Frustrated by McMaster-Carr

[BrianBSL]

Originally Posted by Cory

We placed an order on I think Monday after kickoff, and we received it 3 days later, which was surprising, considering it was by ground, and came from Norfolk, VA.

This is because, similar to Dell and Amazon, McMaster does enough volume that it is cheaper for them to do the long haul shipping with a real freight carrier, and the let UPS handle the final delivery. So, McMaster ships it via freight carrier to UPS's regional hub, and then UPS delivers it to you in 1 day. If you check the UPS tracking on your McMaster packages, they will often show pickup 1 day prior to delivery at your regional hub (Chelmsford, MA for most of New England). Its quite a neat system, and lets them lower their shipping costs, especially on some of the oversized pieces of material they ship.

This is the same reason that "2nd Day" packages from Dell and Amazon often come via UPS Ground, as UPS ground is guaranteed delivery time, so they send it via their own carrier to the UPS regional hub, which is guaranteed 1-day to you. This is also how McMaster is able to do same day delivery via UPS to some locations - as they don't use traditional UPS services.

We've never really had a problem with them, placing the order via the web. Its 1-day from NJ, and they warn you when its coming from Chicago so it will be 2 days.