Amazon Prime: Membership Certainly Doesn’t Buy You Prime Packaging

There are too many examples to give of how Amazon packages some of their items poorly (at least in my experience) and I have already blogged about their wasteful packaging before (you can find links to other posts here and here and here and here).

Herein, I include some more highlights of the poor packaging I’ve been experiencing since I became an Amazon Prime member last spring. They are too numerous for me to include them all, but let’s just say there are a lot of examples (unfortunately Amazon fails at least 50% of the time in packaging well, by this I mean that items arrived damaged or destroyed or that Amazon is using huge boxes when they are not needed or putting boxed items into cardboard boxes).

Too Big of a Box Plus Improper Packaging of Toxic Liquids Around Baby Formula:
The other day, I received one of my monthly subscribe and save packages from Amazon. As an Amazon Prime member there are some good savings on household cleaners, stationary, baby items, etc. to be had when one gets them delivered regularly. Unfortunately, I have had many experiences of packages from Amazon being poorly wrapped and items being damaged or destroyed. This was probably the worst experience. Not only was the box too big and poorly packed, the items mixed were inappropriate. There was a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner that was put in a bag but was somehow frozen in transit.  There was some sort of liquid coming off the bag when it arrived, be it condensation or leakage from the bottle and the box and items in it were wet. This heavy bottle rampaged through the box and crushed the Ziploc bag boxes to bits and then attacked the containers of baby formula. I am not sure if the baby formula was put into the box with its seal broken or if the seal was broken in transit by the bottle of toilet bowl cleaner. The package of tape was the only thing to escape destruction. Not a good ratio at all. And terrifyingly, customer service at Amazon expressed no concern over the opened baby formula or the fact that it was in the same box as toilet bowl cleaner from which some sort of liquid was issuing in transit. I exchanged emails with them and then had to call and talk to not just a customer service agent, but also a manager, a 25 minute call. So disappointing.

Boxes in Boxes:
I have had many Amazon shipments that come in very large boxes that house items that are also in cardboard boxes. It seems like a big waste. A box of diapers and a new garbage can in a cardboard box and a package of toilet paper wrapped in plastic. Yet another giant cardboard box to recycle (plus the two cardboard boxes in the box to recycle). What a waste.

Box in a Box Plus Tons of Wasted Space:
This package arrived with an overly large box to house a heating pad in a cardboard box plus one container of Vaseline. Surely the packaging could have been different.

Boxes in Boxes and Somehow the Expensive Vitamix Box Still Ends Up With a Hole in It:

This Vitamix was around $700.00 before the sale and they put it into a large cardboard box when it was in its own cardboard box. Yet somehow, it still ended up with a big hole in the side of its box. Amazing that Amazon is not only so wasteful with packing materials and boxes, but also uses them so ineffectively so as to not even protect high value items.

 Boxes in Boxes: Lots of Wasted Space Again:
This box had a box of diapers, an Aveeno lotion for babies, and a package of toilet paper all in a giant, overly large box. Again, such a waste.

More Idiotic Packaging With Damaged Items:
This box arrived with one baby formula, a beautiful hardcover book that I bought for my child, and an Oxyclean spray for babies. The Oxyclean was not even wrapped or in a bag so it could have leaked all over the book. As it was, either the heavy formula or the Oxyclean battered up the unwrapped book and dented and bent its corners. What a disappointment when you buy an expensive hardcover book for a child in brand new condition and it arrives in bad condition.

Another Overly Large Box is Used:
This order had a package of toilet paper, a small box of porridge for babies, and a hippo toy for babies. There was a ton of empty space in this box.

Another Overly Large Box Housing More Items in Cardboard Boxes:
This box only had a tiny teether for a baby in its own cardboard box and 18 Amazon Basics washcloths in their own cardboard box. And the box was way too big too. All that wasted cardboard.

A Giant Box That's Too Big For the Shipment and There's Lysol Wipes Fluid All Over the Box:
This box had Lysol Wipes in it and they weren't wrapped so they leaked all over the box and everything in it. Plus there was a bunch of wasted room in the box again.

In conclusion, Amazon really needs to improve its packaging in two ways. Firstly, it needs to be less wasteful with packing materials and boxes. Secondly, Amazon needs to be more careful with packaging items that it sends so that they are not damaged or destroyed in transit. While Amazon customer service has been fairly reasonable to deal with over these damaged or destroyed items, it's really annoying to have to keep contacting Amazon and wasting so much of my precious time. Further, recycling all of this packaging material and the boxes is time consuming and bad for the environment. Reducing even recyclable materials is the way of the future.