buying drives from Amazon, how's shipping/packaging?

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Thuleman

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Does anyone have first hand experience in buying HDDs from Amazon? How's their packaging for single/multiple/less than 20 drives? I need about a dozen and I am super scared to buy them from Newegg which will wrap them into one layer of bubble each and then toss them into a far oversized box filled with peanuts.
 
I am getting ready to order some for myself, but I thought I recalled seeing people complain about Amazon's packing. I think they said NewEgg was better. It doesn't matter to me, because I have Amazon GCs to use, and have Prime, so I am stuck with Amazon.
 
Most of my packages, from books to laptops, from Amazon isn't packed too well. Usually it's just a roll of those big air bags. I haven't ordered any HDDs from Amazon though.

Newegg always wrapped my single hard drives in many layers of thick bubble wrap. But I think in one occasion my HDD was in just a white box, and I don't recall if that box was wrapped in bubble wrap.
 
Thuleman said:
Does anyone have first hand experience in buying HDDs from Amazon? How's their packaging for single/multiple/less than 20 drives? I need about a dozen and I am super scared to buy them from Newegg which will wrap them into one layer of bubble each and then toss them into a far oversized box filled with peanuts.
Click to expand...


Anytime recently that I have ordered five or more drives from Newegg, they have come in the OEM 20-pack packaging.
 
In my recent experience, newegg is better than amazon, but that is not saying much. newegg is hit and miss, but amazon is even more hit and miss. For example, I recently ordered 3 HDDs from amazon, and they came all in one box, with two of them nicely packed with foam, but there wasn't enough room in the box to pack the third drive in foam, so they just threw it in on top, directly against the cardboard. Ouch!
 
If you ever have any issues with Amazon packaging, make sure to go to their packaging feedback page and describe what was wrong with it. I've found that they're very proactive at making adjustments. One thing you can be fairly certain about is that Amazon's RMA process is much quicker than Newegg's. I have prime and in the past they've shipped a replacement next day air after I filed a return, but I'm not sure if they ship them next day for non-prime users.

cafcwest said:
Anytime recently that I have ordered five or more drives from Newegg, they have come in the OEM 20-pack packaging.
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For multi-drive orders this has been my experience as well.
 
I just got 5 drives from Newegg each in bubblewrap, 2 DOA. I got 1x from Amazon and it was shrinkwraped to a cardboard insert and securly placed in a box,

IMHO amazon was better than newegg.
 
Every OEM drive I've ordered from Amazon lately (including 6 HD103SJ last week) has been individually boxed like this:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/aznhomig/CIMG0894.jpg

First pic didn't work, try this one... The one on the left is what I was referring to.

I've seen the complaints on Amazon but every drive I've ever received from them (and I can count 10 in the last ~2 years) came that way.

Viper GTS
 
When reading the complaints, make sure to note the date. When they rolled out their "frustration-free packaging" for hard drives, they messed up badly but fixed it relatively quickly.
 
I got 2 hitachi 5k3000 drives last week from Amazon. They came in an overpack that was filled with the air bags, then were self-contained in 2 boxes. The boxes had them stretch wrapped very securely to a cardboard insert. Both drives seem to be working just fine so I can't complain, but a little more cushioning/bubble wrap probably wouldn't have been overkill.
 
last time i ordered two drives from newegg i had one DOA, i havent had the best expierences with newegg+hdds

everytime i've ordered drives from directron they've never come DOA, this is 3+ times.

I have made directron my place to order hard disks from :)

Amazon, no comment ;D

/off topic
 
My last 4 hard drives were from Amazon and I've been very happy, as others have noted, the drive is fit in fitted plastic inserts into a fitted case so nothing moves around and the drive is not touching the walls. The box is than put in a bigger box which was wrapped in bubble wrap.
 
1. Amazon.
2. newegg.

I used to buy from newegg but being on east coast any return/replacement must go to california and it becomes too expensive. So now I'm using Amazon and amazed at how good service is. Plus amazon is not trying to rip you off on restocking fees on everything.

Well, I have microcenter not far from me so it's this order:

;)
1. microcenter (if price is right)
2. amazon
3. newegg
 
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I've bought 20 5k3000's in the last 90 days or so, picking them off to the sales limit anytime they were on sale for $69. Had to buy 3-5 drives at a time this way. 15 of them came from Amazon, 5 from the egg.

Newegg was normal Sh!7 packing from their warehouse, Mylar wrapped drives shoved into obviously used foam blocks and stuffed badly into a box. I think they get the "special orangutang service" from UPS because the box looked like it had been thrown and dropped many, many times.

Amazon, OTOH, had each drive solidly shrink-wrapped into a separate cardboard container and then packed into a second box. Only complaint here was that one shipment used a bit of an oversized outer box and they didn't seem to put enough airbags inside to keep it all stable. They at least seem to know that what they are shipping is fragile... Plus, for every shipment from Amazon I chose "free super-saver 7-10 day" service ('cuz I'm cheap) and each order actually showed up at my door within 3 days (one of them showed up next day - on a Saturday).

Oh, and Amazon makes it my problem to follow up with CA for the 'use tax' while the egg collects it up front. Its a hassle, I know :)

+1 for Amazon. No - more like +10.
 
I had the same experience as the others in this thread with a couple 5k3000 Hitachi drives from Amazon in the last month or so. The shrink-wrapped to a cardboard chassis-box inside another air-packed box. Far better than the last drive I got from Newegg, which was admittedly a while ago.
 
rmd3003 said:
1. Amazon.
2. newegg.

I used to buy from newegg but being on east coast any return/replacement must go to california and it becomes too expensive. So now I'm using Amazon and amazed at how good service is. Plus amazon is not trying to rip you off on restocking fees on everything.

Well, I have microcenter not far from me so it's this order:

;)
1. microcenter (if price is right)
2. amazon
3. newegg
Click to expand...
Really? The Microcenter near me puts single OEM drives in an oversized hard-plastic "cage" which people constantly shake and move around, with the drive hitting the hard plastic. I will never buy an OEM drive from Microcenter.

I bought two Hitachi OEM drives from Newegg recently and each hard drive was in a small box, sort of like shrinkwrap on the inside where the cardboard folded in such a way that it tightened the plastic to secure the drive in place, eventually folding onto itself and forming a small box. Then the two small boxes were put in a single larger box, with crumbled brown paper filling the gaps.

I bought two more later and they were packed the same way except instead of brown paper it had packing peanuts. I was completely satisfied with the way they were packed, and none were DOA.
 
I've never had any problems with OEM hard drives I bought at Microcenter. But then, I've never had problems with the ones I bought from Newegg either. I think those are the only places I've bought drives except for the SSD I just bought from Buy.com which has also worked fine. Can't say anything bad about any of the packaging for my mail order drives.
 
All the WD drives I've gotten from Amazon have come in an Amazon box with a WD factory box inside. The WD box has the drive inside using those plastic clamshell endpieces they use now. Which is exactly the same packaging that WD themselves used to ship me an RMA replacement drive (except WD shipped their box by itself, not inside another box).
 
Forceman said:
All the WD drives I've gotten from Amazon have come in an Amazon box with a WD factory box inside. The WD box has the drive inside using those plastic clamshell endpieces they use now. Which is exactly the same packaging that WD themselves used to ship me an RMA replacement drive (except WD shipped their box by itself, not inside another box).
Click to expand...

Yeah. It comes in the factory Samsung box for the 6xF4s I got. Then they put them all in a bigger box and threw in air bags. But given how the factory box should be ok, I dunno.

I actually think Newegg's bubble wrap + peanuts gives the drive more shock protection. That is if they put enough peanuts in a big enough box, but my experience has always been good with Newegg.

However, given how these factory boxes are how the HDs are moved intiially, I'd think that it wouldn't hurt to keep shipping them like that unless you have an extra rough UPS driver or something unexpected. Sure they could package them better getting them to you, but the damage has already been done moving from factory to Amazon, if you think the factory packaging is bad that is...
 
havermeyer said:
I had the same experience as the others in this thread with a couple 5k3000 Hitachi drives from Amazon in the last month or so. The shrink-wrapped to a cardboard chassis-box inside another air-packed box. Far better than the last drive I got from Newegg, which was admittedly a while ago.
Click to expand...

I ordered 20 from Amazon the other day and the first 14 just arrived with the same packaging, all within one bigger box. I wouldn't have expected any better for OEM drives.
 
I ordered eight 2TB HDDs to fill a Drobo this past winter. One big box (w/airbaggies) with eight HDD-sized boxes with plastic inserts like in Viper_GTS's pic.

All of em' were fine.
 
I ordered 3 2TB hard drives. Came in a pretty good sized box with foam, and bubble wrap. Didn't have much space to slush around, and when I got them, they were all working fine. Plus it was free shipping, so cannot go wrong their. I would give it a go. Hope this helps.
 
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