Broken Bulbs from Marine Deport = Bad Day

[IFLY2HIGH]

Upon arrival of my new 24" PFO PC retro kit, one bulb didn't work. Nothing seemed broke but it just wouldn't lite. The other light worked fine, and worked in both sockets. The other just didn't work. So I called them up, they requested for me to send it back. Well it turns out that UPS broke the damn thing in shipment. This was even in the orgional packageing Marine Depot sent me the complete kit in. Well it turns out that there not gona do ANYTHING for me. I sent them a semi-angry e-mail back to them and well see what happens. This was not my first order from them, but now it's possibly gona be the last. I ordered almost 200$ of stuff, and they won't even replace what was already defective and they even wanted me to send it back. I've had defective bulbs from Pet Warehouse and That Pet Place and they've replaced the bulbs no queestions, no hastle at all. The only thing I can say, is at least they e-mailed me that it came in broken.

Arg this totaly sucks.

[Green Mariner]

Are you saying that the bulb was broken before they recieved it from their supplier, or it was broken in shipment to you?

Either way they should replace the bulb, IMHO, I would return the entire order if they refuse to do anything.

[zerj]

I recently ordered a lighting setup from Champion Lighting and two bulbs came broken. They were real helpful. They had me call UPS and tell them that the item was broken and that it costed $50 dollars each. Have them give me a claim number and then call Champion Back give them the claim number and then they would immediatly ship out the replacements. I never had to send back the broken bulbs just had to save them for a week in case UPS wanted to look at them.


I am surprised that they won't do the same.

[MattM]

We occasionally have to send out replacement bulbs when UPS trashes them, but I can maybe fill you in on why Marine Depot is taking this approach...

Whenever we have to send out replacements, its always a 100% loss for us. We don't even bother to file a claim with UPS anymore because EVERY SINGLE TIME UPS replies with a form letter saying the "packaging was insufficient".

It makes no difference how we package it, and I'm sure they don't actually check it. If it was a light bulb, it gets the form letter.

I can tell you that no amount of packaging is sufficient when the bulb gets run over by a 2 ton UPS van. Yes, we actually had a customer tell us there were tire tracks on the crushed box! We sent replacements, but its really more of a goodwill gesture than a carefully considered business decision. I dunno, maybe Marine Depot feels they have all the goodwill they can use. :D

[zerj]

In my case UPS never even picked up the broken package. So I don't know how they would claim that there wasn't enough packaging.

However I shouldn't think that there needs to be goodwill involved. If bulbs break 5% of the time in shipping and UPS will never reemburse I would have no problems if you raised prices 5% in an effort to self-insure the shipping.


Zerj

[TonyHNYC]

I think your best approach right now and I firmly believe that you have the right to - call up your credit card and tell them what happened. They should be able to take care of you - by doing so, there a chance that the vendor will not get their payment...I don't believe that the customer is responsible for this. Either the company or UPS will..If neither one is willing to take responsibility, then call up your credit card and file a complaint against them... You will get the credit back until they resolve it with you..hope this helps..

[IFLY2HIGH]

------
First Message from Marine Depot:

We received your bulb earlier today but it was shattered. Since there is no way of testing the bulb or getting a replacement from the manufacturer, we are not able to ship you a replacement. However, you can file a claim with UPS for the damage item.
------
My Response:

Well now I'm speachless. I received the lighting kit, one bulb works one doesn't. I have to send the friggin thing back, and ups breaks it. I ordered almost a 200$ order, one bulb was defective on arrival, and you're telling me I'm now a bulb short? Come on now, I know you guys can do better than this. I've had defective bulbs from Pet Warehouse and That Pet Place and both have sent new tubes to replace the damaged ones with no problems.
------
Their Next Response:

If the package was not damaged in transit and the bulb is in tact, we would definitely be more than happy to replace the bulb for you. However, since
the bulb is shattered, we have no way of testing the bulb and the manufacturer will not replace the bulb. For this reason, we are not able to replace the bulb in this situation. However, all UPS packages are insured for $100 so you are covered there. As the insurance claim as settled with the shipper, UPS would settle the claim with you rather than us.
-------------------

Now, who can say that the first shipper, Airborne, damaged it upon shipment to me? All I know is that I had two bulbs, one lights, one doesn't. The light that doesn't work, the glass was not apparently broken. I guess this is why they wanted me to ship it back to them, so they could claim it was a defect to the manufacture and get a replacement at no cost to them. I've dealt many times with the UPS caims office and that is nothing to hastle with for a 30$ light bulb. It took 5 weeks and alot of agravation just for them to cover a 300$ CRT monitor they dropped on the floor during shipment.

I wonder what they would of done if I said it was in pieces upon arrival? None-the-less I will not be placing another order with the company if they do not resolve this issue. I've got better things to do with my time that to screw around with a company that won't do anything to make a customer happy, especially when items didn't work upon arrival. Thankfully places like this, have an area to express the thoughts about company's, and how they have treated and settle issues with customers.

I'll fire another e-mail to them in the morning and see what happens.

[MickAv8r]

[MattM]

Originally posted by zerj
In my case UPS never even picked up the broken package. So I don't know how they would claim that there wasn't enough packaging.

Yeah, that's my point. The form letter from UPS is an automatic response as soon as we tell them it was a bulb.

However I shouldn't think that there needs to be goodwill involved. If bulbs break 5% of the time in shipping and UPS will never reemburse I would have no problems if you raised prices 5% in an effort to self-insure the shipping.

I agree completely. I don't support what Marine Depot did, I was just trying to explain it.

[AquaSeahorse]

I dont blame you at all from not ordering from them again. Since I read this post I will not order from them either - that's just bad customer service. I be damned if I give them my $200 for an order and this happens with no solution to the problem. If it were me I'd return the whole order. That could be a pain, but If it were me I'd do it. Than I'd order from a company that gives high quality customer service.

[MarineDepot]

Hi Eric,

I normally make it a policy not to respond to issues to these types of posts, since they usually do not seek any resolution other than slander. However, it clearly looks like you want resolution.

I was not the person taking care of this issue. However, I did touch base with Joseph, Antonio, Elvin, and my warehouse manager on this. This is the way I understand it... You received your order in good condition without apparent damage. One of your bulbs appeared defective. We asked that you send the bulb back to us so that we may test it. We got the bulb back. It arrived very badly damaged. We asked you to file a claim with UPS. You refused to.

Regarding your comment about us wanting to get the bulb replaced from the manufacturer. That is absolutely true. Our prices would be considerably higher if we did not get reimbursement from manufacturers for defective products. Manufacturers offer warranties and they are typically very happy to honor valid claims. No successful manufacturer is going to leave a consumer out to dry when one of their products show up defective. The flip side is that they almost always asks us to send back the defective items. As a consumer, I have had to give back all of my broken products before a store would give me a replacement. That is the policy that we have set up for this company. We do make exceptions to that policy, but your situation did not fit a situation that deemed an exception.

I think you might be confused with situations where you are dealing directly with the manufacturer. This is what many of our consumers do, since we are a mail order / internet company. In these situations, they manufacturer might make an exception and request us to ship the product without receiving the defective one back. However, the manufactures do reimburse us fully for the replacement.

Regarding the defective bulbs we received back, that box was damaged extremely badly. It is one of the worst ones I have seen this year. Our receiving department noticed that the box was only two-thirds to three-quarters filled with void filling peanuts and no bubble wrap was used to prevent the bulb from being damaged. Furthermore, they said it looked like you had used the same box that we had originally shipped your original order to. Please do not take this personally, but this is not a very good way to package light bulbs. I would guess that 7 or 8 out of 10 light bulbs packaged this way would arrive damaged even if UPS did not abuse the package.

Regarding the statement that Airborne delivered the items damaged to you, that is not what you had told us. If that was the case, we would have filed a claim within a hour. When we got the forms, your new bulb would be on its way.

I can understand that you probably feel like you have already been through enough frustration. However, I do ask that you please please please do file that claim with UPS. It would make a world of difference in this situation. It is obvious that the shipment was far from sufficiently packed. However, it would be hard for UPS to ignore that magnitude of damage that took place. We can't file the claim for you since you are the shipper (unless you authorize me to pretend I'm you), but I can definitely coach you on how to answer some avoid some of their form answers.

Your first email to us was this morning. In the future, give our reps a running chance. Trust me. You will not be disappointed. They are truly an awesome group of people.

Ken
marinedepot.com

[horn1004]

I normally don't like to get into these types of problems. The simple solution is for Marine Depot to show that they care and are willing to take a loss once in a while to gain customer loyalty and just send IFLY2HIGH a new bulb. If either of you try, UPS will give both you a big no on a claim for a bulb. In exchange for a couple dollars loss (how much do these bulbs REALLY cost?), you will gain the respect of everybody that visits this board.

[TonyHNYC]

Marine Depot,
Why upset your customer over something so small? I have to say that I will side with the customer. First, you don't expect us to go out and buy special wrapping materials to cover a defective item that you sent. And if so, can we charge you for that? The fact that the customer have to send something back to you cost him an extra 5 bucks. Not much but hey, your bulb does not cost that mush either. ( and btw, 5 bucks is almost 30% of the cost of the bulb!) What about his/her time going to a UPS facility? Can you cover that too? Why don't you look at the customer's side and determine whether the time and effort is really worth over somethign so small.....

[TonyHNYC]

The more I read Marine Depot's response, the more I have to say...


"Your first email to us was this morning. In the future, give our reps a running chance. Trust me. You will not be disappointed. They are truly an awesome group of people. "


so will it make a big difference if eric called? and if so, I guess their reps will tell him to go do some shopping in a hardware store for materials to pack his bulb?

[IFLY2HIGH]

Regarding the defective bulbs we received back, that box was damaged extremely badly. It is one of the worst ones I have seen this year.


Find a digital camera and snap a pic and e-mail to me then.


Our receiving department noticed that the box was only two-thirds to three-quarters filled with void filling peanuts and no bubble wrap was used to prevent the bulb from being damaged. Furthermore, they said it looked like you had used the same box that we had originally shipped your original order to.


Yep, there correct, it's the same box and exact same shipping material that the order was orgionally shipped in. The box was completly filled to the brim just as I opened it the day I recieved it.


Please do not take this personally, but this is not a very good way to package light bulbs.


None taken, but it's the same way you people shipped it to me. No bubble wrap around my bulbs. Should there of been?


Regarding the statement that Airborne delivered the items damaged to you, that is not what you had told us. If that was the case, we would have filed a claim within a hour. When we got the forms, your new bulb would be on its way.


That was a statement stating, I wonder where this would of been if I just called up and told you guys it was shattered upon arrival? Probbly would of had my bulb by now, but that is the morally wrong thing to have done. I couldn't complain, Airbone exceeded my 2nd day delivery date and was on my doorstep the day after I ordered the shipment. Now that's service.


I do ask that you please please please do file that claim with UPS. It would make a world of difference in this situation. It is obvious that the shipment was far from sufficiently packed. However, it would be hard for UPS to ignore that magnitude of damage that took place.


Fine, well do it your way. Let's see how long it's really gona take me to get a replacement bulb from UPS now.


We can't file the claim for you since you are the shipper (unless you authorize me to pretend I'm you), but I can definitely coach you on how to answer some avoid some of their form answers.


Send the info my way.


Your first email to us was this morning. In the future, give our reps a running chance. Trust me. You will not be disappointed. They are truly an awesome group of people.


If you recall, in both emails sent back to me, both said the same thing. We're sorry, your bulb was defective, but now it's laying on our dock in thousands of pieces, care of UPS, and we can't test it to make sure it's defective. Go call UPS and get them to replace it.

So in essance, this thread was started. What am I to do when you tell me to go claim it with UPS when technicly it wasn't there fault to begin with. You guys requested it to be sent back, so you got it, evidently not in one piece, but it's now my problem to deal with and to sort out, and still a bulb short.

[IFLY2HIGH]

A claim has been addressed and I have sent you e-mail dictating there requests to hold the package and to keep all packaging materials.

[MarineDepot]

Horn1004,

That is implying that we do NOT care. I am sure I speak for every single person here who pours their heart and soul into Marine Depot when I say I take great offense to that.

The only way we are looking to gain respect of our customers or anybody on this board is by taking care of our customers. Under normal circumstances this issue might already been taken care of. We get an inordinately high number of people that threaten us with slamming us on "message boards" or at their clubs Many times our customers are absolutely right, and they have good reason for doing so. I make mistakes all the time. Sometimes this affects my customers. They will typically get upset with me. In the heat of anger, they'll want to slam me. I completely understand this. I've seen these posts on forums in the past, and I know that I just screwed up. Now, the other half of customers threatening to "put us out of business" via message boards are just trying to serve themselves. I get odd request ranging from "I demand a free protein skimmer or I will slam you on such and such message boards" to "If you don't next day air the bulb (this bulb was dropped; he admitted it) free of charge, I will spend the rest of my life bad mouthing you to all my friends and everybody come across." I have to say, I can not even imagine saying that to anybody let alone getting an effective response from that. To me, that is crazy. For these customers, I politely tell them to do what they please, but that we can not do business.

When a post like this floats up on a message forum, it is really difficult to evaluate what that person is looking for. Let's take Eric's case for example, he posted here exactly one minute after he sent his first email to us. When I said "give our reps a running chance," that is what I was refering to. Only Eric would have known what I was talking about.

[MarineDepot]

Tony,

Regarding your 7:38PM post, you are absolutely right. Our customers typically dictate how we do business. All I can say about what you said is that we listen to all of our customers. Some advice like to one to put a 1000 gallon tank up in our lobby or the one to run a 50% off sale (we don't make these kind of margins) might not really stick to us, but we really do listen. I can tell you that I do.

The last sentence implies that I do not look at things from the customer's side. I'm representing a company at the moment, but I am a customer almost every single day. This thread doesn't show it, but I think that Marine Depot generally has excellent customer service. My personal customer service philosophy I will give something like 25% more customer service than I would ever ask if I when a customer. Believe me, being in customer service, I have let people know I was not taken care of when I was not. That 25% number is just an arbitrary number. Customer service can not be quantitated, but I'm sure you get the idea.

To anybody reading this that doesn't feel like I have gone out of my way to make your experience with us a really happy one, please email me.

[MarineDepot]

Reef Central Public,

I get calls every week from people telling me they are members of "the Reef Central board." I would say that 95% of the people I have met that have said this wear it like a badge of honor. I know most of you guys are team players. You know we are sponsors here and just want support Reef Central by letting me know that our sponsorship here is doing good things. Many of you guys are simply proud to be part of an organization that is doing something positive for our hobby.

You guys are some of my favorite customers. The enthusiasm for the hobby just ooozes out of you guys and it really does make a difference in my day.

I'm stating this because the other posts make it seem like I hate Reef Central members. On the contrary, it has always been a pleasure dealing with most of you guys and I always do try to go the extra mile for you guys.

This is as ugly a thread as I've been in in a long time, and I really have no interest in fighting with anybody just to fight the good fight. Judging from Eric's last post, he Eric is looking to make this a public fight. Honestly, I want no part in that.

In the end, Eric is not going to get the short end of the stick. Our customer service policy is going to see to that. The long end of the stick, well that just depends on whether he screams at me or not when I call him :-).

I hope that that is a good enough explanation to everything and that I have addressed everybody.

[MarineDepot]

Reef Central Public,

I get calls every week from people telling me they are members of "the Reef Central board." I would say that 95% of the people I have met that have said this wear it like a badge of honor. I know most of you guys are team players. You know we are sponsors here and just want support Reef Central by letting me know that our sponsorship here is doing good things. Many of you guys are simply proud to be part of an organization that is doing something positive for our hobby.

You guys are some of my favorite customers. The enthusiasm for the hobby just ooozes out of you guys and it really does make a difference in my day.

I'm stating this because the other posts make it seem like I hate Reef Central members. On the contrary, it has always been a pleasure dealing with most of you guys and I always do try to go the extra mile for you guys.

This is as ugly a thread as I've been in in a long time, and I really have no interest in fighting with anybody just to fight the good fight. Judging from Eric's last post, he Eric is looking to make this a public fight. Honestly, I want no part in that.

In the end, Eric is not going to get the short end of the stick. Our customer service policy is going to see to that. The long end of the stick, well that just depends on whether he screams at me or not when I call him :-).

.....

[IFLY2HIGH]

I placed my order with you on november 19th. I recieved it the 20th. That day I called to get a replacement and you requested it back. It shipped out after Thanksgiving on the 26th. You guys recieved it December 4th. Okay so ups screwed up and messed up the package. It'll be another week before they get around to looking at the package. Then another to decide if the'll cover it. It's been 2 weeks so far since you've known my bulb was bad. Now other companies in my past have been able to replace my bulbs no hastle at all. I just call up like I did to you guys, and they said we'll send a new one. Instead you guys requested the bulb.

Do you think that I've not waited enough time for a new replacement bulb yet? If this happened with some of the other compaies, this would of already been replaced.

[MarineDepot]

This is Eric Lindquist, right?

I called and left you a message on your machine right after my last post. Instead of a call back, you post here.

Like I said, I'm not fighting your fight here.

[IFLY2HIGH]

Well it looks like UPS has wrapped this one up. Acording to a note left on the table, UPS is covering my shipment that went back to Marine Depot. Still will have to wait for the forms, fill them out and send them in, then they'll send the check. Again nothing but waiting and playing games for another week.

I'm still mad and I'm still fustrated knowing that this could of been fixed quicker than this wihtout all the hastle.

[IFLY2HIGH]

Originally posted by MarineDepot
This is Eric Lindquist, right?

I called and left you a message on your machine right after my last post. Instead of a call back, you post here.

Like I said, I'm not fighting your fight here.

Well, my first thing I do when I wake up in the afternoon is to get on the internet. Not look at my Answering Machine! I got your message just a few min ago after I already posted.

I've gota head out for awhile and I'll be back home after 5:30 EST. You can call me anytime after that as long as it's not past 10:00 my time.

[zerj]

I must admit one thing seems a little odd. It sounds like if the bulb arrived obviously broken, Marine Depot would have taken the matter up with UPS and you would have had the bulb the next day. Now since the bulb was not obviously broken (It still could have broken in shipping however) it takes a lot longer as the old bulb has to be returned prior to sending the new one out.

It seems strange that the customer is trusted that the bulb is broken but not when it just doesn't work. I recognise that you are probably trying to get the credit from a different place (the manufacturer instead of the shipper) but it really doesn't seem cost effective to ship a $40 dollar bulb around the country for it. It feels wrong that if the customer were to step on the bulb after they saw it didn't work that things would have been much simpler. I am not recommending fraud here it just seems silly.

As far as it not being packed properly for the return are you expecting the customer to buy the extra packing materials? and if so who pays for it?

As a suggestion what I would like to see of a customer service department in this situation would be to send out a new bulb the next day WITH a postage-paid mailing label and new packaging for the return of the old bulb. Then if the bulb breaks in shipping Marine Depot would be the shipper and not the customer then they can work it out with UPS. Meanwhile the customer already has his new working bulb.

[MarineDepot]

I'm sorry. I jumped the gun. That was how it looked from my end.

[TonyHNYC]

let me summarize something on why I feel that Marine Depot should be responsible. I speak from a 5 year experience with a trucking company and now as a business consultant. First, customer receives a bulb that is broken or dysfunctional. At that point, it is the SENDER that should be responsible and NOT the customer. Marine Depot delegated the work to the customer and seek funding from another source. Even this kind of dirty work should be taken up by customer service with Marine Depot. To the customer, it was broken intially! Let's keep that in mind. So to Marine Depot, you saved yourself 40 bucks and that's great. Is that 40 bucks really that much to upset a few customers here and there?

[Bubafat]

In all honesty i have to side with Marine depot on this one. They are trying to solve this problem calmly and appologetically, simmer down and wait a few days.

Although I'm not accusing anyone of this, but it is possible that a customer gets a new URI bulb, figures out that they can get a free one by replacing the new one with an old one, break it, send it back, and expect the company to fork over a new one. Its sad, but it does happen.

Buba

[pillions]

I have to say that Marine Depot has always provided excellent service. For instance, when they made tweaks to the website, we exchanged numerous emails discussing certain new features for the site. Honestly, I was totally surprised to see him take an active interest in my feedback and respond with a sincere intent (some of my suggestions were implemented) - no form letters or yada yada yada statements.

When I read through this thread, it becomes clear that Marine Depot has followed their customer service policy. The fact that the customer, Eric, does not want to contact the UPS claims office because he "dealt many times with the UPS caims office and that is nothing to hastle with for a 30$ light bulb" because "It took 5 weeks and alot of agravation just for them to cover a 300$ CRT monitor they dropped on the floor during shipment" is not a good reason to blame Marine Depot.

Once a Uhaul trailer slipped from an employees hands and dented my car in a Uhaul parking lot. Their insurance made it very challenging to process the claim - hoping people would not bother. It required a lot of determination on my part but eventually I won out and received a check.

Eric, I understand the excitment of ordering something only to be dissapointed when it arrives broken. In this case the problem could have originated from several sources but the condition of the return shipment makes for a clear case against UPS, thus take up the issue with UPS. I am disapointed to see a good company (Marine Depot) flamed because someone didn't want to endure the hassle of filing a claim with UPS.

[JJSTROKE]

In all honesty i have to side with Marine depot on this one. They are trying to solve this problem calmly and appologetically, simmer down and wait a few days.

Although I'm not accusing anyone of this, but it is possible that a customer gets a new URI bulb, figures out that they can get a free one by replacing the new one with an old one, break it, send it back, and expect the company to fork over a new one. Its sad, but it does happen.

Buba



Wait just a minute here. Never once did I read Eric handling things the wrong way. Never once did he curse, slander, cut down, or make derogatory remarks to Marine Depot. He stated the facts of the case, and that he "May not order from them again" Never said anything like screw so and so they can kiss this and that... Kudos to Eric. He stated that he sent several emails to Marine Depot. Each time receiving the same answer that they were unable to replace the bulb. From the way I see it, Ken (Marine Depot) is the one talking trash to the customer.

Our receiving department noticed that the box was only two-thirds to three-quarters filled with void filling peanuts and no bubble wrap was used to prevent the bulb from being damaged. Furthermore, they said it looked like you had used the same box that we had originally shipped your original order to. Please do not take this personally, but this is not a very good way to package light bulbs. I would guess that 7 or 8 out of 10 light bulbs packaged this way would arrive damaged even if UPS did not abuse the package.

Marine Depot, this is implying that you ship bulbs the wrong way to your customers, and I assume that only 7 or 8 out of 10 customers who order bulbs from you receive there bulbs in tact. It is not fair to tell the customer they 'should' have shipped an item differently, especially differently then how you shipped the item to the customer in the first place.

Bubafart, no offense to you. But Eric ordered the entire lighting kit... not just a new bulb. For a $200 order, not replacing a single bulb worth $20 cost if that much to me seems totally silly.

Pillions:

When I read through this thread, it becomes clear that Marine Depot has followed their customer service policy. The fact that the customer, Eric, does not want to contact the UPS claims office because he "dealt many times with the UPS caims office and that is nothing to hastle with for a 30$ light bulb" because "It took 5 weeks and alot of agravation just for them to cover a 300$ CRT monitor they dropped on the floor during shipment" is not a good reason to blame Marine Depot.

Ok. First things first. The fact is, that Eric received a NON WORKING BULB. Before any other issue is introduced here... Eric, the customer, received a bulb that DOES NOT WORK. This means, that Marine Depot, should replace the bulb.

Eric does exactly what they ask him to do, return the bulb. Like stated above, he returns it exactly in the same packaging he received it in. Not once did Marine Depot say please return the item to us wrapped a special way etc.. The fact is that the customer still does not have a working product. Marine Depot should replace the bulb, to provide the customer with a working light kit. What if there is livestock at stake here? If he had $500 worth of corals wiped out by almost 3 weeks with no lighting, would Marine Depot be at fault? I think so.
Pillions, the reason to blame Marine Depot here, is that instead of shipping a replacement bulb first, and dealing with the claim and all the other problems second, they choose to tell the customer that its not their problem.

IMHO, UPS is the one getting screwed on the deal, cause they are in essence having to PAY FOR A DEFECTIVE BULB. I would LOVE to see what would happen if the customer called UPS and told them that!

Once a Uhaul trailer slipped from an employees hands and dented my car in a Uhaul parking lot. Their insurance made it very challenging to process the claim - hoping people would not bother. It required a lot of determination on my part but eventually I won out and received a check.

I am sorry to hear about your car. That just goes to show how companies choose to fight little things like that instead of satisfying a paying customer and taking care of the problem as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Eric, I understand the excitment of ordering something only to be dissapointed when it arrives broken. In this case the problem could have originated from several sources but the condition of the return shipment makes for a clear case against UPS, thus take up the issue with UPS. I am disapointed to see a good company (Marine Depot) flamed because someone didn't want to endure the hassle of filing a claim with UPS.

Again, UPS is essentially paying for a defective bulb. Definetly UPS fault though! Its funny, Eric could have LIED and said, my bulb was shattered. He would be kicking back enjoying his well lit aquarium right now if he lied. Instead he chose to be honest. You can see where that has got him to.

I don't see at what point Eric flamed Marine Depot. I can see where Marine Depot has argued with Eric over a very inexpensive bulb.

IMHO, Marine Depot is using UPS as the scapegoat here. I do not think this is fair, or good buisness.

I have emailed Marine Depot a couple times asking questions about a few items I was planning on ordering. They have been more then helpful returning my emails promptly and answered everything I asked (silly little things too :)

I was planning on a decent order from them, berlin skimmer, pump (not rio!), icecap 36" 3 bulb retro kit with icecap timer, and a few other small items. I think I will reevaluate where I will buy this at. I have heard of other stores offering superior customer service when dealing with bulbs. Since reading this thread, I am very skeptical on ordering 3 36" bulbs from Marine Depot. Especially since its the holidays, I don't want my 7 or 8 out of 10 chance in getting my bulbs in tact to be any lower then that.

[Micky]

yada yada yada...... shut up and fill out the paper work!!!!!

[JohnL]

Originally posted by Micky
yada yada yada...... shut up and fill out the paper work!!!!!

OK, I think this one has run its course.