Light bulb shipping

[Covey]

I want to start of by saying I order like half of my supplies from you guys and I am a happy PA customer but one thing bothers me. What is the deal on the $20 surcharge on shipping VHO/t-5 bulbs. I thought is was paying for some extra nice shipping container but it is just a cardboard triangle. I ordered a second batch of bulbs from Dr. Fosters Smith and got the same triangle cardboard for free. So what am I paying for?

[premiumaquatics]

Hi,

The 20.00 is not really a surcharge, but close to actual cost. Those are not just normal triangle boxes. We have those custom cut and we use double coragated cardboard and custom die cut foam. It's a UPS approved box for shipping which is really rare to have a box stand up to UPS's standards, especially for shipping light bulbs.

We invested over 10,000 dollars for those boxes for about a year supply. So they are very expensive. The other thing is it's dimensional weight as well. They only weight a few pounds, but it's over 30 pounds dimensional weight due to the size.

We on average either break even or loose money shipping those. Shipping one to California cost over 35 dollars, where shipping to Ohio would be less, so we average it out to 20.00 and hope we level off in the long run.

So we try to be as competitive as possible, but want to make sure we ship your package safe as well. I don't know what Dr.sFoster uses, it might be the same box, or simular with only single wall cardboard, but they also have several million dollar budget, so I'm sure they get a great deal on theres.

thanks

jason
sales@premiumaquatics.com