As you may recall I asked a while back for suggestions on a toolbox
since my little Craftsman died at work. I settled on a Kennedy, and
decided to buy it from MSC. I had to save up a little more money before
I was comfortable buying it, so I put my existing box back together with
a mess of rivets and some scrap sheet metal, and lots of prayers.
A week before XMas I had enough cash gathered up to buy the box.
Ordered it, and scheduled for delivery the Tuesday after Xmas. Tuesday
arrives, no box. I call Wednesday morning and have a chat with Bobbi at
MSC, who begins the search. She calls the freight idiots, they tell her
it's lost, and they'll call me back. I have to leave for work before
that happens.
No call, no message, no box.
Thursday I call Bobbi again, and go through roughly the same process,
but now the box is narrowed down to somewhere in Dallas. Just before I
have to leave for work I call MSC back and get Amanda, who tells me
Bobbi is still on the phone with Southeastern. I tell her to tell Bobbi
to tell Southeastern to leave a damn message if I'm not home.
No call, no message, no box.
Friday, I call, get someone other than Bobbi, she's out at the
moment, so I ask for my tracking number, Southeaster's phone number, and
a name to look for. She digs through Bobbi's notes and gives me the
info. I call Southeastern, find out that my box is in Dallas, on Irving
Boulevard, a mile from me, and has been there since ages ago. She tells
me she's seen it, sitting on the warehouse floor, and has no idea why it
wasn't sent. I schedule for a delivery Tuesday. (that's today now) I
got a call from Bobbi a few minutes later and told her what Southeastern
told me. She told me her own horror story about dealing with them.
Apparently, they lie often. We had a lovely little chat about how
stupid they are over at Southeastern, then I headed off to work, where
my toolbox is quickly becoming a thing of legend.
I like Bobbi.
This morning I call Southeastern to find out if they're shipping it
or decided to sit on their hands once again. Took a while, and lots of
transfers to and from non-helpful people who don't five a ****, but I
got a hold of the wench at the Irving shipping center. Surprise! Not
shipping. It's lost. If she had known it was lost she wouldn't have
scheduled another drop-off. This is the same woman who told me she saw
the damn thing sitting in the warehouse friday. I asked if it had been
stolen, and she sounded deeply confused for a moment before assuring me
that it is simply "mislocated." There is a reason "mislocated" is not
in my dictionary.
It made me miss talking to Bobbi.
Anyway, I call Bobbi back, and leave another message. I let her know
that the box has gone from "We don't know where it is," to "In Dallas,"
to "In the Irving shipping center," to "Right in front of my eyeballs,"
to "Dunno where the **** it is!" Since I'm tired of this, can I just
send that box back to wherever and have MSC ship a shiny (well, as shiny
as brown crinkle coat paint gets) new box though someone not as grossly
incompetent? Perhaps USPS? She calls back about ten minutes later and
tells me that she called Southeastern, filed a claim, and will ship a
new box out. She even wrote all over it "DON'T SHIP SOUTHEASTERN!!!"
And then giggled.
I like Bobbi.
She told me it'll arrive either Friday or Monday at the latest. I
asked if, seeing as it's two weeks late, I could get the shipping
charges refunded. Without missing a beat she said Yes. Whoo hoo!
I like Bobbi.
Despite having about $1750 lost somewhere in the mail for a couple of
weeks, and still having nothing to show for it aside from an utterly
useless tracking number, I'd have to say my first encounter with MSC has
been mostly pleasant.
I called Southeastern to personally let the stupid bitch over there
that they've failed miserably and we're filing a loss on that box, and
don't bother shipping it here even if found. She told me that if a
claim has been filed it'll be handled by OSC, then she hung up.
Moral of the story: Southeastern Freight sucks. Avoid them if you
can.

--
B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail dot net

B.B. writes:

Moral of the story: Southeastern Freight sucks. Avoid them if you
can.

Call MSC customer service and get your account flagged for "real UPS
shipping only", otherwise they put your stuff on a iffy consolidator
service to save a few bucks.

I too learned this the hard way. At one point my packages were being
delivered by an (apparently) illegal non-English-speaking immigrant driving
an unmarked, beat-up old Honda.

It took me a while to figure out why I wasn't getting UPS tracking numbers
(that worked) on my invoices.

Hey...all this talk about Bobbi and no pictures????

Does she have a sister? LOL

Thanks for the story....we need to hear more of these stories to root
out the bad guys.

TMT

Too_Many_Tools wrote:
Hey...all this talk about Bobbi and no pictures????

Does she have a sister? LOL

Thanks for the story....we need to hear more of these stories to root
out the bad guys.

....and good girls.

Of course, there was a time when I sought the OTHER kind of girls G

Bobbi told me she likes you too...

"B.B." wrote:

As you may recall I asked a while back for suggestions on a toolbox
since my little Craftsman died at work. I settled on a Kennedy, and
decided to buy it from MSC. I had to save up a little more money before
I was comfortable buying it, so I put my existing box back together with
a mess of rivets and some scrap sheet metal, and lots of prayers.
A week before XMas I had enough cash gathered up to buy the box.
Ordered it, and scheduled for delivery the Tuesday after Xmas. Tuesday
arrives, no box. I call Wednesday morning and have a chat with Bobbi at
MSC, who begins the search. She calls the freight idiots, they tell her
it's lost, and they'll call me back. I have to leave for work before
that happens.
No call, no message, no box.
Thursday I call Bobbi again, and go through roughly the same process,
but now the box is narrowed down to somewhere in Dallas. Just before I
have to leave for work I call MSC back and get Amanda, who tells me
Bobbi is still on the phone with Southeastern. I tell her to tell Bobbi
to tell Southeastern to leave a damn message if I'm not home.
No call, no message, no box.
Friday, I call, get someone other than Bobbi, she's out at the
moment, so I ask for my tracking number, Southeaster's phone number, and
a name to look for. She digs through Bobbi's notes and gives me the
info. I call Southeastern, find out that my box is in Dallas, on Irving
Boulevard, a mile from me, and has been there since ages ago. She tells
me she's seen it, sitting on the warehouse floor, and has no idea why it
wasn't sent. I schedule for a delivery Tuesday. (that's today now) I
got a call from Bobbi a few minutes later and told her what Southeastern
told me. She told me her own horror story about dealing with them.
Apparently, they lie often. We had a lovely little chat about how
stupid they are over at Southeastern, then I headed off to work, where
my toolbox is quickly becoming a thing of legend.
I like Bobbi.
This morning I call Southeastern to find out if they're shipping it
or decided to sit on their hands once again. Took a while, and lots of
transfers to and from non-helpful people who don't five a ****, but I
got a hold of the wench at the Irving shipping center. Surprise! Not
shipping. It's lost. If she had known it was lost she wouldn't have
scheduled another drop-off. This is the same woman who told me she saw
the damn thing sitting in the warehouse friday. I asked if it had been
stolen, and she sounded deeply confused for a moment before assuring me
that it is simply "mislocated." There is a reason "mislocated" is not
in my dictionary.
It made me miss talking to Bobbi.
Anyway, I call Bobbi back, and leave another message. I let her know
that the box has gone from "We don't know where it is," to "In Dallas,"
to "In the Irving shipping center," to "Right in front of my eyeballs,"
to "Dunno where the **** it is!" Since I'm tired of this, can I just
send that box back to wherever and have MSC ship a shiny (well, as shiny
as brown crinkle coat paint gets) new box though someone not as grossly
incompetent? Perhaps USPS? She calls back about ten minutes later and
tells me that she called Southeastern, filed a claim, and will ship a
new box out. She even wrote all over it "DON'T SHIP SOUTHEASTERN!!!"
And then giggled.
I like Bobbi.
She told me it'll arrive either Friday or Monday at the latest. I
asked if, seeing as it's two weeks late, I could get the shipping
charges refunded. Without missing a beat she said Yes. Whoo hoo!
I like Bobbi.
Despite having about $1750 lost somewhere in the mail for a couple of
weeks, and still having nothing to show for it aside from an utterly
useless tracking number, I'd have to say my first encounter with MSC has
been mostly pleasant.
I called Southeastern to personally let the stupid bitch over there
that they've failed miserably and we're filing a loss on that box, and
don't bother shipping it here even if found. She told me that if a
claim has been filed it'll be handled by OSC, then she hung up.
Moral of the story: Southeastern Freight sucks. Avoid them if you
can.

--
B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail dot net

Lovely story, good luck. I haven't placed that many orders with MSC so
far, but what I've found is that whatever oddball carrier they uses
seems to do a good job getting things to me here in Denison. If stuff is
coming out of the Atlanta warehouse it's typically on my doorstep the
next day even with the basic ground shipping. Not sure who exactly
they're using for shipping, seems to be some "Velocity" outfit, but it's
usually an unmarked white van delivering.

Pete C.

I don't know what you ordered, but if you are spending $1700 on tool
storage, I would respectfully suggest that you cancel the order and buy
Lista instead. I researched this extensively a few years back and Lista
had by far the best quality cabinetry at similar to Kennedy prices. If
I've convinced you, I can give you the contact info of a gent in PA who
sold me 4 Lista cabinets for significantly less than I could buy them
elsewhere. I had them custom specified (for drawer arrangement) and
they were shipped directly (to CA in my case) from the Lista factory in
MA. I bought shop cabinets, but they also make tool storage. I have not
contacted him in while, so I don't want to just throw his email address
up. If you email me ) I'll give you his
info. Remove "nospam" from the address.

In article . com, lens says...

I don't know what you ordered, but if you are spending $1700 on tool
storage, I would respectfully suggest that you cancel the order and buy
Lista instead. I researched this extensively a few years back and Lista
had by far the best quality cabinetry at similar to Kennedy prices. If
I've convinced you, I can give you the contact info of a gent in PA who
sold me 4 Lista cabinets for significantly less than I could buy them
elsewhere.

Discounted? Hmm..... 20, 30 percent?

Jim


--
==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

Lista and its competition are good cabinets.

How about their scratch and dent line?

TMT

I will contact the guy I bought Lista from and point him to this link.
If he's still rep'ing them, he'll post with contact info. For some
reason my email address did not get posted above. I'm not sure if I've
violated some rule.

In article . com,
"lens" wrote:

I don't know what you ordered, but if you are spending $1700 on tool
storage, I would respectfully suggest that you cancel the order and buy
Lista instead. I researched this extensively a few years back and Lista
had by far the best quality cabinetry at similar to Kennedy prices. If
I've convinced you, I can give you the contact info of a gent in PA who
sold me 4 Lista cabinets for significantly less than I could buy them
elsewhere. I had them custom specified (for drawer arrangement) and
they were shipped directly (to CA in my case) from the Lista factory in
MA. I bought shop cabinets, but they also make tool storage. I have not
contacted him in while, so I don't want to just throw his email address
up. If you email me ) I'll give you his
info. Remove "nospam" from the address.

I almost got a lista, but their configurations just barely missed
what I needed. I wanted a shallow depth box for mobility in a crowded
shop, but enough length for my tire irons and cheater pipes, which are
just under 40 inches. I also wanted to have both a long, shallow drawer
and a short, deep drawer in the same box. I could assemble Listas
together to accomplish that, but it gets too large. But later on when
I'm looking for a really big, and mostly stationary toolbox, I'll
probably go straight to Lista.
For my planned usage, the Kennedy I ordered is best. Plus I like
crinklecoat paint. (:
http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT...PMPXNO=2268294
the picture on that page is wrong, look at the catalog page for the
correct drawer arrangement.

--
B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail dot net

Followup:

I received my box thursday morning. That means it took less than 48
hours to arrive after I asked them to send me another via another
shipper. Our shipping department received it, so I don't know who the
carrier actually was. But I was impressed.
Everybody at work is jealous. I love it. When I told them all that
the box was going to be brown when it arrived they were unimpressed.
After all, they're used to red, blue, and yellow boxes. Brown isn't a
primary color, so it's not popular. But upon arrival they all agreed,
"Damn, that looks nice!"
Having six oversized wheels to get around the dump of a shop we're in
is handy too. I greased the casters, filled up the box, and it just
glides around effortlessly. They told me I needed a butcher block top.
Screw that--MDF! Less than $4, and I can replace it in a single day
rather than waiting for a new one to ship. Won't last as long, but for
the price of a fancy top I can buy a hell of a lot of it. The next
piece I put on I'll paint first.
I mounted that vise I scored a while back for $20. I spent perhaps
another $2 on hardware. The nut at the rear of the vise had been
knocked loose. The holes for the spring pins were broken out, so I
drilled three new holes, tapped them, and put in 1/4-20 bolts. I
clamped a chunk of wood in the vise while I was drilling to keep the
screw out of the way and hold everything tight. Worked like a charm.
All I lack is a pair of hooks in the rear to hang my creeper from.
The cotter pins that fasten the center wheels looked kinda cheap, so
they got replaced with better-looking hairpin clips. I wanted lynch
pins, but nobody makes 1/8" lynch pins. Maybe one day I'll go all out
and thread the ends of the shafts just for the hell of it. Sure does
seem obsessive.
This morning Southeastern called me. They finally found my box 14
days after the original delivery date. Morons. I explained that a loss
claim had already been filed by MSC, but the bimbo I spoke with called
me back and told me that she couldn't find it. Seems to be a trend.
She asked me again if I wanted the box. Well, no, I already have one,
and if I accept this one I'll have to pay for it eventually. I called
Bobbi back at MSC again and let her know since I figure they'll never
call her themselves. No telling when this is going to end.

--
B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail dot net