Would You Trust This Amazon Mangle-Up?

roma

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
448
I bought a 2GB WD Passport from Amazon. They threw it in a oversized mailer with thin bubble-wrap and no extra stuffing. The envelope is all beat-up and torn. I found a lot of other Amazon HDD horror stories online. Alas a Passport can take a bit more of a beating. The price was good($65 on sale). That said, I'm not sure I want to trust this. Would this be reliable (I'm not sure of the original packing having left in in envelope. Maybe its good packing... ) ? In any case I wont be buying anymore drives from Amazon



kUv1Hf8.jpg


hCLw97y.jpg



"Amazon's frustration-free packaging is anything but for hard drives"
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/30/amazons-frustration-free-packaging-is-anything-but-for-hard-dri/


"Amazon's Packaging Is a Serial HDD Killer"
http://gizmodo.com/5505641/amazons-packaging-is-a-serial-hdd-killer


"Why you might not want to buy a hard drive from Amazon"
http://www.zdnet.com/article/why-you-might-not-want-to-buy-a-hard-drive-from-amazon/
 
Your pictures don't load so I can't see how bad the box is. I recently purchased a HDD myself from Amazon. The hard drive box was put inside a brown cardboard box with those inflatable air cushions. The stupid thing was that the air cushions only cover the top of the drive, there was no room to wrap it all the way around. The outer box was a little banged up. I agree with everyone, this is stupid. The thing is, when I opened the actual hard drive box I saw how well the manufacture packs it in their foam insert. I haven't had any trouble. It is of course up to you and ymmv.
 
I would still use it, if it doesn't work, send it back, if it works, you're good to go. No need to create threads about this kind of stuff, amazon.com has great customer support.
 
Your pictures don't load so I can't see how bad the box is. I recently purchased a HDD myself from Amazon. The hard drive box was put inside a brown cardboard box with those inflatable air cushions. The stupid thing was that the air cushions only cover the top of the drive, there was no room to wrap it all the way around. The outer box was a little banged up. I agree with everyone, this is stupid. The thing is, when I opened the actual hard drive box I saw how well the manufacture packs it in their foam insert. I haven't had any trouble. It is of course up to you and ymmv.


I have a WD Passport from 2004. I've never dropped it, but its slogged around in a lot of drawers etc. and is still nice. I wouldn't keep a 3.5 HDD shipped like this but maybe a Passport. The thing is that even if it works at first I think I'll always wonder about it. I don't buy a lot of drives - one every couple of years. If this works does that mean it will probably stay working? Newegg sends drives nice now and I'm surprised Amazon is so shoddy with drives considering all the bad media they've had..



"According to dozens of irate customers, Western Digital hard drives shipped by the e-tailer (Amazon) over the past several months have arrived in damaged cardboard containers, thin layers of bubble wrap, or even loose in a simple electrostatic discharge bag without an ounce of padding to keep them from harm. And while some buyers shipped them back immediately when they saw what had happened, many who tried them anyhow found their magnetic storage dead on arrival."

Endgadget
 
does the box look crushed or damaged in a bad way? You bought retail so I would not be overly concerned because base retail packaging is always really good protection. The picture looks like the drives box is perfectly fine and its just torn packaging so no real reason to return it. You can still file a complaint on the packaging and keep the drive.

yea it seems like a waste to return it. The box looks perfectly fine from here and would be a waste to return. I would just give bad ratings in the packaging review. You can easily leave packaging feed back. I have done it twice when i received 1 poorly packed package with damage and another time when they threw a small item in this massive box -_- what a waste!!!

I ordered over a grand of camera gear and all it was packaged with was some paper and not enough of it -_- I had another one that had a single box that was in a box 10 times it size lol. Those are times to complain when they mail 1k of gear with no protective wrapping. The flashes and stuff were fine and I kept them but it was definitely reported.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jgcn7cadehnf8kf/2014-08-07 00.50.24.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gmm1huchvpvn74h/2014-08-07 00.50.13.jpg?dl=0
 
Last edited:
does the box look crushed or damaged in a bad way?

It took at least one good shot that compressed and dinged an upper and lower corner at the same time - while ripping the package in the center. When I squeeze the box down all the damaged areas collapse into place so I know it was a good bang. I'll probs send it back. 2GB is a lot of stuff for me. I dropped a 3.5 HDD 3 ft once and it was fine - for about a week



BwY1SU3.jpg
 
Last edited:
Although they should have done a better job packing it I bet the drive is fine. Its not like they mailed you a bare drive in a padded envelope.
 
Given the high return rate without them even being opened, its likely you are getting a drive that has been through this process multiple times.

I wouldnt touch it with somebody elses bargepole.
Send it back!
Theres nothing like a failing hard drive to really piss you off and waste hours.
 
Although they should have done a better job packing it I bet the drive is fine. Its not like they mailed you a bare drive in a padded envelope.


I remember once going to Best Buy to get something. There were only two remaining units of the item I wanted. One unit was in a buggered box and the other one (behind it) was pristine. I reached for the pristine one of course. I got home and new item didn't work. The buggered unit I exchanged it for did work. I'm not automatically scared off by a box. Problem is this is a spinner and not a salami (which probably would have come packaged better lol)
 
It's probably perfectly fine. I'd probably try to use it, but others will disagree.
 
It's probably perfectly fine. I'd probably try to use it, but others will disagree.


My curiosity got the best of me and I opened the box. When I slid out the plastic container I saw that that too was busted open on one end. The drive took a damn good shot - like someone threw it against a brick wall. Amazon is sending me a replacement.



Wez1mYG.jpg
 
Last edited:
its a table cloth you can see the plate mats in the picture


Ding ding ding...

I should have used a black background instead of sunny yellow tablecloth. Hopefully Amazon doesn't give me a second chance.
 
One of things they said was that the drive package itself is designed to withstand travel and hence it being inside a lose container makes no difference. Except I had some small usb pen drives in the package and the holes were big enough that they could fall out. As UPS and Fedx etc throws packages onto the truck anyway, it makes no difference if they are throwing just the drive package or the box the drive package comes in. Now someone shipping OEM drives with just the static bag inside an envelope means trouble. But those dont use retail packaging anyway.
 
One of things they said was that the drive package itself is designed to withstand travel and hence it being inside a lose container makes no difference

The package my drive came in was excellent - really well thought out - no "engineered" would be better term. The carton was braced in the right places and it allowed movement to absorb impact. The fact that such a well designed inner package was ruptured was what convinced me to return drive and do the UPS dropoff shuffle
 
Back
Top