Purchasing from Marine Depot U.S.
 

Does anyone have any experience with purchasing hard goods in the US, specifically Marine Depot?

A few years back I wanted something from Marine Depot and they didn't ship to Canada. Now they ship to Canada but use FedEx...<shudder>.

I've always found Premium Aquatics to have similar prices and stock, and I have used them for years for things I can't get (or get economically) here in Canada. And they use USPS if you like. :biggrin:

If that helps.

I did a long time ago but I don't think they ship USPS so you will have to pay $$$ on brokerage fees that the Couriers charge you (around $30US).

I did have a good experience with them though.

Cheers,
Vic [veng68]

Did you make an account and go right up to the checkout page? Their shipping quote was pretty scary....and the fact that they use fedex drove me away.

My total order from marine depot was about $150. When I received the package I had to pay another $50. I vowed to never buy from them again. 33% is a little too high for me to paying for brokerage, ect.

I recommend trying to stay in Canada or going with other american sellers that offer deals on broker fees.

Well, I bit the bullet and placed my order. I couldn't find the plumbing fittings anywhere else. Shipping UPS was $17.47. We'll see what happens with the brokerage bill.

US suppliers
 

I don't know what kind of hard goods you are wanting to buy.One store i can vouch for is saltycritter,amazing service,and they ship usps priority.I bought a sedra 5000 pump for my euroreef.It was just shy of a 100 american shipped,the postal dude got 15 bucks,for tax,duty.And it took less then 2 weeks from order date.

Not sure if you have shipped with ups but if there is brokerage to be paid by you. Ups will charge you a COD fee as well. You can avoid this by calling ups with a credit card number once it is in the system.

Yah I called UPS and gave them my credit card number. When they come to drop the package on their first attempt and Im not home they can just leave it at the door. I hated having to leave cheques.

I was very impressed with there website and there stock... but when it came time to order it took them a while to reply back to my order. Where then they told me they needed a copy of both sides of my credit card and drivers license faxed to them to process my order. (Thinking to myself next they will want my social insurance number). Anyways canceled my order and went with J&L and had to wait for items on back order.

I am sure there have been many good experiences here with marine depot and I wish mine could have been as well :)

Ya, this is what's scaring me off of them.
Has anyone ordered from Aqua Cave? How'd that go?

Thanx much,

I recently ordered with Aqua Cave and my ordering experience was really very good. When you order they tell you that all international orders will have to wait for them to e-mail you the actually shipping charge.

I bought a skimmer.

They shipped it USPS and when it got here, all I paid was the tax and the $5 Handling fee that Canada Post charges.

I had a problem with something being broken and they replaced it post haste with excellent customer service. I would recommend them.

Thanx. I'll be ordering a CO2 check valve from them then. Can you recall how long it took them to email you and, overall, how long it took for you to get the skimmer?

Thanx,

When I ordered, I was a little miffed it took about 2 days for them to e-mail me back...but from there it was very good service. The skimmer took about 14 days to arrive. Make sure if your item meets the free shipping amount (which doesn't apply in Canada) that they give you the $10 discount that they do give International orders for that size.

The only thing I will say is that I saw the skimmer come on sale at Marine Depot the day after I ordered and they were not willing to negotiate on matching the price...but I'm not sure I blame them.

Thanx again. The valve I want costs $22USD, so I doubt I'll qualify for the discount, but good info just the same. Anyway, thanx again. Off I go to the Aqua Cave site to place the order :smile:.

Oh...and FWIW, I researched trying to find a CO2 check valve from any one of the sponsors, but to no avail.

Cheers,

I just bought a Sundial nova light from them....they charged me for fedex ($90) and sent it by mail....then when it crossed the border they chared me an additional $125 for shipping!!!! so in total...the light that they sold me for $260 cost me over $425. I think I would buy Canadian from now on (unless the dollar gets better)

Or if you had a US post box just across the line, you might be able to do better

"Them" being Marine Depot or Aqua Cave?

I sure hope they don't charge me that kinda shipping for my two tiny little check valves :surprise:.

FWIW, Aqua Cave sent me an email pretty much right away, after ordering. The email had all the usual happy stuff. "Thank you for shopping Aqua Cave . com", yada yada yada. But then it went on to say "Provided below are the details of your order", of which no details were "provided below". Their website has an order tracking feature, so we'll see.

Cheers,

sorry that was marine depot

Phew! And I guess I should say sorry for talking about Aqua Cave so much in a thread about Marine Depot :redface:.

well, let me know how everything works with Aqua Cave......as I am interested in some equipment they have.

Update on my Aqua Cave order:

They sent me a second email 3 days after I placed the order, which is fine since I placed the order last Friday. Second email came on the Monday. In other words, I got the second email the next business day.

The email stated that the shipping charge would be $17 USD (for a $43.90 USD order) via USPS, and asked me if I agreed to this.

I then got a third email, same day, which is a copy of the invoice. No taxes showed on the invoice. Just product cost and shipping. The email body also had text, part of which indicated that "Tracking information will be emailed to you as soon as it is available.". I have received no tracking information thus far.

I logged into my account on their website today to access the tracking feature. There was no tracking info regarding my order. Something else I noticed while logged in is my order has gone from $43.90 to $48.85. I'll have to ask them about that :confused:.

It's been only one week, but I do have concerns.

Cheers,

Thanks for the update.....keep me posted

Hmm...that doesn't sound as good as my experience. Hopefully this turns out for you as I was planning to buy from them again but if my experience was a fluke I'll re-think it.

Update on my AquaCave order....
I received it today.
I never did get a reply on my query about the $48.85 vs $43.90.
I went back on the site today and discovered the difference is $4.95 shipping. But I was charged the original quote of $17 for shipping. :question:.

So, to summarize...
Product cost $43.90 + $17 shipping = $60.90USD.
I was charged $76.83CDN on my credit card. (Today's conversion rate puts $60.90USD at $77.01, so close enough).

COD charge by Canada Post was $2.66GST + $3.73PST + $5 handling fee = $11.39.
Total cost to me, for two items totally $43.90US, was $76.83 + $11.39 = $88.22CDN.

Postage on the package $2.14USD.

Having said all that, I'm a little perturbed about the $17USD shipping charge. What a cash grab that is.

On the other hand, I placed this order late Friday Jan 9th, so in reality AquaCave would not have seen my order until Monday Jan 12th. That means they got my order to me in 9 business days. They are in Illinois.
Seeing as I get Christmas cards from my brother, sent from New Jersey, in mid January, this is pretty good.

Overall, I'm quite satisfied. I wish I could say excellent, but that damn shipping charge prevents me from doing so.

Cheers,

Most companies charge enough to cover the postage the packaging and labor in their shipping, but sometimes shipping is a bit high.

So....what was it that you ordered?

And how much would it have cost if you ordered it from J+L?

I would be contacting them on the double shipping cost...I think they made a mistake and would be open to correcting it. Just my 2 cents though.

Two CO2 line check valves. J&L doesn't have them. Or OA...or mops...or PG...or Big Al's....or.... I tried to keep it in Canada, but couldn't find what I was looking for. Headed south. It was my first purchase from the States, online, so I was wary.

They never charged me the $4.95. I don't know where that came from. Must have been just an admin error on the website. It was just the one $17 charge, but still....17 bucks for shipping two little check valves? Yes, they contacted me to see if I agreed to it, but that was before I saw the postage on the package. $2.14US. And handling? Sheesh. I never could understand why companies charge for handling. What?,....do they have to bring an extra guy in to take two little check valves off the shelf and package them up?

Cheers :smile:,

I have purchased from these guys lots of times. Never had a problem. Sometimes their prices are just too good to pass up. They have always shipped UPS to me and i was never much more than JL. However you may have to pay extra customs fees for importing of goods, depending on how much you are spending.

I also had a few questions and found their customer service very good.

Martin

Marine Depot or Aqua Cave?

After the success of this "first time for me" US order, I decided to venture further and placed a few other non aquarium related orders (video game strategy guides). Ordered one from EB Games...$14.99US shipping. The other two were off ebay. $26.89US shipping for one and $30.89US shipping for the other. I suppose many folks are already aware, and I am just slow to learn,...it appears high shipping costs from the US to Canada are the norm. Funny thing with the two ebay purchases is each of those guides cost me only a buck and two bits. It's the 30x shipping costs that make it regular cost and then some.

Cheers,

Marine Depot. Just looked over my past orders, the most I ever paid for shipping was $14.24 on a $100 order. All the other times it was around the $10 mark. That was UPS Standard shipping which I always choose.

Martin

FWIW, I'm getting a refund of $10.36US on the two ebay orders. Both of those orders are from the same place so they are combining the two into one shipment. Anyway, since these items are not aquarium related, I'll shut up now.

Cheers,