I thought it might be fun to have a place to share pictures of the terrible ways we receive our sets (sarcastic thread title), whether it's pancaked sets, oversized boxes, etc.

 

I'll start with my SSDs that arrived a couple days ago:

 

 

Enormous box:

 

 

 

Three sets inside, with no packaging material. Third set is underneath the top two, and was crushed with all 4 seals popped:

 

 

 

This box came to me today. What could be inside? A couple Death Stars? 60 Minecraft sets?

 

 

 

Nope, just one HH and about a kilometer of air pouches:

 

At least they actually padded this one, and I'll have enough pouches to last a while lol. But of course the set just had to have a hole on the back side...more returning to do.

 

 

Curious to see others' photos

51 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

I finally called and complained to Lego about their distribution center and shipping practices in Romeoville, Illinois.  I'm tired of getting shipments overstuffed with air pillows and then the boxes are forced shut, smashing the contents inside.

Apparently their shipping department works nights at the Amazon FBA receiving dept. in Illinois as well.

I've been meaning to call them...did they offer a response of some kind?

I've been meaning to call them...did they offer a response of some kind?

They said they’d contact them.

I received my BB-8 Droid from Amazon today. Shipped in original box, with hole smashed through it.

1 minute ago, iahawks550 said:

I received my BB-8 Droid from Amazon today. Shipped in original box, with hole smashed through it.

Wonderful!  You are not getting my hopes up...

Really disheartening.  I kind of figured it would have been in with my Lego sets and crushed them. Maybe yours will be better.

Target needs to figure out how to pack more then 2-4 sets in a box.... I have gotten over 130 packages each day for the past two days (similar tomorrow) and so far it's boiled down to 15 extra large home depot boxes... FML

Got my order from ebay TRU

Not only is there no cushioning at all in this huuuge box, they give me a blinking spider web thing for free. 

anyone knows how to take it off... smh

42 minutes ago, Djf said:

Got my order from ebay TRU

Not only is there no cushioning at all in this huuuge box, they give me a blinking spider web thing for free. 

anyone knows how to take it off... smh

Can’t you just cut the cord with scissors??

1 hour ago, Djf said:

Got my order from ebay TRU

Not only is there no cushioning at all in this huuuge box, they give me a blinking spider web thing for free. 

anyone knows how to take it off... smh

Put some ear defenders on before cutting the cord and have a bowl of water to place the thing into until it dies. Some of these are connected to instore alarms and some have alarms themselves and are damned loud and will wake the whole street! A lot of these need a special magnetic key to undo so the only way is force.

Oh... also beware of those that can squirt ink all over the LEGO set and your clothing and furniture. If that happens, the insurance company won't help as you should've contacted the retailer first.

Sodding TRU, I might have known - idiots!

How do I know? From experience - don't ask!

 

Edited December 1, 20178 yr by TabbyBoy

I think LEGO shop at home in the US finally got the message to not pack everything so tight with air bags especially on the top. I have received 10 orders in the last week and every one of them was packed very well and nothing was damaged. This includes the scenario of a big set with a small set that usually left its impression on the big set or the big set smashed the small set on the side. I'm curious if others have noticed a positive change recently.

8 minutes ago, BaconBits said:

I think LEGO shop at home in the US finally got the message to not pack everything so tight with air bags especially on the top. I have received 10 orders in the last week and every one of them was packed very well and nothing was damaged. This includes the scenario of a big set with a small set that usually left its impression on the big set or the big set smashed the small set on the side. I'm curious if others have noticed a positive change recently.

I have too, it hasn't been as bad.

2 minutes ago, BaconBits said:

I think LEGO shop at home in the US finally got the message to not pack everything so tight with air bags especially on the top. I have received 10 orders in the last week and every one of them was packed very well and nothing was damaged. This includes the scenario of a big set with a small set that usually left its impression on the big set or the big set smashed the small set on the side. I'm curious if others have noticed a positive change recently.

Quite the opposite in my case ;-(

7 out of orders now returned as even my 2 Beetles had 5mm puncture holes on the top of the boxes - totally unacceptable!

I'll not be ordering from LEGO online again until they fix their warehouse handling and courier problems. A lot of hassle, but I settled on 7 24-in-1 sets, 2 free Snow Globes, 2 Free Nutcrackers and £25 of VIP points. Even the best companies buckle under pressure to satisfy high demand. A lack of attention just costs them more £ and more work in the end.

1 minute ago, TabbyBoy said:

Quite the opposite in my case ;-(

7 out of orders now returned as even my 2 Beetles had 5mm puncture holes on the top of the boxes - totally unacceptable!

I'll not be ordering from LEGO online again until they fix their warehouse handling and courier problems. A lot of hassle, but I settled on 7 24-in-1 sets, 2 free Snow Globes, 2 Free Nutcrackers and £25 of VIP points. Even the best companies buckle under pressure to satisfy high demand. A lack of attention just costs them more £ and more work in the end.

Sounds like you need to order from the US site for now.

I just received my Taj Mahal order from LEGO shop at home US and good to know that it was shipped in a LEGO factory box within another shipping box similar to what they did with the new Falcon.

15 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

Sounds like you need to order from the US site for now.

.... and how much would delivery, customs duty and VAT be?

9 minutes ago, TabbyBoy said:

.... and how much would delivery, customs duty and VAT be?

Ohhh, about $300 per transaction.  You can swing it.

UK (maybe US too?)

Staples have improved the quality of their boxes no end and added some very useful sizes that I've not noticed before. Their prices also include VAT by default and also offer free UK delivery. I recently ordered:

8x 25-packs of 300x200x100mm for sets like Doctor Who at £7.99 per 25 boxes.

8x 25-packs of 400x300x100mm for sets like Ecto-1 and CITY Bus Station at £15.00 per 25 boxes.

I ordered online for Quidco cashback (8% ex VAT) and also rang Staples as I'm a cheeky bugger to ask for a further discount. They're sending 1 pack of each size extra free!

The boxes arrived yesterday (within 24hrs) and are the best quality single-walled boxes I've ever used, cuts and folds are spot on. I'll no longer need double-walled for higher-value IDEAS sets. Lil Packaging have been slacking a bit recently ;-)

I always wrap each set in 2 layers of bubble-wrap and then pack out the box with the free "Metro" newpaper or use air-bags if I need to sneak it under the 2KG parcel limit, eg. Spaceports.

Hope it helps some fellow Brits ;-)

 

Cheers Tabby, very useful. So you're happy with single wall? I'm nearly out of my double walled (which have been a pain in the arse as I had to trim every single one).

17 hours ago, Scatterbug said:

Cheers Tabby, very useful. So you're happy with single wall? I'm nearly out of my double walled (which have been a pain in the arse as I had to trim every single one).

No problem...

From Staples? Yes, very happy!

The single wall up to 400x300x100 from Staples is perfect and keeps sets well under the 2KG threshold for Royal Mail 2SF. I'd like the same in 500x400x100, but they're hide to find so I use Morplan garment boxes for Spaceports & Volcanoes and wrap around a layer of flexible cardboard after 2 layers of bubble-wrap, the Spaceports then weigh 1990g (10g under!) packed/labelled and no complaints so far. I only have one pallet of modular/train-sized sets left and have just enough of the 600x500x120 double-walled boxes for those (from ACS). I'll need to order (or beg/borrow/steal) more boxes for the Friends Riding Club and the rest of my Pop Star Buses, but I've not found the ideal 500x300x100 box yet so I'll keep looking. My ex-employer is replacing all of their HP laptops soon and those boxes may well be perfect ;-)

I've found the rolls of flexible cardboard from Morplan very useful for extra protection when there's too much space in the box, but not enough for air-bags.

Edited December 3, 20178 yr by TabbyBoy

Snowglobes came in. I guess I should have expected this, Normally, I can go to a brick and mortar store and get an exchange but that seems out of the question. Almost afraid to see the full box but I think those are fine. Nutcracker is a just a little crushed so not that bad. 

Now i wish I did 2 orders of 4 snowglobes instead of just the 5.Then I could have gotten 2 sealed cases. 

4 hours ago, MrToes16 said:

Snowglobes came in. I guess I should have expected this, Normally, I can go to a brick and mortar store and get an exchange but that seems out of the question. Almost afraid to see the full box but I think those are fine. Nutcracker is a just a little crushed so not that bad. 

Now i wish I did 2 orders of 4 snowglobes instead of just the 5.Then I could have gotten 2 sealed cases. 

Looks like one to build to me!

Lego Friends Catamaran arrived from Amazon today in. Polybag. 

4 minutes ago, richiej1979 said:

Lego Friends Catamaran arrived from Amazon today in. Polybag. 

That's odd as I've never had a polybag yet from Amazon. Do you know if it was from Amazon direct or from one of their 3rd party resellers?

Remember you can contact Amazon and they often offer a voucher and even a refund and keep!

Edited December 5, 20178 yr by TabbyBoy

Looks like Amazon direct to me. The box isn't too bad considering but still not 100% happy with it. 

The Amazon website seems to only allow me to send it back. Any idea how I can raise this with them directly to maybe receive compensation?

On 12/1/2017 at 10:31 AM, TabbyBoy said:

Put some ear defenders on before cutting the cord and have a bowl of water to place the thing into until it dies. Some of these are connected to instore alarms and some have alarms themselves and are damned loud and will wake the whole street! A lot of these need a special magnetic key to undo so the only way is force.

Oh... also beware of those that can squirt ink all over the LEGO set and your clothing and furniture. If that happens, the insurance company won't help as you should've contacted the retailer first.

Sodding TRU, I might have known - idiots!

How do I know? From experience - don't ask!

 

See my post from last year when I got three spider-wrapped sets in an online order.

It's been a few days, so not sure if this advice is useful anymore, but maybe to future brickpickers who face this issue (unless TRU closes shop beforehand).

The white spiders aren't coming off easily. I took some rare-earth magnets to the two black spiders I received and was able to pop them, but never had any luck with the white spider.  I ended up carefully cutting it off with wire cutters -- ya, don't cut the wire itself as it is part of the circuit.  The plastic on the back is fairly soft.  The wires don't cross each other -- they go in and turn 90 degrees opposite each other -- so you can cut across the diagonal without cutting a wire if you cut the correct diagonal.

Some of the spiders will also set themselves off if you walk through the detector gates at the store.  So, you have the store alarm and the spider going off.  At least that's what I read.  So, after demolishing the white spider and tossing it in the trash, I took the other two to my local TRU.  Told their customer service folks what happened and offered to let them have them back, but they would have to come out to the parking lot and take them in themselves -- and deal with any alarms they might set off.

Their loss-prevention gal happened to be the one at the counter so she was happy to help.  She even seemed a little thrilled to get the spiders.  They were more modern than the white ones they used in their store, claiming "we don't even have these yet!".

They were also a bit surprised that the store that shipped them even got them out of the store.  I guess many of the stores have the detectors on all exterior doors -- not just the customer front doors as to prevent employees from walking some sets out.  Although how stupid would an employee have to be when they could just easily borrow a removal tool and take it off themselves.  Oh right!  REALLY STUPID!!!