[slief]

Originally Posted by studboy36

Ok Scott. I'll take your word for it, and not be concerned about it. I really I like this skimmer. I feel like I should put it in a display case. Thank you for putting my mind at ease.

One thing I noticed is that Royal exclusiv ships a lot of air in that skimmer box. You probably ship in a 20 ft container for the most part and you want to fill it with product not air. It appears that the packaging was an after thought. The presentation matters as well as adequately protecting the product from shipping damage. A few pieces of bubble wrap doesn't cut it. Ditch the peanuts as they are a total pain to deal with. Bio degradable foam inserts designed to surround the product that are easily removable would be great. They're using the wrong zip lock bag for the manual. Needs to be a little bigger. If I'm going to pay $1200 for a skimmer and another $1100 for a RD pump, I expect it to be professionally packaged. They should contract out to a packaging engineer to redesign the packaging.

Having said all that. I don't regret buying the skimmer. It's the right size skimmer, and I have you to thank for assisting me. I'm going to buy the RD 150 pump in the next month and I have you to thank for that as well. I've never spent this much money on a skimmer or pump before. They will last for years with proper maintenance.

While the packaging could be better, we have never really had any issues with damage to the skimmers in transit. If anything, I might change the boxes that the pumps go into. Also keep in mind that die cut foam inserts aren't cheap and they take up a lot of space in a warehouse. Especially when you have dozens of different skimmer models that would each require different cut foam inserts. While the peanuts are a pain, (god knows, I know as I have unpacked and repacked dozens of the skimmers at the trade shows) the peanuts are universal, inexpensive, light weight and have proven to be effective. The box the skimmers go into are huge so there is plenty of protection in there for the skimmer itself. Plus, they add Germany adds extra attention to detail with that nifty Royal Exclusiv cloth bag that the skimmer ships in. You do have a good point about the container shipments though. It would save some space having smaller tighter fitting boxes but larger boxes for domestic ground shipments even if filled with peanuts adds extra protection.

As for the zip lock bag that the manual ships in.. Not sure what to say there. Mine came in the same bag when I bought my Supermarin and I never noticed it. I am sure they use a readily available zip lock bag to place the manuals in. Besides, who looks at manuals these days.