saw this happen at work and some dumbass drove his lift though the mess and slammed into a pole.

I had to get a replacement cell phone from Verizon and today when I opened the shipping box (which, by the way, was about the size of a projector), I noticed they had put two little air pillows in, which filled less than half of the wasted space. Then there was the 2x3x5 inch box the phone was supposed to be in, the little piece of bubble wrap the phone should have been in, and the phone itself skittering around inside the big box, all by it's lonesome.

Fortunately it seems to work OK. I shipped mine back the same way.

I work in a Staples store and I can tell you that the damage there is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff we get off our inhouse deliveries. Half the time we have to return several pieces of furniture and have damage to plenty of other boxes.

I get stuff from Staples.com all the time as I live in the middle of nowhere and I can attest to the complete lack of packing sometimes. Regardless of what is in the box, they will put in some of those pillow airbags and call it day.