"Ken Grunke" wrote in message
...
I needed some aluminum tubing for a project, and after checking a few
online sources, McMaster-Carr had the type and size I needed for a
reasonable price so I put my order through with my credit card at noon
yesterday. I was concerned that no shipping charges were added to the
order so I sent a friendly note via the "Contact Us" link asking about
that.
A half hour later came the reply from Naima:

" Thank you for the feedback. Shipping charges are determined when an
order is weighed and shipped. I estimate shipping for the aluminum tubes
you ordered to cost $5 to La Farge, WI.

Whenever you need a shipping estimate before you place an order, please
let us know the items and the destination, and we will quote shipping
charges at that time."

OK, so sounds good. So I figured when they are ready to ship, I'll get the
invoice, which I get this morning.

Shipping charge is $9.36 for two 6" lengths of aluminum tubing, 1 1/2" OD
& 1 1/4" OD. I assumed the order hadn't been sent yet so I sent a note
asking to cancel the order because I felt the shipping was too high.
Almost double Naima's estimation.

I was ready to call the bank and see if I could stop the charge when
Naima's reply arrived:

"I apologize that the shipping estimate was not correct. We'll credit your
credit card $4.36 to match our estimate."

Wow. That's cool. I decided to accept Naima's kind offer, sent a note of
thanks and gave the order a go-ahead. OK, I'm a pushover, I know. I just
didn't have time to sit and mess around with the hassle of trying to
cancel the charge and make a new order with a different source. I had
stuff to do, people to see, etc.

So I get back home this afternoon to see the package from McMaster-Carr
on the doorstep. I was flabbergasted. Sent from Chicago by UPS Ground to
my place, in SW Wisconsin, in about 27 hours from the order! I had no idea
UPS could do that. Sure, only a 5 hour drive but no red tape? No sitting
in a distribution center in some ridiculously far and out-of-the-way city
like St. Louis, MO or Denver, CO?

Just wanted to give a public tip o'the hat to the company for it's great
customer service. And thanks also to UPS.


You know, I have had good service from McMaster for the most part, but I
don't read reports like this as an overwhelming positive.

Paraphrasing:
"They screwed up and tried to %^#&% me, but when I called them out over it
they made it right."

I would rather they don't screw up in the first place.