I want ptototype quantities of a 1" x 1/2" x 1/8" hot rolled u- channel. One piece of any length is enough but I'm willing to meet a $50 minimum. The two local places I emailed (New York City) aren't getting back to me. I either want reasonable shipping costs (about $10), or to pick it up myself and for them to cut it, or I want place for me to lay it down and make two cuts with a hack saw (a parking lot or sidewalk where I could get away with it is fine).
I haven't had much luck finding reasonable prices on the internet. Either the shipping cost is over $100 or it's about $10 but the stock is overpriced. Any suggestions?
McMaster has surprised me many times in the last year in that manner. For small pieces they really are cheaper then the local metal benders many times.
I also check Ebay, Speedy Metals, Discount Steel, and Metals to Go when I price on-line. Ebay is the hardest to search, but quite often I have found a small drop for a project for less than the cost of flat rate box shipping. Also, a lot of the metal e-tailers on Ebay will work with you. Metals to Go will discount blems pretty substantially sometimes, but you have to be able to use what they have when you go for that pricing, and you have to exchange emails or call them for that.
I buy my blanks for mold making precut to length from an ebay reseller for less than I could buy uncut 20' bar stock pieces locally even including shipping. I picked up a drop recently locally because I "needed it now" and the price was only a little higher than my pieces from my ebay-reseller, but the shop owner went out of his way to make sure I knew the price was ONLY because it was a drop. I told him if he could sell to me for that price every day he would get my routine business but he didn't seem interested. I still had to cut it myself to keep the price reasonable. LOL.
We use them all the time and never have a problem.. And if you look, they have a D rating there because they had 3 complaints in 3 years, And they don't have BBB accreditation.. For a nationwide or maybe worldwide company, I think that's pretty good.
They don't tell you the shipping charges until after your order ships, but the charges are always reasonable. A small package from the NJ warehouse to ME is around $6. For stuff like your channel that ships in a long tube the charge is typically higher, presumably to cover the cost of the packaging. If you call the order in they may be able to estimate shipping. I'm as cheap as the next guy, but have never had a complaint with ship charges.
Take the BBB rating with a grain of salt. Nobody does what McMaster does better, and they must have thousands of employees.
Yeah, but the LA BBB gives LA Computer Center an A- with tons of unsatisfied consumer complaints and atleast one criminal fraud complaint filed with the local city attorney. They had an F until they joined the BBB. LOL. I used their F rating to emphasize my complaint. LOL.
I have been in business for 18 years with one complaint from a customer who had a past due bill and didn't want to pay me for service on an out of warranty (8 years out of warranty) system I didn't install to begin with. Its listed as satisfied, but I get a B because I am not a BBB member.
The BBB rating is in my opinion a joke. If you look at the actual complaints, number of complaints, and the time a company has been in business you may get some better idea of how good a company is, but the BBB should collectively "in my opinion" (preceeding phrase inserted for legal reasons) be prosecuted for fraud and intimidation for the way they run their rating system.
I too actively dislike having to hand over payment information without a total, but I've had pretty good service and fair shipping charges from McMaster. Even so the biggest thing for me isn't distrust of shipping and handling abuse (since its never happened from them). It's the extra time to do the book keeping after I "discover" what the shipping charges are. When I buy something online I am usually sitting at my desk where I can just enter the total charge in my accounting program at the same time and be done with it.
Anyway. McMaster is ok, and they follow through. Just my opinion.
Exactly. The BBB ratings are no longer worth anything after ABC among others exposed them as nothing more than shakedown thugs.
McMaster is a great company from a customer's perspective (I have heard it is not so great to be an employee). It is too ridiculous for words that it should get a D- for 3 complaints in 3 years (out of how many thousands or even millions of transactions?) That rating alone I think is enough to show the culpability of the BBB.
14 guage is slightly more than half the thickness of 1/8" and I don't want the slots. I already checked Home Depot and Lowes. My only hope is a special order at Lowes. I'll check their special order catalog the next time I'm there.
They'll work, as long as I don't order a 20 foot piece, which is like $700 for shipping for some reason. But I could get 3, 3 foot pieces for $32.01 plus $9.98 shipping. I still have to look at the others and I may check out a local place in person.
That certainly parallels my opinion after getting stiffed (over $1,000 from an ebay transaction) by a guy (operating as a business) in Florida. He was a member of the BBB, who determined he had done nothing wrong in misrepresenting a damaged piece of art glass. I see the BBB as nothing more than a protection racket. Not a subscribing member? Likely a poor rating. It's called extortion.
If anything, I now look upon ANY business that is affiliated with the BBB as suspect. I don't like them, and I'd like everyone to know it.
I've had limited interaction with McM Carr---but the few times I've bought from them, they have fulfilled their obligations in a timely fashion, no errors in shipping, and shipping charges, if anything, lower than expected. I give them a high rating.
profile.http://goo.gl/O3upFhttp://goo.gl/WOaiO, wow, same price! Superstrut.
I could have sworn that was 10 or 12ga. It seems pretty beefy, probably because of the profiles. I used a piece for tiedowns in the bed of my truck. But, if you can't use it, you can't use it.
McMaster has carbon steel 1 x 1/2 x 6' channel which could go UPS.
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just put in a suggestion for them to show shipping price (or estimate) prior to ordering, too. I hope everyone here follows suit on that.
-- We are always the same age inside. -- Gertrude Stein
--I'd suspect the BBB first; it's been announced that anyone who pays their outrageous fees gets the best ratings. I used to belong but I've dropped out since this scandal broke. McMaster-Carr is reputable; I've done business with 'em forever.
I got a letter from them, about 30 years ago when I did industrial electronics repair & installs. The State of Ohio sold them the names of all current business licensees. First, they complained that they couldn't find a phone number for the business, then tried to pressure me with, "If you don't join, we can't say anything good about your business." I called them and told them that they were con men and to get lost. Then I told them that only my customers got my phone number, and all new business was by referrals.
Huh? We all use McMaster, and have nothing but praise. So I looked at the rating webpage. The key part is "not BBB accredited". In other words, McMaster isn't paying.
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