Packaging, Shipping, Refunds and Replacements - Share your Experiences!

[xanar]

I agree, but I don't see these omnibuses for a long time available, today appear Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters Saga Omnibus Vol. 1.

[bkart1978]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but do all Absolute editions regularly come in a fitted outer box with room at the top and bottom to protect the corners from dings? I recently purchased (or repurchased actually) all of the Absolute Sandman editions from Amazon and they universally arrived in pristine condition, with the shrink-wrapped slipcase placed inside a perfectly fitted white box with slightly longer dimensions than the book to accommodate safe shipping (and then that was placed and mailed inside the standard Amazon box). I'm curious if I'll get the same thing if I order from CheapGraphicNovels? I still need to buy Absolute Death but I'm replacing an old copy that arrived dinged up in the mail 10 years ago, so it is very important to me that the quality is top notch. I'd rather not order from Amazon, but their damage return/replace policy is SO hard to resist and I'm scared to risk a less-than-stellar but not return-worthy copy from CGN.

[Dr Hank]

My copy of Absolute Watchmen came in its own box also. That's the only one I have but my guess would be that they all do.

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but do all Absolute editions regularly come in a fitted outer box with room at the top and bottom to protect the corners from dings? I recently purchased (or repurchased actually) all of the Absolute Sandman editions from Amazon and they universally arrived in pristine condition, with the shrink-wrapped slipcase placed inside a perfectly fitted white box with slightly longer dimensions than the book to accommodate safe shipping (and then that was placed and mailed inside the standard Amazon box). I'm curious if I'll get the same thing if I order from CheapGraphicNovels? I still need to buy Absolute Death but I'm replacing an old copy that arrived dinged up in the mail 10 years ago, so it is very important to me that the quality is top notch. I'd rather not order from Amazon, but their damage return/replace policy is SO hard to resist and I'm scared to risk a less-than-stellar but not return-worthy copy from CGN.

Yes, they should do. The only time one of mine didn't have it was from a local online comic retailer Multiversum.

[ShooCat]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but do all Absolute editions regularly come in a fitted outer box with room at the top and bottom to protect the corners from dings?

Yep, all my Absolutes came like that, and I have quite a few.

[Andru]

I ordered Absolute Swamp Thing Volume 2 from Amazon about a month ago, confident it would come in the standard white fitted box...it did not.

Thankfully there was no damage done to the book!

[bkart1978]

Thanks all for the feedback; sounds like I can probably expect CGN to have the extra protection which makes me feel better (as does their price). I'm actually trying to remember now if my Sandman volumes had the boxes when I ordered back in 2008 or whenever they first came out? I'm guessing not since 3 of the slipcases came cracked and had to be tossed, and Vol. 4 came with one corner smashed so much that the pages are bent halfway through the very thick book (hence the reorder project now). All my new replacements have come in perfect condition with just Death left to go.

The only white-box exception I had so far was Sandman Overture which came in a thinner-stock brown cardboard, but book was still plenty safe. But I bought everything through Amazon so just wasn't sure if the boxes were something that other retailers tended to discard rather than include when they ship. My LCS typically just has the Absolutes out on the shelf without the box (obviously for customer browsing purposes).

[JPAR]

I placed an order with booksetc in december. It got shipped on the 12th of january and since the 13th it's at a postal hub. Nothing is happening with it. I can see this because I asked for a track and trace (which they only provide b3cause I asked, why not standard?). I'm not optimistic about the order to arrive. And my costs for Tax etc will be high, because of the late shipment. For now it's the last time I ordered in the UK. The costs are to high after the Brexit.

My order, that was shipped on the 12th, still hasn't moved. It had an update on the 23rd stating the same as the one on the 13th. So nothing has changed. I contacted Booksetc. They say it's due to Covid and I have to wait. I don't believe it's due to Covid. I think it's due to Brexit and I won't get my order. I've ordered from them in the Covid period and it didn't take that long (couple of days) to get here. I hope I'll get my money back
I also contacted GLS, they should deliver it to me, and they can't find the order in their systems.

[JPAR]

My order, that was shipped on the 12th, still hasn't moved. It had an update on the 23rd stating the same as the one on the 13th. So nothing has changed. I contacted Booksetc. They say it's due to Covid and I have to wait. I don't believe it's due to Covid. I think it's due to Brexit and I won't get my order. I've ordered from them in the Covid period and it didn't take that long (couple of days) to get here. I hope I'll get my money back
I also contacted GLS, they should deliver it to me, and they can't find the order in their systems.

Yesterday the last package arrived. They shipped it in two. The first came with fees etc, the second (same value for customs) without.

[kodave]

I recently had an interesting experience with Amazon. They had a B2G1 Free deal so I rolled the dice on some HCs/Omnis for some decent prices. For the most part, nearly all of them came with some slight corner bumping but nothing worth instigating a return over, they are just not IST-pristine condition.

One book came sealed in a bubble wrap sleeve that was deliberately placed on it for storage in Amazon's warehouse because it had an item sticker on the bubble wrap. The book was still normally shrink wrapped inside the bubble wrap sleeve.

I can't prove it either way, but it feels like this may have been a copy sent to Amazon's warehouse by a 3rd party seller for that 3rd party's listing, but then it was scooped up by Amazon to be sent to me because it was closer/easier/cheaper/more efficient to ship that one to me with other items in my order than to send me one from Amazon's own stock from another warehouse. If it wasn't this, then Dark Horse or Amazon's wholesale distributor (Penguin Random House?) decided to bubble wrap at least this book (but not another one in the series).

For what it's worth, it helped and there was no shipping damage. The dust jacket wasn't put on perfectly so there's a little wear on that under the plastic, but that's the printer/bindery's fault.

[Hypno]

My Amazon story, they recently had a buy 2 get 1 deal so I got Super Sons extended, Johns Aquaman, and Byrne Doom Patrol as well as Morrison Batman 1 Omni that they had a $16 off deal on. All came in the same box with no padding and moved around so much they broke out one end of the box. For the most part they weren’t in terrible shape but the dust jacket of Supersons was torn an inch down the spine. On Morrison Batman the pages were coming unglued and ripping the end pages. So I bought a replacement and it came the same way so I had to return both.

[kodave]

My Amazon story, they recently had a buy 2 get 1 deal so I got Super Sons extended, Johns Aquaman, and Byrne Doom Patrol as well as Morrison Batman 1 Omni that they had a $16 off deal on. All came in the same box with no padding and moved around so much they broke out one end of the box. For the most part they weren’t in terrible shape but the dust jacket of Supersons was torn an inch down the spine. On Morrison Batman the pages were coming unglued and ripping the end pages. So I bought a replacement and it came the same way so I had to return both.

Sounds like you should have gotten replacements for at least Supersons and Morrison Batman. Sometimes if you select multiple books for return at the same time, they direct you for a return and refund. If go through the process for one at a time, you can usually get a replacement copy which they will do 1-day shipping on. Then when the replacement arrives, you can at least evaluate which copy is in better shape and keep that one, or try again for yet another replacement.

[canadianaidan64]

I ordered Absolute Swamp Thing Volume 2 from Amazon about a month ago, confident it would come in the standard white fitted box...it did not.

Thankfully there was no damage done to the book!

Same, Absolute Swamp Thing Vol. 2, just ordered from amazon.ca and it arrived without shrink wrap, without the white box. It was inside a vaccum sealed plastic bag. No damage so I'm not sending it back, but still, weird.

[Hypno]

Sounds like you should have gotten replacements for at least Supersons and Morrison Batman. Sometimes if you select multiple books for return at the same time, they direct you for a return and refund. If go through the process for one at a time, you can usually get a replacement copy which they will do 1-day shipping on. Then when the replacement arrives, you can at least evaluate which copy is in better shape and keep that one, or try again for yet another replacement.

I intended to do that with Morrison Batman but when the replacement copy arrived the exact same way (looked to be a binding issue on printer’s part) I gave up pretty sure that any other that Amazon sent would be from the same bad batch.

[kodave]

I intended to do that with Morrison Batman but when the replacement copy arrived the exact same way (looked to be a binding issue on printer’s part) I gave up pretty sure that any other that Amazon sent would be from the same bad batch.

Yeah if the book is coming undone for non-shipping-damage reasons, it definitely sounds like it could be a bad batch.