mcmaster-carr
 

Do you buy from them? After this response to my online purchase, they will not get business from me even when I am back in the USA.

Howard,

McMaster-Carr only accepts overseas orders from a few long-established customers. We do not sell to private individuals outside of the United States, and we will not be able to accept your order. We regret any inconvenience this causes you.

Dan Kikta

Loved them. I ordered some foam sheets at 10 am and when i got home at 5 pm the order was sitting on my doorstep.

My firm uses them every day. Never had a problem.

awesome company...

I ordered a slew of parts from them when replacing my engine last summer. They carry a very complete line of stainless steel clamps and fuel/vacuum hoses. They were not cheap, but the parts were excellent and they shipped very fast!

Best web catalog and fastest shipping I've ever seen. One of my favorites.

HD,

What do you need? Someone here can order it and ship it to your APO address.

Lots of companies do not sell to an APO for some reason, not sure why but it sure screws those of us who were based overseas.

Joe

The are located about 3 miles from me. I use them for business and personal. Hard to beat their selection and in-stock items, although they can be spendy.

all great and good for you fellas in the USA...just crap for service members overseas!!! I found another site who WILL ship to APO/FPO and was priced better for the products I needed. Nothing I can do about their policy.

There was a time (5years ago) when I placed orders monthly, sometimes weekly, never had a negative experience. However, I never required overseas service. Response could have been more sympathetic.

I'm sorry for your frustration.

Thanks Joe, but like I said I found a company that will ship to APO/FPO.

Funny even when I am back in the US I may ask other companies if they ship to APO/FPO...those that do will get my business first simply because they support the troops with such a simple task.

I have specified their products in my designs for over 25 years. Great company to do business with. While I'm not on the purchasing end of this rather large company for whom I work, I have never had complaints from the folks that have to order what I call out. And those folks are anything but shy about such matters...

Like others I order hard to find parts and have them that day or next day for ground ship prices. Bummer they don't ship overseas.

for those not in the know...shipping to an APO/FPO is like shipping to NJ or NY. Only additional work is a small customs document, and the US military takes it from the east coast to it's destination.

Agree totally and I did not know that they did not ship to an APO address either.

Cannot see where the problem is but my business as well goes to companies who support the soldiers.

Unfortunately, when shipping to APO addresses your parcel travels via "military mail". Once the parcel leaves USPS custody and is turned over to MM, the USPS insurance and the tracking label are useless. This means the company shipping the product cannot verify that you ever received the item, nor can they collect the insurance if the item is lost or damaged.

Add to this the Form 2976-A. Sure it's just one little form, but even a little form like this takes about 5 minutes to complete. Now do this 100 times per day and you have a full time worker just filling out customs forms.

I understand the resentment and the feeling that the company is not supporting the troops - but I also understand the risk and expense to the company.


And for the record, my business ships to APO addresses - which is why I know about the issues I mentioned.

point well made...and makes sense. I can say in all my years overseas, packages have been VERY late to get here at times but knock on wood I have never had one missing. Some business people go above and beyond (like your company) while others just don't.

Wayne and Pelican ship to APO. =o)

I emailed and asked the company why they are not selling to our soldiers overseas and why its not mentioned in their site that APO is not allowed.

Their form says you will get a reply within an hour. Its been over an hour and no answer...

McMaster may not ship via USPS, so foreign overseas is not doable, except at high cost.

Otherwise, Mcmaster is the shiznit.

I didn't think about that but turbo6bar is onto something.... FedEx, UPS, and other carriers are barred from shipping to APO addresses.