Upset with shipping practices

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kimoyo

kimoyo

Active member
Hello all,
I just order a some stuff from marine depot worth over $175. Their practice is to give free ground shipping on orders over 175. This must be great for people in California but I'm in New York and ground shipping takes 5 business days which usually comes to 7 days unless you order on monday. The ground shipping came to 12 dollars and 2-day was 19. I asked them could I pay them the extra 7 dollars and have it shipped out 2 day and they said no. They said they can't explain why to me but it was just company policy. This was very disappointing.
Paul
 
I'm hoping that marine depot will allow me to pay the extra 7 dollars so I can get my goods before the weekend but still be rewarded for being their customer with the free shipping offer.
 
Hi,

Thank you for your inquiry. We are able to offer our free ground shipping promotion to the Continental United States in part because we are offered a discount on this service from UPS. We pass this along to our customers as a way of showing our appreciation for their business. However, this discount applies only to ground shipping and is not transferable to other services.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with.

Eugene Y.
MarineDepot Customer Service.
 
That is the same way amazon does their super saver shipping. They offer free shipping on a lot of items, but if you want to expedite it the standard rates apply. I think it's fair, better than nothing free at all.
 
Does amazon ship from one location or multiple locations across the US?

Yeah it would be great if I were in CA but in NY it doesn't help at all, unless I'm going to wait a week for my stuff. I thought it was something Marine Depot was doing to help customers but all they are doing is passing on the courtesy of UPS. They aren't giving up the money for the shipping, UPS is. Knowing that makes me want to use UPS again, not Marine Depot.

Either way it doesn't matter for me anymore anyway because I cancelled my order and am getting it from someone on the east coast. I usually use Premium Aquatics but they don't have GRI pumps.
 
Hi,

Thanks for the continued interest in this subject. We appreciate your concerns. While UPS does offer a volume discount for bulk shippers, UPS does not ship for free. MarineDepot does pay for every item that is shipped, we do not absorb the any shipping fees these are paid directly to the shipping company.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with.

Eugene Y.
MarineDepot Customer Service
 
MarineDepot said:
Hi,

Thanks for the continued interest in this subject. We appreciate your concerns. While UPS does offer a volume discount for bulk shippers, UPS does not ship for free. MarineDepot does pay for every item that is shipped, we do not absorb the any shipping fees these are paid directly to the shipping company.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with.

Eugene Y.
MarineDepot Customer Service
Click to expand...

I was told flat out on the phone and that you do not pay for the free ground shipping. Put since you are saying you do pay something for the ground shipping, how much of the $12 for my ground shipping were you going to actually pay UPS and how much was UPS discounting?
 
MarineDepot said:
Hi,

Thank you for your inquiry. We are able to offer our free ground shipping promotion to the Continental United States in part because we are offered a discount on this service from UPS. We pass this along to our customers as a way of showing our appreciation for their business. However, this discount applies only to ground shipping and is not transferable to other services.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with.

Eugene Y.
MarineDepot Customer Service.
Click to expand...

BTW, I was going to end the conversation after this answer.
 
For some reason, people want to continue the thread in the feedback forum so I wanted to let you guys know my response.

kimoyo said:
Hammerswinger,
Funny you only have 1 post, LOL. I think itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s a valid argument but when I asked them why on the phone they said we donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t know, its just company policy. I finally got the reason after I posted this same thread in their sponsor forum. Marine Depot makes it seem like they are giving their customers a discount for buying an order over $175 from them. But this isn't the case, UPS gives them a discount on ground shipping because of the volume of shipping the do, and they in turn pass over those savings on group shipments to select customers who are paying over $175 for an order. But now that I'm explaining it, makes me wonder why they don't pass over the savings to all ground shipments and if they get savings for other shipping methods (thats a rhetorical question, no answer needed).

Funny thing is, Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m only continuing to comment on this because of your statement Hammerswinger.

Hey jsbzmcdaniel,
Thanks for the suggestion. As I was explaining in the other thread I posted on MD's sponsor forum, I always use Premium Aquatics and I wanted to this time but they don't carry GRI pumps anymore. I actually asked Jason if he could try to get me one but he said he couldn't. MD still carries them but it doesnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t say that they are out of stock on the website, only to call in for availability. So I looked on GRI's website and found a non-aquarium distributor that sells their pumps, and they are in CT. So itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s all good for me now.
Click to expand...
 
kimoyo said:
I was told flat out on the phone and that you do not pay for the free ground shipping. Put since you are saying you do pay something for the ground shipping, how much of the $12 for my ground shipping were you going to actually pay UPS and how much was UPS discounting?
Click to expand...

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. We do apologize if there was any incorrect information passed onto you. However, when I spoke with you on the phone regarding this issue I did explain our policy to you and the answer that I gave you then, is the same answer I am giving you now. We extend the free shipping as a promotion and as a thank you to our customers. We do pay for the shipping on all packages and we will not disclose our business costs to the public.

Thank you.

Eugene Y.
MarineDepot Customer Service.
 
MarineDepot said:
Hi,

Thanks for the reply. We do apologize if there was any incorrect information passed onto you. However, when I spoke with you on the phone regarding this issue I did explain our policy to you and the answer that I gave you then, is the same answer I am giving you now. We extend the free shipping as a promotion and as a thank you to our customers. We do pay for the shipping on all packages and we will not disclose our business costs to the public.

Thank you.

Eugene Y.
MarineDepot Customer Service.
Click to expand...

Hi Eugene,
Thanks for responding. I remember our phone conversation very well and I even directed you to this post. As someone who has brought a lot of merchandise from you in the past, I can't understand how you can give the consumer a discount from another company and call it your promotion. If it was your promotion and not UPS's, I still don't see how come you couldn't just apply the $12 to my order and let me pay the rest for two day, in this case $7. And come to think of it, when I brought my $800, ~65lb aqualogic chiller from you I remember not only paying for ground shipping but also for oversize shipping.
Paul
 
MarineDepot said:
Kimoyo- unfortunately we cannot discount the shipping further for you. I want you to know that you are not being singled out here, all of our customers wanting expedited shipping run into the same costs as you have experienced.[/url]
Click to expand...

Ben,
Frankly how did that make your company look? I've spent $2237.29 in your store, supported you guys in the past, and came here to voice my disapproval of the situation. As a sponser I thought the purpose of these threads was to get feedback on your customer service. I was polite on the phone with your represenatives, yet when I asked them to explain what was going on they were dismissive of my questions. After that initial phone call, I came here and posted about my experience, and when I called back Eugene told me that you do not pay for ground shipping. At that point, I was going to leave it be (which I said in the thread), but then several people including Eugene carried on the conversation. All I have done is tell others what happened to me at your store.

Secondly,
This thread made me remember that when I brought my Aqualogic 1/3HP Chiller DS-4 + Dual Digital Controller that I had to pay 50.38 for ground shipping. I'm sure you can look up my reciept or if you don't believe me I can post it with everying but my personal info. Can you explain this, was I on your do not offer free shipping list before? Or is it only for certain items, regardless of how much they are? I'm sorry but I think your "promotion" or UPS's promotion should be clarified.

Lastly,
Save the threat of no more free shipping. Because of that comment don't worry I won't buy from you anymore? As you already know I cancelled my order with you guys after this. I actually think you have a good website and offer nice products but you aren't the only store out there that sell aquarium products.

hammerswinger,
I'm not going to insult you like you did to me, I'm just going to say I paid $50.38 for ground shipping that was supposed to be free.

Paul
 
Kimoyo,

Why are you giving marine depot such a hard time? If you need your product tomorrow, then why not just go to the LFS and buy it? Probably because Marine Depot is giving you a great price to begin with. Why don't you go to another online vendor? Probably because Marine Depot is cheaper than the others. So why keep ragging on their shipping cost? They are offering free ground shipping, if you don't want it, then pay for the express shipping. This is just like saying that if they have a generic bulb for sale that you should get the same discount on a premium bulb that is not on sale. Express shipping is not on sale, just ground shipping is.
 
EricM said:
Nobody wants to read your crap kimoyo. Give it up.
Click to expand...

I posted this half a month ago and now you guys are telling me to give it up. This thread has been dead for a while now, so why don't you guys just let it die.
 
its a shame...companies like MD save us a ton of cash and we still have to beat them up..dont get it..
 
He must be one of those types that if you walked up to him on the street and give him five bucks he would complain it wasn't ten.
 
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