Atlas Parts Rip Off

[Hankus]

Recently I need to replace one of the felt washers on the intermediate shaft of my Atlas 10" Lathe. At the time I found nothing on eBay, so I went to Sears with the Atlas/Craftsman part number of 9-111 just out of curiosity. To my surprise they listed the part but the price was a bit steep, $13.74 each plus Tax and Shipping. Next I was advised to try Clausing Industrial direct, where the price quoted to me was $8.40 plus shipping. I ordered quantity (1) Item 9-111 for $8.40 which I put on my debit card. The emailed order confirmation agreed with my phone order with the exception of the mode of shipping which I understood would be US Postal Service. Yesterday I received a UPS delivery of one manila envelope, weight 1/10 lb. and today I got an emailed copy of the Invoice $19.57!! Parts $8.40 and Freight of $11.17!! This little felt washer had cost me a whopping $19.57. Oddly enough had I purchased from Sears Parts Direct the total would have been within a couple of dollars of being the same. Just a heads up.

 

[road]

here is one better..

I was looking for bandsaw tires for my old craftsman. ( 1960's )

Sears has them at $23. ea. + taxes mail order pick up at any store in Canada.

Clausing has them at around $6 ea.

Clausing will not sell direct to Canadians. We need to use their "Northern Distributor" in Toronto.

I was quoted ... get this....

$17 ea. for the tires.

$150. for shipping and handling.

+ taxes

$207.87 !!!!

Delivery to my address.

I live 30 - 40 minutes from them . No pick ups ....

I found a shop near me that will make new tires for $10 in 2 days.

 

[mrbreezeet1]

well, road knows from my other post, Clausing was good to me, I talked to a Jo there, and she took my order, over the phone, and said it would be flat rate small box, and she only charged me something like $5.70 each for the tires, and about $5.50 shipping. It was 2 day priority.
Road said she was sort of nasty to him. ??
YMMV

 

[blaser.306]

well, road knows from my other post, Clausing was good to me, I talked to a Jo there, and she took my order, over the phone, and said it would be flat rate small box, and she only charged me something like $5.70 each for the tires, and about $5.50 shipping. It was 2 day priority.
Road said she was sort of nasty to him. ??
YMMV

The "nasty to him" part, that is the free trade we keep on hearing about up here in the north( sorry we won't sell to you)! Had a similar incident with a E-screw merchant!!! $8.00 tool bit and $42.00 to ship. Listed as a sfrb but they wanted $20.00 to seal the tape.

 

[ChipsAhoy]

It's not just Canada, Many won't sell or ship to Alaska, claim that we are not part of the continental US. Dunno what continent we are supposed to be on. When they do elect to sell, then they insist on using FedEx or UPS at triple the rate. That is a complete rip off, Postal rates are not that much higher to Canada, and are the same to Alaska.

 

[astjp2]

It's not just Canada, Many won't sell or ship to Alaska, claim that we are not part of the continental US. Dunno what continent we are supposed to be on. When they do elect to sell, then they insist on using FedEx or UPS at triple the rate. That is a complete rip off, Postal rates are not that much higher to Canada, and are the same to Alaska.

That is why you have them ship to someone you know in the lower 48 and then have them forward it postal. Tim

 

[compsurge]

It's not just Canada, Many won't sell or ship to Alaska, claim that we are not part of the continental US. Dunno what continent we are supposed to be on. When they do elect to sell, then they insist on using FedEx or UPS at triple the rate. That is a complete rip off, Postal rates are not that much higher to Canada, and are the same to Alaska.

I think they're misinterpreting CONUS as Continental United States. It's actually Contiguous United States. :thinking:

 

[Hankus]

I guess if your the only game in town you have to play along, but what irks me is being a hobbyist on a budget I'm always looking for a good deal, yet having to paying more for shipping than twice the cost of a product is a real roadblock. Today I was wanting to buy a Screw Pitch Gage U.S. Standard 60 degree. A US company in Schaumburg, IL sells this gage online for $6 but I stop when I see they also want $13 for shipping.

 

[wa5cab]

Hankus,

Unfortunately, most people who only mail a letter or bill once in a while don't realize how much shipping costs have gone up in the past three or four years. $13 tells me that they probably only ship by UPS or FedEx. $13 is about the minimum for one pound UPS. And one pound is their minimum rate. Even with USPS, the minimum over the counter for one pound is over $6 now. It's much worse foreign. That doubled this past January. And pretty much killed my foreign business. When a $60 item costs $80 shipping, you don't get many buyers.

One reason that most middle-sized and major US companies won't ship USPS is that their tracking system is seriously unreliable.

Robert D

 

[ChipsAhoy]

We used to run a small business in Alaska and many of our vendors would not use the post office, when we questioned them there were two reason that we herd most often. First was that FedEx and UPS would come and pick up, where the post office just began offering that service. The other is that FedEx DHL and UPS offer perks if you use them.
Post office tracking has improved dramatically in the last few years.
Many companies won't drop ship items. Drop ship meaning have it delivered to someplace other than the credit billing address. We ordered a machine from a vendor in Texas that offered free freight, but not to Alaska. We ask them to ship it to our expiditer in Washington, NO DEAL!! That would have saved me over $600.00 and would have been no skin off their nose. Obviously we will never purchase from them again regardless of where we are.

sry...should not be ranting here...but I get so angry thinking about it!! lol

Scotty