Amazon allegedly resells damaged books • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

#121

Post by bmitc » Sun, Dec 31, 2023, 9:07 PM UTC

woleium wrote: post #102

mips_r4300i wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ordered a new cable modem and received it today. They put the shipping label ON the retail packaging. No box! This is FBA. Of course it was scuffed and scraped all to hell.

This is an option at checkout, they default to “minimize packaging, use the box it comes in”, but you can opt out. Personally i think this is a great move that reduces overpackaging and its associated environmental impact

> Personally i think this is a great move that reduces overpackaging and its associated environmental impact

I've chosen to do Amazon's Amazon Day Delivery service several times, but I have stopped doing it, basically without a choice. It's guaranteed to worsen the packaging. They just throw everything in a big enough (normally bigger than it needs to be) box and put a piece of paper in there and call it good. It's just unacceptable. Plus, their incentives for doing so are not good, often non-existent, and you are still paying the full Prime price, which keeps increasing.

Re: Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

#122

Post by pbnjeh » Tue, Jan 02, 2024, 9:34 AM UTC

jarjar2_ wrote: post #79

pbnjeh wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had a few outright duds with them, but mostly their product has been as expected. EXCEPT, they ship mostly in plastic envelopes. And the items not infrequently get damaged during transit. I have a set of "very good" Magnum PI DVD's that I expect shipped that way. But the DVD's weren't secured in their box. The season 4 plastic case slid far enough out of the boxed set to get dinged and broken. The internal DVD h…

Hrm. I've never ordered anything from them beyond books. I'm at 58 books so far this year from them, and they've always arrived as I've ordered them. I've had a couple of books listed as new come in boxed packaging instead of the plastic envelope. Nothing ripped or crushed so far. I wish they did ship a little faster. As it's usually 10-12 days from when I order it before I get it. Then again I'm usually getting free…

I've placed a number of orders with them, and many come through ok. But the shipping damage is often enough to be frustrating. I had one hard-to-get DVD arrive with the typical DVD plastic case shattered in one area into many pieces floating around the the plastic envelope. Fortunately, the DVD itself stayed in it's splayed fingers holder thingy, and it itself was still ok, image side sheltered by the remains of the case.

They also seem to have become less accurate/consistent in the last year or so, with their quality grading. I've gotten a few "good" or "acceptable" titles that looked very good or almost new, but also some "very good" titles with extensive writing, highlighting, or damage.

Perhaps ironically, I've started looking for the same title used on Amazon, and if the options are comparable, picking a highly rated seller there, instead.

This year, I intend to try looking at eBay, more. Not just for books. For some things, but certainly not others.

Care is required, but there are good sellers and often better prices than Bezosland. This impression is partially formed by more recent comments from others that I've read. So, I'm going to experiment and check that out.

Re: Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

#123

Post by pbnjeh » Tue, Jan 02, 2024, 9:42 AM UTC

pbnjeh wrote: post #122

jarjar2_ wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hrm. I've never ordered anything from them beyond books. I'm at 58 books so far this year from them, and they've always arrived as I've ordered them. I've had a couple of books listed as new come in boxed packaging instead of the plastic envelope. Nothing ripped or crushed so far. I wish they did ship a little faster. As it's usually 10-12 days from when I order it before I get it. Then again I'm usually getting free…

I've placed a number of orders with them, and many come through ok. But the shipping damage is often enough to be frustrating. I had one hard-to-get DVD arrive with the typical DVD plastic case shattered in one area into many pieces floating around the the plastic envelope. Fortunately, the DVD itself stayed in it's splayed fingers holder thingy, and it itself was still ok, image side sheltered by the remains of the…

P.S. Just the other day, I ordered a new book from Thriftbooks ( for reasons) and it arrived in that cut to size thin but stiff sticky on one side cardboard, when two pieces are slapped together around the book. That seems to work rather well, and the title, a paperback, arrived in perfect shape.

It shipped from a Texas location, and I seem to recall one or two other books from them that were also shipped that way. And that at least one of those also came from a Texas location of theirs.