A little annoyed with Marine Depot

[cvonseggern]

I'm a little irritated about poor communication coming from Marine Depot...seriously considering whether I will be ordering from this supplier again.

On 2/14 I ordered a PhosBan reactor, some PhosBan and a powerhead to drive it. They shipped the PhosBan and the powerhead immediately, but I received an email that the reactor was on back order. This Friday, nearly two weeks later, I emailed them to ask about the status of the reactor. The email I got back indicated that they are expecting these in the first week of March, and will ship ASAP.

I don't expect them to conjure stock out of thin air if they don't have it. BUT, nothing on the website or in the order process indicated that this was out of stock until after I finalized my order. I need this urgently to help deal with a cyano problem that's getting worse and worse. If I had known they were out of stock, I could possibly have ordered from someone who had them on the shelf. I feel a little like MarineDepot deliberately didn't tell me this was on backorder for fear of losing my business. Of course, they may well have lost all further business on account of their lousy communication. One more reason to buy from our local suppliers whenever possible, I guess.

[JimD]

Thats one reason why I rarely finalize any orders online. I always call and make sure the information is processed correctly and that the item is in stock.

[Reef69]

I agree..Marinedepot has a sucky customer service..My Gf got me the new skimmer from them, no instruction manual..took their sweet ***** time shipping it..i tried to ask them how to set it up, since there was no manual..they didnt know how to..it sucked..but i made it work..

[captexas]

Just a little note, look around and you will find other online companies are back ordered on the Phosban reactors as well. I was thinking of getting one and noticed they were not the only ones. It's not that they deliberately didn't tell you, it's probably just that their online system was not updated. Also, as with any company, if they expect a shipment of product in and don't get it, there is not much they can do about it but sit and wait just as you must do now. I'm not making excuses for them, but I seriously doubt they did anything on purpose.

[Jenn]

I wonder whats the deal with these? Are they always this popular??? I need one too.

[wkopplin]

Same thing happens with Tunze products. One store runs out and all of the others do too. I have always been very happy with Marine Depot, but I do call to confirm stock items, which has avoided similar problems that no doubt would have happened.

[captexas]

Yeah, it's a common problem with all online vendors. While it has happened to me once or twice, I have had far more good experiences than negative experiences. Have to remember that while a LFS may have a few hundred customers, an online vendor has several thousands. AND not all of them shop online, many call and/or fax in their orders, so the online inventories are not always 100% accurate. As Blake mentioned, calling to confirm helps.

[captexas]

Josh - I've had issues with CA on backordered items in the past as well. It took like 2 months and many, many emails to get it sorted out. They did make things right in the end and gave great customer service after much frustration on my part.

[NaCl_H2O]

The online sites with inventory status with each item are really nice, that's why I do a majority of my online business with Premium Aquatics. However, I do a good amount with Marine Depot and have generally had very decent service, even with an occasional backorder item.

[falcondob]

I would like to put a plug in here for Alex Wolf.

He can get you just about anything you need and he's a prominent member of MAAST. He has helped me to no end, many times going FAR beyond the call of duty or friendship. :D

If anything goes wrong you can yell at him person. :angel IMHO, we should keep as much in "family" as possible.

[Instar]

Most of the time when I order from online and I never see any back order indications on the site, I call and check. The only exception is when I don't care if its backordered on me. Never have really had a problem except with the one I had some difficulty getting on the phone and then they just didn't get the sale b/c they simply just didn't care to communicate when the thing was in stock. Wasn't one of the mentioned ones though. Not many vendors have a direct connect to the inventory warehouse computer on their web site. The ones that do are pretty obvious and even then when sales are high, it may catch where my order got in just a split second too late. Over all though, on line has worked very well for me.


we should keep as much in "family" as possible.

Good point.

[Brett Wilson]

Same thing happens with Tunze products.

That's because all of their inventory filters through one man, Roger Vitco, who lives here in Austin... and it's slow to ship from Germany... They sure make neat stuff though.