# McMaster Carr shipping gone up?



## diamond (Jan 2, 2022)

Anyone notice how pricey McMaster Carr shipping has become?   I know everything is more expensive these days but dang.  I'm ordering two silly little limit switches for $38 and the ground shipping is over $21! ( 60% of the product cost!!!).  It's nice that they now show the shipping cost on-line in the order but no way ground costs that much.  I haven't ordered from them in a while and checked my previous orders.  Shipping was WAY less.


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## benmychree (Jan 2, 2022)

Yes, shipping has gone up, and the goods are not at all cheap either, compared to other sources of the same goods; the price of convenience ---


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## Technical Ted (Jan 2, 2022)

Remove one of the switches from your cart and see if the shipping drops. Maybe the two are shipping from two different locations and that will double the shipping cost.

I always check the shipping after adding things to my cart when ordering from McMaster and watch the results. For example, I've currently got items in my cart that are small. But, when adding a 3' length of drill rod, the cost doubled. Apparently this requires two different packages and they don't charge shipping by order, but by packaging and actual shipping cost.

Ted


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## diamond (Jan 2, 2022)

Ted I think you nailed it.  Two little switches but taking either one out of the cart cuts the shipping in half.   Still... ouch.


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## Ischgl99 (Jan 2, 2022)

What Ted said, if the products are coming from separate warehouses, there will be two shipping charges in that cost.  Checking that saved me a couple times. 

I actually find the shipping costs from McMaster very reasonable compared to many other companies.  A small shipment from them is usually about $8 for shipping, the same items from Travers is $14 even though they are closer.  I have wanted to buy some things from Mari Tool, but shipping is at least $20, so I am waiting until I have enough items to make that cost worthwhile.


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## westerner (Jan 2, 2022)

I recently ordered a single small item from McMaster-Carr. Placed the order mid morning on Saturday. 
UPS delivered it mid morning Monday. $11 shipping. Ask Bezos to do the same......Good Luck.


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## mmcmdl (Jan 3, 2022)

Flat rate boxes go up so fast I can't keep up with them.


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## Janderso (Jan 3, 2022)

UPS is very expensive.
If you need it fast, you really can’t beat McMaster. Imho


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## C-Bag (Jan 3, 2022)

Janderso said:


> UPS is very expensive.
> If you need it fast, you really can’t beat McMaster. Imho


Yup, and just got notice there is going to be another price hike. UPS is great for overseas, domestic not so much. USPS has been keeping close the same price for quite awhile. I get annoyed when a company doesn’t offer different shipping options and often don’t buy because of that and not offering to be able to use PayPal instead of my credit card.


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## GordonL (Jan 3, 2022)

They could solve a lot of this if they just offered USPS shipping as an option. Frequently I do not need it the next day so a flat rate box would do just fine. Another thing to watch is the size of the item. I recently purchased a piece of rod which I was going to cut up into smaller pieces. I ordered a 6 ft piece. If I had ordered two three ft pieces the shipping would have gone way down. That was mostly my fault for not looking at the shipping cost before placing the order. I am not sure of how to solve the problem of duplicate items shipped from separate locations.


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## C-Bag (Jan 3, 2022)

I would think these business types would understand options and offer that. The good ones do, but I constantly deal with dealers in my little world who just want one size to fit all, in all things. They stay small and the ones who understand that there is no one size fits all expand. It’s called customer service in my view but it would seem to some it’s just too complicated. I also drop outfits that have lousy online sites. If they can’t even provide a decent site I don’t trust it’s secure to order on either.


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## woodchucker (Jan 3, 2022)

I find it odd, that UPS has a service, where they take it between major hubs, and then let USPS take it the rest of the way.
Often, I find that it takes much longer than having one or the other handle it.

UPS used to be reasonable, I find they overcharge. FedEx can be a better bargain. USPS IS a better bargain for many things.  We even ship by weight, finding it to be cheaper than flat rate. The post master in town told us it was in many cases.. she wasn't wrong.


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## brasssmanget (Jan 3, 2022)

My experiences with USPS over the last 4 months have been very poor if not horrible........right now I do not/would not trust anything to them if I really wanted it delivered correctly.


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## woodchucker (Jan 3, 2022)

brasssmanget said:


> My experiences with USPS over the last 4 months have been very poor if not horrible........right now I do not/would not trust anything to them if I really wanted it delivered correctly.


You can thank DeJoy - NoJoy for that. He really f'd up the postal system.  It was never designed to be a profit center. It was designed to keep Business going #1, and people in touch ... probably way down on the list.


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## Navy Chief (Jan 3, 2022)

woodchucker said:


> You can thank DeJoy - NoJoy for that. He really f'd up the postal system. It was never designed to be a profit center. It was designed to keep Business going #1, and people in touch ... probably way down on the list.


The post office was hosed long before DeJoy, he didn't help, but he inherited an unholy mess. 

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk


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## woodchucker (Jan 3, 2022)

Navy Chief said:


> The post office was hosed long before DeJoy, he didn't help, but he inherited an unholy mess.
> 
> Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk


True, but it worked, and stuff got from here to there.
Now it doesn't even work.
And it's 5 times the mess it was.
But hey, it's getting more profitable... at doing nothing.


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## C-Bag (Jan 3, 2022)

Navy Chief said:


> The post office was hosed long before DeJoy, he didn't help, but he inherited an unholy mess.
> 
> Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk


Yes, thanks to unscrupulous people in Congress who've been trying to privatize USPS. They have been hobbling it any way they can and the last major strike was making USPS pre pay their retirement. It's really frustrating everything has been turned into a football.


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## woodchucker (Jan 3, 2022)

C-Bag said:


> Yes, thanks to unscrupulous people in Congress who've been trying to privatize USPS. They have been hobbling it any way they can and the last major strike was making USPS pre pay their retirement. It's really frustrating everything has been turned into a football.


yep, that was the stupidest piece of "legislation", "mandate", TOILET PAPER to ever be written.
No other org pre pays retirement.


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## C-Bag (Jan 3, 2022)

woodchucker said:


> yep, that was the stupidest piece of "legislation", "mandate", TOILET PAPER to ever be written.
> No other org pre pays retirement.


It's shocking that you really have to dig away from the garbage that media news is to get an inkling into the shenanigans these political hacks have gone to to take USPS out since the 70's. Anybody in a union is in the cross hairs and especially USPS because of that. There has been so much taken away just to make them unprofitable so it could cast in a bad light. Like you used to be able to bank in USPS. And many other convenient services were taken away.

 I get USPS might not be ok in some places in the country, but here it works. And right now my usual material shipments that were costing me $70 are now $130 with UPS. Still takes a week to get here and sometimes it looks like it was part of the old Samsonite commercial with the gorillas.


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## woodchucker (Jan 3, 2022)

I used to fly competitive Model Airplane Gliders. Shipments through UPS were usually damaged, even with double cardboard, wood and cardboard... if you wrote fragile on them they were treated worse.

I would ship, or tell the shipper to ship Fed Ex.. it was the only way to get there in one piece. These cost many thousands of dollars, carbon fiber, kevlar, fiberglass. UPS became shipper of last resort.. International, DHL ...

I almost went to work for UPS, Just as I was about to join, they went from private to public, and many of the incentives went away..


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## matthewsx (Jan 3, 2022)

I actually started at USPS the same day as DeJoy. 
Luckily 3 days later I got an offer in my field for 3x as much.

I saw that recently McMaster added a shipping cost page before you check out. It only bothered me once that I didn't know the shipping cost prior to checking out because I found their shipping prices and delivery to be an excellent value.

Sure I can buy many of the items they offer for less money but they do the really hard work of sourcing quality stuff to begin with. It does me no good to save $4 if the item is such poor quality that I can't use it anyway. And for our hobby? I can order a 1ft piece of whatever type of steel I want and have it at my door the next day, with a certificate that confirms I got what I ordered....

I'm a happy customer and will return over and over again if they just keep up what they're doing

John


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## Navy Chief (Jan 3, 2022)

matthewsx said:


> I actually started at USPS the same day as DeJoy.
> Luckily 3 days later I got an offer in my field for 3x as much.
> 
> I saw that recently McMaster added a shipping cost page before you check out. It only bothered me once that I didn't know the shipping cost prior to checking out because I found their shipping prices and delivery to be an excellent value.
> ...


I agree, I look at the shipping as paying the "McMaster" tax. I get quality products delivered rapidly and excellent customer service to go along with it. Being able to see what the shipping is now prior to placing the order is just a bonus and avoids surprises.


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## Ischgl99 (Jan 3, 2022)

matthewsx said:


> I actually started at USPS the same day as DeJoy.
> Luckily 3 days later I got an offer in my field for 3x as much.
> 
> I saw that recently McMaster added a shipping cost page before you check out. It only bothered me once that I didn't know the shipping cost prior to checking out because I found their shipping prices and delivery to be an excellent value.
> ...


I got burned once with shipping from McMaster before they showed the shipping price.  I bought 6ft lengths of steel to have on hand for projects and would have saved a good amount if I bought two 3ft lengths of each size instead.  Live and learn.  Now when I buy from somewhere like Midwest, I know to order shorter lengths unless I really need it that long.

I recently was looking to get a 3/8” 5c collet, I have a metric set, so only needed that inch size.  I wanted to try a higher quality than the value brands made in China and I checked with the usual suspects, Travers was about $30 for Lyndex, and KBC was $32.  McMaster had them at $26, but didn’t know the brand. I went with McMaster since I was ordering from them anyways, so shipping of the collet was basically free.  They shipped a Lyndex collet, so they are not more expensive than elsewhere on some items.


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## davidpbest (Jan 3, 2022)

McMaster ships USPS all the time.  You just have to request it.  In the “Additional Instructions” field at checkout tell them what shipping service  want.  For small things like a box of screws I will put in “Send USPS Priority Fixed Rate”.  You won’t know the exact charge until later, but it is often cheaper than UPS.  Note that UPS prices have gone up, and mill cardboard for  shipping boxes is up 40 percent (from pre Covid levels).


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## Navy Chief (Jan 3, 2022)

davidpbest said:


> McMaster ships USPS all the time. You just have to request it. In the “Additional Instructions” field at checkout tell them what shipping service want. For small things like a box of screws I will put in “Send USPS Priority Fixed Rate”. You won’t know the exact charge until later, but it is often cheaper than UPS. Note that UPS prices have gone up, and mill cardboard for shipping boxes is up 40 percent (from pre Covid levels).


Literally everything is up a ridiculous amount from pre-covid... Highest inflation rate in 40 years last year..

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk


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## diamond (Jan 3, 2022)

davidpbest said:


> McMaster ships USPS all the time.  You just have to request it.  In the “Additional Instructions” field at checkout tell them what shipping service  want.  For small things like a box of screws I will put in “Send USPS Priority Fixed Rate”.


I did not know you could request different shipping method.  Good tip David.  I often don't need something fast, being just a hobby and not a production shop.   Will do that from now on when it's a small order.


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