Midwest Steel Supply

devils4ever said:
According to the tracking number, my order still hasn't shipped. It is now over 2 weeks.
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Although Midwest's shipping is slow, I think I would probably blame the current shipping delays on the virus situation. A reloading site that I use has a banner on their home page advising that their normal shipping is being delayed 10-14 days due to the virus. I don't know if they have had to layoff workers or if the procedures they must use to keep everyone safe is causing it, but delayed shipping seems quite the norm these days. And with Midwest already being a slow shipper, it just makes things worse.
 
Midwest makes everything to order. It's not like they already have it sitting on the shelf. You place an order. Then it goes to what they call processing which is where the materials for your order are cut to length. Then it goes to shipping. And they are not sitting around waiting to process an order. Your order gets inline with the orders that came in before yours. First to be processed and then to be shipped. I placed my order on Nov. 2nd in the evening. They got it on Nov 3rd. The packing slip has a Nov 11th shipping date. The earliest date I could find on the box was Nov 13th. I received it on Nov 18th. I do not consider 8 days to process and ship a made to order purchase to be unreasonable. 5 to 7 days for UPS ground shipping from Minnesota to California has been typical of what I have experienced for years. In light of the benefit of getting exactly what you want cut to size two weeks or so from order to receipt is not unreasonable IMHO.
 
In order for any business to excel in marketing a product, they have to offer at least one of the following: a better product; the same product for less cost; or a product not available elsewhere. Often, it's difficult to meet one of these requirements without sacrificing another, i.e., quality vs cost, etc.

Most of the steel suppliers we work with are supplying similar quality. Our suppliers vary in terms of turnaround time, cost, and product availability. Midwest offers cost and product availability incentives. Onlinemetals offers turnaround time.

Online metals has six distribution centers located across the Country. They have to maintain inventory in all six locations, with separate warehouse operations and shipping departments. Their focus is on quick turnaround time, and that obviously involves costs passed on to their customers.

Midwest's focus is on a broad inventory and low prices. They achieve both by only having to maintain inventory in one location, and not having multiple warehouses and shipping departments to handle the workload. This cost, if you can call it that, is passed on to customers in the form of slow turnaround time.

Neither company is at fault. As customers, we must determine our needs, and place our orders accordingly.
 
I just received my order. That's a total of 16 days from when I placed the order.

The UPS tracking went from "Shipping label created" to "Delivered". I never seen this before. Plus, it was delivered by a guy in a black SUV, not a UPS truck.
 
I think at this time of year the package delivery companies are very busy. To help they take on additional means of getting it there, Black SUV!
 
If Amazon goes ahead with their proposed drone delivery, it may someday be "black helicopters" :)
 
FYI: OnlineMetals.com has 30% off until Wednesday.
 
I'm getting delays much longer than usual from Midwest Steel. I ordered some steel plate and rectangular bar back on January 4th. Still nothing. No tracking number. Nothing.

I usually get a tracking number within 1 week.

Has anyone else used them recently and seen this?
 
Today I received an order I placed on December 30.
 
Wow! They are really running behind. Did you receive a tracking number? If so, when?
 
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