Excellent Service From McMaster Carr, As Always

[Art From De Leon]

At about 10PM on the 20th, I placed an order with McMaster Carr for a 1 3/16" striking wrench.

UPS delivered it today at about 1PM. Made in the USA by Martin.

Priced less than the two I found on eBay, which would have cost more, with the HIGH shipping cost, assuming I ever 'won' the auction, plus the delivery time.

As it is, the tool did the job I had waiting for it, now I will put my flourescent ID stripe on it, and probably never take it out of the toolbox again.

 

[Vinko]

I love McMaster -- those guys have every down perfect. I wish I could run a business like that Their prices on Armstrong are really good too.

 

[Stuey]

I'm actually getting increasingly frustrated by them.

Two months ago, I ordered 1/4" x 3" aluminum bar. Now, I don't expect it to be perfect, but there were gashes, gouges, and what looked to be stray saw marks on its faces.

Sending it back would have cost 1/2-2/3 as much as what it cost to buy, so I opted to keep it. I sent them an email complaining about how terrible condition it was in, and they replied that it was intended for industrial applications and not expected to have a smooth perfect finish.

Funny... I order multipurpose alum from other industrial suppliers and always get bars with great surface finish. One supplier consistently delivers perfect quality alum at the same cost.

Recently, I ordered a micrometer holder. There was only one featured on their website, and I assumed it was an import. Yep, it's an import, and it's missing one out of three rubber feet. The countersunk hole was missing adhesive, so it looks like the foot was never installed (as opposed to being damaged afterwards somehow). This isn't McMaster's fault, and I know that without any hesitation they would authorize and cross-ship a replacement, but I'm worried that they may eventually offer more products from this shoddy generic import manufacturer.

That said, I <3 McMaster's service - they're spectacular. These days, though, I tend to spend a lot more at MSC and Enco. Enco has better prices but slower shipping, and when I take advantage of MSC's many sales, I get rapid shipping, great prices, and great customer service.

Eh, don't mind me too much, I get very worked up over my online shopping experiences.

Glad you had a great experience!

 

[sanddrag]

They certainly have their operation down almost to a science. I have called at 2pm and had an order at 3:30 pm, I have called at 11pm and had an order at 8am. However, I have had a couple glitches with online orders before. One time one item was on backorder, they filled the rest, and didn't even mention it. Found out when I opened it, and by then they had shipped it from a different warehouse. Didn't do me any good to get it several days later. Anyhow, a minor glitch in a nearly flawless purchasing history. I've ordered several thousand worth of stuff through them.

One thing that drives me nuts though is sometimes they'll switch manufacturers on something, and keep the same part number. Also, a lot of times they won't tell you the manufacturer on something.

 

[kruegdr]

I've always had a great experience with McM. When I was in school, I ordered from them probably on a weekly basis, and even with ground shipping, it was here within a day or two.

Once, we needed a tap ASAP, and we decided to drive to Atlanta will-call to pick it up. The counter guy was a bit gruff, but if you saw all he had to take care of you'd probably be the same way too.

However, will call and the dist-center is an amazing thing. Conveyor belts and boxes moving all around through multi level storage racks and bins with people filling orders on the fly. No wonder you get stuff so fast!