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I've received many damaged books from Amazon. Whenever I report the items as being damaged I am prepared with photographs of the damaged goods as proof, but the

I've received many damaged books from Amazon. Whenever I report the items as being damaged I am prepared with photographs of the damaged goods as proof, but they always send me another one without caring. It just feels so wasteful to save money by mishandling everything to the point where it doesn't even matter if stuff breaks because it is cheaper to try a 2nd time.

AlexandrB 7y ago
It also flies in the face of Amazon's promise of convenience and "2-day delivery" guarantees when you have to have the same item shipped to you twice and make the trip to the post office to return the first one.
- thiagomgd 7y ago
  when I bough a TV on Amazon, the screen was broke. I asked for another, and the replacement... has a broken screen. Returned both, and bought for $50 more on Bestbuy, but it came intact
  - chihuahua 7y ago
    For huge things like TVs I think it makes more sense to buy in in person at BestBuy or Costco. Costco's return policy alone is a big advantage. Plus they have so many TVs in the store where you can see them in operation.
- jschwartzi 7y ago
  That's if they can reliably deliver it in the first place. They kept mis-delivering or losing packages so much that I took my $5000/year spend elsewhere.
- LordDragonfang 7y ago
  In my experience, Amazon doesn't usually make you return damaged items unless they're very expensive. I got a set of free wireless earbuds a couple months back because a previous resident of my apartment accidentally delivered their package to us, and when I called Amazon they told me to just keep it.
dangus 7y ago
But you don't actually know that this practice is wasteful. That all depends on the numbers. Let's say that Amazon sends out 100 books, and 1 or 2 get damaged. But if they add some extra bit of packaging to every single one of those 100 books, zero will get damaged. Did this save cost or materials? I don't know, it depends on how much extra packaging was needed, whether the damage was serious enough to initiate a refund/re-send, and whether adding packaging to every single order was less environmentally impactful than having to print and send an extra book to those who received damaged ones. It's going to be a simple dollar value equation for companies like Amazon, and make no mistake, they have the data and have made these decisions consciously.
- fenwick67 7y ago
  I think the poster may have meant "a waste of a good book" not "a waste of money". It's like how throwing produce away at the grocery store is "a waste" but the system is cost-effective.
  - LordDragonfang 7y ago
    The environmental impact of extra plastic packaging is much greater than the impact of compostable produce. And anyway, if Amazon has to ship extra books, they pay the publisher an extra time, and you can always donate the damaged book as well.
- AlexandrB 7y ago
  > It's going to be a simple dollar value equation for companies like Amazon, and make no mistake, they have the data and have made these decisions consciously. I suspect they're not counting the damage this is doing to their brand. I've kept items that were slightly damaged, but it slowly eroded my trust in Amazon. Now I avoid Amazon if I can help it.
- wpietri 7y ago
  If it's a simple dollar-value calculation on the part of Amazon, then it's sure to be wasteful, in that negative externalities will be ignored.
cr0sh 7y ago
> but they always send me another one without caring. Had something like that happen to me, and for the product, it was a shock. I had ordered the item, it said it was delivered, but it never made it to me. I contact CS (via chat) and they said they would send out another one. I said ok - what happens if the old one shows up in the meantime. They told me to keep it. A few days later I got the original item (it had been shipped to a completely wrong address via USPS). Then a few weeks later I got the "new" one. So now I have two of them. The item? A Tamiya Grasshopper kit.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  They still make those??
JohnFen 7y ago
To be honest, I've never received a damaged book or CD from Amazon in those padded envelopes. I really prefer them over the boxes, because they seem less wasteful.

AlexandrB 7y ago

It also flies in the face of Amazon's promise of convenience and "2-day delivery" guarantees when you have to have the same item shipped to you twice and make the trip to the post office to return the first one.

thiagomgd 7y ago
when I bough a TV on Amazon, the screen was broke. I asked for another, and the replacement... has a broken screen. Returned both, and bought for $50 more on Bestbuy, but it came intact
- chihuahua 7y ago
  For huge things like TVs I think it makes more sense to buy in in person at BestBuy or Costco. Costco's return policy alone is a big advantage. Plus they have so many TVs in the store where you can see them in operation.
jschwartzi 7y ago
That's if they can reliably deliver it in the first place. They kept mis-delivering or losing packages so much that I took my $5000/year spend elsewhere.
LordDragonfang 7y ago
In my experience, Amazon doesn't usually make you return damaged items unless they're very expensive. I got a set of free wireless earbuds a couple months back because a previous resident of my apartment accidentally delivered their package to us, and when I called Amazon they told me to just keep it.

dangus 7y ago

But you don't actually know that this practice is wasteful. That all depends on the numbers. Let's say that Amazon sends out 100 books, and 1 or 2 get damaged. But if they add some extra bit of packaging to every single one of those 100 books, zero will get damaged. Did this save cost or materials? I don't know, it depends on how much extra packaging was needed, whether the damage was serious enough to initiate a refund/re-send, and whether adding packaging to every single order was less environmentally impactful than having to print and send an extra book to those who received damaged ones. It's going to be a simple dollar value equation for companies like Amazon, and make no mistake, they have the data and have made these decisions consciously.

fenwick67 7y ago
I think the poster may have meant "a waste of a good book" not "a waste of money". It's like how throwing produce away at the grocery store is "a waste" but the system is cost-effective.
- LordDragonfang 7y ago
  The environmental impact of extra plastic packaging is much greater than the impact of compostable produce. And anyway, if Amazon has to ship extra books, they pay the publisher an extra time, and you can always donate the damaged book as well.
AlexandrB 7y ago
> It's going to be a simple dollar value equation for companies like Amazon, and make no mistake, they have the data and have made these decisions consciously. I suspect they're not counting the damage this is doing to their brand. I've kept items that were slightly damaged, but it slowly eroded my trust in Amazon. Now I avoid Amazon if I can help it.
wpietri 7y ago
If it's a simple dollar-value calculation on the part of Amazon, then it's sure to be wasteful, in that negative externalities will be ignored.

cr0sh 7y ago

> but they always send me another one without caring. Had something like that happen to me, and for the product, it was a shock. I had ordered the item, it said it was delivered, but it never made it to me. I contact CS (via chat) and they said they would send out another one. I said ok - what happens if the old one shows up in the meantime. They told me to keep it. A few days later I got the original item (it had been shipped to a completely wrong address via USPS). Then a few weeks later I got the "new" one. So now I have two of them. The item? A Tamiya Grasshopper kit.

perl4ever 7y ago
They still make those??

JohnFen 7y ago

To be honest, I've never received a damaged book or CD from Amazon in those padded envelopes. I really prefer them over the boxes, because they seem less wasteful.