I've been ordering quite a bit of equipment and supplies from Marine Depot lately, and I've been having some issues with the packaging. I don't have an actual complaint - the orders have all arrived intact and without missing items. However, there are some things that mystify me about the way the orders have been packed, and some things that lead me to believe that disaster is only a matter of time.
I get a lot of stuff delivered by UPS, including my marine depot orders. The marine depot boxes arrive in substantially worse condition than anything else I order. They are often leaking packing peanuts, and the taped seams are often ripped. Internally, bulk products are almost always spilled or leaking. I believe I know why.
The packing philosophy seems to be to use an oversized box, fill halfway with packing peanuts, place merchandise, complete the fill and seal with a single piece of tape across the top flaps. This causes two problems:
1) Not taping the end seams of the box results in the box being much less strong than if they were taped. Lateral compression of the box can lift the top flaps and tear the tape, basically opening the box.
2) Using an oversized box may be intended to provide additional cushioning, but the box is typically slightly underfilled with compressible packing peanuts which means that things can move around inside the box and that the box can be more easily compressed.
I've tried to note these problems and ask for tight packing and taped seams in my order comments, but this seems to be useless. I would sure appreciate it if an appropriate size box were used, if the peanuts were slightly compressed in the packing process, and if all the seams were taped. It's no fun cleaning up minor liquid and dry material spills, and I have no idea how many garbage bags of packing peanuts I've had to throw away in the last month.
I'm just waiting for the day a completely torn open box arrives at my doorstep. It's not a problem of being cheap with supplies - Marine Depot is using bigger boxes and much more packing material than necessary, but not really seeing any benefit from it.
Anybody else have these problems, or is it just me?
--Albert
I get a lot of stuff delivered by UPS, including my marine depot orders. The marine depot boxes arrive in substantially worse condition than anything else I order. They are often leaking packing peanuts, and the taped seams are often ripped. Internally, bulk products are almost always spilled or leaking. I believe I know why.
The packing philosophy seems to be to use an oversized box, fill halfway with packing peanuts, place merchandise, complete the fill and seal with a single piece of tape across the top flaps. This causes two problems:
1) Not taping the end seams of the box results in the box being much less strong than if they were taped. Lateral compression of the box can lift the top flaps and tear the tape, basically opening the box.
2) Using an oversized box may be intended to provide additional cushioning, but the box is typically slightly underfilled with compressible packing peanuts which means that things can move around inside the box and that the box can be more easily compressed.
I've tried to note these problems and ask for tight packing and taped seams in my order comments, but this seems to be useless. I would sure appreciate it if an appropriate size box were used, if the peanuts were slightly compressed in the packing process, and if all the seams were taped. It's no fun cleaning up minor liquid and dry material spills, and I have no idea how many garbage bags of packing peanuts I've had to throw away in the last month.
I'm just waiting for the day a completely torn open box arrives at my doorstep. It's not a problem of being cheap with supplies - Marine Depot is using bigger boxes and much more packing material than necessary, but not really seeing any benefit from it.
Anybody else have these problems, or is it just me?
--Albert
