Customer Service?

[nezw0001]

I recently tried to place an order for a bunch of items I had been wanting for a while. Total order would have been $300+. One of the items I was ordering was frozen food and would have to be shipped overnight. I was planning on shipping the whole overnight with Saturday delivery. Since I live rurally I wasn't sure if my location was available for Saturday delivery. I expressed my concerns to the sales rep who responded that I needed to check that out for myself and call back to place the order or call back on Monday. For a company that ships as much product as Marine depot does they should have the tools available to see who is available for Saturday delivery and who is not.

I have spent well over a thousand dollars with Marine Depot and was a little peeveed with the lack of accountability shown by the clerk so I sent an email to Marine Depot on Friday April 8th and never recieved a reply. A polite note via email would have been enough to get my return business but now I am not sure.

Jill

 

[alrha]

could be you just spoke to the wrong person. My experiences are best when dealing with Joseph over there. I have placed MANY orders and spend THOUSANDS of dollars at Marine Depot, in all my history, i have never had one bad experience when dealing with Joseph.

 

[nezw0001]

I believe that if there is only one person there who can provide customers with a good experience they might want to reevaluate their training process. Seems like a poor buisness plan to pay multiple people when they are unable to meet the customers needs.

 

[alrha]

i am not saying the others are bad. i just always deal with joseph, and i know he is excellent

 

[MarineDepot]

Hi Jill,

Thank you for your feedback and we apologize if you did not receive the level of customer service that you deserved from us. With the issue of Saturday delivery, neither UPS nor FedEx have tools available where this service can be checked online. Unfortunately, the only method to check for service availability is via a telephone call to the courier. We often will call for our customers; however, in certain situations, it is better for the customer to call directly as the courier may be able to suggest alternatives: such as finding a shipping center where the package can be picked up from, or finding an alternate address/location where Saturday Delivery Service is available. This is the reason why the representative would have asked you to call directly. The call center here does get quite busy during certain times of the day, so it is possible that he may not have explained it well or may have rushed through the conversation. I will make sure to bring this up during our next meeting, so we can avoid these misunderstandings in the future.

Once again, we apologize for any inconveniences that may be caused. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Joseph
Marine Depot Customer Service
www.marinedepot.com
714-385-0080

 

[alrha]

see? i told you Joseph is the best!

 

[luvcabrera]

Actually Joseph...you are wrong.

Fed Ex does have the capability to check whether Sat deliveru is available online through their "Transit Time" link.

http://www.fedex.com/TransitTime/ho...cend_header=1&link=1&lid=//Ship//Pack+TT+Corp

All you have to do is input the data.

UPS has the same thing.

http://wwwapps.ups.com/calTimeCost?loc=en_US

If it is unavailable, both sites will tell you so. 6 points for your song and dance though

 

[ljcaswell]

What you say is accurate, but they don't have good tools available to integrate Saturday Delivery into their XML ratequoting systems (which are used to integrate shipping tools into third party websites, such as Marine Depot's). I used to build e-commerce systems for small businesses.

Also, IMO, if such tools did exist, they would be a mistake to implement on most web sites, as a customer who checked a Saturday Delivery box on the order form on Friday would obviously expect to receive the order on Saturday. If the order was placed late on Friday and the business couldn't get it shipped in time, this would create major problems.

As someone who runs an online business, I would never offer this service on my web site because I couldn't guarantee I could ship it in time, and I don't want upset customers. I'm happy to offer Saturday Delivery on orders placed by phone, because I can tell people right then and there if I can do it or not.

I put a statement on our web site that states "if you need a guaranteed delivery date, please call us". I always call any business I'm dealing with if I need an order to arrive a certain day. It eliminates a multitude of common problems facing online orders.

 

[CamBarr]

i love marine depot thumbs upp

 

[Reefpuck]

I agree with ljcaswell, as it could cause potential problems with shipments.

"6 points for your song and dance though"....that was uncalled for.