Frustrated by McMaster-Carr

[sanddrag]

We usually get stuff in a day or two with no problems. One time however, I ordered keyed shaft at like 6 in the morning, went to pick it up at their warehouse at 12 noon (was supposed to be ready at like 11am) and got "oh, gee, looks like they never pulled the order. It didn't get coded in for will call pickup. I'll put it in again. Come back in an hour and a half" Like I just sit around all day with nothing to do (yeah right). All it was, was like one piece of keyshaft. I almost wanted to say "it's just one thing, can I go back there and get it myself?" Anyway, that was kind of irritating. Also, sometimes they'll ship orders in like 3 parts, which can be kind of confusing, but they all have always arrived in a timely manner. One time I called asking about some wheels, and right away got connected to an engineer guy who seemed like he really knew his stuff, so that was good.

[Jay H 237]

Originally Posted by chris31

I was getting annoyed after my McMaster order hadnt come in a week later. I later found out the school glitched and didnt place the order I requested Once it was placed the order was fairly fast.

That problem was with the school, not McMaster.


Madison, did you deal with the same person with every order? It seems like someone there isn't paying attention to how you want your orders shipped. They *should* also be aware of restricted or special shipping with certain items and be able to tell you that.

We use MSC mostly but have ordered from McMaster at times. I don't recall any problems. Hopefully this was just an isolated problem for you. If this keeps up try ordering from a different warehouse.

[MrForbes]

Our first McMaster box came on the brown truck last night, no problems. Maybe Madison's robot design uses really wierd parts?

[Lil' Lavery]

We faxed in our order on Friday, it arrived on Monday. So fast that we actually couldn't send in another item we wanted to add to the order
I don't think 116 has had many problems with McMaster (certainly less than with several other companies, including one, which will remain nameless, that sent our order to Japan).
The biggest problem I have personally had was that their website is sometimes hard to find items, but then again, that's also why I have their catalog.

[Not2B]

Bummer...

We have a saying on our team, that if you order something from McMaster now, you'll have it in about 5 minutes...

Always been fast for us... hope they still are...

[Gabe]

Never had a problem with McMaster, as they ave always delivered exactly by their schedules and on time. Other companies have been behind (cough*gearstock*cough), but McMaster-Carr has been great.

[Peter Matteson]

I have to agree with pretty much everyone else here. I've placed 3 orders with them so far and all have arrived next day if I order by 3pm, granted their NJ wharehouse to CT is a short hop but we never have to ask for overnight to get stuff next day.

[Richard Wallace]

I have also placed three recent McMaster-Carr orders (via their website), each of which has been delivered the next day. I am usually careful to avoid ordering things unless the site reports that they can ship that day from my local warehouse. Because of this I have come to think of McMaster as my materials storeroom -- just click what I want and it's on my desk tomorrow.

Of course, McMaster does not carry everything and some of their stuff can be had cheaper from other sources. But I haven't found a better source for getting stuff quick.

[Paul Copioli]

If you aren't already; you should be placing the orders via the website. We always get our stuff 1 or 2 days later even when we have it shipped ground delivery. The website is definitely the best way to place orders with McMaster-Carr.

We have been extremely satisfied with their service to date.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Maddie,
We order from McMaster at work all the time and it constantly amazes me that I can place an order before 2PM and it arrives the next day.

[petek]

Sorry to hear that you had such problems with McMaster, Maddie. I order from them constantly at work and rarely have any problems with delivery, though (like everyone else) they do drop the ball once in a great while. Probably helps that I work 5 minutes from their Dayton, NJ warehouse - we usually get same-day delivery via UPS ground!

[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.

[Fred Sayre]

Thanks for the comments everyone. It seems that for some reason maybe we got the bad luck of two random mistakes on the part of McMaster-Carr.

Our feelings about them mirrored this whole thread before this build season, and is why we were so willing to trust them for speedy delivery this year.

We might use them again this season, but if Madison has any say we might be looking into alternatives

[ajlapp]

i'll echo all the other comments heard here so far.......

we've never had one issue with a mcmaster order, ever. the parts arrive in one day by ground without exception and they're rarely out of stock.

we buy exclusively form them unless we can buy the item locally at a similar cost.

[dlavery]

My experiences with McMaster have, in general, been less than satisfactory. There is an interesting prior discussion of this topic in this thread. At that time, my comments were:

I guess that my experience with McMaster has been exactly the opposite from Joe's. I have never had a good experience with them, and absolutely refuse to do business with them either personally or professionally. It should not matter if I am just representing myself as an occasional customer using personal finances, or representing a $16.5 billion organization. If they want my business, then they should act accordingly. If they don't, I am quite happy to take my business (and that of my $16.5 billion organization) elsewhere.

The way that I see it, if I have to repeatedly request a copy of their catalog and they still never get around to actually sending one, then that is highly indicative of their overall attitude toward their customers. The last time I requested one of their catalogs I received a form letter in response that stated that my organization (NASA) did not conduct enough business to justify having them send me one of their expensive catalogs. In response, I sent them back a very nice letter noting that if they did not feel my organization needed one of their catalogs to enable us to order from them, then we would not bother them any further.

I wrote the letter on the back of a page from the MSC catalog.

-dave

My experiences have not substantially changed since then. The only significant update is that I finally do have a catalog. I got it by having a friend, who was able to get two, give me one of his copies. I still can't get one from McMaster. Given the choice between ordering from them and ordering from just about anyone else, I go with the "anyone else" option.

-dave