I had my share of mishaps. One was a Harman Kardon turntable (T15, maybe?) that looked nice in the eBay listing. Thing is, those H/Ks were cheaply built turntables, and it did not take much of a shipping jolt to knock the flimsy bearing out of the plinth. So the platter was just sort of laying there cockeyed under the dust cover. The counterweight also flew off and bounced around inside the dust cover. I forgot who said it, but what comes to mind is the saying, "You can't fix
stupid."
Amazon packing is often quite the deal. I just got a package from them that was a box about 10x bigger than it needed to be, with my two items placed loose inside that big box, no packing material at all. Zero, zilch, nada.
Amazon's first attempts at shipping LPs were pathetic. One box size they used would allow the LP to sit on a diagonal between corners, and the box was too long so that it slid back and forth inside. One or two arrived OK. I had two LPs in one shipment arrive badly warped. Others got torn up. Some that came from one of Amazon's EU shipping facilities were sent via DHL, and those dickheads at DHL would either ship it to arrive to me
after the Amazon due date (so I nailed Amazon for a replacement for a lost shipment), or they would totally destroy the boxes enroute. Here is one example of those dickheads' handywork on one of my LP purchases (click to enlarge):
I complained to Amazon about this a few times, and they really don't care. Their response is they use "whatever" when they ship. Funny. I occasionally had the UK Royal Mail ship LPs to me from Amazon UK, and they arrived in six calendar days, unscathed,
perfect condition.
And yes, I receive merchandise from Amazon that often is not well packed. I am lucky that some of it arrives and still works. Yet other things are not fragile and can handle it. Still...I was not taught that way.
Double boxing is supposed to allow a soft area between the inner box an outer box to absorb an impact.
What I see is people trying to make a solid block around the units.
No allowance for crushing.
A double box without cushion between is not the intent.
A sturdy solid box is nice but will not crush and the impact goes into the package.
That is
exactly it. When I bought audio components by mail order starting back in the 1980s, I would always receive these large boxes. Opened them up, and there would be at least three inches of those styrofoam peanuts around all sides of the inner box with the component in it. The key there is that yes, the inner box "floats" to absorb the shock, but there has to be sufficient styrofoam peanuts to keep that box suspended properly. Slightly overfilling the box so the peanuts compress was crucial. If not, any movement of the cushioned inner box would start crumbling the styrofoam peanuts, which would cause
more movement, which would destroy
more peanuts...vicious cycle, and all you'd receive is a box of styrofoam crumbs. I have seen similar done with the bubble wrap using the large bubbles--they can provide that similar cushioning needed. Packing hard styrofoam between inner and outer boxes won't cut it--there is not enough "give" to hard styrofoam to properly cushion from shock.
It still annoys me that some think "double boxing" is proper packaging, when they only slip a package into a slightly larger box, like a glove. I almost went ballistic when my Oppo 105 arrived this way (Oppo sends them to dealer 2-up in a double-walled outer corrugated box). It's a wonder the player survived. Yet it was flawless. I just got lucky the box wasn't dropped or anything.
Having shipped about 5,000 packages per year for several years in our family biz, I was taught the right way to pack something early on. There should be
no movement inside a sealed box. There should also be cushioning. And packing small, heavy parts inside a box requires that there be adequate packing material. We sold industrial parts (different types of bearings) and we made sure everything was packed tightly. Our product never arrived damaged unless something really bad happened with UPS (maybe once a year, at most). Yet when customers returned things to us, they'd be in a larger box, with one token wadded up piece of newspaper, and the parts would bounce around inside and sometimes destroy the threaded portion of a part or at least nick things up so they were not salable.
I only wonder how and why UPS has gotten so bad. Back in the 80s and 90s we rarely had an issue out of tens of thousands of packages shipped. At least in my neck of the woods, the UPS drivers today beat all the others due to actually following instructions to leave packages at the side door, and leave my boxes in plastic bags if it is raining. If they are delivering something from Tire Rack, they always put them in the backyard for me. FedEx usually does a "dump and run" on the front porch, as does the USPS. (And I hate that, since it's not that far to the street, and it's easy for the rampant package thieves to snatch them up and take off.) FedEx also does not wait for a signature--knock, wait three seconds, bolt back to the truck.