A word on Newegg's Hard Drive Packaging:

[Vdubchaos]

Newegg in general does very good packaging. At times they do some questionable things though.

I never got a package that thought wasn't protecting the product good enough....but there has been times when I ordered a TINY product (LED light or memory) and it came in a HUGE box.

Reason I remember is because it needed an explanation to wife!

:biggrin:

 

[Rasterman]

This is actually consistent with the way of packaging that most people are complaining about. The drive can "settle" to the bottom through the peanuts, where presumably, someone could sharply whack the box with a hammer right where the drive has settled and cause it to be damaged.

LOL you're kidding right? Shippers whacking packages with hammers? I don't think they would be working there long...

 

[Damascus]

I got 2 drives from NewEgg last week. It was packaged pretty well. Drive was cased on plastic clam shell, then bubble wrapped and stuffed inside it's own cardboard box. Both were in a packing box with paper as a packing material.

I heard of the horror stories so I was nervous when I ordered the first one but this is how my HDD came packaged last October.

 

[tcsenter]

LOL you're kidding right? Shippers whacking packages with hammers? I don't think they would be working there long...

Well there aren't too many other ways that a hard drive wrapped adequately in large-bubble wrap then placed "loosely" into a box of styrene peanuts, air bags, or other packing material could become damaged. I suppose falling out of the back of the truck onto the highway is another.

 

[Cstefan]

I've had more than 1 $20k+ HP server get plowed right through with a UPS forklift. And you can surely bet they tried to deny the insurance claim as bad packing

 

[StarTech]

I got 2 drives from NewEgg last week. It was packaged pretty well. Drive was cased on plastic clam shell, then bubble wrapped and stuffed inside it's own cardboard box. Both were in a packing box with paper as a packing material.

The same here, I received one packed that way. I have received a few drives in the last months and they were packed in an acceptable way. Nothing that can be compared with the bare packaging they did for a while.

 

[taltamir]

Well there aren't too many other ways that a hard drive wrapped adequately in large-bubble wrap then placed "loosely" into a box of styrene peanuts, air bags, or other packing material could become damaged. I suppose falling out of the back of the truck onto the highway is another.

I used to do customer support and we shipped a lot of parts, durable plastic parts that made up self assemble greenhouses.

Anyways, its amazing how and what would break, things that you would think indestructible... the funniest part is that they are surprisingly honest. "we dropped a forklift package weighing over a ton on a few packages which included yours and they were utterly destroyed" just leaves you saying wow. You THINK you packaged it for any eventuality but what can it do against such weight and force smashing down on it?

 

[Sunfox]

Distributors/wholesalers aren't much better.

I ordered 5 Barracuda XT's from one of the big guys in Canada. They came in a giant box. Inside the giant box were 5 smaller boxes that fit that larger box exactly. So far so good.

The problem: inside each of the 5 smaller boxes were the drives, each wrapped in 1-2 layers of bubble wrap taped tightly. The problem is the wrapped drives were maybe 1/6th the size of the small boxes, and there was NOTHING to prevent the drives from sliding around inside those boxes and bashing themselves up. The bubble wrap was thin enough that there was essentially zero protection on the edges/corners of the drives (most of the edge bubbles had popped).

Thankfully all five drives survived this, but I used to expect more from distributors. I remember the days when drives came in boxes roughly the size of the small ones I received, but inside they were solid foam with a cutout for the drive. Great protection.

 

[capeconsultant]

If I even see ONE peanut in a hard drive package, well, it gets RMA'd without even opening it. There is a right way to pack a HD.

And peanuts are not it. Ever.

And that takes the gas bill for the delivery truck up, way up, and causes a pain in the ass for everyone. They should just pack it properly.

This is 2011 folks. Let's get with the program.

 

[corkyg]

After the infor on ZZF, I ordered a pair of EZ-Swap4 drive racks from Newegg. The box arrived today - and it had a significant UPS crush.

Inside were the 2 EZ-Swap boxes swaddled in peanuts:

The contents had no crushes - looked OK.

I would have preferred bubble wrap to peanuts. They are not environmentally friendly. These new Vantecs allow direct plugging of SATA drives without a tray or caddy. So far looks cool. For my forthcoming build.