They also ship books in oversized boxes with no padding. If you're "lucky", they combined your book order with your order for something hard and heavy that can help beat the book up while the box tumbles.
Not always, but often enough that if I order a book from them, I try to remind myself to to wait to order until nothing else I've ordered has yet to ship. Then wait after I've ordered the book, until the book has shipped, before I order anything else.
I don't order that much from Amazon, but my orders often "cluster". For a recent example, the Christmas holidays. I got a beat up book cover because they upped the delivery date of the book by about a week (newish best seller), while in the meantime I'd ordered a heavy object that always ships the next day and that I didn't want to wait a week plus for. So, jacketed hardcover arrives loose in the oversized space next to big, heavy, sharp edged object, with no padding whatsoever inside the box.
I guess if I'd returned that book, it simply would have gone -- damaged -- to someone else.
They do this with hard drives as well. The first and last time I ever purchased hard drives from Amazon, the two drives arrived in an oversized box with no protection other than the antistatic bags they were in. I sent them back but I'm sure they'll just sell them to someone else.
Most of the time my Amazon books have arrived in good condition mostly due to sheer luck given the way they were packed. Sometimes a hardcover had a dented corner or a paperback had a bent spine. Not worth the hassle of returning and reordering (especially if the price went up since ordering as Amazon refuses to honor the original price). I do miss Book Depository as they would ship each book individually even when I ordered multiple items.
These days I try to avoid Amazon but keep getting sucked in when the price + shipping is cheaper or I can't be bothered creating an account on a website I have not used before.
Unfortunately even ordering the book on its own isn't a sure-fire way to get it well-packaged. The last several books I've bought were shipped in a thin paper bag (or a bubble mailer if I was lucky.)
As someone who takes care of their stuff, it's pretty annoying to get my books pre-worn.
It didn’t used to be this way. Books would ship in a tight fitting corrugated cardboard package that would protect them. I suspect it was some kind of custom packing machine that would fold and cut to size.
Now it’s either in a padded envelope - still space for the book to move around - or it’s in a box with whatever else.
Creased covers, ragged corners, torn dust jackets… It’s awful if you want to give a book as a gift.
Comments
They also ship books in oversized boxes with no padding. If you're "lucky", they combined your book order with your order for something hard and heavy that can help beat the book up while the box tumbles.
Not always, but often enough that if I order a book from them, I try to remind myself to to wait to order until nothing else I've ordered has yet to ship. Then wait after I've ordered the book, until the book has shipped, before I order anything else.
I don't order that much from Amazon, but my orders often "cluster". For a recent example, the Christmas holidays. I got a beat up book cover because they upped the delivery date of the book by about a week (newish best seller), while in the meantime I'd ordered a heavy object that always ships the next day and that I didn't want to wait a week plus for. So, jacketed hardcover arrives loose in the oversized space next to big, heavy, sharp edged object, with no padding whatsoever inside the box.
I guess if I'd returned that book, it simply would have gone -- damaged -- to someone else.
They do this with hard drives as well. The first and last time I ever purchased hard drives from Amazon, the two drives arrived in an oversized box with no protection other than the antistatic bags they were in. I sent them back but I'm sure they'll just sell them to someone else.
Most of the time my Amazon books have arrived in good condition mostly due to sheer luck given the way they were packed. Sometimes a hardcover had a dented corner or a paperback had a bent spine. Not worth the hassle of returning and reordering (especially if the price went up since ordering as Amazon refuses to honor the original price). I do miss Book Depository as they would ship each book individually even when I ordered multiple items.
These days I try to avoid Amazon but keep getting sucked in when the price + shipping is cheaper or I can't be bothered creating an account on a website I have not used before.
Unfortunately even ordering the book on its own isn't a sure-fire way to get it well-packaged. The last several books I've bought were shipped in a thin paper bag (or a bubble mailer if I was lucky.)
As someone who takes care of their stuff, it's pretty annoying to get my books pre-worn.
It didn’t used to be this way. Books would ship in a tight fitting corrugated cardboard package that would protect them. I suspect it was some kind of custom packing machine that would fold and cut to size.
Now it’s either in a padded envelope - still space for the book to move around - or it’s in a box with whatever else.
Creased covers, ragged corners, torn dust jackets… It’s awful if you want to give a book as a gift.