HP Shatters Excessive Packaging World Record 359
An anonymous reader writes "HP customers will be familiar with their bizarre packaging practices (5 pounds of packaging for 8 license keys!); lets just say this story is not an isolated incident ... " I've seen some excessive packaging, but perhaps nothing to top this.
Crazy (Score:5, Funny)
I've seen something crazy, but not that crazy. That's just ... crazy.
Good god (Score:4, Funny)
Remind me to never request a printed manual from HP. Every page would be in a different box.
Now that is _truly_ dirty paging. Yikes!
That's nothing... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Crazy (Score:5, Funny)
Could it have something to do with the wording of the "shrink wrap license"? Like "by opening this box you agree..."?
That would be really depressing.
Entry in Roget's Thesaurus: (Score:5, Funny)
Send em back (Score:3, Funny)
Tell them you already got your license entitlements via BitTorrent.
email? (Score:4, Funny)
Weird, I use email to ship keys. Its faster and *much* cheaper.
Re:HP network printer / scanner (Score:3, Funny)
Did they give him a read T-shirt as a freebie?
That's What She Said (Score:5, Funny)
My...that's a big package.
More like "by entering"... (Score:5, Funny)
By venturing more than 3 feet into the depths of this 'box' you agree that any encounters that may result between the entrant and any:
I - trolls
II - goblins or
III - beings of origins
a - Extraterrestrial
b - Indeterminate
c - Unknown
are the sole responsibility of the recipient.
Furthermore, you agree that any objects discovered therein, including but not limited to:
I - treasure,
II - artifact,
III - relics of historical significance, or
IV - the shipped product
are to remain the property of HP, inc. in perpetuity and are to be returned with 28 calendar days, with attachment of a check for the full value of any life insurance policies, savings, properties or outstanding paychecks of any of the intended package recipients who may have perished within.
Re:News for nerds, stuff that matters (Score:1, Funny)
Oh, just smile for once, damnit. Is that so much to ask?
Re:Personally experienced _much_ worse (Score:4, Funny)
lol... paying for a C++ compiler. You're funny, I like you.
Re:This dates back to DEC (Score:1, Funny)
When I bought stuff from DEC in the 80s, each software licence weighed a couple of kilos. They were a single sheet of paper, inside a cover that looked like it should be wrapped around the lifetime's work of some middle ages monk. If I bought, say, VMS, Fortran and C for a machine, I got three of these monsters. I figured they were trying to compensate in some twisted way for charging $20k a copy for a compiler.
Re:Personally experienced _much_ worse (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Office Depot is pretty close (Score:2, Funny)
I expect most receipt collector parties would be...
Non Geek Packaging Record (Score:5, Funny)
This is the craziest I've ever seen personally.
A box arrived in the mail. It was maybe 10 x 6 x 4 or so. Inside that was a manila envelope. Inside that was a small box, slightly larger than a jewlers ring box. Inside that was a clear plastic pill bottle. Inside that was a small ziploc baggie.
Inside that was ONE styrafoam bead, like from a beanbag chair. it was the replacement foam bead for an anemometer.
Not to mention... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Crazy (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Crazy (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Just like their apps (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Crazy (Score:2, Funny)
By opening this box... by opening this box... by opening this box... by opening this AAAAARGH
Re:Nothing new here (Score:2, Funny)
If only there was some sort of shipping company who dealt only in paper documents. They could end waste like this overnight! (or priority, or first class, or media mail)
Re:MSDN (Score:2, Funny)
I used to go to surplus stores a lot to get electronic parts and such. One store in particular had a lot of material from 'failed projects' at a big multinational. It wasn't hard to see in some instances why the project had failed. Things like big totes full of resistors individually packaced in anti-static bags were a sign of the kind of technical prowess of the management of the operation.
I hope I get the same thing (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Crazy (Score:5, Funny)
One could just imagine that each would come from HP inside its own 40' shipping container filled with those "environmentally friendly" peanuts that turn into snot when they get wet... LOL
Re:Personally experienced _much_ worse (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Nothing new here (Score:5, Funny)
His point is like a package from HP... Lot's of useless packaging but somewhere in there lies a small kernel of relevance.
Your task is to unpack and find it.
Oracle did something this too (Score:3, Funny)
I am a Oracle Magazine subscriber (free magazine, totally useless but great when I need quality paper for packaging). Once they sent a "special edition" magazine with a promotional CD included; it was sent in a standard A4 envelope. Well, the Oracle guys decided it was a really important CD and sent me another copy, just to make sure. It was in a paper CD envelope, like Ubuntu's free CDs, but the paper was much thinner. The paper envelope was put in bubble wrap, and the bubble wrap was put in a cardboard box the size of a 500-page A4 paper pack. The cardboard box was sent as a DHL package, the delivery was priced something like $20-$30 (paid by Oracle). And the best part? The DHL-shipped version arrived a month later than the copy I received with the magazine (and probably was free for Oracle to ship since they already paid for shipping the magazine).
Re:MSDN (Score:5, Funny)
I've had a box the same size for a charger adapter. Perhaps it is the only size of box they have?
Re:Crazy (Score:5, Funny)
You can scatter those things outside; they're just starch. Something will eat them. Maybe birds? If I don't have too many to deal with I just flush them.
Don't do any of that if they're styrofoam. Those have to be thrown out or reused. Although if you have even a little acetone you can have fun with the styrofoam ones. They vanish right into it, way better than the starch ones do in water. One prank people used to pull in the labs where I went to college (I only heard about this) was to hand the new guy a styrofoam cup and tell him to go downstairs and get some acetone.
Re:HP network printer / scanner (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, but he's still trying to find it in the 40-foot tall pyramid of 18" boxes lashed together with packing tape.
Re:Crazy (Score:2, Funny)
Like "by opening this box you agree..."?
Every layer is just checkin to make sure you agree.
Re:More like "by entering"... (Score:5, Funny)
You enter the box. It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Re:Crazy (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Crazy (Score:3, Funny)
LOL
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
I can top that (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I hope I get the same thing (Score:3, Funny)
It's the other way around. You'll receive a shipping box so you can mail yourself to your new location.
Given what I've read so far, however, you can expect to travel in luxury aboard a whole shipping container.
Re:How does excessive packaging happen? (Score:2, Funny)
In that case, I'm joining the Secret Service.
Re:Crazy (Score:1, Funny)
I work for HP. What are these "envelopes" of which you speak?
Re:Crazy (Score:5, Funny)