Welcome to BulkReefSupply.com

[snarkys]

Bulk Reef Supply is a source for all of your most common reefing supplies. We buy direct from the source and package in bulk. This results in dramatic savings.

We are located in the Minnesota, United States and very close to the Canadian border which allows for reasonable shipping costs. We have a close relationship with UPS and they have provided us with a special program that drastically reduces the brokerage fees. Any order under $200 in value has a flat $10 brokerage rate. For more details please check out our shipping page. http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/i2/Shi...formation.html

We are dedicated to providing quality products and service to our Canadian neighbors. Please feel free to share any thoughts on how we may be able to further improve our service to Canada.

***Special note*** If we are able to significantly increase the volume we send to Canada it is very possible we will be able to further reduce brokerage fees or even completely eliminate them.

[mark]

Good to hear and the brokerage fees, that's the main reason I stay away from ordering from the US as most companies insist on UPS (forcing the fees). Don't forget about USPS though.

[snarkys]

There are a variety of reasons why companies don't like using USPS. They are extremely unfriendly with businesses, tracking is worthless, time in transit is ridiculous, insurance claims are impossible... really in every other way than price they provide a substandard service.

We feel UPS serves us and our customers better and rather than focus on substandard services we want to focus on how we can make a quality service affordable. We feel this program has achieved that for 95% of our typical orders. If we can significantly increase the volume to Canada we will be able to get the brokerage fees even lower or get rid of them entirely. This would make UPS the obvious choice every time.


That said , if anyone requests in the customer comments that the package be sent USPS we will ship with them and refund the difference or contact you if there is additional charges.

[littlesilvermax]

He is right.

The post office for in Canada Deliveries, UPS (with decent brokerage fees) for X-border stuff. UPS charges $10, Post Office charges $5. Not too bad.

[findingnemo1]

Ordered from them just last week....Got a tub of carbon,d.i and phosphate remover plus some bottles for the do it yourself calcium additives...Very resonably priced.Great email service and it was 14.00 for brokerage and gst fees that i paid for when the dropped it off.

I'm impressed and will be back to shop for more

[Pan]

Yep, I too have used them quite often as well. Top notch.

[Bryan]

Originally Posted by snarkys

There are a variety of reasons why companies don't like using USPS. They are extremely unfriendly with businesses, tracking is worthless,

For those that absolutely need USPS. I think they have improved their tracking. Here is tracking info I received from USPS on a purchase from the US. Not sure what service the sender used, but I think it was priority mail with tracking. The delivery time wasn't so bad either. The delay from attempted delivery to delivery was because I never got around to picking up the parcel from the post office once the delivery card was left


Service Type: International Parcels

Shipment Activity Location Date & Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Delivered Abroad CANADA 02/08/08 6:44pm

Attempted Delivery Abroad CANADA 02/02/08
12:53pm
Attempted Delivery

Out of Foreign Customs CANADA 02/01/08 3:10pm

Into Foreign Customs CANADA 02/01/08 5:01am

Arrived Abroad CANADA 02/01/08 5:01am

International Dispatch UNITED STATES 01/29/08 11:01pm

Acceptance ALABASTER AL 35007 01/25/08 2:32pm

[kat]

on the site it lists the brokerage fees, but what are the actual shipping rates?

[Bryan]

Add an item to the shopping cart. It then gives you options to select the shipping mode and rates

[snarkys]

Originally Posted by Bryan

For those that absolutely need USPS. I think they have improved their tracking. Here is tracking info I received from USPS on a purchase from the US. Not sure what service the sender used, but I think it was priority mail with tracking. The delivery time wasn't so bad either. The delay from attempted delivery to delivery was because I never got around to picking up the parcel from the post office once the delivery card was left


Service Type: International Parcels

Shipment Activity Location Date & Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Delivered Abroad CANADA 02/08/08 6:44pm

Attempted Delivery Abroad CANADA 02/02/08
12:53pm
Attempted Delivery

Out of Foreign Customs CANADA 02/01/08 3:10pm

Into Foreign Customs CANADA 02/01/08 5:01am

Arrived Abroad CANADA 02/01/08 5:01am

International Dispatch UNITED STATES 01/29/08 11:01pm

Acceptance ALABASTER AL 35007 01/25/08 2:32pm

really hit more miss with USPS tracking you may get this and it may not update with anything until the day it arrives. So after receiving one of these it can be pretty unnerving when you don't get anything. While the above is a step forward it's not much help to me, the number one thing I want out of tracking is to know when it is going to arrive, the above just lets you know that your package still exists and it may be getting closer : )

we are happy to ship via usps upon request but we find it is only cheaper on high value packages or packages that are light and small. A very small percentage of our orders fall into those categories.