AN Amazon customer has blasted the firm’s “absolutely ridiculous” packaging after they put a single net curtain rod in a box almost the size of his dining table.
Mark Waddington ordered the 70cm by 1cm rod from the firm, paying £10.49.
To his disbelief, the item arrived in a box that he estimates would have contained up to 50 of the rods.
The 29-year-old from Skipton, North Yorkshire, posted an image to the firm’s Facebook page, writing: “I genuinely cannot believe how wasteful your packaging is here. Absolutely ridiculous.”
He added: “Highlighting? It happens all the time. The packaging is always either ridiculously too much, or not enough. I ordered a can of spray paint and the can was hanging out of the bottom of the packaging.
“Seriously, sort it out. I’ve never known anything to be so wasteful.”
The professional magician, who bought the item on Amazon from Ians Emporium, said today: “When the box turned up I couldn’t work out what I’d ordered that would need such a big box.
“I opened the packaging and saw it was the pole and I couldn’t help but laugh. I know the packaging is all recyclable but it just felt so wasteful.
“It pretty much fills the dining table for an item that measures 70cm x 1cm. You could have easily fit 40 to 50 in the box.”
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On social media, Stef Dawson, wrote: “I had this with a tie for my other half. Came in a massive cardboard box and loads of paper packaging. Ridiculous.”
Steph Richmond wrote: “Omg. What the hell.”
Amazon apologised to the customer on Facebook: “Thank you for highlighting this to us. I’ve forwarded your feedback along to our packaging team for their review. Please let us know if there is anything else we can help with in the future.
“I’m sorry for the frustration and inconvenience Mark.”
Amazon has regularly been criticised for unnecessary use of packaging for small items.
Neil Brierley, 52, a self-employed Engineer from Warrington, Cheshire, was dismayed to find more than 25 feet of wrapping paper in the box containing a replacement lance for his weed killer spray.
A spokeswomen for Amazon, said: “We are always driving improvements in the sustainability of packaging across Amazon’s supply chain, starting with our own packaging and our own operations.
“Customer feedback informs our worldwide packaging team and allows us and our vendors to make improvements.
“We pursue multi-year waste reduction initiatives – e-commerce ready packaging and Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging – to promote easy-to-open, 100% recyclable packaging and to ship products in their own packages without additional shipping boxes.”
