Screwed by Dell

[Trotter]

I used to work in a hydraulics distribution warehouse. Trust me, they could have these things packaged in multi-units with no problem... if they wanted to do so. We had some super tiny compression fittings that were machine bagged in units of 100 and the bag was only about 3" x 1.5".

 

[CntdwnToExtn]

Ya, but the customer probably requested them in bags of 100 right? Or it didn't matter how they received them because they were doing something with them?

I dunno, IMO from a logistics standpoint it seems to be the quickest/easiest/cost effective way to do it, especially if 99% of orders are for 1 or 2 screws (which I'm assuming it is). Ya the baggy could be a bit smaller, but hey now you have an extra baggy to throw more extra screws in that magically appear after putting something back together...or is that just what happens to me XD.
Throw the packaging bag into recycling.

Heck, I would have taken one to a hardware store and compared the thread and picked up a handful for a fraction of the price and time. That's just me though.

 

[Spit-wad]

Posted by someone on Reddit:

I have worked in a warehouse that ships consumer electronics. I can tell you that first, "Dell" didn't ship you anything. It was likely Ingram Micro or Synnex, who fill orders for Dell. Second, these orders drop as a pick list and a worker who is paid very little has to fill the order. In your case that meant getting 65 screws which are individually wrapped incase someone just wants one. These workers are tracked by how much they pick per hour and they are not going to stop and open all the packages to send it to you in bulk. I have seen way worse packing jobs than these. This one at least makes sense.
Edit: Woah, never had a comment blow up like this! Went for the orangered and was happily surprised!
To address a few things:
1) I am not saying this system is perfect, some of the ideas of multi-packs you guys have are pretty cool. But some people just want one screw so they package them that way. Funny thing is, Dell sells multipacks. So I assume this guy went to the single screw page, clicked quantity 65 and then complains when they fill his exact request. From the picklist you can clearly see that each screw is treated as its own part in the system.
2) The person who picked it gets rated by the lines per hour, where i worked this would have been a time sink of 65 items counting as 1 line. I feel bad for the guy that had to pick it. Also, as Wears_fedora says below, the risk of multipacks is that a worker will see quantity of 65 and pick 65 ten packs instead of a 5 10s and 3 5s. So now you have 650 screws sitting on your doorstep. I saw this happen constantly.
3) Shipping consumer tech products is not easy. These facilities can process 5000 orders (maybe more at bigger ones) a day. Your order is special to you but blaming Dell for the way some low paid worker tries to get their job down as quickly as possible is kind of ignorant. I hate waste and inefficiency too (so do the companies, trust me if we used too big a box they didn't like it), but there is a tradeoff between speed and quality. You are ordering screws, not a Rolex.

 

[Harper]

LOL! I am out sourced to Dell at my work and this does not surprise me.

 

[fairfieldfalconsfan]

Look at it this way. Now you have 65 padded envelopes and 65 baggies to use in the future!

EDIT: Sorry, I commented on the end of the first page and didn't see that CntdwnToExtn had already said what I said on the 2nd page.