SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — excellent customer service

Re: excellent customer service

2014-11-28T18:14:10Z

elmoret wrote:

I pick everything up from will call at McMaster. Its pretty surreal, conveyor belts everywhere. They have 8 rows of conveyor belts and UPS label printers feeding 8 UPS trucks continuously, easily 30 packages a minute.

I've done this in Durham before. It's like beautifully controlled chaos over there. I love McMaster-Carr. They even answer their support email 24/7; I've gotten responses at 4am on a Saturday.

Re: excellent customer service

2014-11-27T15:08:23Z

IanJohnson wrote:

I would love to see behind the scenes at McMaster Carr. They have such a huge catalog, and when you order you have to make sure you thought of everything you wanted. I asked to add on to an order once and they said you usually can't because it's packed up within 15-20 minutes.

stores like this have huge Amazon like warehouses with dozens of real people "parts pickers" carrying order slips around boxing stuff. a boiler room of phone operators taking orders world wide, an accounting dept etc. kinda like Santas shop at the North pole lol. any tourists would just be in the way and likely killed by a forklift without so much as a "what did I hit?" LOL these places have tucking loading docks with about 20+ bays of tractor trailers being loaded for destinations everywhere.

Re: excellent customer service

2014-11-27T14:58:30Z

yes they have been like WWGrainger etc for years having large selections of many trades supplys sold both retail and wholesale customer pricing but lots of items are not competitively priced. I used to do purchasing for service companies in my careers and this was 1 of dozens of such places I had to order from when sourcing parts etc. we have a few large distributors based here in St Louis also and sometimes items not in stock or not available in person so most orders I just phoned in and had drop shipped or delivered by their local trucks free to save our employees time, as it takes at least an hour going in person to check on things. most wholesale suppliers give free delivery with big orders or customers that do 10s of thousands of dollars business per year, plus sales reps lock-in seasonal prices on many items saving companies thousands per year to retain loyal purchasing. e.g. 1 HVAC supplier did this as we spent over $30k per year and the lock-in pricing saved us on average $1500 plus another $2k on shipping and when they gave a price low or high they had item in-stock with fast delivery (yes many that under price either dont have item, late delivery or substitute inferior item). back orders or a loss of money and customers.

Re: excellent customer service

2014-11-27T13:00:58Z

If you ever need parts for your printer McMaster-Carr is your best choice

It depends on what parts you need. . I expect the quality is top shelf but some items you need a nasa Budget to be able to afford.
IIRC something like $ 30 each for linear bearings $65 for NEMA 14 stepper motors .

they do have excellent selection on many things, excellent customer service but the prices can be very high on motion control items.
Tin

Re: excellent customer service

2014-11-26T22:58:10Z

I have a mcmaster carr about an hour away. I have stopped by ordered on the courtesy phone and had my package in less than half an hour. If I have it shipped I have it next day ups ground shipping. Yes the place is surreal.
Tin

Re: excellent customer service

2014-11-26T21:11:41Z

I pick everything up from will call at McMaster. Its pretty surreal, conveyor belts everywhere. They have 8 rows of conveyor belts and UPS label printers feeding 8 UPS trucks continuously, easily 30 packages a minute.

Re: excellent customer service

2014-11-26T21:04:14Z

I would love to see behind the scenes at McMaster Carr. They have such a huge catalog, and when you order you have to make sure you thought of everything you wanted. I asked to add on to an order once and they said you usually can't because it's packed up within 15-20 minutes.

excellent customer service

2014-11-26T19:40:12Z

If you ever need parts for your printer McMaster-Carr is your best choice.I ordered some rods and set collars Sunday night and they were shipped Monday morning as promised. I received them Tuesday.Somehow the rods poked a hole in the box and one rod "Escaped" . I called them and they overnighted the missing rod.Now that's customer service!