S&H charges

[Mr Ron]

Everyone applauds McMaster Carr for their service, but I have a complaint. I ordered (2) 1/16" drill bits on the 13th and received it on the 14th. That is great service, but the order was for $9.76 and the S&H cost $8.45 via UPS. It would seem to me they could have put 2 tiny drill bits in an envelope and send it via USPS. A box that measures 9"x6"x3" for 2 drill bits seems ridiculous. I know other places will use the most economical way to ship. I love MMC as they carry everything, but their S&H policy doesn't sound right. I could contact them and complain, but I don't think that would do any good. I'm just a little guy dealing with a multi million $ company. They don't need my business.

[SteveHGraham]

The best individual drill source I've found is Suncoast Tool. I can get two cobalt 1/16" bits shipped to me for $12.71, total. Not great, but better than McMaster-Carr. Obviously, I would generally try to wait until I had more bits to order.

Some places won't sell you one small bit. Suncoast will do it, but the price goes up .

[Mr Ron]

Thanks; I'll check them out.

[pete]

I'm at least a 3 hr. drive from the closest and way over priced dealer for industrial quality tooling. So that S & H has been a constant thorn since I started doing this. There's little in my shop that didn't have freight and lot's of other little extras tacked on. Just the freight charges without anything else added cost me just about $1400 extra for my lathe and mill combined. And I got a deal on the mills freight since I worked for the trucking company and hauled it myself from Toronto to B.C. Fed Ex, UPS or any of the other big and well known high speed freight expeditors are always the highest price. Someone's got to help pay for all that advertising they do. If I order out of the U.S., right now there's an instant %25 tacked on for the money exchange difference, plus provincial and federal sales tax on the value of the item once it crosses the border, then Fed Ex ect add another $35 - $50 per order just to shuffle the brokerage paper work that allows that shipment to cross the border. There's tax on that brokerage as well. Then there's the extra cost's for the long distance shipping. And McMaster Carr won't even talk to me since they won't ship to anyone in Canaduh that doesn't already have a large account with them. Anything ordered from the U.S. takes at least two weeks and a few times it was about three. With all those extras, for a lot of items it's still cheaper to order from the U.S. than buy from KBC here in the great white north. When I bought my Vertex universal dividing head it was cheaper to order and have it shipped from the U.K to me than any price I could find in North America, although something like that happening is pretty unusual.

To make any of that even feasible I have to save up and order the largest amount at one time I can to help spread the freight costs out. Yes your right USPS probably would have been a lot cheaper, maybe making your next order by phone and specifically asking for that might work? With the volume these big suppliers ship daily there's a huge amount of automation and everything goes out the door in the fastest way possible. And that larger box would have be used so there's less chance of it being lost. For those small drills it's always a lot cheaper to buy them in packs of 10 since there easy to break and few bother re-sharpening the small ones. If I was only paying twice as much S & H for what you did for that order Ron it would be a really cheap deal for me.

[earlgo]

The local McMaster-Carr warehouse is about 20 min from here. If you go there and do a pickup, you will see conveyors and elevators everywhere that go from the parts bins to the shipping docks. It is my opinion that the 9x6x3 box you mention is the smallest that can navigate their conveyor/labelling system. They would have to have a whole other picking/packing line to use small envelopes.
Even when I go to 'will call' the package I pick up is in that sized box with the shipping label on it.
That is just my opinion.
--earlgo

[rrnut-2]

McMaster ships with envelopes as well. When I order drill bits or taps, they almost always come in the small white shipping envelopes.

Jim B

[jcfx]

McMaster ships with envelopes as well. When I order drill bits or taps, they almost always come in the small white shipping envelopes.

Jim B

I get small items from McMaster in bubble envelopes too, I guess it could have been that they ran out of bubble mailers
at Mr Ron's warehouse. Shipping is something that can't be avoided, tax too, they never charged tax till last year
which sucks rotten goose eggs, shipping AND tax.

[GlennW]

The padded mailers must be a geographical thing as I only get the boxes.

[RSG]

If I order out of the U.S., right now there's an instant %25 tacked on for the money exchange difference, plus provincial and federal sales tax on the value of the item once it crosses the border, then Fed Ex ect add another $35 - $50 per order just to shuffle the brokerage paper work that allows that shipment to cross the border. There's tax on that brokerage as well.

I feel your pain pal!

Mr. Ron, not to cast your tale of frustration aside but I'd pay $8.45 to have something shipped to me next day anytime Those drill bits shipped from the next city via UPS would be around $45.00

That said I have a sweet deal with a large company here in town that buys from MMC every day. Since I am good friends with the owner he lets me pay the price tag on MMC website for the stuff I need, nothing more I do stuff for the company in return of course....But the rest of the items I buy cross boarder are hit with every upcharge imaginable.

[liveaboard]

Luxury.
We pay 23% sales tax, essential foods 6%.
Anything from outside the EU pays in the area of 22% import tax, then the sales tax is applied to the total including shipping costs.

If the paperwork isn't right, the item goes into customs and never comes out.

[whateg0]

I don't think USPS is as easy for them to automate as the actual freight companies. I know we only ship via UPS, FedEx, or DHL at work. IIRC, part of it was the tracking that was available. USPS has gotten better there, though. (Tracking availability, that is; not necessarily accuracy.)

Dave

[TomB]

I was pleasantly surprised to see a McMaster-Carr order of bearing rod, cast iron, drills and a marking punch that was ordered on 8/14 arrive on 8/15. I did not know they had multiple warehouses so I could not figure how they possible got the stuff from Chicago to Vermont in 30 hours. But when this thread came up I pulled the packing list out and saw that the 4 items were shipped from NJ and the 5th item which has not yet arrived was shipped from Chicago.