"Very impressed with this company. Quality was excellent, delivery surprisingly fast."

"Employees are always in a great mood and eager to help place my order."

"I have been doing online ordering from McMaster Carr since 2009 and they have been great to do business with... but... starting in 2016, they started shipping my orders in multiple boxes when ONE box could easily hold the complete order. More often than not, the shipping charge for EXTRA boxes would exceed the value of the contents.

In 2016 I called their customer service each time this has happened and one of the shipping charges was always credited back to me. However, I have now been told (May 2017) that it is their current policy to ship in multiple boxes and that if a customers complains repeatedly, such customer will no longer be sold to!

What a terrible way to treat customers who you been loyal to you for many years.... :(

Rotten policy for customers unless you are a stockholder in UPS...."

"I first learned of McMaster as an intern back in 2005 and have ordered from them a few hundred times since, with multiple different jobs and for myself. I've never once had a problem with them, and the one time a shipment didn't turn up, it turned out UPS damaged it and didn't tell anyone. McMaster sent the order out again immediately no questions asked when I called about it.

Sometimes my credit card bounces for my own reasons during the purchase process. McMaster doesn't care. My order still arrives the next day. When I found out it had bounced a couple months later when I got an invoice in the mail saying my payment was late, their rep I talked with on the phone was all chipper about it saying, "we don't mind at all; we know you'll want to do business again so you'll pay eventually." Uhhhh. Okay, yes I do!

Also, I've only had to call them four times and each time they pick up the phone within about one ring and I've never been transferred or put on hold. How has no other company I've ever dealt with been that good on the phone?

They have the weirdest ordering system of any online retailer I've ever used and it's by far the easiest and fastest. I never worry about shipping, because the order always arrives next day, even when I order at 6:30pm. On my latest invoice, a two package order that weighed a total of 34lb, that overnight shipping cost me $24. I don't know how they do that! Other shipments of some screws and things that came in a small box cost $5 for shipping. It's really weird that you don't find out about that until after it's shipped, but I guess it's because they don't try to predict costs, or the costs may be driven by how much they ship each day or something. Clearly they're passing the savings along, though. I just paid way too much to ship half that weight in one box from another supplier one state over.

The best thing is their online catalog. Amazon literally tries to be this good and falls far short. The new Amazon Industrial section is clearly trying to compete with McMaster, but you just can't beat McMaster's parametric search. Every time I try to find a specific component from some other supplier I deal with like Digikey or someone, I find myself wishing their catalog was so well tended.

McMaster has a lot of quirks with how they do things that will be unfamiliar to new customers, but I'd urge them to push ahead. It's like McMaster is a weird look into an alternate universe of how online shopping might have been or something. It's pretty great."

"I have been ordering from this company for over 7 years now. We have never run into any problems that would make me think negatively about them. I love ordering on their website, and the ability to enter orders and save them so I can prep weeks ahead is fantastic. My confirmations get emailed immediately, parts 99.99% ship on=time (ships from them but outside carriers delay).

If we get a wrong item, or a bad part there is no messing around, you just return it. That simple!

If I forget an item on my order, or need to add something last minute and have already submitted the order, I just call customer service and it is quickly taken care of. I've used email customer service as well and I always get a prompt response.

Please do not let negative comments from very few sway your decision. Most reviews that are negative are from new customers or ones that have just one bad experience but forget how great the company was before and after that.

Just remember, stuff happens. I've really pounded that into my head this last year. "

"I have read some of the negative reviews. I can't be happier with McMaster. They have a VERY extensive line of HARD to find items. I place my order on-line and pay....And they ship it fast and don't screw me with shipping and handling fees.

Fantastic company IMO. They have so many lines of hard to find items and the service is excellent IMO. "

"I am so beyond irritated with this terrible company. I know many who order from here, but I just wish they could hear of my most recent purchase and the terrible customer service that I received. I called the company prior to ordering, placed a $19,000 order, had someone call me for questions and clarification the next day, only to have the order canceled on Friday evening after 5PM. Supposedly, they don't sell to distributors if they want to drop ship to their customer. They admit that this policy is not on the website and that their own staff are poorly trained on this subject. I had made it clear to both representatives that I spoke to that I was a distributer but neither was aware of this policy. So here I am on a Friday night with a PO for a very large order and I cannot even begin to order from another company until Monday, which happens to be Christmas week. The "head supervisor" even admitted that they had not even begun to order any of the items for an order that I had placed on Wednesday even though I had provided payment. Ridiculous! Stay away from this company if you can. There are plenty of websites out there that allow you to break the code for their item numbers so that you can order from a more honest and organized company. Buyer beware!"

"Ordinarily, I would give a positive review after good experiences at work and personal purchases. However, this is the first time, an item was out of stock. I purchased 2 very small items and they split the order up and charged me twice for shipping. Definitely, a lesson learned since I needed both items to complete the job, I would have waited to receive the whole order. This is the first company that I have ordered an item part of which is out of stock and charged twice for shipping. The total cost of shipping almost equaled the cost of the items. Needless to say, this is bad business practice. I will likely buy from them again, but never split an order up as they will soak you on shipping charges."

"I complained to McMaster-Carr that their web site required me to create an account just to browse it and that when I did, it told me I had been browsing too much and must wait 23 hours before I can continue to browse. This is the response I got from them:

"Due to the complexity of U.S. export regulations, McMaster-Carr accepts international orders only from our established customers. This decision also applies to orders shipping within the United States, because it is based on the final destination of the items. We will not provide a quotation or accept your orders.""

"All of these negative reviews are ridiculous. McMaster-Carr has a long, well established, and well deserved reputation as an EXCELLENT online retailer. One of, if not the best. Google around and you will find as many reviews to that effect as you like.

The customer service is a gold standard, I have never had to wait for a response and any complaints have been answered promptly and without argument. Shipping time is ridiculously fast.

Now, I will admit that their shipping is not always the most efficient space-wise. This does not appreciably affect the shipping costs. I just looked at 2 of my invoices, paid $4.80 for a 3 lb UPS package, and $13 for a 24 lb package delivered same day. If you paid $20 to ship 3 springs, YOU must have screwed up the order or requested next day air. I will also admit that it would be nice to know the shipping charge beforehand but it is understandable why they cannot tell you. It's the nature of that kind of business, not unique by any means to McMaster. Many supply companies of this stature operate the same way. Mouser comes to mind, digi-key as well. Not a significant disadvantage IMHO. And certainly not criminal as some ridiculous reviews here are asserting.

If your goal is to pinch pennies and order a spring for your cellphone once every 2 years, McMaster may not be for you (although you will still get the same excellent service that everyone else gets, and can access the same excellent online catalog). By all means order them from Amazon and wait. McMaster is not always the cheapest but their service is BY FAR the best, and the quality is always top notch even on their "budget" parts. If you don't need high quality springs then choose cheaper ones, there are many on McMaster. If you didn't do that because someone else told you "buy this," it's your own fault. Your ignorance should not reflect poorly on others.

I'm only writing this review because I've been ordering from McM for years and the service and quality has been consistently excellent. Parts are always in stock and always shipped within about an hour. I would hate for people to be turned off because of the surprisingly negative rating on this site. If you're in doubt, do some more research for yourself.
"

"McMaster Carr -bad company -no customer service period. Spent an hour today trying to get a shipping quote on a large order and when I got frustrated they sent me an email that the order was to big so they "declined to quote" Huge waste of time. Shame on You McMaster Carr. Don't Waste your time with McMaster Carr"

"The website interface was good for selection of parts but that’s where the joy ended.

McMaster-Carr's online website did not calculate shipping before signoff which means your card will be charged an undetermined amount.

On top of that I made my order and heard nothing back from McMaster after almost ten days. I emailed to enquire about the tracking number for the shipment and received an automated message saying I would receive a reply in 2 hours. 2 days passed so I sent another email. Finally I received a reply that my order had been rejected because "Due to the complexity of U.S. Export regulations, McMaster-Carr only accepts orders from our established customers in Canada. We’re sorry we can’t help you."

I constantly order from online websites that somehow manage to get parts over the border. This was unacceptable.

It would be forgivable if they contacted me, listed it on their website, or made any effort at all.
"

"Great products. Not good billing.
I didn't like not knowing what the shipping would be before placing my order.

Thankfully the shipping was what I expected. This is the only problem I have with them.

The CAD files for most of their products is a big help. "

"They don't list shipping price until they bill so I emailed their customer service. I was quoted 5 to 8 dollars. So I placed the order and turns out shipping was almost 20 dollars (19 and something cents). They weren't dishonest, they just put the 12x24 inch wire mesh in an excessively large box and were too lazy to give me a real shipping quote or use a heavy small box. People who don't do their job well irritate me, which is why I'm leaving a poor review. Maybe McMaster-Carr is not equipped to deal with small orders efficiently.
The product was correct and low priced and seemed to be of quality, its a shame their shipping is horrible."

"It's unethical and possibly illegal to not disclose how much you are charging your customers credit card! I was shocked when I received my receipt two days after purchase and saw that my charge was nearly double. They did not disclose shipping costs and charged my account without telling me. I looked online afterward and found that others have been misled by this practice. Why order $10 of bolts when they tack on $20 in shipping! "