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Previous: iPod serial number | Main | Next: ATM language choice
June 21, 2005 12:03 AM
Broken: Amazon box label
Still celebrating our two-year anniversary, here's another post from Seth Godin. He writes: "This is the box that Amazon ships the ipod mini in. What am I supposed to do now?"
Put it in your cellar for, say, 20 years, maybe forget what's inside, then sell it as a collector's item...
I'm sorry if i can't come up with anything witty, but that's not a note to you. I would suspect it's for the retailer, telling them that the box was one unit and not to be opened. Could have been made a LOT clearer.
Maybe it should have said, "To be opened only by customer" and it is telling you the box contains one item. Now, I have ordered at least ten things from Amazon and I have never, ever seen a label like that on my boxes.
I'm pretty confused. I've ordered lots of stuff from Amazon and never seen this sticker. In fact, that doesn't even look like a standard Amazon box to me.
In fact, I think Seth ordered this from one of Amazon's partner stores (zShops, or whatever they are called these days). If so, it's almost impossible for Amazon to control their packaging and labeling (although they could potentially ship them empty, pre-labeled, pre-paid boxes).
So, still pretty darned confusing, but not necessarily Amazon that is broken. Can the poster confirm or refute this theory?
This is not your standard fare Amazon Box.
I agree that it is the bottom of the box.
I would open it from the opposite side.
modern fasion notwithstanding, Matt, it looks like the label was designed by an engeneer, who probably doesn't speak english as a first language. The (Taiwanese) firm I work for employs lots of Chinese and Taiwanese workers. When their missives come to my desk they are rich in goofy and/or nigh incomprehensible gems like this. Apparantly they make perfect sense in the native language.
Rana,
All your base is belong to us
(on origami instructions, model name) Ship really float
(Garfield line "I hate mornings", translated) It is quite early, and I wish it weren't so
I could come up with lots of examples of warped translation.
Rana,
All your base is belong to us
(on origami instructions, model name) Ship really float
(Garfield line "I hate mornings", translated) It is quite early, and I wish it weren't so
I could come up with lots of examples of warped translation.
the reason im supposing its not an amazon box is becasue it was probably shipped in an amazon box, some manufactors put items in a brown box and then the retailor puts that box in one of their own boxes. The lable is most liekely instructions to wharehouse workers to not open that box(as they normally would)
That's not the bottom of the box, it is indeed the top. The two flaps open door style from the center. The opposite side from this picture is solid cardboard.
More likely than some of the conjecture here is that they are trying to avoid the 'parting out' of the boxes, so that each purchaser gets his iPod AND manual AND software AND whatever else comes in the box, and some overly-entrepreneurial reseller doesn't sell the iPod by itself and offer for additional cost a "bonus pack" of all the stuff that is supposed to come with it included.
Nickd:
Using my basic understanding of Spanish and a spanish daily calendar, I already have come across many odd translations:
To have fun = to have fun with yourself
You can't please everyone = No one is a little gold coin that everyone likes
Like father like son = From such a stick, such a splinter
And lots of other often funny literal translations...
I think Seth is just extremely proud of his iPod (did anyone else find it odd he told us what was in it?). =P
"You can't please everyone = No one is a little gold coin that everyone likes
Like father like son = From such a stick, such a splinter"
I don't think these are literal translations, I think they are carefully thought out metaphors.
That second one is WAY more poetic than our dull version of the saying.
As others have noted, this is a label for warehouse/stockroom employees, telling them that the box contains one salable unit, is sold directly to the customer, and should not be opened by them. This is as opposed to products that come shipped in boxes that contain multiple units, and need to be opened.
That type of label is pretty common, though it usually doesn't get to the customer much.
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Previous: iPod serial number | Main | Next: ATM language choice
how zen...
Posted by: MattZ at June 21, 2005 01:11 AM