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McMaster-Carr interaction story

2K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  Lightsdarkness 
#1 ·
So I needed a quick release pin to use with a SV Racing Parts side stand and someone linked to McMaster-Carr's website. So yesterday I found the one I was looking for for around $4 on their site. I went through the ordering process and no where did they say what the shipping charges were. I'm used to paying high shipping charges living in Alaska, but figured for a one inch pin, it wouldn't be more than a few dollars. Their site only had an option for ground shipping, not via mail, which concerned me a bit, but when I placed the order they said they'd add applicable shipping charges. I figured if the cost was too much, I'd cancel the order and find it somewhere else.

Late last night I got an email from UPS notifying me, as they now do, that a shipment was coming my way... from McMaster-Carr via 2nd Day Air. Uh, oh. I hadn't recieved any follow up from MC after I placed the order telling me what the charges would be. This isn't good.

Sure enough when I woke up this morning my invoice from MC was waiting in my Inbox for me. Drumroll, please....

$22.08! Holy moly! Just for shipping something that could have been mailed with a regular stamp! I was not a happy camper. I fired off an email before I even got out of bed to the sales person's email that was on the invoice. Something along the lines of, "You can sheer a sheep many times but only skin it once. I'll never do business with MC again if this is how you do business."

Less than 20 minutes later I received a reply from a sales rep. Good response time! I figured it would be to tell me to take a long walk off a short pier. Wrong. Here's the email's contents minus the salutation and closing with our names:

I definitely understand your frustration about the shipping and to make it right, I'll go ahead and credit your credit card for the $22.08 shipping charge.

For orders shipping to Alaska, we only ship via UPS Blue which was the reason the shipping was so high. We don't state this on our website, so I apologize that this wasn't explained at the time of order.


I wasn't expecting the charges to be waived in full, but I expressed my thanks to her for doing so. They may have some things to work on as far as their website goes, but their customer service is outstanding. If you live in the civilized parts of the US, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend McMaster-Carr. Next time I need something from them I'll have it shipped to my brother in Oregon and he can mail it to me. :smile2:


TL;DR: The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
 
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#3 ·
Mcmaster is a huge industrial supplier. They don't ship via US mail because they would have to implement a huge multimillion dollar infrastructure to make that happen. They ship 10,000-20,000 orders per day. They probably have a crew of workers just to keep the UPS label printers running.

I must say I was surprised you got a personalize response with a favored result though. Wow.

I order from the all the time, both at home and at work. I accept the way business is done with them, and I respect the fact that they have monstrous levels of stock so I can get whatever I need in less than a day.
 
#4 ·
I am aware how huge they are; I worked in a business that bought a lot of material from them, but if you are going to set up an e-commerce portal that any Joe Blow can order from, you should be able to at least give an estimate of shipping charges. I don't think that's too much to ask.

I've worked in shipping/receiving as well and it's pretty simple to have multiple ways to ship out material. Amazon does it, and it doesn't get much bigger than that. Hell, the Post Office probably won't even charge them to set it up for them since it would increase their non-existent profits. Of course that could probably hurt their UPS rate, but given how much they charge for an envelope to go 2nd Day Air, UPS doesn't seem to be doing them much of a favor as it is. :laugh:
 
#5 ·
Yeah it would be nice to know shipping costs before hand. It hasn't really bothered my however, because their shipping costs have always been at or below industry average. I've never been surprised. And my stuff comes from their Chicago warehouse to wisconsin and shows up at my door less than 24 hours later. Can't complain about that, especially when they have that oddball fastener I need.

Of course I don't live in Alaska either. Sorry but it's got to suck. Well except for the hiking and mountain biking. :)
 
#7 ·
McMaster also gets things shipped crazy fast. I have ordered things from them at noon and had them arrive at 3 PM the same day at my office in Chicago.
 
#9 ·
Luckily one of their warehouses is about 40 minutes from home and about 20 minutes from work for me. I usually pick up what I need, but their policy on shipping rates is poor. Next time call them and get a rate.

I honestly have never been disappointed by them. If you ever go into the warehouse, it is impressive. They are more expensive than other places, but they don't sell junk.

I paid about $30 for an inline quick disconnect. It was only 1/4" inlet and outlet. I tell you it was the smoothest disconnect and the quality was well worth the price. It will outlast me.
I buy lots of nuts, bolts and other hardware from them, all different types of metal options. Their raw materials such as steel sheet is a little expensive but worth it.
 
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