Marine Depot whats up with shipping charges?

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robbyg

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And I offered an anecdote that suggest it does. Saying that it doesn't have an effect based on 6 different occasions is purely speculative. Different days different staff, varying shipment loads, pickup times, how overwhelmed the shipping company was on those particular days will skew Robbys claim. Ordering the same exact thing, within the same time frame, paying the extra fee vs not is a better way to test the theory.

I would have no doubt that the extra $3 expedites a shipment to arrive faster than going with free shipping. Otherwise it's fraud. Saying that a $40 order of filter socks arrived in 5 days with free shipping in January and in April a $400 skimmer showed up in 5 days with the $3 extra fee, is not proof, it's anecdotal at best.
Ok I think we both may be right.
Logically we know that $2.99 cannot cover a faster shipping speed on both a 1lb package and a 30lb package yet according to MD it does. My thinking is that they are telling a half truth. The shipping process could be viewed as starting at the moment they get stuff off the shelves.
My theory is the "expedite shipping" means that your order will have priority in their warehouse. The guys in the warehouse will get your order before a non expedited one that is made at the same time and they will bundle and box it first and get it to the loading bay.

This would explain why I see no difference and you do. I typically make my orders late at night, sometimes at 11pm. So mine get processed in the morning with the small amount of other late night orders and that gets done right away while they are processing the expedite orders that come in the mornings. So all our stuff ends up in the same morning vans. Other people may be ordering at 2pm and if they use Expedite it make it's way into the Vans that come by at around 4pm while the ones without expedite may miss the van and leave the following day. Of course all of this depends on how busy they are. If they are not busy then I don't think it will matter either way but during a busy period coupled with a one more day of delay on the order, it would make a difference.
 
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Reef.

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And I offered an anecdote that suggest it does. Saying that it doesn't have an effect based on 6 different occasions is purely speculative. Different days different staff, varying shipment loads, pickup times, how overwhelmed the shipping company was on those particular days will skew Robbys claim. Ordering the same exact thing, within the same time frame, paying the extra fee vs not is a better way to test the theory.

I would have no doubt that the extra $3 expedites a shipment to arrive faster than going with free shipping. Otherwise it's fraud. Saying that a $40 order of filter socks arrived in 5 days with free shipping in January and in April a $400 skimmer showed up in 5 days with the $3 extra fee, is not proof, it's anecdotal at best.

Just seems a little patronising to tell the op you are sure of it when they have already stated they have found the opposite to be true.

I remember reading a similar thread, different vendor I think with the same issue.

As you state different situations and orders but the extra shipping doesn’t state it only applies to some orders and not others.
 

MinnReef

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Ok I think we both may be right.
Logically we know that $2.99 cannot cover a faster shipping speed on both a 1lb package and a 30lb package yet according to MD it does. My thinking is that they are telling a half truth. The shipping process could be viewed as starting at the moment they get stuff off the shelves.
My theory is the "expedite shipping" means that your order will have priority in their warehouse. The guys in the warehouse will get your order before a non expedited one that is made at the same time and they will bundle and box it first and get it to the loading area.

This would explain why I see no difference and you do. I typically make my orders late at night, sometimes at 11pm. So mine get processed in the morning with the small amount of other late night orders and that gets done right away while they are processing the expedite orders that come in the mornings. So all our stuff ends up in the same morning vans. Other people may be ordering at 2pm and if they use Expedite it make it's way into the Vans that come by at around 4pm while the ones without expedite may miss the van and leave the following day. Of course all of this depends on how busy they are. If they are not busy then I don't think it will matter either way but during a busy period coupled with a later in the day order, it may make a difference.
I think this is actually what it is, I have had it happen where faster packages got confirmation of shipping with expedited as opposed to the free option
 

Mical

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IMO the OP was voicing he was not happy with M/D's website defaulting to an additional $2.99 shipping charge and I agree. If we want it faster YES offer us the option, but DON'T have your website "flip automatically" to insert an extra $2.99. That's where suspicion arises
 

lo7100

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Amazon is doing to same. You need to de-select and select the free shipping.
I guess it's a standard now
 

mike550

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@robbyg thanks for the heads up on this. I’ve ordered from MD only a handful of times as it seems like their fulfillment times vary greatly. To your point when I’ve paid for expedited or done the free option I haven’t seen any consistency that makes me think MD is getting things to the shipper any faster.

I’m still trying to figure out if they are a bricks and mortar outfit like BRS or it this is all online with their inventory spread across other fulfillment companies.
 

robby2782

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I personally don't have a problem with this as an option to have it expedited, and I ordered a pump from them Sunday night with the expedited shipping. I prefer not to support Amazon whenever possible, and they do this exact same thing as several other vendors.
 
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robbyg

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@robbyg thanks for the heads up on this. I’ve ordered from MD only a handful of times as it seems like their fulfillment times vary greatly. To your point when I’ve paid for expedited or done the free option I haven’t seen any consistency that makes me think MD is getting things to the shipper any faster.

I’m still trying to figure out if they are a bricks and mortar outfit like BRS or it this is all online with their inventory spread across other fulfillment companies.
Yes they are a Brick and Mortar place like BRS. As far as I know the only major advantage that MD has over BRS is that MD has two warehouse distribution locations, one on the west coast in Nevada and an east coast facility in Atlanta. BRS only has one facility in Minnesota. This can sometimes make getting stuff from MD faster but more importantly MD has more flexibility than BRS during Covid-19. As a shutdown in a distribution state only causes half the damage.
BTW I emphasize sometime because in general BRS is pretty much just as fast. I guess it all depends on your states proximity to a UPS shipping Hub.
 
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robbyg

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Amazon is doing to same. You need to de-select and select the free shipping.
I guess it's a standard now
With Prime the only thing I notice is if I order multiple items it will sometimes default to a slower shipping method like 5-6 days and say it will bundle all the items into one package. You can override that and get 2-3 day shipping and sometimes even one day shipping if you tell it you want the items sent as they are ready. I also prefer to buy from MD or BRS but sometimes the shipping charges for small items force me to use Amazon.
 

38bill

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BRS all day might be a bit biased as I'm in MN but it only takes 2-3 days to get to me with non expedited shipping
Depends on were you live in MN. My last order took 10 days to get and I just received my newest order and that took 19 days from the time I ordered. My service used to be 1- 2 days but the shippers are so overwhelmed they are just sitting on stuff. Just to be clear I do not blame BRS for the slow down as they shipped within a day of my orders.
 

Robert Ranciato

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I love your website and I buy a lot of stuff from MD but I am getting frustrated with the free shipping on orders over $39 that suddenly changes to $2.99 for expedite shipping. The moment I press check out for some reason it defaults to the extra $2.99 for faster shipping and that is a minor thing but even after I change it to regular shipping and it shows $0 when I go to finalize the order the $2.99 is back on it again. I again deselect it and then when I make the final payment with PayPal and it returns me to the MD website to Review the order and press the last finalization button the $2.99 is back once again, so I have to deselect it again.
If I don't pay attention up until the last step the $2.99 Expedite fee is going to get tacked on. So that is three times you have to change it back to $0 or else you pay the extra $2.99!

Now normally I might not have an issue with this but the extra $2.99 does nothing to make the package arrive any faster. It seems to take the same amount of days with or without it. Out of about 6 orders I made in 2020 I got caught paying the expedite shipping on two of them. I know $2.99 is not a big deal and I don't want a refund, but I am asking the your IT department please fix it so that the customer do not have to deselect it three times during the checkout process.
It's a minor issue but it's just not right.
Try Saltwateraquarium.com they have free shipping on everything
 

Mical

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IMO the OP was voicing he was not happy with M/D's website defaulting to an additional $2.99 shipping charge and I agree. If we want it faster YES offer us the option, but DON'T have your website "flip automatically" to insert an extra $2.99. That's where suspicion arises

In a follow-up Buyers Beware - I just placed an order w/BRS (after Black Friday) using one of their $10 off promo cards and the shipping option DEFAULTED to priority $4.99 shipping. I always use the free shipping option since I live 30 miles west of BRS. So double check shipping options after you use your promo/gift cards.
 

Cell

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Depends on were you live in MN. My last order took 10 days to get and I just received my newest order and that took 19 days from the time I ordered. My service used to be 1- 2 days but the shippers are so overwhelmed they are just sitting on stuff. Just to be clear I do not blame BRS for the slow down as they shipped within a day of my orders.
The Speedee delivery service @Bulk Reef Supply uses for local delivery is brutal and I think they know it. The tracking is rarely if ever updated and packages might sit in St Cloud for days before being delivered. This is my personal experience. I live 15 min south of the warehouse, yet if I choose delivery, it gets sent 1 hr north to the distribution center for several days before making it's way to me.

I wish they'd just a load up an employee vehicle and deliver something like a 20 mi radius using that method instead of a courier.
 
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Mical

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In a follow-up Buyers Beware - I just placed an order w/BRS (after Black Friday) using one of their $10 off promo cards and the shipping option DEFAULTED to priority $4.99 shipping. I always use the free shipping option since I live 30 miles west of BRS. So double check shipping options after you use your promo/gift cards.
I contacted BRS about this and they refunded shipping charges.
 

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