Shoppers buying Amazon Christmas gifts have complained on social media that the surprise for their loved ones has been ruined because they aren’t using concealing packaging.
Here are some example tweets regarding Amazon Christmas gifts that haven’t arrived in plain packaging:
Absolutely fuming with @AmazonUK ordered a surprise Christmas present and it arrived just as it was, without the brown cardboard wrapping. So the person who was supposed to be getting it as a surprise saw it when it was delivered!!!! Furious!!! You’ve ruined Christmas! ??? pic.twitter.com/towxVjCTri
— Mandy Squire (@Dawberchoff) November 16, 2017
I wonder if my wife will know what I got her for Christmas. Thanks @AmazonUK! pic.twitter.com/4NvcNsgnt8
— Andrew Byfield (@AndrewByfield) November 16, 2017
@AmazonUK Thank you for nearly ruining a child’s Christmas #bahhumbug pic.twitter.com/TZiuKQgl2u
— lesley ewing (@lesleyewing35) November 18, 2017
Of course, in the past, Amazon has been accused of using far too much packaging on despatches and has also pledged to be more mindful of sustainability and waste after such criticism. That’s clearly one of the reasons why they’re using fewer outer boxes.
An Amazon employee responded to the complants and said: “I’m so very sorry that your surprise was ruined. We try to minimise the amount of packaging materials we use as much as possible.”
“For future orders, you can keep the contents of your package a surprise by selecting the gift option during checkout, or you may mark ‘Ship in Amazon box’ on the checkout page if you don’t wish to reveal the contents.”
In any case, we can’t help thinking, if the surprise was indeed ruined by Amazon not sending these future festive gifts in packaging, then it’s also been rendered entirely joyless by whining about that on social media. Does it really ruin Christmas?
7 Responses
Christmas ruined on November 16th? If only they had a few weeks to try and salvage something!
I mean it’s still only a couple of days before the sprouts go on.
I placed an order for a
“Contigo Autoseal West Loop Stainless Steel Travel Mug with Easy-Clean Lid, 20 oz by Contigo”, from Amazon.
Delivered to the UK, from the States, this item arrived in a box big enough to hold 4 units. It had “A” strip of Air filler cushion chucked in, and as a result, my travel mug sustained a slight “ding”.
After a brief conversation with Amazon CS, I was informed that a replacement would be sent out, and I could keep the original…now THAT’S what I call CS.
Travel mug Nr2 duly arrived in a MUCH smaller box, and fully protected.
A1 CS from Amazon, as I’ve found to be the case 99% of the time, and sadly the complete reverse of eBay’s.
“Amazon is using too much packaging” Summer 2017
“why isn’t Amazon using extra packaging?” Winter 2017
If you’re really concerned, get it delivered to work or to an Amazon locker?
To Andrew Byfield, buy better presents for your wife.
Ultimately Amazon just need to sort their packaging problem out, packaging products is NOT as simple as they want it to be. You cannot categorise orders into just X amount of boxes (as you get slated for being wasteful) and IMO you cant get away with not packaging items at all…
There is no reason why they cant at least just put these products in a grey mailing bag like everybody else.
Whilst I understand Amazon want to change the world, maybe this is just one area that has come as far as it can for now. I for one certainly dont like receiving products in:
1 – Too much packaging
2 – None at all
and dont like the idea of having packaging as a paid for option in the future.
Amazon call it “Frustration Free Packaging”
We monitor a few Facebook groups for products we sell and one of them is for Disney ornaments products and there are loads of posts similar to the ones in the piece and quite a lot of the posters return the item as they class it as ruined if there as even as much a dent on the box the item comes in.
Some have said that when they complain, they get sent a replacement without having to send the other one back.
I was at a Amazon presentation at their London office a few months a go and during one of the talks on FBA, i asked how we could find out which items we were planning to send in were classed to be sent “Frustration Free Packaging” and gave an example of a £60 ornament that just had a shipping label applied to the gift box it comes in, the answer i received was that it doesn’t happen, to which quite a few in the audience replied “Yes it Does”, but we didn’t get an answer.
The issue is, if we send something to FBA and Amazon send it “Frustration Free Packaging” how much will we loose through returns due to the ruined boxes.
Also as they are not spending on packaging, would the Pick/Pack fee be reduced?
The moment we noticed this happening we stopped using FBA. Our customers are either gift givers or fussy collectors who moan about the slightest packaging damage.