The winner for worst packaging for shipping a HDD goes to...

[Zap]

Amazon

Yeah, that's right. I never thought Tiger Direct could be topped (they've actually improved). Here's the lurid details:

Black Friday deal at Amazon.com for a Western Digital 1.5TB Green HDD for $89.99 with free shipping and $10 off if paying with Discover Card. I ordered one, basically $80 shipped for a 1.5TB data drive. Pretty hot deal.

I received the drive today. It was in my mailbox. Not the big communal mailbox that they leave a key in my box for, but my little mailbox.

It was the bare HDD in a sealed anti-static bag, folded into a cardboard sheet as if they were shipping a book. No padding beyond the corrugated cardboard.

Just... wow. Amazon, you fail. Did anyone else get in on that deal and receive their drives? I'm wondering if they did that for everyone.

Runner up is Tiger Direct. I once got a couple of hard drives in these blister packs - Tiger Direct apparently takes OEM drives and packages them so that people think they are retail, in a blister pack with a color insert. Well, the blister pack was basically just a plastic skin around the drive with no padding on the major surfaces. Tiger Direct just had these in the bottom of a box with some wadded up paper above it. Since then they've redesigned their blister pack so that it now somewhat resembles the Seagate SeaShell so that there's almost ½" worth of "bumper" on both sides.

 

[Yuriman]

I received my 1.5tb green from newegg and thought it was pretty poorly packed... it did have a bit of bubblewrap under it, but apparently it wasn't enough as the drive appears to have been killed in shipping. ^^

 

[sticks435]

I ordered a Western Digital from Newegg, and it had a sheet of bubble wrap around it, with a sheet of that brown shipping paper filling up the rest of the box. I didn't see any dents or anything in the box, so seems to have worked.

 

[nutxo]

The last HDD I got from newegg came in a clamshell with a wadded up piece of brown paper. I haven't bought hard drives from them sonce. Usually when I say something abou the incident the fanbois attack me.

I used to be s HUGE fan of the egg. Now I'm kinda meh.

 

[nutxo]

The last HDD I got from newegg came in a clamshell with a wadded up piece of brown paper. I haven't bought hard drives from them sonce. Usually when I say something abou the incident the fanbois attack me.

I used to be s HUGE fan of the egg. Now I'm kinda meh.

 

[jvroig]

Usually when I say something abou the incident the fanbois attack me.

There are newegg fan boys?

Just... wow. Amazon, you fail.

Pretty much why I'm afraid to order something mechanical that can be damaged in shipping. I always buy my harddisks over the counter. I know that those could have been shipped even worse going to their warehouse if the retailer is a slob... but seems to have worked out favorably for me the past few years.

 

[tcsenter]

Meh, most of the complaints about Newegg's hard drive packing are bunk. The non-operating shock tolerance of hard drives is extremely high and all the manufacturers have been parking the heads off the media during transit for a few years now. Bubble wrap and some fluff to prevent the drive from flying around inside the box is perfectly adequate 99% of the time.

But the Amazon case seems moderately inadequate, though I've actually seen worse from a couple Ebay sellers from whom I purchased notebook drives. They literally put it in an envelope surrounded by a thin sheet of foam.

 

[Idontcare]

Newegg has improved their HDD packaging for OEM drives, it used to just be a layer of bubble-wrap and then toss it in a box filled with wadded paper. Now they actually stick them in some foam end-caps to reduce the more excessive g-force effects.

 

[Gillbot]

FS/FT is usually where I get my shipping gems, often with a 3.5" HDD in a small flat rate USPS box with minimal padding.

 

[jimhsu]

My SSD was simply dropped bare into a Fedex envelope and shipped, though that's a different story.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Amazon

Yeah, that's right. I never thought Tiger Direct could be topped (they've actually improved). Here's the lurid details:

Black Friday deal at Amazon.com for a Western Digital 1.5TB Green HDD for $89.99 with free shipping and $10 off if paying with Discover Card. I ordered one, basically $80 shipped for a 1.5TB data drive. Pretty hot deal.

I received the drive today. It was in my mailbox. Not the big communal mailbox that they leave a key in my box for, but my little mailbox.

It was the bare HDD in a sealed anti-static bag, folded into a cardboard sheet as if they were shipping a book. No padding beyond the corrugated cardboard.

Just... wow. Amazon, you fail. Did anyone else get in on that deal and receive their drives? I'm wondering if they did that for everyone.

Runner up is Tiger Direct. I once got a couple of hard drives in these blister packs - Tiger Direct apparently takes OEM drives and packages them so that people think they are retail, in a blister pack with a color insert. Well, the blister pack was basically just a plastic skin around the drive with no padding on the major surfaces. Tiger Direct just had these in the bottom of a box with some wadded up paper above it. Since then they've redesigned their blister pack so that it now somewhat resembles the Seagate SeaShell so that there's almost ½" worth of "bumper" on both sides.

My WD 1TB Green from Black Friday came in what amounts to book packaging. Can't say I'm real thrilled with that. I won't put it in until the weekend though, so we'll see how that plays out.

 

[Denithor]

If you guys are seriously worried about damage in shipment - just buy retail drives instead of OEM. They come in those nice molded foam retail boxes that even UPS cannot destroy.

 

[AlgaeEater]

As a staunch defender of Amazon since I love Prime service shipping... I unfortunately have to agree with their packaging practices being crap.

Books I order from them are always so poorly protected, I usually end up with some minor damage to the corners. Anything related to food stuffs is usually a hit or miss, as one time I received a 3 boxes of Jerky that was completely destroyed... they were loose around the giant Amazon box.

The majority of my items come in a condition enough to work, but I dread buying electronics from them.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Ugh. Amazon shipped my 1tb WD Green in an *unsealed* tab fold-in box. I thought it was light when I picked the box up. Guess why? I emailed them yesterday...

 

[Gildor57]

I wonder if different distribution points have different methods for packing? I just received a 1.5 TB Seagate from Amazon that came packed quite well. There was an outer cardboard box and an inner one. The outer box had padding so the inner box would not slide around, and the inner box mounted the HD in a pair of those plastic HD mounting pieces. The kind where you slip two ends of the HD into each piece and the whole setup fits snugly in the inner box. Good packing job in this case.

 

[EarthwormJim]

My Seagate drive that I ordered on Black Friday from Amazon came in a fair sized box, with these molded plastic fittings that the drive is inserted into. Same thing that hard drive manufactures use when sending you back a refurbished/exchanged drive (from an RMA). Needless to say it was well packaged and protected.

Could be Amazon outsources certain products/brands from various stores/suppliers.

 

[lothar]

There are newegg fan boys?


Pretty much why I'm afraid to order something mechanical that can be damaged in shipping. I always buy my harddisks over the counter. I know that those could have been shipped even worse going to their warehouse if the retailer is a slob... but seems to have worked out favorably for me the past few years.

Why would that matter?
If it arrives dead, damaged, or has errors why can't you RMA?

 

[RebateMonger]

Obviously, opinions on this will vary. But, as far as I'm concerned, an RMA'd drive is worthless to me. High quality replies on low process variability, and any kind of repair process is going to have much higher process variability than a virgin product. I'm not sure what I'd even use a RMA'd drive for.

 

[lothar]

For the record:
I've only ever ordered HDD from ZZF and Newegg.

ZZF order from 2006:
Packed in an anti-static bag with foam on each side of the drive and lots of bubble wrap on the outsides of the foam...Arrived perfectly fine and is still in use as my main HDD today.

Newegg? I ordered 2 HDD's from them during Black Friday for the 1st time. We shall see...

 

[AlgaeEater]

I wonder if different distribution points have different methods for packing? I just received a 1.5 TB Seagate from Amazon that came packed quite well. There was an outer cardboard box and an inner one. The outer box had padding so the inner box would not slide around, and the inner box mounted the HD in a pair of those plastic HD mounting pieces. The kind where you slip two ends of the HD into each piece and the whole setup fits snugly in the inner box. Good packing job in this case.

I've ordered hundreds of items off Amazon, so I can honestly say that yes; there are different factors in shipping. Typically, some sellers process their orders through Amazon, meaning that the order is simply guaranteed and sold on the Amazon marketplace and adhere to Amazon policies (including delivery on time). This means the seller actually packs and ships the item, not Amazon.

Some items are stocked in Amazon warehouses. This is where typically the majority of the bad packaging happens, as Amazon boxes are mechanically processed and quickly put together by what I'm assuming, an assembly line.

I've had pristine packaging from various Amazon orders (once again, I love prime membership), but the ones that were always questionable were the ones processed from Amazon directly.

 

[lothar]

Obviously, opinions on this will vary. But, as far as I'm concerned, an RMA'd drive is worthless to me. High quality replies on low process variability, and any kind of repair process is going to have much higher process variability than a virgin product. I'm not sure what I'd even use a RMA'd drive for.

When you RMA(or do an exchange) within 30 days/whatever Newegg's rule is, don't they send you a brand new one?
Of course if you RMA to Seagate, Samsung, Western Digital, or Hitachi then one should expect a refurbished one.

 

[dfuze]

I have experienced the downhill travel of Newegg shipping, but last week ordered parts, including an OEM hard drive for my father's build, and was surprised to see it wrapped in bubble wrap AND placed inside a nice fitting cardboard box which was inside the larger box with other components and packing peanuts. Better than my past shipments.

 

[jvroig]

Why would that matter? If it arrives dead, damaged, or has errors why can't you RMA?

I don't want to go through the hassle. I'd rather buy it once (over the counter) and be confident the product is ok, rather than have them ship it, pray it is ok, have them screw it up, have to RMA it, then repeat. The hassle and time difference between the two scenarios can be very great.

 

[RebateMonger]

When you RMA(or do an exchange) within 30 days/whatever Newegg's rule is, don't they send you a brand new one?

Yeah, that's true (although I don't know the time limit for Newegg's hard drives). I run a Chkdsk /r on my new hard disks when I get them. That should pick up the complete disasters. No way to know whether a disk failure a few months later is caused by shipping or another problem. In that case, I'd probably just throw it in the trash rather than RMA it.

 

[Rubycon]

Meh, most of the complaints about Newegg's hard drive packing are bunk. The non-operating shock tolerance of hard drives is extremely high and all the manufacturers have been parking the heads off the media during transit for a few years now. Bubble wrap and some fluff to prevent the drive from flying around inside the box is perfectly adequate 99% of the time.

Then explain as to why manufacturers are VERY specific on packaging RMAs and if you don't follow their guidelines to a T your warranty claim is null and void?

The explicitly say NO PEANUTS!

If the drive can shift and reach the wall of the box it is vulnerable. With proper FOAM around the drive either in a static bag or clamshell case this cannot happen.