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Supplier beefs

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,260
Location
Canada
I stopped by a bolt supply today to see if the bolts I ordered last week were in. After 5 or 10 minutes of not being able to find anything in their system, the guy went in the back and found the 40 bolts I had ordered but there was no record of them being ordered. It was obvious they were my bolts and I did have to pay for them when I ordered them but because they had nothing in their system and I didn't have the invoice with me they wouldn't let me take them. Apparently the guy that ordered them doesn't always do things by the book and of course he wasn't there. They said I could pay for them again and when I brought the receipt they would refund my money. I'm not paying twice. I came home, found the receipt that clearly says paid in full. Now I have to go back again. (I would have had to anyway) Thankfully they aren't too far away but how can they not find the order or the invoice in their system? If they were further away would have been a big problem. It's still a hassle to have to go back.
 

JLarson

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2020
Messages
656
Location
AZ
Occupation
Owner- civil and heavy repair/fab company
Does sound like Fastenal, they're the Fedex of the hardware world lol.

One of the perks of being a regular at all the various suppliers when they do screw up they're just like take your **** and we'll figure it out. But yeah guy off the street is SOL a lot of time.
 

sfrs4

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2013
Messages
683
Location
Great Britian
Occupation
parts admin
Different systems work in different ways, but I can order "miscellaneous" parts through part of the system on ours here, it won't drop onto the customer supply section as it's a separate part of the system meant for orders for internal stuff, if it was something they don't normally stock and had to be ordered in it was the probably the quickest way of ordering the part, other wise they'll have to create the part with all the details and supplier details etc to raise an order, so it can be done and quite easily, but it shouldn't be done that way.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,260
Location
Canada
Fastenal wouldn't sell to me as walk in customer. Their loss. It's a well established nut and bolt supplier. I'm going to need some other bolts so I think I should get a better discount for my troubles. At least this place didn't have the deer in the headlights attitude when I asked for 1" fine thread bolts. I called another bolt supply house and you'd think they were rare as hens teeth. The bolts look odd though being 1" dia. and only 1 1/2" long. Wish the 1" Nord Lock washers from the bolting specialty shop were cheaper but I think they're the best solution to keep the bolts tight. Just need the weather to cooperate so I can get them on.
 

chidog

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2021
Messages
771
Location
kent, wa
Some industrial supply places are a huge joke. Some of the same stuff you can get at say NAPA for 1/2 the price of a well known industrial supply place. You'd think they would be the less expensive, in some cases they can be if you have one of their reps coming to a company you work at, they sure won't do it for joe public though.
 

Tinkerer

Senior Member
Joined
May 21, 2009
Messages
9,342
Location
The shore of the illinois river USA
I quite often take photos of important receipts and purchase orders.
If it is an internet transaction I email them to myself.
Doing that sends them to my phone and 3 different computers at the same time.
Usually it is a screenshot capture of the internet purchases.
 

aighead

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2019
Messages
2,541
Location
Dayton, OH
Kind of different but kind of the same.

I called the only known New Holland service shop in the area a couple weeks ago, service phone rang about a hundred times before someone groggily answered. I told him what I was looking to do and he sounded like he got it, though grumpily. I called back a couple days later with something I wanted them to look at that I'd forgotten on the first call, and within a ring or two a lady answered and said she didn't have any of my previous info, so let's go over it again. I've had that happen several times through differing industries. Some folks either miss-file stuff like crazy or don't care enough to really want the business. In this case the service manager called me back a few minutes later to apologize that it may be a few weeks out before they can get my backhoe in. I was fine with that and appreciate the communication.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,260
Location
Canada
Apparently when someone else saw the order they noticed the price was too low and called the shop that cut my adapters. The owner of the shop was the one that originally called about the bolts but was given a price for coarse thread. I called later to verify the TPI of the bolts prior to cutting the threads in the adapters and this is where I was given an updated quote for fine thread bolts. The original quote was for coarse thread. The guy at the bolt supply called the guy at the fab shop and said the bolts couldn't be sold for the quoted price. The fab shop said to cancel the order then. The bolt supply then cancelled everything including all the paper work but the bolts came in. They said they lost money on the bolts but since I had already paid for them, they didn't have a choice but to honour the contract.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,260
Location
Canada
I still don't understand how they couldn't have any record of my paying for the bolts. Only when I called back with the invoice number could they find anything. It would have been ugly if I had to go out of town or couldn't find the invoice. $88 is not an amount to just right off.
 

cosmaar1

Senior Member
Joined
May 14, 2020
Messages
509
Location
Ohio
Apparently when someone else saw the order they noticed the price was too low and called the shop that cut my adapters. The owner of the shop was the one that originally called about the bolts but was given a price for coarse thread. I called later to verify the TPI of the bolts prior to cutting the threads in the adapters and this is where I was given an updated quote for fine thread bolts. The original quote was for coarse thread. The guy at the bolt supply called the guy at the fab shop and said the bolts couldn't be sold for the quoted price. The fab shop said to cancel the order then. The bolt supply then cancelled everything including all the paper work but the bolts came in. They said they lost money on the bolts but since I had already paid for them, they didn't have a choice but to honour the contract.
My bet is if you paid too much it sounds like they wouldn’t have refunded you either.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,260
Location
Canada
It was a done deal as far as I was concerned. I was a little shocked when the guy at the fab shop said $1.89ea but not so much when it turned out to be for coarse thread. $2.10 seemed like a good price so I ordered them and had to pay for them at the time. I think they realized they had to honour the deal since I had already paid for them.
 

redneckracin

Senior Member
Joined
May 19, 2010
Messages
574
Location
Western PA
Occupation
Civil Engineer
Fastenal will never get my business again if I can help it. No over the counter sales and their hours stink. I'll order online and wait before I try and deal with them again.
 

treemuncher

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2006
Messages
733
Location
West TN
Occupation
eatin' trees, poopin' chips
I call Fastenal "MopAll". As someone else once told me, if I need specialty hardware, they never have it in stock. They always have to order it in. But, they always have mops and brooms in stock. MopAll it is.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,260
Location
Canada
I worked with a guy who used to be a manager at Fastenal. Real nice guy and a very good salesman. On his Linkedin page it says he had to be a magician working at Fastenal constantly pulling rabbits out of a hat. This was rather strange as he had no normal training as a magician.
 
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