+10 for McMaster-Carr

Thank you so much for thinking of me and giving me the pointer. Really appreciated.

I reached out to them. They responded they do not have an EDM machine. Oh well. I’ll keep on truck’n with what I got.

Thanks again.

-Bill
Sorry about that. When I was living in Charlotte about a year and a half ago I was told he had one by a friend of mine.
 
Agree with all the good points, although I do sometimes get grumpy about how "generous" they are with how they box things, and I pay for it. For example, a flat 12" square plate will often come in a one cubic-foot box. I told someone that they're doing their part to clean up Los Angeles's smog by shipping it elsewhere, one cubic foot at a time.

If I order 100 4-40 washers, they'll arrive in a box that could probably hold 100,000 washers. Lastly, unless you make a point of finding it later, what you pay for shipping is always left off the invoice, so you don't really know.

That said, if I order before around 9pm, it's on the doorstep early the next morning. Order by 9am, and it's at the door when I get home, so what's that worth?! And yes, Customer Service is top-notch, and as was said, their website should serve as a standard for how to do it right.
 
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Agree with all the good points, although I do sometimes get grumpy about how "generous" they are with how they box things, and I pay for it. For example, a flat 12" square plate will often come in a one cubic-foot box. I told someone that they're doing their part to clean up Los Angeles's smog by shipping it elsewhere, one cubic foot at a time.

If I order 100 4-40 washers, they'll arrive in a box that could hold 10,000 washers. Lastly, you never know what you end up paying for shipping because it's always left off the invoice.

That said, if I order before around 9pm, it's on the doorstep early the next morning. Order by 9am, and it's at the door when I get home, so what's that worth?! And yes, Customer Service is top-notch, and as was said, how their website is designed should serve as a standard for others.

I always get the shipping charge on my invoices. It's the last line before the sub total. I just got an order from them yesterday. The shipping was $7.22. The shipping charges do not appear on the initial order confirmation
 
Fair point, and you're right. My point was that when ordering, you don't know what you're going to get charged before you click "Place Order", and that's presumably the time that you'd reconsider. For example, is it better to ship 10 pieces of aluminum rod that are 12" each, or ship a 10' section of the same? While I can guess up-front, I shouldn't really have to.
 
Fair point, and you're right. My point was that when ordering, you don't know what you're going to get charged before you click "Place Order", and that's presumably the time that you'd reconsider. For example, is it better to ship 10 pieces of aluminum rod that are 12" each, or ship a 10' section of the same? While I can guess up-front, I shouldn't really have to.

I used to worry about this but I've never felt like they are gouging on the shipping charges. I suspect that with the wide variety of items they carry it would be nearly impossible to write a program that would give accurate shipping numbers AND get the stuff out the door as quickly as they do. Since the vast majority of their customers are commercial accounts where fast delivery is far more important than free shipping (like consumer customers) they probably find greater efficiency this way.

Someone else pointed out that you can call and get shipping cost before ordering if needed which would be a good idea when ordering something heavy or bulky.

For me it's just awesome to have one supplier that I don't have to worry about, they do what they say and say what they do which is so different from the usual experience with online ordering.

John
 
Somewhat older thread, but recently purchased $35 worth of parts from McMaster-Carr and was charged $32 shipping charges that showed up on my invoice several days later. Given that you do not know how an item will be shipped and that the costs are not calculated when you place the order has made ordering from McMaster-Carr a real issue for me. Their shipping costs have gone up significantly, with many other major on-line vendors offering free shipping for orders over $50 (like Zoro, Automation Direct, etc.) I will no longer order form McMaster-Carr unless an item is not available anywhere else. I contacted McMaster-Carr about this and they indicated that you could request a shipping quote before placing your order, seems like a real PTA for small items or you do not know how it will be shipped, when just about everyone else has real time shipping costs on check-out. So buyer beware if you have anything that may not fit in a small box. :mad:
 
Somewhat older thread, but recently purchased $35 worth of parts from McMaster-Carr and was charged $32 shipping charges that showed up on my invoice several days later. Given that you do not know how an item will be shipped and that the costs are not calculated when you place the order has made ordering from McMaster-Carr a real issue for me. Their shipping costs have gone up significantly, with many other major on-line vendors offering free shipping for orders over $50 (like Zoro, Automation Direct, etc.) I will no longer order form McMaster-Carr unless an item is not available anywhere else. I contacted McMaster-Carr about this and they indicated that you could request a shipping quote before placing your order, seems like a real PTA for small items or you do not know how it will be shipped, when just about everyone else has real time shipping costs on check-out. So buyer beware if you have anything that may not fit in a small box. :mad:
I have had frustration with McMaster shipping costs. They are high but seem fair enough given what needs to be shipped. If I am ordering 3' or 6' bars of material in heavy cardboard tubes, it makes sense that it will cost more than a small parcel.

I'm also spoiled since McMaster Carr is 20 minutes from my work if I need to go to our plant, so it is an easy lunch run to pick up an item from roll call.
 
I feel your pain, and hopefully, M-C will update their process so we know the shipping expense at the time of purchase. Shipping will continue to get more expensive. Even Zoro upped their free shipping for orders over $50 to $75. I have loved M-C and their fast shipping. I haven't bought from them in several months, but I didn't have any unexpected or unreasonable shipping then.
Somewhat older thread, but recently purchased $35 worth of parts from McMaster-Carr and was charged $32 shipping charges that showed up on my invoice several days later. Given that you do not know how an item will be shipped and that the costs are not calculated when you place the order has made ordering from McMaster-Carr a real issue for me. Their shipping costs have gone up significantly, with many other major on-line vendors offering free shipping for orders over $50 (like Zoro, Automation Direct, etc.) I will no longer order form McMaster-Carr unless an item is not available anywhere else. I contacted McMaster-Carr about this and they indicated that you could request a shipping quote before placing your order, seems like a real PTA for small items or you do not know how it will be shipped, when just about everyone else has real time shipping costs on check-out. So buyer beware if you have anything that may not fit in a small box. :mad:
 
I'm a new McMasterCarr customer. I had to set up a commercial account as I'm in Canada and they will not ship to residences in Canada. So now I have a registered business name and have placed a couple of orders. To me the shipping is not unreasonable given the speed.

Their packaging is definitely generous, KBC does a better job of packing odd shaped large objects IMHO. In contrast, my partner ordered two small books from UK bookseller. Each was 6"x 9" x .75". They came in a box that was 9" tall x 18" long x 12" deep. Now that was excessive.
 
I have questioned shippers about using huge boxes for tiny items.
One shipper told me that it is because Chicago is between them and me, the rate of small packages that get lost going thru Chicago is huge, it is cheaper to ship in big boxes than to keep re-sending lost orders. I have heard this from a number of big shippers. The shippers even started to put a piece of paper explaining this in every oversize box.
 
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