Disappointed in Fastenal

[j-guenth]

I ran a municipal repair shop in Illinois and I used Boman for all my fastener needs because of the high quality of the fasteners, competitive pricing , quality service. I moved to Arizona and needed fasteners and hardware and at the beginning I would get a list together, send it to the store and pick it up. I was in need of a fastener to complete a project I went to the store and I was told they no longer deal with walk ins and that I had to go on line to order. This was fine but now I was paying for shipping and then during the supply shortage they were either out of stock and the prices went sky high.

I now use McMaster-Carr, Grainger, or MSC Industrial supply!!!!

 

[nadogail]

I ran a municipal repair shop in Illinois and I used Boman for all my fastener needs because of the high quality of the fasteners, competitive pricing , quality service. I moved to Arizona and needed fasteners and hardware and at the beginning I would get a list together, send it to the store and pick it up. I was in need of a fastener to complete a project I went to the store and I was told they no longer deal with walk ins and that I had to go on line to order. This was fine but now I was paying for shipping and then during the supply shortage they were either out of stock and the prices went sky high.

I now use McMaster-Carr, Grainger, or MSC Industrial supply!!!!

I like vendors who are large enough to serve me and small enough to want to.

 

[logixjock]

I guarantee they aren't missing your purchase. As a stockholder (and former employee) IDGAF either. You are going to an industrial storefront and expecting customer service from the 1950s. it doesn't work that way anymore.

Your big purchases in the past have zero bearing on the salesman's commission/bonus today. If you need $100 worth of nuts and bolts, head on down to Ace if you insist in shopping in person. Personally I'd just order it online and have exactly what I need shipped to my door like everything else and not waste their time or mine (and then hop online to rant about it).

I think there are some kids on your lawn you should be yelling at.

What an arrogant little cuss

 

[NORDFORD]

Ah Fastenal. They use the rule of 24. They want 24yr old employees, for 24 months and pay them $24k.

I’m a competitor of theirs. I have no idea how or why anyone would feel comfortable doing business with them.

 

[cannuck]

I have never had the opportunity or need to shop Fastenal, so my experience is zero.
What hearing all this tells me is that this company is not at all interested in anyone but the big money customers.
As someone who built his own successful business from very little, I learned that you never say “no” to a prospective customer (unless you couldn’t actually supply the requested service). As soon as you say”no”, your customer is out the door and not coming back. It seems that doesn’t matter to Fastenal. Sad.

This is part of the drift from entrepreneurs and business people owning large business to today's financial wizzards buying and operating (or more to the point TRYING to operate) companies strictly to structure the next M&A deal. Until we fix that (IMHO our #1 economic problem) more of this will happen.

Locally: we have about a half dozen fastener businesses within a few blocks of my "day job" client's offices. Even Fastenall did small walk in sales and (at least last time I was there) they say they want our (very large international company) business but when I can walk into a half dozen other places that will fall all over themselves giving me customer service why would I waste any time at FA???? Not sure I have been there since 2019 - and I suspect that true of many others as most of their local competitors have doubled to quadrupled their floor space over last 5 years while FA branch remains a hole in the wall.

As to the personal service factor: I buy our hose and fittings from the same guy for the last 40 years (company has changed names and hands 4 times). Building and concrete supplies from same company (the owner became one of my best friends, now deceased so I buy from his son). Fasteners I switched from Ack (now Graingers) when in production and the new little store I went to has now expanded to a multi-city operation we use from several of our branches - and my first salesman is now the President and GM - and I get calls when surplus is for sale that I might want. When I work out of Chicago, I use McMaster as they will treat me (or anyone else) with the same level of service and respect I get from people I have worked with for many decades. You may laugh at us old guys telling you to behave when on our lawn, but you might stop and think for a moment that the grass we grow over the years adds up to many millions of $$$$ of business for anyone who can be civil, polite, reliable and competent.

I will summarize with every successful economy was built by entrepreneurs and business people - NOT financiers.

 

[InsanePyro]

Yeah, Fastenal isn't what they used to be, and even then, the employees were dicks

I guarantee they aren't missing your purchase. As a stockholder (and former employee) IDGAF either. You are going to an industrial storefront and expecting customer service from the 1950s. it doesn't work that way anymore.

Your big purchases in the past have zero bearing on the salesman's commission/bonus today. If you need $100 worth of nuts and bolts, head on down to Ace if you insist in shopping in person. Personally I'd just order it online and have exactly what I need shipped to my door like everything else and not waste their time or mine (and then hop online to rant about it).

I think there are some kids on your lawn you should be yelling at.

This douchebag proves my point perfectly. I work for a large heavy equipment dealership. The little guys coming in for some hardware for their 40 year old trencher get the same amount of attention and dedication as my multi-million dollar a year accounts. A customer is a customer. Word of mouth travels fast and nothing good is being said about Fastenal these days

 

[HaiKarate]

Yeah, Fastenal isn't what they used to be, and even then, the employees were dicks



This douchebag proves my point perfectly. I work for a large heavy equipment dealership. The little guys coming in for some hardware for their 40 year old trencher get the same amount of attention and dedication as my multi-million dollar a year accounts. A customer is a customer. Word of mouth travels fast and nothing good is being said about Fastenal these days

Money talks - 'word of mouth' is also how BS spreads. Anecdotes about the poor farmer coming in for a few bolts that eventually leads to some multimillion dollar account due to 'customer service' are cute, but they are one in a million - and that's probably being ridiculously generous. Fastenal has been around for 50+ years and still going strong - must be doing something right. How many mom and pops with great "Customer Service" have shut down during that time because they aren't making $ to keep the lights on?

 

[Sumboodie]

Just a guess, but if THIS ^^ is their typical business attitude, no wonder so many are closing. "Hey, don't waste my time" Wow.

I work as a lubes supplier.

I don't care if you buy a $60 case of 15w40 or $500,000 bulk order, I'll treat you the same.

 

[Notgrownup]

Never used them, probably ever will. Too many other choices available for me or for my workplace.

 

[cherokee]

Wow, what can I say. I spent thousands there when I had the truck shop, but now I'm semi-retired and don't use/need much. I still have several stacks of their pull-out tray assortments of nuts, bolts, you name it, probably 40+ of them. I needed to fill up the flat washer trays and some other misc bolts so I called the local store, or what's left as the local store. (Strongsville closed a few years ago, then Middleburg, then Brunswick, leaving Medina closest) After listening to a 30 second recording telling me that if I didn't have an account (I do) their minimum charge is $50. No biggie, I plan to spend more than that. I finally talk to a sales person when basically tells me they closed my account due to inactivity (it's been 2+ years) and if I want anything to order it online. I don't like their website (I've used it before) and want service where I can walk in and get my trays filled up.

After listening to this I started to tell him how disappointed I was after spending considerable amounts of money with them in the past. The SOB hung up on me! I went to True Value hardware and dropped over $400 filling my trays. F*** Fastenal!

You have learned a great deal dealing with this, and likely by reading some of the comments. These are the first people that are going to be on the bandwagon crying at the death of american companies, and store fronts.

I gave up long ago. Just order it online, spend a total of 5 min searching and get what is the best fit for you. This is what I do.

For me, it is a 2hr round trip minimum to go to town and get something IF they have it. Just order it online....all of it.

What is the old line, you reap what you sow.

 

[RPH]

Fastenal is moving to vending machines at the large plants I visited. When a machine or line goes down the plant wants the item yesterday. So they have vending machines filled with parts for their equipment. Time and money for the plant. With assembly lines running in the million dollar an hour range. Who cares if the vendor charged a thousand dollars for an item you need now and it only costs a hundred at the store. It’s mid nite and the line is down. Do you wait to the morning to order the part or pull from an overpriced vending machine at 12:10 am? Been there and done that. Costs are relative to what you want as an outcome.

 

[Not So Legendary]

So they have vending machines filled with parts for their equipment.

Who cares if the vendor charged a thousand dollars for an item you need now and it only costs a hundred at the store. It’s mid nite and the line is down.

That's a slightly different supplier relationship, this is called "Vendor Managed Inventory." The product is still taking up the same or maybe more space in your facility, vending machine vs high density storage. You're paying a premium for the vendor to keep track of your stock and deliver whenever inventory is low, instead of having an employee manage a stockroom.

 

[msharley]

Wow, what can I say. I spent thousands there when I had the truck shop, but now I'm semi-retired and don't use/need much. I still have several stacks of their pull-out tray assortments of nuts, bolts, you name it, probably 40+ of them. I needed to fill up the flat washer trays and some other misc bolts so I called the local store, or what's left as the local store. (Strongsville closed a few years ago, then Middleburg, then Brunswick, leaving Medina closest) After listening to a 30 second recording telling me that if I didn't have an account (I do) their minimum charge is $50. No biggie, I plan to spend more than that. I finally talk to a sales person when basically tells me they closed my account due to inactivity (it's been 2+ years) and if I want anything to order it online. I don't like their website (I've used it before) and want service where I can walk in and get my trays filled up.

After listening to this I started to tell him how disappointed I was after spending considerable amounts of money with them in the past. The SOB hung up on me! I went to True Value hardware and dropped over $400 filling my trays. F*** Fastenal!

I've been getting my nuts/bolts/washers at Tractor Supply....

The Fastenal here is .........."wee taw didd"....as are the folk "manning"? the counter...

 

[dr_clyde]

Fastenal doesn't want small business accounts either, FWIW. I don't really know why they bother having a storefront if they don't want walk in work.

Even big accounts need stuff right now occasionally, and I've been turned away from the store front despite the place I worked at having an account saying "we don't do walk ins anymore". Fine, I'll spend my thousands of maintenance budget dollars at McMaster or any number of the local supply houses.

Grainger is just as bad.

 

[Ilikeike]

We are a municipality, we had two Fastenal store fronts near us that we use to use, and a rep that came by the shop. We still canceled our account and I know one store/Warehouse is gone, the other one I'm not sure, but we got better prices from Grainger along with faster deliveries, and Grainger doesn't mind if I get our nice industrial discount for personal purchases and they still take walk-in customers.
I online order mostly, but is still nice to run down to the warehouse when we need something ASAP.

 

[2Fast]

Interesting thread, but what do you think the bean counter's care about? (142% in 5 years?)

 

[theoldwizard1]

I like vendors who are large enough to serve me and small enough to want to.

I have an old fashioned fastener store nearby that fits that bill. They will sell in small quantities, cash, no paperwork.

 

[Ilikeike]

Funny how these places made all those gains with the “ supply chain” issues since Covid.

 

[Carebear2018]

Well, right now Fastenal is sueing a small business competitor and one of its outside sales reps who left because as someone else here pointed out ... their bonuses and commission isnt the same... and not only that but they're essentially seeming to try to prevent small business competition and to prevent employees from working at such places. I feel bad for hi-tech and the sales rep.

so if you feel fastenal isnt cutting it, try this dude. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurt-gross/
https://www.htfinc.com/

you can google the caes fastenal v. Gross

https://www.courts.michigan.gov/49974b/siteassets/business-court-opinions/c20-2022-7065-cb(may8-2023).pdf#:~:text=Plaintiff%2C%20Fastenal%20Company%20%28%22Fastenal%22%29%2C%20filed%C2%B7%20this%20action%20against,tortious%20interference%20with%20a%20business%20relationship%20or%20expectancy.

 

[jbltwin1]

Just noticed tha fastenal store near me (east alton, il) is gone. THey must have pissed off too many people. THey sure did me. My inlaw has a machine shop and did repetitive buys of the same fasteners. Every time he went in, they pulled the price from a different list schedule and he couldn't bid jobs until he got the parts prices. Couldn't depend on them either. Needless to say, he didn't use them anymore.