McMaster-Carr shipping Update

[Jim O'Dell]

Has anyone ordered PVC fittings from MC recently? I figured up what I needed to get most of the rest of my major ducting complete, and e-mailed for a shipping quote like I did last Feb, and the answer I get back is that they don't give shipping quotes prior to shipping the order!! I'm a little leary of giving anyone cart blanch for shipping expenses, even when I have ordered from them before. Just curious if anyone had run into this recently, and still ordered, and what the shipping came out to roughly.
On a side note, does anyone have any other online locations for 6" SD2729/3033/3034 fittings? My searches are leading me no where. If not, I may have to make a special trip to Denton to the place Ken Garlock told me about last Feb. (See Ken, I still remember!!) Thanks! Jim.

[Dave Avery]

J
Haven't ordered recently, but the last time the shipping was fairly reasonable and in all cases I received the material the next day after ordering. Considering I got expedited shipping for non-expedited rates, I have been a happy customer. All the best. Dave.

[Nick Roper]

I can think of a dozen reasons why a company would refuse to state their shipping and handling charges before a purchase. Unfortunately, I cannot think of an acceptable one. I don't care how legitimate the company is. To me it's the same as telling me they will determine the price after I agree to buy it.

[Phil Thien]

Lots of companies hide profits in shipping. McMaster does NOT. The reason they don't want to quote shipping is that a lot of things can affect the final price. Did they have to use two boxes instead on one? Was everything in stock or did they ship a partial, only to ship a remainder later? Was the actual weight significantly different from the computed weight? The list can go on and on, and is different for ground versus air shipping.

I have never been "surprised" by a McMaster shipping charge.

Thanks,
Phil

[John Young]

I order a lot from MC at work. I am talking a loooot. The shipping is very reasonable due to the huge volumes that they do with shippers. I think you can go ahead and trust them.
For other options try MSC or Grainger

[Russ Massery]

I've bought a lot over them the years . I've all found the shipping charges to be very fair. Compared to most retailers. I get most of my stuff in a day, two at the most. But I'm maybe 50 miles away from them. I got a lot of my dust collector fittings from them.:rolleyes: But I went with metal..........

[Jim O'Dell]

Thanks guys.
Nick, that is my uneasy feeling. You have to commit to the order now without knowing the price. The word fleecing comes to mind.:rolleyes:
Dave, Phil, and John...I want to trust them. They did right by me the first time. But they quoted the amount first. The only place I have found so far that I "think" has the same type parts is USPlastics. Their prices are higher, but they do quote a shipping price. I'm thinking MC will price shipping less than the USP shipping and extra price of product, but I would feel much better if I had some idea of what I'm looking at. The e-mail I sent to MC last night requesting more information and something to go on was not answered today. I wouldn't mind if they quoted X.XX dollars for handling plus actual UPS pricing. That I could work with. But this, 'give me your wallet, I'll only take what I need' bothers me, a lot! If for no other reason than it is bad business on their part. I guess the good thing is I will be using a gift card to purchase this with. There is only soooo much money there to take.
No luck with Grainger, don't show fittings for the S & D pipe at all. MCS was very high on their pricing...double MC's pricing.
Again, thanks. I guess I need to wrestle with myself tonight and see if I'm willing to go out on a limb over this. Darn that Scottish blood from my mother's side!:D Jim.

[Norman Hitt]

Jim, I bought all my 6" PVC fittings at the Lowes in Lewisville, (no one out here carries 6" except the commercial place that I got my pipe from, and they don't keep 45* Y's in stock, or collars, or most anything else in the way of fittings. I was very surprised to find them at the Lowes I mentioned, and the fellow in the dept there said that they carried a good stock all the time, but if they were low or I needed something special, they would be glad to get it for me and could usually have it the next day or two at the most. The other thing was that the prices at Lowes were much better than what I was quoted here for them to order them for me.

Just another option if the other places don't work out.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

McMaster-Carr is a lot like Grainger. They both predominantly cater to industrial/commercial clients. They do serve the general public, but that is not their target client base.

Having said that, McMaster-Carr does not have a show room but a huge warehouse complex with a will-call desk for local pickup. Mostly everything is shipped though. I do not think they would zap folks on shipping. However, shipping of large PVC fittings may be expensive due to its bulk size.

-Jeff

[Jim O'Dell]

Norman, I have bought a few things from Lowes here, hit or miss as to which store carries any of it, though. I bought all my 22 1/2 els, and 6-6-4 wyes as MC doesn't carry those. But the other items 45 els and 6-6-6 wyes are half the price at MC.
Jeff, they quoted 10.00 shipping on my first order, 7 45's and 2 6-6-6's. I figure the 6 6" 45's and 5 4" 45's for this order would be about the same weight and size box, maybe a little heavier. If they would tell me 15.00, I'd be happy. I just don't want to get the bill and see 30.00 shipping. :eek: Jim.

[Jim O'Dell]

Ok, guys...I stepped out on the proverbial limb and placed the order a minute ago while I'm home for lunch. Keep in mind, if I get bit, I'm going to whine!:D :D :D Thanks for all the help. Jim.

[Jim O'Dell]

Update.........I ordered at about 1:30 CDT, I got home a little after 5:00, do a couple things then log on to MC check to the order. It has shipped and there is a tracking number already, but no info available yet! FAST!! But no price for the shipping yet???? Would be nice if it got here by Friday, but that's a long shot from Atlanta on UPS. Seems the first order in Feb. was DHL or someone else and got here in 2 days. My flex hose I got from Woodworker's Supply should be here tomorow. Maybe I will have something to work on this weekend! Jim.

[Mark Pruitt]

I'm late coming in to this one, but is it even legal to refuse to inform a customer of shipping costs until after the customer commits to buying?

Mark

[Rick Lizek]

I do purchasing and maintenance for my company and have been buying from McMaster for many years and they are without a doubt the most professional company I deal with. They have been in business over 100 years and do not advertise which says a lot about them.

As far as shipping if I use a credit card and email I can get shipping quoted. If I phone them I can get pretty close shipping estimates. If I e-mail under my 30 day account I have to call the next day for shipping costs or wait for the invoice. MxMaster is very accomodating and will bend over backwards to service their customers. They don't even charge a restocking fee and I can just send stuff back with no questions asked and don't even need a return authorization number.

They have about seven warehouses nationally and I typically get my items the next day and I can place an order as late as 6 pm and still get it the next day. You can't get that service from anyone else in my experience.

I deal with ordering all the time and for many years and never heard of any legality issues on quoting shipping costs. Every company is different and some charge flat rates based on dollar values and other go by weight. There is no legal standard to follow.

[Chuck Saunders]

Another completely satisfied customer. I have ordered plenty from McMaster and have found that it has always been in stock, Shipping is lower from them than anywhere else, and their catalog puts the Sears wish book to shame - if you can get a catalog. I find that their prices are not a bargain, but the availability and selection outweighs the price concern.
Chuck

[Jim O'Dell]

OK! To quote a Monkee's song, "Well I'm A Believer, yeah, yeah, yeah" But I am a little dissapointed that MC has not told me yet what the shipping is! :confused: :confused: I knew how much I had left on a gift card I got from Ford for incentives, I just called and got the new balance, deducted that from the balance before the order, then subtracted the parts order abount from that. Shipping for 6 6" 45's, 5 4"45's and 10 band clamps was, drumroll please, $4.56 for a 19 pond box. Now I'm thinking the 10.00 I paid for shipping in Feb was too high.:D :D :D
And tracking shows that it should be delivered tomorrow (Fri) just in time for the weekend!!
I'm relieved and happy. Thanks for all the positive notes for MC that gave me some basis to trust them. Jim.

[Rick Schubert]

Some time ago I ordered a bunch of PVC fittings, elbows, Y's, etc from MC. I thought the shipping costs were extremely high. When I sent them an email complaining their answer was to suggest emailing them prior to ordering to get a shipping estimate.

Rick

[Jim O'Dell]

Some time ago I ordered a bunch of PVC fittings, elbows, Y's, etc from MC. I thought the shipping costs were extremely high. When I sent them an email complaining their answer was to suggest emailing them prior to ordering to get a shipping estimate.

Rick

Go figure, huh? Jim.

[Brian Elfert]

I once ordered some stuff 12' long from McMaster-Carr. I assumed they would notify me if they had to ship freight or something.

Nope, the items showed up on a truck and I had to pay $100 for shipping $20 worth of stuff. I called and complained and they said they would refund my order including shipping if I had the stuff shipped back at their expense. I said why don't you just refund my shipping and I'll keep the stuff that I wanted anyhow? They did it.

Brian Elfert

[Jim O'Dell]

Sounds like they took care of you, Brian.
Well a continuing saga. I checked the gift card I have been using before I went to HD for supplies this morning. Computer says Im 32.55 overdrawn...HOW CAN THAT BE ON A GIFT CARD???????:confused: I knew the starting balance, retreived the second deposit on the phone service, then retrieved the 4 charges the same way. Looks like I have $56 and change left. :confused: :confused: :confused: I found one more menu that talked about pending charges. Yep MC checked the card at the time of the order, normal, no problem there. then when they charged the card the next day upon shipping the order, they didn't release the pending charge. :mad: So now I want to use the card at HD for supplies I need, and can't. It should be reapplied to the card after about 5 to 7 business days (about Wed. to Fri.) What a hassle! If they had just charged it at the time of order, everything would have been fine.
My order from Woodworkers Supply did not have this problem.
Sorry for my mini rant. Have a good rest of the weekend. Jim.

[Byron Trantham]

On the subject of shipping charges. I recently bought two plastic parts for my DeWalt 735 planer from Service Net. They come from Richmond, VA about 50 miles from my house. I wasn't paying attention and figured out later that they charged me $17 for a package that probably weighs 1.5 lbs!!!!!:mad: I could ship that package over-night to Seattle for less than that! I sent them a scathing email. I haven't heard from them but I can assure you I won't be using them again. I will contact the service center directly; thank you very much. Just thought you would like to know.

[Doug Shepard]

I guess I never noticed the Non-UpFront shipping charge on my previous couple of McMaster-Carr orders. So Sunday I placed an order for a few things towards my DC install and leerily watched the shipping charge after seeing this thread. Among a few other things, I decided to splurge and buy a spanking new 30-gal metal drum for the cyclone bin and figured it might skew the S&H a bit higher than I'd like. The UPS Ground charges came out to $12+. But due to my proximity to their Ohio distribution warehouse, I ended up getting what amounted to UPS Blue Label (2nd day) service for UPS Ground rates. Not too bad of a deal.

[Jim O'Dell]

That's not bad, Doug. I think I reported earlier that my shipping was under 5.00. I had calculated it from checking the amount left on the gift card I was using. I calculated wrong. (LOML would say "Surprise, surprise" :D ) It was under 9.00, though. Still very reasonable for the size of the order. Good luck on getting your's finished up. I've run into another snag. I tried to do some work this afternoon fitting the piping back together and seal a few joints, but the ribs are just still too sore. Maybe this weekend I'll feel better. Jim.

[Nick Roper]

Thanks for the Update Jim. Now I can think of thirteen reasons why they refuse to be straight about their charges! 8-)