ps4

Out of the 2,310 customers who have left reviews on the Amazon Playstation 4 product page, more than 25 percent of them issued a measly 1-star rating.

A majority of those 1-star reviews are people experiencing consoles that stopped working after a few hours or were flat out dead on arrival (DOA).

Sony addressed the problem — commonly referred to as the “Blue Light of Death” — this past Friday when the PS4 hit shelves at midnight, noting that less than 0.4 percent of consoles were broken. Given that one million were sold in the first 24 hours, at least 4,000 customers are dealing with PS4 issues. The company even issued a troubleshooting page on Saturday.

[Follow-up: Amazon shipping replacement PS4’s to customers with ‘more snug’ packaging]

But as Paulo Santos over at Seeking Alpha first spotted this morning, a closer look at the 1-star reviews on Amazon reveals potential problems that originate with Amazon, not Sony.

Several of the people who ordered their console from Amazon and are experiencing problems note poor packaging.

amazonlogo11“I received my PS4 from Amazon in a large box,” notes reviewer L. Ruble. “It had a ton of air packs on top of the console, but non below it, so it would absorb all lower impact.”

“Poorly packaged by Amazon,” wrote Ryan Walsh. “Giant box with very little airbags inside it. Console could move all around.”

One reviewer, “David Zakar,” said he went to the Sony store with his broken console and was told that all of the faulty systems brought into the store thus far were all from Amazon.

It appears Amazon now has set up a special process to send replacement consoles within 5-to-7 days to customers who received broken PS4’s. Check out this review from “C-Bass,”

My system was dead on arrival….no signal to the TV …blue line of death. I’m very disappointed in this launch.

UPDATE****
Called Amazon and talked to support. They have a special process in place to send replacements to those who have faulty consoles. They were issued an alert due to the situation. I don’t even have to send the old one back yet! ..Originally I was going to send to Sony for “repairs” but this way I get a new box with a matching serial # and not a replacement refurbed model or a repaired lemon. The service agent told me it would probably be about a week until I see my new unit but it beats the alternative.

A few others replied to “C-Bass,” who also note the same replacement process, but there are also people who have been told otherwise.

“I did not get the same treatment,” wrote a reviewer named Tim. “I did get a refund but I called and they said they couldn’t get a replacement for me. So a glimmer of hope then followed by utter disappointment. Well sort of it is nice to have that money back but I would love to have a PS4. It has been a sad few days in my house.”

While it’s obvious that many of those who ordered a PS4 from Amazon are experiencing problems, it is unclear as to whether it was simply a bad batch of PS4’s, poor packaging on Amazon’s part or something else.

We’ve reached out to Amazon and Sony for comment and will update this story when we hear back.

Update, 10:25 a.m. PT

Sony sent us this statement, which doesn’t mention Amazon and notes “isolated incidents”:

“We are aware that some people have reported issues with their PlayStation 4 systems. We are closely monitoring for additional reports, but we think these are isolated incidents and represent a very small percentage of total units shipped to consumers to date.”

Update, 4:45 p.m. PT

Amazon got back to us with this statement:

Since the day of announce, the PS4 has been a big seller on Amazon with more units shipped on release day than any other video game console in our history. More than 99% of Amazon customers are having a great experience with their new console.  We are working with Sony to assist the small percentage of customers who have reported issues and our customer service team stands ready to offer an exchange or where possible, help customers get their systems up and running.


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