Comments for Buy.com Ships Four Hard Drives In Four Over-Sized Boxes

Buy.com Ships Four Hard Drives In Four Over-Sized Boxes

2009-01-12T22:48:18Z

Steven at The Jewish Channel ordered four hard drives from Buy.com, and got them, along with a packaging surprise. The packaging was very excessive. Each hard drive came in its a separate packing box 4591.75 cubic inches larger than the hard drive box it was meant to contain. In addition, that extra dead space was taken up by what amounted to a waterfall of brown packing paper. The containers, measuring 24" x 18" x 11.5" could each have held six of the 10.75" x 7" x 5" boxes. More pix inside. Steven writes:

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[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.

Comment from Aleister Tennyson Hobbs on 2009-01-14

2009-01-14T06:05:08Z

wow, you know there are so many ways to critique this it's just depends on what point you'd really like to make,

you know, i know this type of item needs to be packaged so that it does not become damaged during transit, and UPS does hire drivers that handle items like Apes but i would think that this is slight over kill.

i would that they charged seperate shipping for each item and refused to combine as part of the contract because that generally seems like the type of business they run.

I would critique this wrap job as a foolish, wasteful, use of material, as well generally customer ripoff,
charging seperate shipping on each item which at a low price the shipping is calculated into the overall price, so to combine items and refund the buyer anything would be out of the question, basically the mass profit can be made by seperate shipping so as all the money can be keep.

you know they are laughing about this type of shit at the warehouse becuase they know what is truely going on,

another point is that UPS does on occasion handle items of this nature extremely badly, i think of the samsonite commerical where the ape is beating the crap out of luggage, and generally if you package an item as this, this way, then when a customer contacts you and says their item was damaged in transit, you know they are absolutely full of crap. cause then it's like are you kidding which is the other half of the story, buy.com really shitty customer service.

so it all makes sense on just about every level.

except the fact that it is a complete waster of material.

i refuse to buy from buy.com because i have heard awful things about there customer service, here is the link to tell you everything you need to know about buying from buy.com, just think if you were buying directly from buy without ebay as the mediator, ebay forces you to adhere to certain rules where if you bought directly from the seller they can do what ever they please and get away with it...

[toolhaus.org]

Comment from Tom Best on 2009-01-13

2009-01-14T00:42:41Z

This doesn't bother me at all. They are a business. They will do things the best way they know how to make the most money and stay in business. They'll figure it out.

Comment from ScottRose on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T22:07:15Z

@ludwigk: LOL, I thought the same thing.. and I'm Jewish. Ah well...

Fark: In other news, there's a Jewish Channel.

Comment from SJ Stanaitis on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T20:03:58Z

This guy probably would be the first to complain had the hard drives arrived damaged. Considering UPS got 4 boxes that size to his address completely unscathed, he should be thankful. Perhaps he should email the company he bought the drives from to recommend a better shipping method. Hardly worth a Consumerist post.

Comment from eXo on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T19:45:29Z

@HurtsSoGood: If you actually took the time to read before you clicked, you wouldn't have had that problem. Besides, that ad you speak of comes after you check out, once the product is already ordered. You just didn't take the time and clicked continue blindly. Way to go!

Comment from eXo on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T19:43:32Z

@Corporate_guy: try reading. its healthy.

Comment from henwy on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T19:15:53Z

@jag164:

Ya. I would have been happy to get the above if I had ordered hard drives. I've had too many crap out on me in the past that I would really appreciate the added care/safety of having them shipped in large boxes with plenty of packing material. I would feel different if they had shipped me a paperback the same way, but I think this time it's a score for Buy.com.

Comment from Anonymous on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T12:09:22Z

This isn't a slam-dunk. I've worked in warehouses. If these orders trickle in throughout the day(s) they are picked and shipped as they come in. Because most packers are lazy asses they grab the boxes they have - and if they are out of small boxes and MOST warehouses are constantly out of small boxes, this happens all the time. But - consumers bitch if their order is delayed a day. If someone other than a corporate couch potato would allow workers to *batch* orders and ship at the middle of the day and again at the end of the day, they could consolidate orders and avoid this crap. This is simply either a poorly thought out warehouse, or a warehouse without the technology or smart managers or one that is understaffed. It's NOT the worker's fault that management can't stock the right size boxes or *batch* shipments (meaning they place all orders from a frequent buyer in one area and then package them at the end of the day). Don't assume. Warehouses operate a LOT differently than your office secretary boxing and packing something or you shipping something from home. Thousands of orders go out a day - many are automated, workers don't have the time or the luxury to THINK. And that's why this happens. Don't just bitch. Politely call and point it out the warehouse manager and if it really chaps your ass - then ask them to batch your orders. And then don't bitch when shipping takes an extra day.

Comment from Justifan on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T10:42:53Z

@m2ky2fo:
that or they ran short on a box size.
most companies aren't in it to lose money. i've never gotten anything packaged with such excess ever and i order lots of things.

Comment from TVarmy on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T10:00:33Z

@m2ky2fo: The most likely answer is busy warehouse and employees who don't have time to think. They probably just saw an order for four hard drives, got four stock boxes in a hurry because they didn't have time to see how many would fit, and packed them up to ship. I don't know how Buy.com organizes its operation. There could be a software algorithm that decided that since it's stated the drives need x space around them, and they have boxes of y volume, four boxes would be needed, so it prints out 4 shipping labels to the same address and prints off a packinglist.

Comment from TVarmy on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T09:57:17Z

@ludwigk: Eh, conservation is conservation. If it has to be about thrift or not buying energy from people we don't like instead of saving the environment, I'm cool with it. I think in the long term conservation is ultimately an environmentalist action, but most people need a little payback in the short term, too.

Comment from TVarmy on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T09:54:54Z

@donjumpsuit: I don't think I've ever seen any items show up broken for being placed in a box with too many other items. Strange...

Besides, either way, it's a company screwing up. The middle ground is acceptable to good customer service, which is uninteresting. If they were two small boxes, which each contained two drives carefully packaged in recyclable and reusable materials, it would not be here.

Comment from TVarmy on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T09:52:33Z

@JGKojak: The stupid shipping gang would cram it in one box. It would never fit. It needs at least 3 boxes lined up.

That's kinda a weird mental image...

Comment from TVarmy on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T09:51:04Z

@nicemarmot617: Yeah, they definitely get volume discounts. Still, it pollutes the same, and it takes space away for other packages. That lowers supply (space to ship packages on the vehicles, which shipping essentially sells) and thus raises price and increases the chance an item will be late.

Comment from TVarmy on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T09:49:21Z

@AdleyHoddie: I still think the method shown is good enough. Hard drive boxes come with plenty of good packing inside already, since they don't want a DOA and hard drives are fragile. I have never gotten a box with the sides poked open deeper than a quarter inch, and manufacturers tend to just care about serial numbers and UPCs for RMAs, so they should be packed together.

Comment from Coyote on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T07:41:30Z

@jdmba: Yeah, but those drives are retail. The mfgr's packaging has shock absorbant foam inside. They shrink wrap them by the pallet when they ship them to the Buy More.

Comment from Coyote on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T07:38:09Z

back when a 100GB drive was huge, my boss ordered 2 of them from amazon.com, and they arrived together in one box, clunking around, no packing material at all, no antistatic bags.

...amazingly enough, they both still worked!

Comment from Anonymous on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T07:11:43Z

As egoods kind of stated. I am certain that a company such as buy.com does a lot of shipping, and receives significant shipping discounts, as such it probably didnt add up to a significant difference in cost.

Comment from rinse on 2009-01-13

2009-01-13T05:27:15Z

@AliyaBabasaur: It means just that -- someone didn't opt out of an opt-out. Am I going to avoid buy.com "no matter how good the deal is?" No. I get the savings and then opt out. I don't think buy.com's opt-outs are particularly well-hidden.

Comment from TorrentFreak on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T04:47:41Z

Why is this a big deal? So what???

I mean seriously just throw the packaging away and be done with it. There are always stories about big boxes for little items. Why do people give a F about this?

Comment from aaronw1 on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T04:39:23Z

Logistics and shipping is really really hard to do efficiently. The actual cost of shipping in the end is very very little and a premium is made on as little handling as possible. It may actually be that perhaps the particular parcel (this HDD) got miscoded in their logistics system as 'larger' so the boxing computer said 'use 4 boxes of size x'. In the long run I'm sure that they are in fact "passing the savings onto you" by shipping in "too-large" boxes.

Comment from Greasy Thumb Guzik on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T04:35:07Z

Because he's from the Jewish Channel, maybe someone in the Buy.com shipping office thought it wasn't kosher to ship it in just one box.
He thought some were milchek & some were fleischek & couldn't go in the same box.!

And let's not all huffy & disenvowel me, I'm also Jewish!

Comment from Jordan Martin on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T04:33:27Z

@jurijuri: what you dont know is that the delivery guy threw the package at the door and it just so happened to end up on the door knob

Comment from kreatre2009 on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T04:30:25Z

This was stupid of them to send those drives in such large boxes but, I don't understand what the big deal is that merits being mentioned here. I see these stories on Consumerist all the time. If the recipients of these shipments are so concerned then, why don't they just recycle the darn boxes or, keep them for storage? I have a lot of shipping boxes that I keep for eBay sales or storage... whatever. In the end, I'm not that concerned about paper boxes. What does concern me are all of the supermarkets that use plastic bags. Have you noticed how most cashiers don't seem to know how to fill up one of those bags and avoid using more than what is needed?

Comment from SabreDC on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T04:16:20Z

"And those savings could've been passed on to me. I could've paid $9 less per hard drive."

Ha. What you really mean is that they would have charged the same price, paid less for the shipping, and made an extra $9/drive in profit.

Comment from jdmba on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T04:10:58Z

Sigh ... if you packed 4 hard drives they way they were packed in the second picture, you would likely have some dead hard drives.

Web retailers are in a quandary here. A hard drive could be DOA from the manufacturer, and DOA from handling at their location from rough handling in packing, and DOA from shipping. That's 3 different potential places at fault, but only the web retailer is there to take the blame. The return rate from DOA hard drives will disproportionately fall on them. I do not blame them for overpacking.

And this method of overpacking is also in part due to the environmentalists. Jamming some crumpled paper into a box is a very substandard shock absorber. Fill it with the necessary peanuts and the community is outraged.

It's really a no win situation and this is all they can do.

(NOTE: I do not work for a retailer, nor have I ever. I am a consumer, and always disheartened when I order a hard drive and it come in crumpled paper.)

Comment from Ronster on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T03:52:17Z

1. only order with free shipping from buy.com 2. never had a bad shipment from buy.com 3 the hard drives are retail packaging and are packaged inside the WD boxes with proper insulation. 4 Check the prices on those boxes at office supply stores, save them for future use, i have about 10 HD boxes Heading to buy.com now

Comment from TruthAndTheory on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T03:43:59Z

Agreed, it's wasteful. However, I wonder if there was an option the consumer could have chosen, to bundle them all together? Sometimes, at Amazon, when buying multiple items, you can choose to wait until they are all ready, and package them together, or you can choose "Ship items as they become available." The latter means you get at least one thing fast, but they each come separately.

Comment from orlo on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T03:32:16Z

@BarryMoth: Yeah, I'd say that is not enough packaging for HDDs

Comment from Adam Modlin on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T02:45:52Z

@ldwgk: gr wth rkfmn, y'r n dt.

Comment from latemodel on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T02:33:44Z

My company subs all our shipping to a local company which hires handicapped individuals. I guess our shipping costs about 30 percent of what it would cost to do in house. The company we use does shipping for about 40 different companies, in some cases acting as a regional warehouse. The shipping labels have our return address on them so it is invisible to the receiver.

Comment from I want my Pepsi Throwback back! on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T02:23:43Z

@ludwigk: I'll admit it, I laughed. Out loud, even.

Comment from Anonymous on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T02:14:30Z

I don't have a problem with that packaging, except I'd prefer soft foam protecting the drive rather than crumpled up paper.

I do like my HDDs to be well-protected during transit. They are very delicate to heavy-duty handling by couriers. If they couldn't survive a 30m drop from a conveyor belt and have the HDD not be subject to heavy G-forces, then the packaging has failed. Ship HDDs like delicate china, I say.

Comment from kranktank on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T02:13:57Z

@ludwigk: just because he may or may not be offensive doesn't make him wrong

Comment from kranktank on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T02:13:01Z

@Cyclokitty: no kidding SUPER boxhab

Comment from drjayphd on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T02:00:23Z

@Applekid: See, I saw that comment and thought of the perfect place to store my flock of moosen.

Comment from FrankenPC on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T01:39:54Z

What yo do is, sell 4 items on EBAY and ship them using those 4 boxes. You observe the law of conservation that way and your freakin house doesn't get cluttered with too much crap.

Comment from RurouniX on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T01:30:56Z

Your first mistake was to pay for shipping at all.

Sucker.

Comment from Sam Wille on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:56:54Z

Last time I checked the pricing on corrugated boxes wasn't dropping, nor was freight. I also know that kraft paper has increased in pricing as well. I can't imagine that shipping the four boxes out this was cost effective for buy.com in the slightest.

Granted, a company like Buy likely has negotiated terms with the likes of UPS and FedEx that would counter-act most stupidity down in shipping. I just cannot believe that anyone would see this as "OK". All that kraft paper - wasted. Larger boxes that could have gone for larger items - wasted.

Sometimes the shipping rate goes up not because of the weight but rather because of the odd sizing of a package - the larger size could have potentially inflated the shipping cost more than one might realize.

Oh well - in the end the consumer was taken care of albeit for more than what it was worth.

Comment from DePaulBlueDemon on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:55:27Z

Best Buy shipped a hard drive to me in the exact same way... It was dead on arrival because the packaging was inadequate. Bastards!

Comment from madanthony on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:51:08Z

@Bowildhax:

exactly. Most buy.com stuff ships from Ingram Micro, which does fulfillment for a lot of resellers. That looks like Ingram Micro packaging.

Maybe they prepacked all the drives and were just slapping shipping labels as they were ordered...

Comment from sickyd on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:41:22Z

When I ordered my refurbished iPhone from AT&T's online store they TWICE sent me a priority envelope with nothing inside except what seemed to be a receipt and an AT&T plastic bag, the kind I would have carried my iPhone home in if I had bought it at a store. I was so bewildered and the only answer I got from customer service was that they were backordered and my phone finally did come. I guess AT&T really wanted me to have the complete shopper's experience, bag included.

Comment from Applekid on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:36:04Z

@jag164: I had to RMA some drives from NewEgg last year, and using approved packaging was a PITA, since they didn't use proper packaging to begin with.

Bulk shipping is absolutely possible. Look at those OEM 20-drive boxes. Box, foam insert with hard drive sized cutouts each positions like an inch and a half away from each other and three inches from the walls of the box.

For one or two, check this out: [www.hitachigst.com]

I wish a retailer would ship these things properly. I hate paying the $50 "Retail box" upgrade per drive to make sure I get them all in one piece.

Comment from Bowildhax on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:31:51Z

As a reminder that Buy.com and Amazon.com often outsource the drop ship.

Anyway to post the FROM label to determine who sent it? It will say Buy.com but the address will be a clue as to what reseller under the Buy.com name shipped it.

Comment from egoods on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:31:48Z

I work for a large chain electronics store (radioshack), and I've seen packing worse then that. i.e. boxes as big if not bigger with 1 thumb drive in them. Granted, I'm sure buy.com is like us and pays flat rate shipping. Still, it's kindof an inside joke at The Shack.

Comment from Irish Lion on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:25:45Z

@Corporate_guy:

[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...

First line says they did.

Comment from rkaufman on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:22:41Z

@ludwigk: You're right, that is offensive. Good job.

Comment from Applekid on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:18:20Z

@JGKojak: I like that the word box(es) suggests I have junk(s).

Comment from se7a7n7 on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:11:14Z

As stated above, big shippers get HUGE discounts from FedEx/UPS.

A friend of mine who works for a company that does a lot of shipping says they pay less for next day delivery than the cost of ground.

None the less, there is still money, time, gase and materials to be saved by shipping things properly.

Comment from juri squared on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:10:50Z

To be fair, I was in bizarro-world today and had a decent experience with buy.com.

The webcam I ordered (through Amazon, stupidly not noticing it was actually buy.com) was backordered, but when I finally got it today it was in a properly-sized box.

And then! FedEx took the box, put it in a plastic bag, and hung the bag off my doorknob so it wouldn't be in the snow. I almost fainted in shock at such nice treatment of my package. My stoop doesn't even have snow on it!

Comment from jag164 on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:09:44Z

Nothing to see here. C'mon, one of the biggest complaints on NewEgg's customer reviews is that multiple hard drives are shipped in the same box. This leads to the drives doing some heavy bouncing and a large amount of failures. Quite a few people have resorted to ordering multiple drives individually so they are shipped one at a time. Kinda a no-win situation for buy.com, if they would have shipped them in one box, the folks who complained would just be changed their title to "Buy.com sent all my harddrives together and they were all damaged."

Comment from m2ky2fo on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:05:26Z

So does anyone know why this is always happening...I assume its just simply cheaper somehow....any thoughts?

Comment from ludwigk on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T00:04:22Z

Buy.com probably over-paid for shipping, but since it is buy.com, there's a high probability that Steven here *didn't even pay* for shipping. He is, of course, applying the over-simplistic calculus that says "any sort of abstract savings of any kind can and should magically be assigned back to me".

What's even better is that he's from the "jewish channel", and his complaint is not about the gas guzzling, tree killing business of shipping things, but the $8/hdd that should still be in his pocket. That's comedy to me, but I'm sure someone will find that offensive.

Obviously, Buy.com's "prices" factor in shipping somehow, since it has to be paid for, but the much more logical answer is that in most cases you pay a 'flat rate' for shipping. If you live near Buy.com's depots, you are getting slightly over-charged every time. If you are on the other side of the country, you are getting a deal each and every time.

So, bad shipping + dumb customer = ??? There is no conclusion. Life is like that sometimes.

Comment from donjumpsuit on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:55:25Z

I am cautiously waiting for the Consumerist.com post that states.

Too Little Packaging used for four hardrives!

And shows four harddrives in one box with minimal packaging and a damaged hardrive

Comment from Cyclokitty on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:54:40Z

But think of the happy cats who would love to play/tear apart those boxes.

Comment from Adisharr on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:51:19Z

My favorite packing method is having the fragile component touching the bottom of the box with all the packing material on top.

Comment from AliyaBabasaur on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:49:46Z

@rinse: first of all what exactly does "the customer not opting out and opt-out" mean. Secondly, I try to avoid patronizing businesses that try to piggyback services by making them opt-out. There are enough businesses that allow me to buy only what I actually want to buy, that I don't bother with the ones that make me go through extra work like opting-out to not buy products or services I didn't want in the first place. Opt-out services/products are ESPECIALLY aweful when hidden in fine print.

Comment from tbonekatz on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:44:20Z

I once got a CD from Amazon.com that was strapped to the bottom of a box that was approximately 15x10x6. can't remember if there was other packing or not, but I want to say no.

Comment from downwithmonstercable on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:44:11Z

I doubt Buy lost any actual money on shipping that stuff. I think businesses that ship stuff in high volume just pay a flat rate, or a heavily, heavily discounted rate. The rates on UPS.com are retail quotes.

Comment from downwithmonstercable on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:42:42Z

@JGKojak: It's a dick in a box! Yeaaahhh...

Comment from rinse on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:40:48Z

@HurtsSoGood: Customers are free to not do business with a retailer for any reason -- from good ones such as the retailer ripping the customer off or screwing up the customer's order, to silly ones such as the customer not opting out and opt-out.

Comment from JGKojak on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:40:35Z

Step one... cut a hole in the box(es)

Step two... put your junk in the box(es)

Step three... make her open the box(es)

Comment from cynical_bastard on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:38:39Z

I'd say break them down and stash them.

Always nice to have boxes if you or someone you know is moving, or needs to ship something...

Comment from nicemarmot617 on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:30:34Z

Buy.com gets different rates than you or I. There's no way they paid $17 more to ship it that way.

Comment from Yan Grinshteyn on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:29:18Z

At least they sent it.

Comment from PorkchopSandwiches!_GitEmSteveDave on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:24:36Z

In case people don't know, shippers are charged the prices the OP lists above by UPS. However, if you are a account holder who does a good amount of shipping, UPS takes a portion of the bill off, so you pay less than what they charge you. When I worked in a mailroom, we would back charge the other departments what our UPS computer printed out as the cost, but what we actually had to pay UPS was WAY lower. So yes, they could have saved, but not as much as is stated.

That being said, there is really no reason for it to be boxed so few to a box. Even two boxes per box would have been better. I will gladly take that extra paper off you for my fire pit/barrell.

Comment from HurtsSoGood on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:23:27Z

After getting signed up for some monthly-fee online shopper club (apparently an opt-out that I forgot to uncheck when I started my buy.com account), I refuse to buy anything at buy.com ever again, no matter how good the deal is.

Comment from Anonymous on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:21:53Z

I'm not so sure. For the 10.75" dimension, there would be room for only 2.5" of padding. For the 11.5" dimension, only 1.5" of padding. For the 7" dimension, 4" of padding (which is proably good enough).

I think its good thing that the hard drive is isolated from the exterior sides of the box - you know, in case fork lift prongs pierce the box and intrude inside an inch or two

I'm thinking of the Dell laptop shipping boxes whose inserts provide for 6" of space surrounding the interior box that the laptop is in - I think this is a good idea

Comment from Corporate_guy on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:20:07Z

Were the hard drives all shipped from the same location? Plus I doubt buy.com pays the same as a normal customer. And who knows maybe buy.com gets discounts when there are less damage claims. So over packaging could be saving the customer money.

Comment from sebadoh128 on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:17:06Z

You could build one hell of a cardboard fort with that stuff, complete with brown paper moat.

Comment from Evil_Otto on 2009-01-12

2009-01-12T23:16:08Z

At least the packing material is recyclable. I hope Mr. Weiss didn't get hit with four separate shipping charges, though.