Shipments from online retailers: How much damage will you accept without returning?

A rubber chicken would probably protect the books better...!

 

Hey, here's an original thought. Have any of you guys considered that BEFORE items in your orders become even a twinkle in Amazon's eyes, they've already gone through at least one (sometimes more) shipping cycle? So unless anybody here has the power to pinpoint exactly where any damage may have occurred, I'd suggest not being so quick to blame the end shipper. While I'm always reluctant to primp Amazon up as the model by which all other American companies should aspire to -- they take advantage of and pay slave wages to the terminally unfortunate and idiotic to perform tasks that simians could perform while asleep -- they are not always to blame for product showing up in your sweaty palms in pristine or even collectible (ha, ha) condition. And before anybody blames Amazon for accepting product that is in less than perfect condition, consider the following: the record companies and distributors in the music industry hold ALL the cards. Finally -- no, record companies do not send a fleet of trucks out to internet retailers far and wide to drop off their product. It's all done using shipping services.

 

I've never ordered vinyl from Amazon. I'd be pretty nervous if I did.

I have ordered from a couple of places, one that does decent packaging (although not ideal) - Dusty Groove in Chicago. And one that does fantastic packaging that I've never had any issues with: Ernie B's out of California (they used to be almost strictly reggae but have now branched out to all genres - I do recommend them, although I'm sure someone out there has been disappointed).

If the item is brand new and arrives with a serious corner bend or crushed corner then I'd have an issue and see what I could work out with the vendor. If the vinyl itself is damaged or subpar, back it goes.

 

My first choice for purchases is locally where I can inspect what I am buying. My next choice to make purchases is the classifieds here. I trust the people here. With all the bashing that eBay sellers sometimes take my personal experience has been positive and I will continue to buy if I cannot find my title in the first two methods. I have just begun to shop on Discogs and I have only done two transactions but both have been solid. That brings me to Amazon and what I consider the really crapshoot of a purchase there. The lack of detailed and accurate information is a real negative. It has been a real hit and miss on any used CD and my intent is to no longer use Amazon for any music purchases.

 

It's certainly a possibility, but distributors tend to ship things in bulk, and properly packaged, significantly reducing the chances of being damaged when they arrive @ Amazon.

If a box arrives at Amazon damaged they should not accept it. Certainly no signs of outward damage doesn't guarantee that the contents are perfect, but it's a start.

And, if the warehouse picker grabs a damaged item off the shelf they shouldn't pack it. I worked in a CD warehouse in Philly for a few years, and we would never have shipped a damaged CD to a retail customer. It made no sense; the store would just return it right back to us anyway, as they'd not sell it if they put it out in the racks. If I picked a CD with a cracked jewelcase off the shelf I dropped it off in the defects bin to be returned to the distributor.

In the end, the responsibility still falls on Amazon to not ship a defective / damaged product to me, and since their packing methodology outright blows it's much more likely that the fault lies with them.

 

1. Think about who is actually doing the packing these days.
2. Amazon, and most people, for that matter do not consider an item with a bent corner "damaged".
3. There is no such thing as "collectibility" with CDs, and Amazon would be the first to tell you that.
4. Shipping things in bulk still does not guarantee safe arrival, although packing things tightly does tend to reduce breakage in transit.

 

Are you serious?

 

ABSOLUTELY. Nobody gets rich speculating CDs. Expecting things to arrive in perfect condition each and every time in today's world is a wholly unreasonable expectation. Anytime humans are involved in any process, it's best to expect imperfection.

 

Irrelevant. If it was up to the workers as to how to pack the items then one could say, "give a crap about your job or find another." But this decision is clearly made from above.

No doubt, but when you toss two books and a rather heavy dehumidier into the same box with absolutely no packing material those books are going to have much more damage than a bent corner. (Ask me how I know this!)

No argument. What we do with the product we purchase from them is none of their concern.

It sure does. In all the years they were packing things properly I didn't receive a single damaged item.

 

No one mentioned getting rich...no one got rich with vinyl either...point is there are a lot of rare cds out there just check ebay.

 

Of course we've considered it. But when you get a box with a crushed corner, and a box shoved inside it which can barely fit and which also has the same corner crushed, you don't need a forensic scientist to figure out what happened.

When I first started to read your post I thought you were going to make a different point, which is that Amazon seems occasionally to send out as "new" items that already have been returned by someone else. Actually I'm pretty sure that's what happened with the book I am returning today, which not only had a crushed corner (the reason for my return), but also looked as if it had taken a shot to the spine, and had been removed from its original plastic wrap. (The replacement copy came shrink-wrapped.)

 

On the contrary, one of the options you have as a seller on Amazon is to list your CD as "collectible," which is a category different from "new" or "used."

 

"Rare" and "collectible" are almost always in the eyes of only a few beholders. It's just a perception, and unfortunately, fewer and fewer have that perception. With regard to listing items as "collectible" on the marketplace, that's often a "fool's game". The thing about our economy that is obvious is that as fewer and fewer people have money to spend on such items, the less value those items have. I've often (as in dozens of times) seen sellers list an item that way for less than they list another copy as "used", and often enough, I've seen a seller list an item as "collectible" for way more than it's listed by another seller as "new". Let's just say that it's not a game run by rocket scientists, and is a HUGE waste of time when the real point of all of this is just to listen to music one enjoys. Seriously, Sean, look around you here, and actually read some of the eye-opening (wink, wink) things that some members can't help themselves from posting about or stating as fact.

 

I don't disagree. Potential resale is never my motive to by a book or CD -- I'm getting it because I want to read it or listen to it. Now when I might actually get around to that is a different story . . .

I've got to figure out how to post a pic because I got a box last night which is even better (meaning worse) than the boxes I got that prompted this thread. Miraculously though the item in it survived intact -- flying across an ocean!

 

Sorry to hear about the shipping stuff you have to contend with. My point, really, is that Amazon isn't always at fault, and despite common perception, it isn't powerful enough to call the shots when they receive damaged (outwardly or intrinsically) merchandise. I'd even go as far to say they they will eventually get out of the physical media game. Profit margins are simply no longer high enough. No company can survive being "loss leader king" forever. Besides that, I've never found Amazon's prices to be the lowest anyway, and they're now higher than they used to be. Put all of this into a pot and stir it around, and Amazon is no longer worth the trouble.

 

To continue this all-important discussion of one of the great First World Problems of our time, today I got a book with a torn dustjacket that is definitely going back to Amazon. I've really become much more accommodating over the past year or so. But there are some pretty blatant things I still won't accept. Here's a pic.



I doubt any bookstore would even try to sell the book as new in this condition. By the way, this quite likely happened before or during packing -- the box itself was fine and I can't imagine that just getting jostled during shipping would cause this.

 

The short answer to this is what I'd of accepted in store. The dust jacket above would be a reject as one thing book fans buy hardbacks for are the jackets, a cracked cd jewel case I can fix so long as the inserts aren't damaged however getting digi-pak cds at least over here scuff free is harder than the likes of Amazon so as long as it's very minor I'd accept a minor mark but severe denting or crushing, never.

 

Isn't a lot of rare an oxymoron ?