D&D 5E Amazon, Minor Fail

[KarinsDad]

I ordered 5 PHBs for my players from Amazon.

They arrived as advertised today.

4 of them arrived undamaged. 1 had some minor corner damage because Amazon did not put any packing material into the box (they put one piece of deflated plastic at the top which didn't help, the sides had nothing). I could fell the books sliding around when I picked up the box.

I suspect that Amazon was rushing to get the PHB out by the 19th and had a lot of orders to fill.

Typically, Amazon has good packaging, but not this time.

 

[variant]

How are the pages in your PHBs? Are they wavy as if they were soaked by the ink or are they completely flat?

 

[KarinsDad]

How are the pages in your PHBs? Are they wavy as if they were soaked by the ink or are they completely flat?

Wavy. Saw that. Didn't think much of it because I did not open the books. It's a bit more noticeable once you open the book.

Two of the books had very slight corner indentation as if the box had been dropped on its side. One had a corner indentation and a corner tear.

 

[Warunsun]

I don't think the problem was necessarily from Amazon. On WPN release day I went to the local WPN hobby store and they claimed they only ordered and received two copies of the new Player's Handbook and that the owners were keeping them. I was shocked as I personally heard several folks asking for them. So a week later I went back and they had more copies in and I went to purchase one. The first one the kid behind the counter handed me had a huge dent in the bottom of the book. I mean a huge dent. So I asked him if he had any that wasn't damaged. He went through 4 copies out of the box from the distributor before he found a good one. Once I got home I noticed that the cover had some strange substance on it that looked like someone spilled their instant breakfast cereal on it. I was able to wipe it off with a damp cloth but overall these books hadn't been stored well--probably not UPS's or the store's fault--and probably not Amazon either.

I also ordered a copy from Amazon because usually one copy of the PH isn't enough. Players are always wanting to borrow one at the table. Both copies including the one from the WPN store and from Amazon have the wavy looking paper. My copy of Hoard of the Dragon Queen has a very slight wave to it but much better than either copy of the PH. I noticed that Hoard used a different kind of paper--seems not as glossy to me.

I don't think you can blame Amazon but they will, no questions asked, replace your Player's Handbook with damage. It takes only a few clicks on their website and it will be on its way to you. After you get the new one you just have to mail the damaged one back with the prepaid sticker at the post office. They are very good about it.

 

[KarinsDad]

I wasn't annoyed at the superficial damage (or the wavy pages).


I was annoyed at the lack of packaging. That was uncalled for and was Amazon's fault.

 

[Mercurius]

Amazon is great about returns and exchanges. Just have them send you a new one, see which one is in better shape, then ship back the lesser copy.

My copy, which arrive yesterday, was in pretty good shape except for a slightly corner bump. I'm probably going to ask them to ship me a new copy and hopefully get a perfect one. If not, well, that's how it goes. I've never had a PHB that wasn't rather scuffed within a few months of owning it.

 

[KarinsDad]

Amazon is great about returns and exchanges. Just have them send you a new one, see which one is in better shape, then ship back the lesser copy.

My copy, which arrive yesterday, was in pretty good shape except for a slightly corner bump. I'm probably going to ask them to ship me a new copy and hopefully get a perfect one. If not, well, that's how it goes. I've never had a PHB that wasn't rather scuffed within a few months of owning it.

Precisely. Future real damage, and the fact that we are gaming Saturday, is the reason I did not bother for a replacement. I did talk to customer service to let them know that I was unhappy with the packaging, but I need the PHBs for this weekend since I am surprising the other players with them at our first gaming session.

And our PHBs will get so banged up anyway. My 1E PHB was significantly repaired along the binding. Twice.

I suspect that Amazon got so many orders for the PHB that they were rushing and cutting corners a bit to get them to people on the 19th (which was a guarantee of theirs).

 

[JeffB]

You can leave packaging feedback I had an issue recently and CS took care of the issue and directed me to leave packaging feedback for that department.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

My PHB's shipped from Amazon yesterday. I'll be interested to see what sort of condition they're in once they reach Australia. I don't think wavy pages will bother me too much as the PHB tends to see quite a bit of wear and tear from usage anyway. Worse comes to worse, I'll buy another copy in a few years from now (hopefully with updated errata).

 

[Zaukrie]

At least yours arrived.....mine are delayed due to outside circumstances.....