Why does everything take so long?

[KyleAwesome]

Maybe its just me but I'd like to take a moment to bitch about my experiences with Marine Depot.

 

Why does everything take so friggin long?

 

I have only interacted with MD on two occasions so I'm willing to accept the excuse that maybe its just a busy time or year or what but my first order we placed after Christmas, 48hrs went by without so much as a notification that my order had processed or shipped. The item was fairly cheap and after not hearing back about my order (other than the auto generated email confirmation the order was received), I ordered the exact same product from amazon. Amazon shipped it same day, it arrived at my door a day later. MD took an additional 5 days to get me the product. Maybe its small potatoes but 1 week to send something from Las Vegas to Portland OR is pretty lame. I live 15hrs away from their West coast distribution center and a little bit further from their corporate headquarters. I could have driven there and back 3 times in the span it took them to deliver a 1lb box.

 

Fast forward a month and I figure I'll give them another shot, ordered approximately $600 worth of equipment over 24hrs ago, I received my initial order confirmation email, however the website has not updated with any status information nor has it shipped. I'm anticipating another 48hr processing time and 5 business days to get to me.

 

MD, I'm not looking for an apology, I'm not looking for a discount, or anything, I simply would like to relay my frustration with your process. Please know, I understand how this works, I run a company who is a front line IT provider/systems integrator for many manufacturing, wholesale and retail organizations ranging from a $3-5 million run rate to some exceeding $50 million. My job is automation, packaging and shipping solutions. I know the struggles you're probably facing with your ERP/SCM/CRM whether that be Microsoft GP, SAP, Syspro, NetSuite, Worldship, what have you. I sympathize, I do, however being in this industry for as long as I have I also know that there are hundreds of other organizations waiting to take advantage of complaints like mine. In this day and age, with the plethora of options at ones disposal, these types of delays and process issues will drive customers to other vendors.

 

Get things moving or Amazon, BRS, DrsF&S, whomever will continue to eat into your market share, because I do like you guys.

 

EDIT: the word "of" is useful

[SelectedByNature]

Hopefully you're saving all your patience for reefing.

 

I just received something today that I ordered 6 weeks ago. From California. I get you're just venting and I hope you get your stuff ASAP.

 

Maybe your job is affecting your opinion because 5 days from order to delivery sounds pretty standard to me.

[Kellie in CA]

I've never had a problem, however, for some reason nearly every one of my orders ships from the east coast. Their site says the items are available at both warehouses, so I'm not sure what the deal is. I'm always expecting fast delivery and it takes a week.

[KyleAwesome]

Hopefully you're saving all your patience for reefing.

 

I just received something today that I ordered 6 weeks ago. From California. I get you're just venting and I hope you get your stuff ASAP.

 

Maybe your job is affecting your opinion because 5 days from order to delivery sounds pretty standard to me.

 

My father always told me patience is a virtue, apparently its one that I lack, c'est la vie.

 

I've never had a problem, however, for some reason nearly every one of my orders ships from the east coast. Their site says the items are available at both warehouses, so I'm not sure what the deal is. I'm always expecting fast delivery and it takes a week.

 

Kellie,

 

Shocker there! My "available at our west coast" warehouse order shipped from.... Georgia! When I placed the order I carefully chose items that were all available from the west coast. That was not coincidence, but deliberate, and hey they're still shipping them from 2500 miles away.

 

Marine Depot, I know you are on here, whats the deal?

[KyleAwesome]

I figured why wonder so I called MD to ask, spoke to a nice gent who couldn't give me an answer, but did assure me the west coast warehouse is real, and actually has stuff in it.

 

I'm skeptical.

[lkoechle]

I've always had about a two week from order to delivery with MD.

[Saltydude]

The question should be more like WHY IS EVERYTHING SOOOO EXPENSIVE these days

[Marine Depot]

Why does everything take so friggin long?

 

Thank you for shopping with us and caring enough to share what those shopping experiences were like for you.

 

If you could let us know what the order #'s in question are, we would be happy to research what occurred in each of these instances.

 

Thanks!

 

Jeff @ Marine Depot

[Marine Depot]

I've never had a problem, however, for some reason nearly every one of my orders ships from the east coast. Their site says the items are available at both warehouses, so I'm not sure what the deal is. I'm always expecting fast delivery and it takes a week.

 

Hi Kellie,

 

Can you provide us with an order # or #'s in which this occurred? I am happy to look into this for you!

 

Jeff @ Marine Depot

 

 

My father always told me patience is a virtue, apparently its one that I lack, c'est la vie.

 

 

Kellie,

 

Shocker there! My "available at our west coast" warehouse order shipped from.... Georgia! When I placed the order I carefully chose items that were all available from the west coast. That was not coincidence, but deliberate, and hey they're still shipping them from 2500 miles away.

 

Marine Depot, I know you are on here, whats the deal?

Kyle,

 

The inventory messaging on product pages that state where items are in stock are real-time. We will need to review your specific orders to determine why some/all of the items were shipped from the East Coast location.

 

Thanks!

 

Jeff @ Marine Depot

[Marine Depot]

I've always had about a two week from order to delivery with MD.

 

Hi lkoechle,

 

Would you mind providing us with an order # that we can reference? About 90% of shoppers are receiving orders within two business days now that we opened up the second warehouse. Two weeks seems insanely long unless you ordered something that was backordered or drop-shipped from the manufacturer. I would be more than happy to take a look.

 

Thank you,

 

Jeff @ Marine Depot

[KyleAwesome]

 

Thank you for shopping with us and caring enough to share what those shopping experiences were like for you.

 

If you could let us know what the order #'s in question are, we would be happy to research what occurred in each of these instances.

 

Thanks!

 

Jeff @ Marine Depot

 

 

Sure, I'll shoot you a PM. Its interesting that you have real time inventory integration with the website, I had assumed that there was a certain lag time between stock refreshing on the site which could reasonably lead to a situation where the website reports a certain stock on hand, however then the warehouse goes to pick, they notice in fact its not in stock, and it ships from a different facility.

 

Take a look at the screen shot below:

 

[Marine Depot]

 

 

Sure, I'll shoot you a PM. Its interesting that you have real time inventory integration with the website, I had assumed that there was a certain lag time between stock refreshing on the site which could reasonably lead to a situation where the website reports a certain stock on hand, however then the warehouse goes to pick, they notice in fact its not in stock, and it ships from a different facility.

 

Take a look at the screen shot below:

 

 

It is absolutely possible that when 2 shoppers have the same product in their cart and when one checks out, they get the last one in that warehouse... which would result in that item being sent from the other warehouse (or creating a backorder, which we would contact you about to decide how to proceed). Inventory discrepancies do occur from time to time as well, but this is pretty rare.

 

Thank you for sharing those order #'s with me. I had a long conversation with a logistics manager on our side this morning and he is checking with our IT manager to see what, exactly, occurred here.

 

I don't want to be overly presumptuous (but here I go anyway lol), but I think there may be a flaw in our shipping logic. In my mind, all of the items in the warehouse closest to you should ship from that location (which is generally the case). But if 1 item were to go out of stock (because someone else bought it or there were an inventory discrepancy, for example), it shouldn't cause the whole order to be sent from another warehouse because our system determines that is what is most affordable for us (my presumption of what may happening).

 

I want to provide the best shopping experience with the fastest delivery speed (even if it costs us a little more to make that happen). That is how we will earn and keep your business. Sometimes it takes conversations like the one we are having here today to bring certain practices to light that may have made sense when they were concocted in a conference room, but do not make as much sense in reality, especially if we set certain service expectations and do not live up to them.

 

In any case, please be patient with me/us as we get to the bottom of this. Once I know more, I will divulge it all here for you guys!

 

Thanks,

 

Jeff @ Marine Depot

[lkoechle]

Hi lkoechle,

 

Would you mind providing us with an order # that we can reference? About 90% of shoppers are receiving orders within two business days now that we opened up the second warehouse. Two weeks seems insanely long unless you ordered something that was backordered or drop-shipped from the manufacturer. I would be more than happy to take a look.

 

Thank you,

 

Jeff @ Marine Depot

This was two years ago, so probably before you opened a second warehouse

[BRTNreef]

i just want to say all the stuff i ordered from MD has always been shipped and delivered in 2 day or less. I think people are little crazy about shipping dates now since amazon prime has came out.

[ninjamyst]

my orders from MD used to take a long time but now gets here within 3 days so i been a happy camper. with their new rewards program and new website, they are hard to beat in terms of pricing, ease of use, and shipping speed. if only they carry Aquaforest stuff....

[StinkyBunny]

Marine Depot is one of the few that I have never had a serious issue with. I had one issue and they bent over backwards to make it right, others could take a lesson from Marine Depot.

[KyleAwesome]

i just want to say all the stuff i ordered from MD has always been shipped and delivered in 2 day or less. I think people are little crazy about shipping dates now since amazon prime has came out.

 

Its crazy the stuff I ordered from Las Vegas on 1/25/17 will reach my house in Portland OR 2/3/17?

[BRTNreef]

 

Its crazy the stuff I ordered from Las Vegas on 1/25/17 will reach my house in Portland OR 2/3/17?

I am close to philly too.

[Marine Depot]

Sure, I'll shoot you a PM.

We are still looking into this. I will follow-up again, I just didn't want to leave you hanging in the meantime or think that we'd forgotten about you!

 

Jeff @ Marine Depot

[reefist]

I bet you stand in front of the microwave and complain that the food is taking too long

[Marine Depot]

Its crazy the stuff I ordered from Las Vegas on 1/25/17 will reach my house in Portland OR 2/3/17?

 

Free economy shipping can take up to 7 business days for delivery.

 

Orders $199+ are upgraded automatically to UPS Ground. The delivery speed from our West Coast warehouse (Nevada) to you (Oregon) is typically 3 business with this level of service.

 

You can also upgrade any order from our free economy shipping to UPS ground for only $4.99.

 

I will get back to you about the issue of items shipping from the further warehouse! Thank you for your patience in the meantime.

 

Jeff @ Marine Depot

[KyleAwesome]

 

Free economy shipping can take up to 7 business days for delivery.

 

Orders $199+ are upgraded automatically to UPS Ground. The delivery speed from our West Coast warehouse (Nevada) to you (Oregon) is typically 3 business with this level of service.

 

You can also upgrade any order from our free economy shipping to UPS ground for only $4.99.

 

I will get back to you about the issue of items shipping from the further warehouse! Thank you for your patience in the meantime.

 

Jeff @ Marine Depot

 

Hey Jeff,

 

The hell I've been giving you aside, I wanted to let you know that the various packages showed up today, and I want to give your warehouse folks some kudos, the exterior box was destroyed, I had little hope the tank would be in one piece, but low and behold it seems to be intact! Good on them. I'll do a leak test tonight/tomorrow but otherwise should be good to go.

 

Thanks again, I hope y'alls process improvement discussions have proven useful.

 

PS: To those giving me flack, I'm just as vocal when a company (mine or otherwise) does something wrong as when they exceed expectations, as thats really all this world is nowadays, set expectations and under promise/over deliver.

[Marine Depot]

 

Hey Jeff,

 

The hell I've been giving you aside, I wanted to let you know that the various packages showed up today, and I want to give your warehouse folks some kudos, the exterior box was destroyed, I had little hope the tank would be in one piece, but low and behold it seems to be intact! Good on them. I'll do a leak test tonight/tomorrow but otherwise should be good to go.

 

Thanks again, I hope y'alls process improvement discussions have proven useful.

 

PS: To those giving me flack, I'm just as vocal when a company (mine or otherwise) does something wrong as when they exceed expectations, as thats really all this world is nowadays, set expectations and under promise/over deliver.

 

Thanks for following up.

 

We always welcome your feedback. That is how we improve! We take all customer feedback extremely seriously.

 

The investigation into why your order was sent from the further warehouse is still ongoing. Problem 1 is that there was lapse in communicating available inventory. We had 5 of the CustomCaddy in stock in that warehouse—so your whole order should have shipped from there. Problem 2 is that the single CustomCaddy could have shipped separately from the distant warehouse while the bulk of your order is fulfilled by the warehouse closest to you for faster delivery.

 

We are working on both fronts and we'll get these problems resolved ASAP. Let us know how the leak test goes!

 

Thanks for shopping,

 

Jeff @ Marine Depot

[Water Dog]

I dunno. I find it a bit selfish when people complain about FREE shipping. If you want it faster, pay the extra for expedited shipping and you'll get it faster. Am I missing something here? Kudos to MD for even offering free shipping. I remember when people on another forum were doing the same thing and complaining when BRS switched to free shipping as well. If you want it faster pay for it, don't complain when you're not.

 

My 2 cents.

[ninjamyst]

I dunno. I find it a bit selfish when people complain about FREE shipping. If you want it faster, pay the extra for expedited shipping and you'll get it faster. Am I missing something here? Kudos to MD for even offering free shipping. I remember when people on another forum were doing the same thing and complaining when BRS switched to free shipping as well. If you want it faster pay for it, don't complain when you're not.

 

My 2 cents.

it's the Amazon Prime Effect