AMAZON has been accused of using two huge boxes and a mass of packing paper to deliver – a pair of litter pickers.
Customer Zena Aris-Sutton, says she ordered the pickers, worth £35.60 each, to do her bit for the environment in her home town of New Mills, Derbyshire.
So she was furious when the slender devices arrived in their own boxes, each big enough to contain her 11-year-old son.
Heaping irony upon irony, Zena says there was insufficient room in her recycling bin for all the cardboard and paper.
Zena told Amazon on social media: “Well thought we would be good by helping in community and order some litter picks from Amazon.
“What I came home to was beyond ridiculous, not only had they sent them in individual boxes, but the boxes were so big that my 11-year-old son could fit in them.”
She added: “What a waste of packaging, a waste of space in the van. No neighbours would take them as they are so big and now we have to make a special trip to recycle as too big for our fortnightly collected bin.
“Amazon any explanation for this, besides the standard reply of you’ll pass on my feedback?”
Zena uploaded a minute long clip of her husband David opening a cardboard box, to reveal it filled with packing paper.
David proceeds to pull out reams and reams of the packing paper – to reveal a litter picker lying across the bottom of the box.
Zena can be heard making a sarcastic “Woo” before David throws the litter picker back into the box.
The mum then turns around and reveals a second box, filled with the same amount of packing paper, and with another litter picker sitting on top.
As the clip ends Zena can be heard saying jokingly: “Here’s one we did earlier. Strangely not in the same box.”
Zena also added a photograph of the two pickers sitting at the top of one box filled with packaging – and the other box beside it.
She also posted a photograph of her 11-year-old son sitting in one of the boxes smiling – and he barely takes up half the space.
And a final photograph shows one of the litter pickers in a box which has been emptied of the packing paper.
On social media, Jodie Pownall said: “How ridiculous.”
Linda Potts added: “Bad marks for Amazon.”
Jacky Fogarty commented: “It’s crazy.”
Pat Bridgehouse wrote: “At least it’s paper. Ridiculous.”
Katie Hannan Crutchley added: “Ridiculous, they do it all the time.”
In July this year, an Amazon customer blasted the firm’s “ridiculous” packaging after they put a single net curtain rod in a box almost the same size as his dining table.
Mark Waddington was in disbelief when the item arrived in a box which he believed could have fitted up to 50 of the rods inside.
Speaking today Zena, 43, said: “I wasn’t in when they were delivered, but as I was walking up the drive I saw my husband standing with one of the giant boxes, and I just thought ‘surely that can’t be the litter pickers?’
“But it was, and when I got in there were two boxes, and they took up around half of my living room.
“The litter pickers were 88cm long, my husband did measure the box and he worked out you could fit around 20 of the litter pickers in the one box. It would have to be diagonally, but I still find that ridiculous.
“I’m very environmentally conscious, I try and use as little waste as I can and recycle. So I just couldn’t believe it when they sent out the litter pickers in those boxes.
“When we pointed it out to them on social media we just got a generic response from them about noting our feedback, but they didn’t explain why it happened in the first place. ”
Luckily Zena, a project manager, has found a friend to take care of the boxers for her – as they wouldn’t fit in her recycling bin.
She added: “My friend is a child minder and said the kids would love them to play in, I’m not sure what they’ll use them for but at least they are getting used.
“But, we’re still stuck with all the paper and it’s a massive amount. I just don’t understand why they would do that.”
A spokeswoman 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.”
