Heaven forbid a four-pack of valve caps, weighing maybe about an ounce, not have enough room during shipping to spread out, breathe and generally feel the calming effects of roomy comfort. That must have been the thought process when Amazon decided to send Tara her purchase in a huge box instead of a more appropriately-sized conveyance. More »
It wastes resources, money, and shipping companies' resources. It generates extra trash and annoys customers. What is it? Companies' insistence on employing members of the Stupid Shipping Gang to send packages! More »
FedEx wanted its customers to have a very Merry Christmas — even if they're not the customers who should be receiving a package with a credit card in it. Gabe had to have a new Visa card overnighted to him, and felt confident because the delivery required a signature. Apparently, any old signature will do. More »
We've got to hand it to our reader Christopher — although he's unemployed and says he spends his time filling out job applications, he's got a pretty good sense of humor when it comes to the misadventures of his merchandise. In this case, it seems Adidas decided a delivered package means the job is done, no matter who it's gone to. More »
Lindsey was already frustrated that she had to wait about three months for an item she ordered on Target.com, on the day the popular Missoni for Target line launched. But then when the wrong item showed up, things got even more annoying when customer service shrugged and suggested she donate it. More »
A soft touch should be a job requirement for package delivery personnel, because recently it seems like we're seeing way too many lobbed and otherwise mistreated boxes. In this new video, a surveillance camera catches a FedEx delivery guy chucking a computer monitor over a fence. More »
Rodents make the worst postal workers, especially when delicious, edible holiday treats are involved. One post office in Manhattan had a few rats and/or mice working over packages before they reached their intended destinations, resulting in a holiday surprise of a different kind. More »
Mindy and her husband were surprised to receive a doll in the mail from Target.com, as they're not doll collectors and a look at the packing slip revealed it was shipped to someone in another city. So they set about trying to send it back, in the hopes that the rightful owner would get it. More »
Here at Consumerist, we have seen some seriously ridiculous example of shipping gone wrong. Battered boxes, extraneous packing material, you name it. But 18 flat cardboard containers shipped in 18 separate other boxes? Color us totally bewildered. More »
It's a conspiracy! At least according to Consumerist reader Terrance, who says Target's poor packing job combined with UPS paltry efforts to handle his Dyson with care resulted in a sham of an attempt to deliver his product intact. More »
Welcome to Illustrated Storytime with The Consumerist! Today's picture book is by reader Joergen, who found the excessive packaging of his Samsung printer cartridges so egregious that he took step-by-step photos of the box-opening process. Then the opening of the box within the box. Then the opening of the box within that box. And then.. More »
We like to post pictures of items comically overpackaged by the Stupid Shipping Gang, in order to point, laugh, and call attention to the wastefulness. Nicole's experience shows what can happen to consumers when an item is stupidly packaged: Amazon sent her a woefully underpackaged glass bottle of vitamins, which broke in transit and cut Nicole's finger when she went to open it. Now Amazon won't give her a refund until she sends the box of broken glass, vitamins, plastic wrap, and a tiny bit of blood back. More »
It takes a certain amount of talent to be ridiculous, and so we applaud Amazon's shipping department in this case for doing what it takes to be particularly flabbergasting when it comes to choosing quite a silly box for a very small product. More »
Dog treats shipped in separate boxes large enough to put a dog inside. A wallpaper border crammed on the edge of a box that could fit five more rolls. And a laundry rack shipped to a FedEx store in a box large enough for its purchaser to climb inside. These are the tales of the Stupid Shipping Gang. More »
Since we've seen our share of outrageously huge shipping boxes for tiny items and waterfalls of packing peanuts for the smallest of products, it's only fair that we cast a spotlight on the more minimalist side of things, courtesy of one reader who ordered a shovel online. More »
Jason takes part in a long-distance fantasy football league in which past winners of the championship trophy send the prize to the next season's victor. Well, at least that used to be the routine until the most recent mailing of the prize did to the trophy what the Packers did to Jay Cutler. More »
Usually if you haven't ordered a large flat-screen TV, one isn't going to be delivered to you. But Amanda B. thought maybe someone messed up when a five-by-six foot flat box showed up at her place of employment with her name on it. More »
Subtlefrog ordered one kitchen rug from Crate & Barrel, but the company sent her four. She did her research with the Federal Trade Commission and concluded she wasn't required to send the items back, but wanted to be nice and return them anyway. More »
When Greg ordered a dipstick, Amazon must have gotten confused and thought he wanted his item packaged by a dipstick. The company sent him his order in a crate that could house miniscule former NBA great Spud Webb — an unlockable player in the new NBA Jam game! — if he stooped down a little bit. More »
Luke says DHL estimated his shipment would cost $54.51, but turned around and stuck him with a $114.39 credit card charge. DHL says the package he sent was 9 pounds rather than the 1 pound measurement Luke got while using the scale at the DHL facility. More »
Z. bought a wonderful gift for his sister while in New England: a bottle of Sam Adams Utopia, a strong, expensive specialty brew that you can't exactly buy at the corner liquor store in California, where she lives. To Z's dismay, the package seemed to make the cross-country journey just fine, only to have the bottle break shortly before reaching Z's doorstep. More »
It's time for another installment of the Adventures of the Stupid Shipping Gang! We've packaged three reader stories in one post to make sure they stay extra-secure. In this edition: Amazon overestimates the fragility of Pyrex, Newegg underestimates the fragility of computer parts, and Overstock sends someone an awful lot of crumpled-up paper. More »
When Randall found out the guy to whom he sold an expensive digital camera was a con artist who skipped payment, he had already shipped out the product. He hurriedly called FedEx to stop the shipment and was assured he'd get the package back, but wires were crossed and the conman got the camera. More »
A.J. writes about her parents ordering some touch-up paint for their range. They wanted three bottles, but the company sent them four. The excess didn't stop there, as you can see from these gargantuan boxes the paint bottles arrived in. Oh, for this much leg room on a flight. More »
Amazon chose the worst possible packaging to send this card of watch batteries to catastrophegirl. Well, that's not true: they could have used an even bigger box and included more air packs. See, she tells Consumerist that the air packs arrived perfectly, but the watch batteries slid between the box flaps and hid. More »
Ashley ordered a remote from Best Buy, but must have thought she ordered a carnival prize panda by mistake when the delivery guy dropped off a colossal box, which contained a still-too-big-yet-smaller box, which itself housed the well-protected remote. More »
Mike didn't say what it was he ordered from CompUSA's Amazon store, but it must not have been a box of air, because that's what he says he received and he's angry about it. More »
Tax preparer Robert thought a sure way to get his tax documents to a client would be to ship them via USPS's Certified mail. Turned out he may as well have turned to Virgania Horsen. USPS says the package is at a particular post office location but says it can't find it. More »
Consumerist reader Mike was recently enticed by a clothing sale on Kohls.com, so he ordered, in his words, "a ton of shirts." What he didn't know was that, in addition to his shirts, Kohl's was also going to send him several random pieces for a door lock assembly and a second box of free air. More »
Michael really has no complaints against CDW. He's just amused at the size of the box that they sent his serial adapter (that small metal thing at bottom right) in. He writes: More »
Nathan didn't want a gargantuan box with his ski poles, but that's exactly what he got. Should the poles reproduce and start a society, they will not lack a shelter in which to live. More »
John thought his package was lost when he couldn't find a record of it with FedEx. He paid $20 more to re-ship the document. Turns out FedEx had changed the tracking number without letting him know. More »
Tom wishes Amazon would use better packaging when it comes to shipping things like hard drives. Their "frustration-free packaging" is meant to save shoppers from dealing with blister packs and unnecessary boxes. For the Western Digital hard drive Tom was trying to buy, it meant bouncing around a half-empty box from the fulfillment facility to his doorstep, where it arrived broken. Twice. More »
UPS has pledged to fix the problem with their drivers lofting Ryan's packages through the air and over the fence to smash on the concrete. After Ryan's complaint went up, UPS contacted Consumerist, and we put them in touch with Ryan. They are also apparently going to work on the whole leaving packages to soak in the rain thing. Hurray. More »
Kevin says employees at a Brooklyn UPS Store keep shaking him down for $1 when he brings in packages with pre-paid labels. He has paid the fee in cash before, but when he asked to settle up by credit card the employees turned him away. More »
Laurie says a birthday present she ordered for her mom has been stuck in UPS shipping limbo for more than a week, even though the package has been in New Jersey since last week. More »
CMT ordered a Newegg package that took what a UPS CSR told him was a "scenic route" from California to Tennessee, seemingly circling his city before eventually meandering in. He writes: More »
Warren was expecting some gifts to arrive via UPS this week, and understandably hoped they might be dropped off in front of his door. That didn't happen, he says, thanks to a snow storm and some less than diligent delivery efforts. He found his packages nowhere near his house. More »
Ross has a small business that routinely ships 10-pound packages, but says he was horrified to find out that FedEx has charged his account with a 95-pound package shipment. More »
—>Lucas opened his door one day to find this mangled package, containing an iPod Touch that was a birthday gift for his wife. No doubt he had the same expression as Rosemary when she saw her baby for the first time. More »
—>Amazon sent Will this humongoid package for his tiny little SD card, apparently concerned shipping complications might mutate the SD card into a giant mutant capable of eating a computer. More »
—>The Stupid Shipping Gang strikes again! Their visit to Cisco led to a lovely set of matryoshka wireless access points being shipped to an unsuspecting university in Oregon. Reader Eliot had the confusing experience of opening these packages, and took pictures of the process and the mind-boggling pile of waste it left behind. More »
—>Reader Steven bought some cheap fountain pens from Sam's Club. Perhaps unaccustomed to such a small purchase, Sam's Club had trouble finding the appropriate packaging. More »
—>Reader Sean sent us what may not be the most egregious example of wasteful packaging, but in terms of the proportion of the item shipped to the size of the box it came in, it comes pretty close. Sean ordered a gear the size of a fingernail — literally — from Tower Hobbies. More »
—>We love to report on comically overpackaged mail-order items and Target's reality vortex here, but I didn't think that the two would coincide. A wedding gift that John and his fiancée received proved me wrong. In the photo are the gift, the box it was shipped in, and the lovely bride. Who fits in the box along with the clock. (Paging Dr. Seuss?) More »
—>We may have to invent a new tag just to accurately describe how absurd Think Geek's shipment to Micah in Ontario was. It was bad enough that the shipping was over $30, but that's a consequence of stupid shipping options from the US to Canada. What really elevates this story to the top of the stupid shipping mountain is how they packed a sticker. But hey, at least the sticker didn't get broken in transit. Update:Think Geek responds in the comments below (which is awesome because we felt kind of bad talking about a site we like so much). More »
—>Is Amazon trying to kill off our "stupid shipping gang" tag? Alex wrote to us today to point out that now there's a new "Packaging Feedback" link under your "My Account" page on their site. Among other things, you can leave feedback on the size of the box relative to what's inside. More »
—>Reader Marc would like Amazon to stop shipping bubbles of air all over the country. He ordered two items that would have been fine to ship in an envelope — but instead he got the usual large box with several air bubbles. This makes Marc mad. More »
—>Remember those ultra-compact USB adapters Apple recalled because they could electrocute people? Like most Apple products, they were cute and small, but apparently the "environmentally friendly" computer maker decided to ship the replacement chargers in surprisingly large cushioned boxes. More »
—>Usually our stupid shipping gang entries focus on comically large boxes containing one or two small items, but this time we've got the reverse situation. Eli ordered a projector from Staples. As you probably know, projectors are fairly fragile pieces of electronic equipment. This is how Staples sent it. Eli thinks their new slogan should be, "Staples: That Was Easily Damaged." More »
—>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: More »
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. More »
—>Matt would like to let Amazon know that there's no point in gift wrapping a present if you then put the gift wrapped item inside a box that says what the gift is. This should probably be self-evident — but alas — it isn't. More »
—>On one hand, the mere existence of such a thing as a "ready to ship" box at Amazon leads us to believe that there may be hope for them after all. Sadly, the fact that they packed the "ready to ship" box inside another box before they shipped it does leave us with some nagging doubts. More »
—>Reader Gibson ordered 8 plates from Amazon, and they arrived in 13 boxes. We're sure the operations research management scientists at Amazon shipping have an answer as to why, in the context of the entire shipping infrastructure, this was the most cost-effective solution, but it escapes us mere mortals. Full pic inside. More »
—>Ok, at this point, we're starting to suspect that Dell wants to be on our blog. Why else would they hire a freight truck to deliver a gigantic box on a pallet that contained an 8 lb shelf? More »
—>Today's episode of everyone's favorite post "Stupid Shipping Gang" is sure to be a crowd-pleaser! Newegg was concerned about Rob's software license (Just a license. No discs.) being damaged so they shipped it in a box. With packing peanuts. More »
—>Yes, folks. It's time for everybody's favorite post: Stupid Shipping Gang! In this episode, Amazon demonstrates how to package a tiny microfiber cloth efficiently. More »
—>Apple may have Al Gore on its board of directors, but that won't stop them from shipping teeny tiny remote controls in cartoonishly large boxes. More »
—>Reader Nick's wife recently ordered an iPhone and was surprised to find it came in two boxes. She was even more surprised when the second box contained only an AT&T plastic shopping bag. It was also packed with brown packing material around it. "I find it comical that the plastic bag had more packing material around it then the $250 iPhone did," Nick writes. More »
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.
—>From the looks of David's package, Dell isn't close to honoring its promise to switch to alternative packaging within the next two months. This obscenely large box contained nothing more than a 2GB flash drive. David's son snapped a few pictures, which appear as an eerie slideshow after the jump. More »
—>Hey OfficeMax, Bill ordered a spindle of CD-Rs, not a batch of CD-Rs carelessly dumped into a box without the spindle or any protective cushioning. Did you seriously think he wouldn't notice or complain about the pell-mell packing job? Unsurprisingly, the CD-Rs are scratched and ruined. Bill isn't pleased, but he's taking the flub in stride. More »
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. More »
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. More »
—>"I wonder if other readers have experienced the wasteful excessive packaging used by Amazon.com. I recently ordered a Gel Wrist Rest and a hardcover book (to qualify for free shipping). The two items were shipped to me separately, probably because they were coming from different warehouses. Though that itself is wasteful, I can understand why it may be necessary. But when the Wrist Rest arrived, it came in a GIANT box filled with paper stuffing (see photo). The box measured 24" x 12" x 18". The wrist rest is about 20" long, but flat. Is it possible that a company that sells all of its various products by mail doesn't have a long flat box that could have been used instead?"More »
—> Ooo, what could be inside this box that IBM shipped to a reader—retail-packaged software? Peripherals? Maybe a hard drive with air padding? A logo-emblazoned hoodie? Monogrammed pencils? A kitten? More »
—>Dell has promised to stop shipping individual CDs in 10x19x10 boxes after Christian over at Technologist for Hire posted a rant about Dell's growing love for wasteful packaging. More »
