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.