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Poor Hardrive Packaging

techbob

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 26, 2009
Messages
364
I received a 3TB drive via SmartPost From BHphotovideo. Box withing a box - good, but I noticed the drive was bouncing around - not secured. Upon opening I found they used a very thin, brittle, clear plastic packing enclosure, instead of the thicker black plastic (two pieces) that are common.

I'm not in a huge rush - send it back or open and test. Can't decide. Any suggestions? Is the drive more likely to fail since the packaging was poor?
 
I do not mind the clear plastic clamshells.

www.plastiform-dallas.com/35-hard-drive-clamshell-custom-display.html

However they should bubble wrap each clamshell so the drive does not bounce around so much. Although individually boxed is better but you don't get that from every vendor since it takes up way more space to ship multiple drives that way.

I should have mentioned - the clear plastic was shattered - both peices. But not the same packaging as in your photo - same shape as the typical thicker black plastic.
 
I should have mentioned - the clear plastic was shattered - both sides. But not like in the photo - same shape as the typical thicker black plastic.

In that case I would return it. And it's a good thing you did because I would highly doubt the drive would have worked with that kind of abuse.
 
Suprised, I normally get my disks way over packages from them. normally the drives are boxed well, and put in another box full of peanuts.

Now cellphones I receive, are all shipped like that, just a box within a box, and nothing even holding the inside box still.
 
I don't understand. Don't they go through the same packaging process? Why do some people get crappier packaging than others? I've yet to encounter this problem with BH, NE, AMZN, etc.

I'd return that as well. I hope they are sending you a new one before they receive yours.
 
I took this photo with my phone before sending it back:

http://i.imgur.com/wKfJNhh.jpg

See the cracked edges? The clear plastic is brittle and thin compared to the more flexible, thicker black packaging material pretty common these days. The customer service person at BHPHOTOVIDEO was nice enough. Returned with a prepaid UPS label. I ordered it by "free" shipping - Smartpost, so that may have been part of the problem. I believe the USPS workers hate Smartpost. Also, I was told by BH that the Seagate provided the packaging.
 
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I know what you mean, the black more flexible plastic is better and that is still the way drives that are retail are packed.
I would not be shocked if it came down to something like the clear version is more easy to recycle or most cost effective.

Still looks like your drive had a pretty rough ride.
 
Oh yes, that is defently a seagate package job.

for me, bh has been excellent, amazon is hit or miss (it depends on who you buy it from, as it's not directly amazon), ne seems to be pretty horrible, but sometimes they do a good job (think they have been getting better over the years, compared to years ago they would throw 20 bare drives in a box without any packaging materials or bags).
 
I got another drive from Newegg (BH was out of stock and I have Shoprunner). One small box (not box within a box) - 7"x6"x3" with Pregis packaging.

Another view here - (not my photo)

All of the chambers were fully turgid with air. It appears to be good protection.
 
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