What is this McMaster-Carr Nonsense ?

[eystein]

On Aug 26th I placed an online order with McMaster-Carr for some very simple stuff. Some special screws for the ws wiper, some rubber plugs to use while flushing the gas tank some metal plugs and some shop hardware and supplies.

So far, so good. After 15 minutes or so, I received their written confirmation by Email, (See picture annexed) and I proceeded to inform My forwarder in New Jersey to which McMaster-Carr had been asked to ship.

One and a half week passed and no shipment had arrived in New Jersey, so I called them up, and shortly after I received the following Email :

"Hi Eystein,

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 cannot accept this order or future orders."


I called them again and tried to tell them that although they may be at liberty to decide to sell or not sell according to their liking, they had actually confirmed in writing that they were selling to me. An hour later I received this :

Hi Eystein,

We have made the decision not to accept your order from August 26th or future orders due to the possibility of export. This decision also applies to orders shipping within the United States.

So pardon, me but I thought that an order confirmation was a legal comittment to sell. Furthermore, I am absolutely certain that it is NOT forbidden to export screws and rubber plugs from the US !!!

Can anybody give me an idea of what this BS is about ?

Also, can anybody point me to another online shop that would sell me the items. Especially the 3-48 x 1/4 Machine screws for the ws wiper cover and the 1/2" metal plug for the Cabriolet floor cross sill ?

[Steve Wastler]

The order confirmation is their acknowledgement they recieved the order, and most likely was program generated. It clearly states at the bottom of the document subject to their terms and conditions. Upon review by a human it was in conflict with their conditions. Seems crappy, but it is what it is. Wishing luck on getting what you need.

[eystein]

I cannot see that a letter being program generated is any excuse. They are still responsible for their site.

Also, trust me, I have red every word of their terms and conditions, and there is nothing there explaining their rejection.

Anyway, what's their problem ???

[Mike V. Florida]

I does say on the bottom that your order is subject to their conditions.

If you would like I can order the parts and ship them to you, do you have pay pal?

[tbirdtbird]

that is too bad, they are a breeze to deal w/ here in the states and have a lot of hard to get stuff.....

[1930artdeco]

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Personally I think it is BS as well. There are no real regs. that say they can't sell the screws and plugs to you. I think someone is just being lazy. My 2 cents.

Mike

[Stretch Cab]

I of course have no way of knowing their reasons as do the rest but I would imagine that in this market they would LOVE to sell to anyone................................

[denis4x4]

Originally Posted by 1930artdeco

Personally I think it is BS as well. There are no real regs. that say they can't sell the screws and plugs to you. I think someone is just being lazy. My 2 cents.

Mike

I suspect that they have a distributor that has an iron clad lock on sales and distribution overseas and they're not going to piss them off.

[Randy in ca]

I found the following in the shipping information section of their Webpage:


Shipping orders outside the United States

We can ship our products throughout the world using air and ocean transportation services. We evaluate international orders from all new customers to determine whether we can accept them.



Makes you wonder what all they use criteria-wise to "evaluate" new customers. I think I'd be a little ripped too!!

[J Franklin]

First a no fly list, and now a no buy list. It is getting tougher to be thought of as a possible terrorist these days!

[KenCoupe]

There are ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and EAR (Export Administration Regulations) that regulate export outside of the U.S. or to "Foreign Persons". However, most of the ITAR controlled items have to do with defense related items or intellectual property. They are very complicated regulations. However, I would not think that small screws and rubber plugs would qualify as being subject to ITAR (I could be wrong, but...). You might try to call McMaster-Carr again and try to get someone else who can explain to you why shipping screws and plugs outside the U.S. is export controlled. If you can't get any satisfaction from McMaster-Carr, try Grainger (www.grainger.com). I just took a quick look and they have 3-48 x 1/4 screws, but I don't know if they are correct for the wiper assembly.

[jimvette59]

That size 3 x 48 tpi x 1/4" screw is used on some guns. Must raze a flag. Just my 2 cents.

[Lawrie]

We used to manufacture here in Australia a great machine to recycle water from a pressure washer and reuse it, We sold heaps here in Australia, we got quite a few items from McMaster -car from the USA,suddenly we got the same response as the above,
They lost a good customer .
Lawrie

[noboD]

Originally Posted by jimvette59

That size 3 x 48 tpi x 1/4" screw is used on some guns. Must raze a flag. Just my 2 cents.

Bingo. You'd be surprised what regulations were tied to 9-11. Don't blame M-C, blames the asshole terrorists.

[jw hash]

I was at our little post office yesterday and they were telling me that some new IRS rules that our coming out soon is going to make it harder to ship to other countries. I`m not sure on the new IRS rules only that they want more tax money. maybe someone else out there does.

[Bill Underwood]

No question you are on the up-and-up. For others out there, you cannot imagine the grief that selling interantionally has/can cause. Sorry for you as McM-C is a great supplier. Do you have a US contact that can maybe be a middle-man?

[Tom Wesenberg]

Filling out the customs forms takes time, and someone has to do it, either M/C or your middle man. I've mailed parts overseas and most times the forms take about 10 minutes to fill out. For small orders a lot of people don't want to be bothered with having to fill out forms. Notice the number of ebay sellers that say "only ship to lower 48 states", so some such. Also is the problem of payment. Last week I sent 2 EVR's to a guy in South American, and for me to finally get the paypal payment took a lot of screwing around on my end.

[Randy in ca]

So I emailed M/C for clarification of their International shipping and got the following reply:


Due to the complexity of U.S. export regulations, McMaster-Carr accepts international orders only from businesses. This decision also applies to orders shipping within the United States, because it is based on the final destination of the items


The implications for businesses must somehow be somewhat different than for individuals sending parcels Internationally. I've sent many parcels Internationally and never had any problems. The Customs forms really shouldn't be an onerous task - all they require is the name and address of both the shipper and receiver as well as a very brief identification and value of the contents. About the same amount of time as addressing the parcel itself takes. Depending on the destination country and the valuation of the contents, the receiver MAY have to pay some duty and taxes when they receive the item.

Anyways, it looks like you're out of luck unless you have a contact in the US who will outright buy the stuff you want, receive it and then forward it to you. The main implication of this is the extra shipping costs for 2 trips.