Mcmaster-Carr

In the world of online supply houses, I wanted to comment about this one "mcmaster-carr" out of Chicago. This is the online supply house that was recommended by the guys over at Judson as a good resource for parts. I noted it in my saved list, but never used them until now.

Yesterday afternoon, I went to their website to find a shorter propane hose for my box truck. I tried everywhere else, but couldn't find any factory crimped links shorter than the 10 feet that I already had, which was way too long to make work. Well, Mcmaster-Carr did have the 3/4 hose in a 5 foot section and I ordered it along with some other small parts.

The website was a little awkward as far as online sites go. It is all there and it is very fast going from screen to screen, but it didn't allows do it smoothly. After adding the hose to the cart, I went to go back to the main screen, but backspace just kept taking me to new pages related to the hose and never back to the home page. I couldn't even find a way to go to the home page and ended up closing it all out and started over.

Once I did get my cart loaded, the checkout was equally unusual. It never listed the shipping cost, just stated that it "would be added later". Well, I kind of like to know the shipping before I provide credit card information, but it didn't show it. Then it asked for me to register with the site, so I figured that must be the final step to get the shipping information and to finalize the order, but the registration failed as it didn't accept my email address.

I was never sure if the order was processed. I received an email order confirmation, but still no shipping cost. I went to bed really unsure if the order actually went through or not.

Fast forward to this morning. I had an email confirmation that the order was shipped and listed the shipping at $10...not bad at all. Then I also received a notification from UPS that the package will be delivered tomorrow. That's right "tomorrow" by close of business.

A little clumsy when it comes to ordering, but their ability to process the order in-house and out to UPS was stunning. Chicago is only about 12 hours away, but I have never seen this fast of a turn-around from order to delivery in 10 years. Even orders from Omaha don't get here faster and they are less than 40 minutes drive away.

So, it is a little clumsy, but they had about everything when it comes to assembly parts and to get it out that fast is awesome. They get a hearty endorsement from me for that part alone. I should be running my TNT at full heat potential finally in a couple of days.....just in time for the big bank job next week. Well, provided the heater coil hasn't frozen and ruptured again.

Jon don out of Seattle does good for me, but i hardly order from them anymore. They failed me on some TMwork(2x)! Order before 5, get it tomorrow. But I'm 2.5 hrs away. They still promise 2 days for 90% of US.
McM Carr's catalog also doubles as a door stopper, van cholk, step stool, car safety jack... (Thickest catalog I've ever seen)

I didn't use the catalog, but it must be huge to match what can found online. They definitely have their act together in-house.