We owe you a quick explanation — and an apology of sorts.
You may have noticed that our free shipping coupon now applies to orders of $99 or more, up from the $75 threshold many of you have come to count on. We genuinely wish we didn’t have to make this change, and we want to be upfront about why we did.
The honest answer
Shipping costs have gone up. A lot. And they keep going up.
Over the past several months, we’ve watched fuel surcharges, residential delivery fees, dimensional weight charges, and general rate increases pile on top of one another. We absorbed as much of it as we reasonably could, because we know how much you appreciate free shipping — and frankly, so do we when we’re the ones ordering things online. But we reached a point where the math on $75 orders simply stopped working, and we had to make a choice.
The surcharge problem nobody warns you about
One thing that’s made this especially difficult: there are now a surprising number of ZIP codes across the country where UPS and other major carriers tack on an “extended delivery area” surcharge — sometimes more than $20 per package, on top of the regular shipping cost. These aren’t just far-flung places either. They include plenty of perfectly ordinary suburban and rural addresses, and we don’t know we’re going to get hit with the surcharge until the package is already on its way.
We didn’t want to start passing those surprise charges along to you order by order, and we didn’t want to quietly raise prices on individual parts to cover it. Bumping the free shipping threshold felt like the most honest path forward, even though we know it’s not the answer anyone was hoping for.
What we want you to know
We are truly sorry for the inconvenience. We know $24 isn’t a small jump, and we know it may mean rethinking how you place orders with us. If you’re a longtime customer, please know that we don’t take your business for granted — not even a little — and we wouldn’t have made this change if we’d seen another way.
A few things that might help:
- The free shipping coupon kicks in automatically at $99, so there’s nothing to remember at checkout.
- If your cart is close to the threshold, it’s often worth adding a small consumable item rather than paying shipping on a smaller order. You’ll usually come out ahead.
- We still ship most in-stock orders the same or next business day, and that’s not going to change.
Thank you
Honestly — thank you. Thank you for shopping with a small business, for your patience as we navigate a shipping landscape that frankly feels a little broken right now, and for understanding that we’re doing our best to keep things fair on both sides. If you ever have a question about a shipping charge, or anything else, please reach out. We read every message and we’ll always do what we can to make things right.
Fair winds,
The DR Marine team
