He writes:

I am writing to congratulate Amazon and UPS. This past week I cashed in some of my bank points for Amazon Gift Certificates to help buy an IPod touch for my wife's birthday. And let me tell you, I couldn't be happier. As you can see from the pictures, Amazon not only delicately placed the IPod in the box, but they spared no expense on packaging material. As for UPS...what else can I say??? Their angelic touch made sure my package was not only delivered promptly, but in pristine condition.

So, for all you fellow readers out their who would like to purchase a fragile 250 dollar piece of equipment, DON'T SHOP AT AMAZON!!!!!!

Lucky for Lucas and his wife, them iPods is tough. Also, Lucas, redirect your wrath from Amazon towards UPS. They're the ones with the hippos.

This kind of thing is par for the Amazon course. I bet Solid Snake is all over this buy-an-SD-card-get-a-humongous-stealth-box deal.

The poster who received this free pallet notes:

I am kind of annoyed with HP as I had to drag this pellet from my apartment lobby, into the lift, out of the lift, into my home, cut it open, remove the contents and discard all the junk packaging.

We would be kind of annoyed too. We don't even know how to go about disposing of a pallet; can you just put it out on the curb on recycling day or do you need to break it down or what?

HP's Ridiculous Shipment Packaging [Notebook Review]

I work as an IT employee for the University I also attend. The campus has been deploying wireless access points to most of its buildings over the last few years, and one task I've had during my attendance is to install the APs in the buildings. This of course involves un-boxing each of over 250 AP units so far (we're a small school but damn if we aren't still paying through the nose for this equipment). Attached are pictures of everything I am about to describe.

Just today I unboxed 27 AP units. No big deal at first glance, they are shipped 5 to a box from Cisco, fairly innocuous looking. However, inside the 1 large box are 5 smaller boxes, 1 per AP unit. Inside the top of each box is a removable cardboard insert, in which there are 2 paper pamphlets and 2 paper booklets, as well as the AP unit with a sticker on it, in its own bag. Flip a cardboard flap to reveal the bottom of the box containing 3 more bags; bag 1 has the AC brick with a twisty tie, bag 2 bag has the power cord with another twisty tie, and bag 3 has 3 smaller bags in it. Inside bag 3A there are 2 smaller packets. Packet 3Ai has 2 plastic drywall sockets and packet 3Aii has 2 screws for the sockets. Bag 3B has 3 more bags in it. Bag 3Bi has a flush mounting bracket and a silica package. Bag 3Bii has a raised mounting bracket and another silica package. Bag 3Biii has 5 tiny screws of which we use 4 just because we can, but could easily get away with using only 2. Going back to the third of the inner bags, there are again 3 more bags. Bag 3Ci has a large mounting plate and yet another silica package. Bag 3Cii has a lockable insert plate and Bag 3Ciii has A SINGLE TINY SCREW of which I have yet to determine its purpose.

All told that is 8 screws, 2 plastic things, 3 silica packets, 2 twisty ties, 4 fabricated metal things, 4 items of paper, 1 sticker, lots of cardboard, the actual AP unit, and FIFTEEN BAGS of varying sizes. Keep in mind we can only get Cisco support if we exclusively use their products (which we do) so we don't even use the power bricks or cords because the Cisco switches support Power over Ethernet. So of that entire list of contents, we only need to use the AP unit, 3 pieces of metal, and 2 screws. We then also have to purchase the necessary ethernet cables of varying lengths (all of which come in individual bags with individual twisty ties) and tiny padlocks for each AP unit (fortunately they come in bulk).

The last 2 pictures are of the amount of trash that comes from JUST 27 AP units, as I mentioned we have deployed over 250 to date. Fortunately my school has a fairly robust recycling program (I'm in Oregon after all) so the only actual trash are the silica packets. I shudder to actually imagine the amount of trash that would come from a similar deployment at a school 10 times our size, in a city that perhaps doesn't emphasize recycling as much (of which I'm sure there are at least 50 if not 100 in the nation).

For a while I wasn't sure of Cisco's reputation after they bought the Linksys name, but while they do make solid enterprise products (if not vastly overpriced), I wish they would be a little more conscious of their environmental impact. Each of the bags I came across is labeled with the country of origin. 1 screw was from Hong Kong, the metal plates were from China, the AP was I believe made in Singapore and some other parts were from Korea. Now consider how much waste that is creating at those variety of factories around Asia...

Anyways, just trying to make people aware and if nothing else laugh at the ridiculousness of the unboxing I did today! Enjoy!

The packaging for just a few access points is enough to build a totally awesome fort, with a soft plastic bag nest inside.

Steven writes:

I've been reading the blog for quite a while now, and I personally love the Stupid Shipping Gang posts. When I was shopping Amazon a couple days ago, I decided to buy some 69 cent pens that had free UPS shipping (at the time). What I got today was amazing: a huge box with one pen in it. Almost comically, the big pieces of air-filled plastic have "be green, please recycle" on them.

Although the Amazon link goes to some generic 3rd-party retailer, Steven got this pen from Sam's, and the packing slip indicates they really only sent one pen in the box. We appreciate the plea for Steven to recycle, and indeed, Sam's gave him plenty to put in his blue bin.

It arrived in a plastic bag. In a padded envelope. In a box. But, hey, it's from a hobby shop. Maybe they expect Sean to make something out of the box. In fact, just think of the things Sean could build if he keeps ordering from Tower. Forget whatever hobby that gear was for, Sean. You're the Martha Stewart of cardboard box crafts now. Make us proud.

First up, we have the box in which a gift card for tween clothing retailer Justice was mailed.

Second, Chris received a set of Amazon Nesting Boxes. (Another reader received a set of these back in September.) He wrote:

While this is certainly not the worst example of wasteful boxing, what I found particularly amusing was that the box on the inside had a "Amazon Ready to Ship" sticker on it.

Amusing, right? Take a box that's ready to ship and throw it in a much bigger box with a bunch of bubble wrap.

But wait, there's more! The next week, Chris wrote back:

I finally got around to opening the inner box shown in that picture I sent you. Inside that box was another box that also had an "Amazon ready to ship" sticker on it. Sheesh!

Nicely done, Amazon! Remember, if you receive a ridiculously packaged Amazon item, let them know.

May 21, 2009 [Toothpaste for Dinner] (Thanks, HBM!)

It's not nearly as bad as it looks, since the clock was also packed in a much-too-large box with plenty of packing material. John explained:

My Fiancee and I are registered at Target for our upcoming wedding, and some friends of ours were kind enough to get us a clock from Target online, and have it shipped to our house. We were quite perplexed by the gigantic box that showed up at our doorstep, since it was much too light to be any of the larger items we had registered for.

Opening the large outer box (with a magazine on top for a sense of size), we see the gift box that was included. (there were air packets inside the big box, around the gift box)

And inside the gift box (with a TON of tissue paper), was our clock.

I understand that the 'Gift Wrapping' added to the size of the packaging, but seriously, my Fiancee fit in the box, and still had room left for the clock! :)

My fiance got a $25 gift certificate to Think Geek from a friend of hers in the US. We both like the store but rarely order mainly due to the exorbitant shipping costs. To give you an idea, the $67 total order was accompanied by 2 shipping options to us in Southern Ontario. DHL Express for $27 or UPS Express for $37. On top of that, of course, is the handling fee charged by both companies (usually $7 for DHL and whatever UPS feels like charging, I get hit with $35 often) and the taxes when it comes across the border. I don't need my order in 2 days, but I had no other options. I e-mailed their customer support, but got a canned letter saying their are constantly negotating rates, etc. If I lived in Buffalo (2 hour drive away) I could get it shipped for $7. Anyway, because it was a present, we sucked it up and got a friend to go in on ordering a couple things to defray the costs.

I received the package today, and was more than a little disgusted by what I saw. It came in two boxes for some reason, and you need to look at both. The first box was an alright size, it had a shower curtain and a glass mug in it. Looking through the box I noticed one thing was missing, a "Linux inside" sticker. To my horror, it was all by itself in the second box. Well, it wasn't really alone, it had a catalogue and 5 bags of air in it. Thank you Think Geek, you have ensured I will no longer be wasting any more money at your store for useless things. Even if I didn't care about the waste of cardboard and plastic (I don't, I'm sure I'll be reusing the packing materials for something that size) I DO care about my money they wasted.

Here's what it looks like:

They're even taking photo submissions. Hmm, maybe they're going to start their own stupid shipping gang thread.

Marc says:

They could have double padded-enveloped the items and they would have been better protected than shifting around in that huge box, under those plastic air pillows (What the heck is up with those air pillows anyways? They don't do jack). How about getting one of those huge brains over there on the task of figuring out how much more gasoline/diesel and packaging material is wasted because Amazon insists on shipping air around the country for no good reason at all. I am talking about how much is wasted because additional trucks and delivery drivers are needed to transport boxes of air all around the country.

Maybe if they are called out a little more on the environmental damage and waste they are causing, some numb-skull at Amazon should be able to grasp that they are not making any sense at all. No matter what, they need to be made aware that anything but sending things in appropriate packaging is a dumb excuse!

It is kind of sad to think of all the air that Amazon is shipping, and here at Consumerist we get tons of complaints about it — far too many to post them all.

What do you think? Is this a serious problem?

Anyone who's returned their Apple laptop for repairs knows that Apple first ships out a wonderfully compact box, packed efficiently with protective stuffing to ensconce the computer. The loaded package is hardly larger than the computer.

Why then is Apple, a company that has shown that they know how to make efficient packaging, sending ultra-tiny parts in comparably large boxes?

Apple Ships Replacement Power Adapters In Giant Boxes [sELECTROclash.com]

[All the boxes] have the same "from" address...there was only one packing slip, in one of the boxes, and it says they all came from the same dock...

At UPS.com, if you calculate the shipping cost of the same weight, but the hard drive's dimensions instead of the box's dimensions. You get $8.06 for the smaller, $12.42 for the larger. So, at regular rates, that means $17 was lost by buy.com that didn't need to be

If they'd shipped all four in one box, it would've cost $12.42. So that'd a savings of $37.20 versus what they paid. And those savings could've been passed on to me. I could've paid $9 less per hard drive.

It's hard to imagine that any reasonable estimate of the extra time and effort it would take to box these more efficiently could add up to anything close to the amount they spent shipping these items inefficiently. It's clear to me, as a consumer, that I could've been charged noticeably less for the same product, if the retailer had simply packaged these with a bare minimum of attention paid to avoiding waste. This means that retailers, in not addressing waste, are telling consumers that the bottom line doesn't matter, and that prices are noticeably inflated as a result — due to simple lack of effort and planning.

Silly, silly, planet-killing shippers. Though, HP still takes the cake for shipping 32 sheets of paper in 17 boxes.

To date I've received one batch of five flat pacs [and] one batch of seventeen flat pacs. Each flat pac has three restoration discs (for a total of 66 discs), none of the flat pacs I've received has contained the promised system disc.

Having bought an Acer AX-3200 ( a small HTPC with blu-ray, and a great price point) I open it to discover that Acer is too cheap to include restore discs. An obvious necessity what with the miasma of fatal errors lurking out there for the windows PC user.

I call Acer, doe-eyed in my naivete, to request some. Two weeks they say. Meanwhile I try to start the computer up, no dice, Vista falls flat on its face right out of the box. I call Acer, they say they'll send some system restore discs, no charge, three day shipping. Great. I call Newegg, the retailer in all this, and they cheerfully take the computer back, sending me another overnight, stand up guys that they are.

The second computer works just fine. Blu-Ray is a huge pig, but that's something else. Anyway, in the mean time five flat-pacs arrive from Texas each with three 'Restoration Sdics' (sic) and a piece of paper that tells me in four languages to insert the system disc before any restoration sdics. No system disc(s) to be found anywhere. Call Acer. A Texas twang tells me that you really have to have this system disc if you want to do anything. They'll send just the system disc this time, because you know, tough times, and even Acer can't be expected to remain unaffected, in some misty tower of waste. Ok, we'll see.

Two weeks later these show up on the porch [see pic of 17 envelopes], all the same, none with a system disc.

Acer, you and Microsoft need to have a personnel swap meet or something.

We and our sister both asked for, and received, this lovely Old Stone Oven pizza stone for Christmas. They were bought through Amazon. Ours arrived on the the twenty-third, in several pieces, as the above picture shows. Probably because Amazon took the box that contained the stone, which was marked "FRAGILE," and stuck it in another box not marked "FRAGILE," and used a piece of paper as padding. Like this:

Putting a fragile package in another box in such a way that it isn't surrounded by padding probably means that it will break, which it did. Whatever, we called Amazon as soon as we unpacked it, told them what happened, and they assured us that a new one would arrive the next day, Christmas Eve.

It never came.

When we spoke to our sister, we found out Amazon sent her the same stone, packaged the same way, and it broke. We're currently on the phone with Amazon, asking where our replacement stone is, and they've told us that UPS has returned it to them because it broke. That's the third broken pizza stone, and we're sure they packaged it in the same careless, ineffective way that they packaged the first two. Amazon is now out of stock on pizza stones for at least a month, and although we suggested they overnight us one from a Marketplace seller, they've demurred, instead offering to mail us a gift card for the amount sometime next week. No thanks.

A Single SD card, tucked behind the bottom flap of the box. It's almost like it's ashamed of its unnecessary packaging. It's alright, buddy. You're safe now.

Video:[SimplySped2]

Matt ordered this copy of "Tales of Beedle The Bard" for his 13-year-old nephew. He paid an extra $4 to have it gift wrapped. Amazon actually gift wrapped it, then put the gift wrapped book inside a box that said what it was. Matt is annoyed.

My 13 year old nephew is a huge Harry Potter fan. So being the loving uncle that I am, I ordered for Christmas the “Tales of Beedle the Bard” special Amazon only deluxe edition. I also paid four dollars to have the gift pre-gift wrapped for Christmas. Unfortunately there will be no glow of surprise and joy as he opens his gift this Christmas. No I did not tell him what he got and yes the gift was properly wrapped. The fail here is the fact that the shipping box was covered in stickers and printing indicating exactly what was inside of the shipping box.

Enjoy this bad packaging.

Sigh.

Gerardo says:

About a month back I ordered a 6-pack of "method Foaming Hand Soap, Green Tea & Aloe, Case Pack, Six - 10 Ounce Bottles (60 Ounces)," I ordered this and some hair gel that I have a hard time finding in the the stores. Well sure enough as soon as I bought the soap it went on back order and so it was going to be shipped separately.

I didn't mind so much since as we all know if you order using amazon's free shipping you shouldn't expect it anytime soon. Well, after receiving the soap in the mail, I opened the box to find yet another shipping box inside. A clearly marked "ready to ship" box, which obviously wasn't ready enough as they had to ship it in a much larger box. I guess Amazon workers are on autopilot mode.

We still think this might be progress. Maybe. Ok, probably not.

Reader Nyck1118 says:

Just received this today. I giant box...on a pallet sent via a freight truck (not UPS or Fedex) a freight truck.

Contained inside: One 8 lb server rack shelf.

We asked Nyck if he was serious. Just a shelf? On a pallet?

That's all that was in it. We were amazed, one of our techs actually fit in the box himself and hes a large guy.

An anonymous reader sent the photo in after they ordered a shipment of 50 CMOS batteries from Dell in an attempt to save time and money by asking for "fifty spare batteries instead of having them delivered individually." This is what they got, a big box with 50 smaller boxes inside.

Packing Done Right [Daily WTF] (Thanks, Everyone!)

Hewlett-Packard's head of product packaging was unable to explain the odd shipping choice, as he is currently en route to St. Ives.

HP shatters excessive packaging world record [The Register]

Long time reader; first time submitter. Going for greenlight! ;D

We ordered a pair of keyboard covers 'condoms' for one of our CNC machine PCs. The CNC has a habit of throwing aluminum strips around and getting stuck in the keyboard at the workstation next to it.

While Dell made with fast shipping from Texas in 2 days, they made the glaring mistake of excessively overpackaging the 2 items that weigh less than a few grams.

It bothers me to think of how many other items could have been shipped via Plane/UPS truck. With gas and the economy the way it is now, this is really over the top and quite unnecessary.

Edit: Items were 14.99 per - The shipping cost $16.00?!

Bravo Dell

Sixxtwo

The stupid shipping gang triumphs once again! Is there no stopping this wasteful bunch? Will common sense ever catch up to the stupid shipping gang? Stay tuned for more exciting episodes.

Stupid Shipping Gang: New Dell Version 7-10-08 [Consumerist Forums]

Rob says:

I bought a license for Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 from Newegg.com. Mind you, this is a “license only” version of Office (i.e., no media/CDs) for use with a pre-installed trial-version on your laptop/desktop. Lo and behold, the envelope arrived via UPS today.

While Newegg’s typically exceptional and speedy delivery was again spot on (24 hour turn-around), their packaging department was, shall we say, a bit wasteful?

Nathan says:

I wanted to add another example to your files of stupid shipping. I just got the microfiber clothes I ordered for cleaning my SLR's lenses. I thought it was kind of silly they used a big box and put all the cushioning on top (none below of course). But even when I took it all out I couldn't find the clothes, which had slid under on of the cardboard flaps. I'm pretty sure that alone is proof that a standard, letter sized envelope would have more than sufficed.

Thanks for letting me share.

Check out the delicious unboxing gallery below.

Last year, the Loraxes at Greenpeace accused Apple of hating trees and raping the environment. In response, Apple announced that it was transitioning to L.E.D. screens, and that they would shrink their retail packaging. Clearly, it was all for show. Welcome, Apple, to the stupid shipping gang!

Earlier this week I ordered a part from Canon USA Service for one of my Canon cameras and it arrived today. I am impressed for the fast shipping but not so much by the efficiency of the packaging.

Canon USA is headquartered in a place called "Lake Success" in New York. Out of curiosity, we checked what UPS would charge to ship a one-pound package, roughly 12"x8"x6" from Lake Success to Los Angeles. Our reader said he was pleased with the fast shipping, so let's say Canon used UPS 3 Day shipping: that would be nearly $20. We then checked how much it would cost to throw the part in an envelope and drop it in the mailbox: that would be 41¢. Well done, Canon.
(Thanks to Dale!)

David writes:

Recently, my son Justin and I both ordered Kingston 2GB USB "thumb" drives from Dell after seeing it mentioned on slickdeals.net. My son's arrived a few days before mine, and he told me that when the delivery guy handed him the box, he asked if there was anything actually in the box because it was so light. I didn't see the packaging myself until my drive arrived the other day. I asked my other son Brett, a budding photographer, to document the "unboxing" this time.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

PREVIOUSLY: Dell: Let's Ship Tiny CDs In Massive Boxes!

He writes:

Howdy Consumerist,

I stumbled across your site recently and am now addicted to it. Today I got a package from OfficeMax where we recently ordered some CD-Rs.
One of our front office gals opened the box to find the following: (attached picture #1)

Quite a bit different than what is pictured on their website.

I guess whoever packaged the cds was hard up for spindles? The shrink wrap from the spindle was still in the box, but the cds were not in the shrink wrap. We're sending the cds back of course and hopefully the next batch won't come unwrapped, unspindled, and with scratches all over them!

I bought two books on Amazon - and my total came to $24.74. So I scouted around and found a site (www.filleritem.com) that lets you choose a small priced item to bump the price over the $25 to qualify for free shipping. I chose a small wooden knob for $0.72.

So today I got email - they did a partial shipment! Guess what's coming in the first box? Yep, the knob I didn't really want - the one that's only there to get me over $25.

Why doesn't Amazon make a new item "Give money to charity" for any amount - that qualifies for free shipping - and not cost them an extra $2.28 (plus their labor and materials)? They would get good press, save money, and save me from receiving and discarding an item I had no use for - full of win all around.

[The 'which charity' question could either be a big list (complicated) or just a simple top-ten list - most everyone could find a charity they don't object to with the Salvation Army and the Red Cross and United Way and some military hospital charities in the list.]

============================================

The following items have been shipped to you by Amazon.com: —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
Qty Item Price Shipped Subtotal
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
Amazon.com items (Sold by Amazon.com, LLC): 1 Laurey Au Natural Wood Mus... $0.72 1 $0.72

Shipped via USPS (estimated arrival date: 19-March-2008).
Tracking number: 9102xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—- Item Subtotal: $0.72
Shipping & Handling: $2.28

Best Value Savings $0.00 Super Saver Discount $-2.28

Total: $0.72

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

You have only been charged for the items sent in this shipment. (Per our policy, you only pay for items when we ship them to you.) The following items will ship separately, as soon as they're available: —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
Qty Item Price Not Yet Shipped
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
1 (book 1 ) $7.99 1 1
(book 2 ) $17.16 1

This shipment was sent to: (redacted)

(Photo:Robert Scoble)

I'm sure you get a number of these, but here's another one because I know I don't get tired of them. A word of advice to anyone planning on making a purchase from Amazon.com that I overlooked myself; do not order anything glass with anything heavy, as they most likely WILL package them together.

Two weeks ago I placed an order with Amazon. My order included some kitchen items: a strainer, some bakers cooling racks, a French press coffeemaker and a cast iron skillet. In my own stupidity I figured Amazon had been in this business long enough to know to package a glass coffee press and a cast iron skillet either in separate boxes, or with enough protection from one another.

Well, as you can tell from the attached photos, they were placed in direct contact and of course the coffee press shattered into about 20-30 pieces. At least they used the right size box, right? Well, joking aside, since I placed a "Free-shipping" order I'm told it will take over a week for them to get me a replacement. So, just as a warning to others, the best advice I can give is carefully select how you place your orders, because Amazon won't think twice about packing a fragile item with a weighty one.

TJ

I've been reading your stories about odd or wasteful pack-jobs from different retailers, and lo and behold I came across one of my own tonight. My husband ordered a few DVDs from Amazon.com for my valentine's day gift, and when I opened the box, I realized that they had added some strange ballast.

Honestly, it's so disheveled that when I picked it up I really almost expected a swarm of bugs - ants, or weevils, maybe - to come marching out. I don't know why it made it in there because every other piece of media I've ever ordered from them came in that nice blister pack.

Oh, well - at least they seem to have forgotten their standard "million useless and unrelated coupons!"

Regards,

Dervish

(ed. note— We get that it's a sample. In this case, it functions more effectively as packing material, due to the lack of blister pack. We thought that was funny. Stop sending nasty emails.)

In an earlier order, I purchased some coffee refills for the Senseo coffee machine. They came to me one box at a time, each in a huge box. When I opened the box up, I found that the coffee refills were already in a very small, efficient box that said on the side " Amazon.com ready to ship packaging. For some bizarre reason, they wastefully placed a small ready-to-ship box into a huge box with padding around it. Has anyone else experienced this kind of thing. It is wasteful in terms of materials and shipping costs, but also impacts the environment too. Not to mention the impracticality of receiving a huge box at your home when you are expecting something small.

Nope: it's two replacement trackpoint nubs, smaller than a lapdog's nipples.

We know some of you don't like these "big box-tiny product" posts, but they highlight the waste and incompetence of current shipping methods, and remind us of how messed up the supply chain remains, despite years of fine-tuning. As long as companies increase profits by passing costs on to the consumer instead of seeking out and addressing these inefficiencies, we're going to see higher and higher levels of government-style red tape and bureaucracy. And big boxes with big shipping fees with tiny products inside.

"Reason #2389 Why IBM is a Ridiculous Corporation and Why My Next Computer Will Be a Mac" [Optimus Crime Toronto]
(Thanks to Sofi!)

The company I work for orders all of their computers from Dell. About 4 months ago we started receiving random Adobe Acrobat Standard CDs & licenses for free with every single computer that we purchase. We did not request these CDs. At first, they came inside of the box with the computer. Soon, they started arriving in a padded envelope. After that, they began arriving in their own box, complete with paper padding, and a padded envelope. We have received well over 100 of these.

Christian, just wanted to circle back and let you know that we're working this now. As much as we would like this to be a very simple fix it isn't. But you do have our commitment that we will have this fixed in the next six months. Two things we are looking at:

1. Option to exclude all manuals and CDs from packaging at time of order. And, an option to have one set delivered for multiple systems.

2. A move to packaging alternatives

We'll be sure to keep you posted.

Best,
Sean

Dell and the environment: green is out, brown is in [Technologist For Hire]
Update on Dell's Environmental Impact [Technologist For Hire]

Thanks for your recent delivery of the items we ordered. Your drivers must know how to drive fast because it always arrives very fast and we think that's swell. However, your shipping department might be drinking on the job or something because the amount of packaging used for our most recent order was ridiculous. You might want to go down there and check.

Here is the major malfunction:

The shipment was prepared such that each of the...

Item Number: 708146 -
Ampad Gold Fibre® Designer Series Top Wirebound Writing Pad, Brown, Wide Ruled, 8 1/2″ x 11 3/4″
Quantity: 5 Price: $3.58

..that I ordered was packaged and shipped in a separate box. Are you kidding me? Its just too much for me to bear! In addition to being very un-environmental, shipping one NOTEBOOK in a box that measures 2 feet by 1 foot 2 inches is costly, perhaps costing US more money and YOU for certain. We dont pay you for shipping, so it's not like it was a clever ruse to squeeze more money from this cash cow.

I am speechless! SEE attached photos of the carnage from ALL the packaging from the delivery. I ordered 41, no wait, 38 items from you and they were shipped in 8 different boxes, most of which I could fit in! And I am not a dwarf OR a child. Actually, 1 item is backordered so 37 items shipped. The other 3 items were catalogs that I have requested NOT to have delivered since I do all my ordering ONLINE. That's 4.625 items per box. And the "items" were things like "pens" and "highlighters" not "Hummer engines" or "flat screen tv's." Is this some kind of joke? If so, it's not funny Staples, not funny. Most of the items could have fit in one box. Didn't YOU see An Inconvenient Truth like the rest of America?

Above: Large mess cleaned up by ME, not staples.

My Account Manager has been the most helpful and enthusiastic customer representative I have ever had the pleasure to interact with, but the firestorm-a-brewing right now may be enough to have cost you a customer. Silly Staples.

The amount of time I spent breaking down boxes and properly discarding those "plastic bubbles" used to cushion each individually boxed notebook was ridiculous. You have wasted my time Staples.

And I am very, very upset.