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While I agree Amazon should take better precautions, this is EXACTLY why I never buy big and/or expensive items online. The hassle to return it is enormous. I'll still use such sites to give me an idea of what I should and should not be paying, but furniture and large electronics are a VERY risky bet to order online. It's not an Amazon thing, it's inherent in the process.
Thanks for the catch, Danilo, fixed. A testament to how little TV I actually watch.
Yes, I hate working from home just to get a damn package. I'm not sure how all workplaces feel about it ... but personally I get all my stuff delivered to my work place. If my work ever gives me beef I just say, \"Hey would you rather me leave work to pick this up?\" That usually shuts them up.
Everything that fits in my car I have delivered to work. Everything that doesn't fit in my car, I look at in person at a local store and make them deliver.
Though I did, with much trepidation, recently order a metal-and-glass component rack from soon-to-be-defunct Hold Everything, which has closed all its retail locations and is only taking online orders. To their credit, they packaged that fucker right, and I ended up with a much more suitable component rack than anything I saw in the \"your choice of fiberboard-n-melamine, or made of actual wood but costs six hundred bucks minimum\" entertainment furniture selection at the local stores.
I shudder to think what the \"return\" process would have been if one of the shelves had come out broken.
I have a coworker who recently got a 45\" DLP RPTV from Amazon- he had no problems, but chose the \"not shitty UPS\" shipping option.
I ordered a TV from buy.com. UPS delivered it, not a problem. Amazon is often times just the payment processor for a third party that's actually responsible for packing and shipping the TV.
Same thing happened when I bought a small safe from Amazon. It arrived so fouled up, I couldn't even open the door. So, I made UPS come back and get it. Told Amazon that I would dispute the charges, and if they wanted the safe back, that they'd need to send UPS back to get it. They did.
The odd bit about it was that after I left a review for the item statnig the problem I had and letting people know to buy it locally, my post dissappeared after a few days.
Amazon's policy on televisions is actually worse than it seems from these posts. At least it was almost two years ago when I ordered a very large Toshiba set for my mother.
I chose Amazon because I had ordered products from them for years and never had a single problem. I considered them reputable and customer-friendly. Amazon's policy stated that there were no returns allowed on TV's over a certain size. I should have asked questions, but I didn't. Any reasonable person would understand that means \"don't be fickle - if you order a set that large, there's no way you're going to change your mind and be refunded the retail price and freight.\" But when an item arrives destroyed, whether this occurred in the manufacturer's warehouse or in shipping, no consumer expects to be stuck with that.
Anyway, the TV arrived destroyed, cosmetically and internally (no picture). I notified Amazon and their first response was that they were sorry I was \"not happy with the item.\" I reiterrated the condition of the item was the issue, and they then informed me it was Toshiba's responsibility. So I'm on the phone with Toshiba and finally they agree to send an inspector out. The inspector says the TV was crashed into or dropped somewhere along the way and it would cost hundreds just to get the picture working. He also mentions that Toshiba is real bad about reconciling such problems and that I could be waiting a long time. I had already waited more than a week from delivery just to get to this point. Two weeks later, without an answer, we began a barrage of emails to various parties within Amazon, including the CEO.
I finally received notice from Amazon customer service that I would receive a full refund (more than 900.00) and the damaged TV would be picked up. I was very happy with the outcome, to say the least, but I waited close to a year before ordering an item from them again. It was so hard dealing with them and it took so much time, energy and aggravation just to get them to do what they should have done immediately. My past with them as a customer, and my future purchases meant nothing to them initially. The whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth.
In fact, they don't use peanuts, but structurally-shaped styrofoam bracing. Each time a TV showed up, that foam bracing was impressively destroyed, falling out in several pieces.
Also, you've confused 24 with CSI in your tags, there.