Bulk Reef Supply Acquires Marine Depot

[casey012293]

They would likely do that, albeit with a hold on your credit card for the amount until the the previous product was returned.

I’ve had this exact situation happen to me. Super excited to receive a product and the wrong item showed up. I’ll admit, I was bummed but such is life. Immediately went to the website, repurchased the product so it would ship that day then made the return request. My time is far to valuable to waste sitting on endless phone calls or back and forth emails, but to each their own.

This is rational. You understand the mistake and know your time is valuable but know trying to force someone’s hand to pay you for your time when it was a simple mistake is not how the world works. I’m sure the company would be more than happy to reimburse you the shipping costs for replacing this way if you called and talked to them and rationalized you reordered because you didn’t have the time to wait out their policy. Far better than trying to bully them to change their policy.

 

[csund]

In the OPs situation I’m going to guess that he wanted the correct pump shipped out immediately. Kinda like the girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - “I WANT IT NOW!” They likely informed him that they would need to see proof that the pump was indeed coming back to them before they would ship the new pump. Totally understandable. Whether they offered to put a hold on his card (mind you, if this is a credit card it’s not your money) until the first pump was returned I’m not sure. If they did he obviously refused and became infuriated that they would even ask that of a customer - Not understanding they have an investment in the pump he has. He then didn’t want to go out of his way to drop the pump off at the UPS store and wanted it picked up at home. At this point they informed him that could add additional time to recieving the correct pump, he became even more infuriated.

At no point did they expect him to brunt the cost of return shipping, they even offered to compensate him for materials. It would be impossible to compensate someone for time. One persons time could be worth 15$ an hour and another’s 500$ - that would be an unreasonable request.

You can choose to make life easy and enjoy it or choose to be the victim of it.

 

[casey012293]

As you all know, Bulk Reef Supply recently acquired Marine Depot and Neptune Systems. Initially I thought this would be ok and may even lead to lower prices. However, I recently had a terrible buying experience with Bulk Reef Supply and am concerned that if BRS gets too much control over the market, it will not be good for the hobby at all. Here is what happened"

I recently ordered a new Ecotech Vectra L2 from BRS for full price (no discounts). About a week later I received a box from BRS that was shipped by UPS. First problem, the box was beat up and broken. Bigger problem was that they sent me the wrong item. Instead of sending me a Vectra L2, they sent me a Vectra M2. The M2 is a smaller less expensive pump. I immediately notified BRS of the problem. They responded that they would ship me the proper item I ordered only after I sent them back the wrong item they shipped to me. To make matters worse, BRS sent me a prepaid return label and told me that I had to go and take the time to wrap up the damaged box and then take it over to my local UPS store. Only once BRS was advised that I had dropped off the package at UPS, only then would BRS ship out the correct item I ordered. For the hassle, the customer service agent told me that BRS would give me a store credit worth $20. I told them it was unreasonable for them to ask me to take the time to go to a UPS store and wait in line (30 mins average) to drop off the return package and so I asked them to have the return box picked up by UPS. That's when things got hairy. The customer service rep called me on the phone and was acting very angry that I had requested such a thing and told me that BRS would not ship the actual item I ordered until it got picked up by UPS which could take days. The BRS customer service rep was pushy and agitated with me, especially when I told him that I though a $20 credit was not satisfactory for sending me the wrong item and then asking me to fix their broken box. He told me that BRS now has "policies" that are strictly adhered to.

Here is my concern. As BRS continues to consolidate its power over the hobby, there will be less competition. Less competition generally means (1) higher prices and (2) strict return "policies" that are not favorable to the customer. What do you think?

Sounds like Violet chose to make himself a victim instead

 

[GlassMunky]

Unfortunately there have been so many people that have taken advantage of store/business policies that the saying “the customer is always right” is necessarily true anymore.
BRS paid for the return label and also offered 20$ compensation for materials. What cost are they asking him to cover?
I imagine they called him after he requested pick up from home to emphasize that the correct product wouldn’t ship until the return package was picked up, which could take a few additional days. I’m sure he had already made it abundantly clear he wanted it now so they made the call to clarify their return policy. I think the return policy is more than fair, they are putting a huge amount of faith in the customer that the item is actually in the box when scanned by UPS - not a can of beans…

Sure “hugs amount of faith” except the have your credit card number so there’s no faith at all. And you can make as many assumptions as you want, that doesn’t mean you’re correct.

 

[A Young Reefer]

I understand the inconvenience of getting the wrong pump, but BRS seems to have tried fairly reasonable accommodation for the mistake that was made and for that it also wasn’t their fault the box was damaged. It sounds like you would be lacking understanding even if you had ordered from a small local company. Honest mistakes happen and if you had this same attitude with a small business they’d have likely treated you the same. I hope your lack of understanding has led them to not want to honor an order from you again, because if you came into a business I managed and acted that way to my staff I’d ask you to leave.

I’m in no way connected to BRS but deal with entitled people like you daily. I hope whatever made you sour is something you can get over so you aren’t bitter to people in the future.

Best,
Kind Stranger

P.S. I hope for the sake of your livestock you show far more patience with your reef-keeping than it appears you do when ordering equipment.

I don't see how in any shape or kind how he has been "lacking understanding" , it isn't his fault that they shipped the wrong product to him , moreover as a customer I don't care about who or what damaged the packaging during the entire process from packaging until shipping . Not only that they did a mistake ( I totally understand that mistakes happen ) , but also they want him to go through all the hassle that he isn't supposed to go through?

 

[Thaxxx]

Unfortunately there have been so many people that have taken advantage of store/business policies that the saying “the customer is always right” is necessarily true anymore.
BRS paid for the return label and also offered 20$ compensation for materials. What cost are they asking him to cover?
I imagine they called him after he requested pick up from home to emphasize that the correct product wouldn’t ship until the return package was picked up, which could take a few additional days. I’m sure he had already made it abundantly clear he wanted it now so they made the call to clarify their return policy. I think the return policy is more than fair, they are putting a huge amount of faith in the customer that the item is actually in the box when scanned by UPS - not a can of beans…

There is no reason a customer of ANY company should be required to take a "mistakenly shipped" package to a UPS store to ship it back. Any company I have dealt with, UPS has picked it up the next day from my house. No printed label required. That's customer service!

 

[csund]

Sure “hugs amount of faith” except the have your credit card number so there’s no faith at all. And you can make as many assumptions as you want, that doesn’t mean you’re correct.

I’m feeling pretty confident In the age of the Children of Bezos this seems commonplace.

I’m not super familiar with the credit card processing side of this. I imagine the vender would need to notify you that the card would be charged in the the item is not return. They would also have to have a “huge amount of faith” that the funds were available on the card - hence putting a hold on the card beforehand.

 

[keithw283]

As you all know, Bulk Reef Supply recently acquired Marine Depot and Neptune Systems. Initially I thought this would be ok and may even lead to lower prices. However, I recently had a terrible buying experience with Bulk Reef Supply and am concerned that if BRS gets too much control over the market, it will not be good for the hobby at all. Here is what happened"

I recently ordered a new Ecotech Vectra L2 from BRS for full price (no discounts). About a week later I received a box from BRS that was shipped by UPS. First problem, the box was beat up and broken. Bigger problem was that they sent me the wrong item. Instead of sending me a Vectra L2, they sent me a Vectra M2. The M2 is a smaller less expensive pump. I immediately notified BRS of the problem. They responded that they would ship me the proper item I ordered only after I sent them back the wrong item they shipped to me. To make matters worse, BRS sent me a prepaid return label and told me that I had to go and take the time to wrap up the damaged box and then take it over to my local UPS store. Only once BRS was advised that I had dropped off the package at UPS, only then would BRS ship out the correct item I ordered. For the hassle, the customer service agent told me that BRS would give me a store credit worth $20. I told them it was unreasonable for them to ask me to take the time to go to a UPS store and wait in line (30 mins average) to drop off the return package and so I asked them to have the return box picked up by UPS. That's when things got hairy. The customer service rep called me on the phone and was acting very angry that I had requested such a thing and told me that BRS would not ship the actual item I ordered until it got picked up by UPS which could take days. The BRS customer service rep was pushy and agitated with me, especially when I told him that I though a $20 credit was not satisfactory for sending me the wrong item and then asking me to fix their broken box. He told me that BRS now has "policies" that are strictly adhered to.

Here is my concern. As BRS continues to consolidate its power over the hobby, there will be less competition. Less competition generally means (1) higher prices and (2) strict return "policies" that are not favorable to the customer. What do you think?

I literally had the exact same situation with some refugium lights. The only difference is that I was very pleased when they offered me a $20 credit just to fix the situation. Talk about first world problems lol.