Rant: Ordered from Wholesale Tool Today

[tmc_31]

Hi guys,

Just ordered a couple of involute cutters, a stub arbor and a slitting saw from Wholesale Tools this afternoon.

By the time it was finished I was ready to pull the last of my hairs out of my head. Their site was so slow it would take 30 to 45 seconds to refresh a page. My internet connection is slow, but not that slow. I went in not knowing what combination of items I needed. By the time I figured out what I needed and got it into the shopping cart I had spent the better part of 2 hours. An online catalog (PDF) would have been much more helpful to me. After all this, I get hit with sales tax on an out of state order.:mad:

It will be a long time before WT gets any more of my hard earned money.

Tim

[PTSideshow]

Don't know if Texas has sales tax they have a store in Huston,
During the business hours they have live on line help. And they have numerous interactive catalogs on line. Like some of the other industrial suppliers.
Its always easier if you have a copy of the catalog to thumb through if you have a slow connection. Most of the on line 1,000 page plus catalogs can be a pain to navigate.
You can always call and order on the 800 number.

I have an advantage of being 30 minutes away from the warehouse/main office on a bad traffic day. They have a number of locations across the US.

Been a long time customer

[gda]

hope you get the cutter, here is what happened to me:
1) I ordered 4 gear cutter
2) they told me 2 were forever out of stock
3) sent 2 cutters, 1 was wrong
4) had to return wrong

[lazlo]

The Houston store is a disaster -- a bunch of random, ancient stuff that's literally strewn on the the shelves, with prices and part numbers that have no relation to the catalog. Looks like a bomb went off in a 1980's Enco outlet.

Like GDA, I ordered a bunch of stuff last month, several involute cutters were no longer available, and they ended up shipping a mostly empty box with the remainder of my order, so shipping ended up about 1/2 the price of the tools they had left :(

[tmc_31]

gda,

The cutters I ordered were a #2 and a #4. They are not for a specific project, just for me to use to learn how to cut a gear. Between the two it looks like they will cover a fairly wide range of teeth. I hope I get what I ordered, but if I don't, it won't be the end of the world for me.

PT,

I didn't realize they had a store in Houston, that explains the sales tax thing.

Tim

[nheng]

We in NH occasionally refer to MA drivers who speed along shoulders, ride your a$$ then cut you off, etc. as Massholes, with all due respect to the wonderful MA members of this forum.

My only call to the WT store in Stoughton, MA put me in direct contact with an arrogant, unfriendly guy who was the epitome of a Masshole. I only had a few simple questions about one of the machine tool areas but to this guy, I was obviously disturbing his break, nap or something else. No interest in helping in any way, knew nothing and was unwilling to ask anyone else to assist.

This was 2 years ago and I still have not had an overwhelming urge to make my first visit to the store, even though it is full of goodies :(

[Roy Andrews]

i had never heard that term until i went to mass to reposes a piece of heavy equipment. the guy we were taking the equipment from came out and offered to take us to lunch (not normal). after loading the equipment we went to lunch and on the drive to the restaurant he refered to half the drivers on the road as massholes. he had lived there his whole life.

[oldtiffie]

Here is the OP.


Hi guys,

Just ordered a couple of involute cutters, a stub arbor and a slitting saw from Wholesale Tools this afternoon.

By the time it was finished I was ready to pull the last of my hairs out of my head. Their site was so slow it would take 30 to 45 seconds to refresh a page. My internet connection is slow, but not that slow. I went in not knowing what combination of items I needed. By the time I figured out what I needed and got it into the shopping cart I had spent the better part of 2 hours. An online catalog (PDF) would have been much more helpful to me. After all this, I get hit with sales tax on an out of state order.:mad:

It will be a long time before WT gets any more of my hard earned money.

Tim


Here is Tim's title of the OP.

Rant: Ordered from Wholesale Tool Today

Tim,

I couldn't help it.

As soon as I read the thread title I though that WT had tossed you out on your ear or your ar$e.

Sorry!!

[Bill Pace]

I visit the home store in Warren Mi a couple times a year on a visit to the kids. Lazlo's description of the Houston store pretty well covers the home store also -- empty bins, unmarked items, most everything dusty, just a jumble, and the staff if only marginal in their handling of the customer.... but... its a hoot to go there. They have some good prices on odds n ends stuff like hand wrenches (pliers, crescent wrenches, sockets, files, etc) and theres usually a bargain on other items also. One trip I picked up 25# of red shop rags that had gotten too ragged for the supplier to keep washing and they had just bundled them -- paid 10$ -- they worked fine in my shop!

[loose nut]

I've been shopping there for over 20 years now and at times it's a pain in the donkey's but :D BUT the best reason to go there is that if they have what you want they are cheaper then most anyone else. They have the good stuff or the "fine quality imported" stuff same as most other places so you have to look it over and make sure of what you are getting.

The counter people at the Warren store (Detroit) have always treated me OK but everyone has an off day so cut them some slack if it only happened the one time:) .

As to the web site, most tool suppliers have very slow lousy sites, it seem to be a corporate requirement, must be something to do with the type of search engine they are using.:rolleyes:

I can only say that I have had some great deals from them including my 13 x 40 lathe, an ZX45 mill and two Fagor DRO's which are all good solid home shop equipment and cheaper than any other place within a reasonable driving range.

Once when I was here they had a medium sized Universal mill on sale (Chinese, model close out) for under $1800.00. If I only had some way to get it home and a big enough shop to put it in and 3 PH and......:(

[tmc_31]

Hi guys,

It's another day and I have calmed down a bit.

Oldtiffi, I guess the title should have been "Rant: Ordered from Wholesale Tool today and the experience sucked". It would have been a better description of the post.

Loosenut, come to think of it, most of the machine tool suppliers web pages that I have looked at seem to be slow and hard to search on. To me they are very frustrating to use. Since the formats are so similar, they must have all used the same web designer.

I am going to visit my son, daughter-in-law and my grandson next week in the Dallas area for a few days. I hope to take some time to look at some used machinery places while there. It will be good to be able to look at an item, put my hands on it and haggle over the price a bit as opposed to ordering from an online catalog.

All the best,

Tim

[kc5ezc]

I agree on the website thing. WT is the pits. Given that I order from the Tulsa store I tried the national 800 number listed. Took several days to get the order and found it came from MI. Wised up and used the Tulsa 800 Nr. People were very fast, got the order given in less than 5 minutes. Ordered at 3 pm and UPS pulled up in my driveway at 11 am the next day. And the order was correct and complete. So if it is in stock in Tulsa I can get my suppplies by UPS cheaper than driving 240 miles RT.
I am just glad I don't have to go to Dallas or further when I want to see the product in person.

[tmarks11]

The Houston store is a disaster -- a bunch of random, ancient stuff that's literally strewn on the the shelves...

The Stoughton, Massachusetts store looks just as bad. I went expecting to get an up-close look at machinery. They had none of the big machines in their store; just a collection of junk that looked worse then every Horrible Freight store that I have ever been in.

Kind of made me think twice about buying machinery from them, even if they did have good prices.

So that makes three of their stores that look like this (Houston, Warren MI, Stoughton MA). Anybody seen any of their other stores? Tampa, Indianapolis, Tulsa, Charlotte?

[nheng]

Tmarks11, thank you very much. I will never make a special trip to Stoughton now. If I can't see machines, it ain't worth it. Den

[Gary Gill]

I have purchased various things at the store in Indianapolis, Indiana and will continue to do so. Like most vendors selling import items, some things are better quality than others. Basically buyer beware.

[PTSideshow]

Well the head office/warehouse store is the Warren Michigan store. they don't dust and it has been around a long time and probably was a small factory in another life. They have a lot of one of a kind items, close outs. and the lighting could be better.
It is a machinery, industrial supplier,you can't except it to be like the Wally world or were wifey shops. As been said the counter people have always been good. I have always had good service whether I go in or call it in to pick up later.

I have been in there a number of times when some Big Wheels comes in with attitude whether it was about the "Foreign Junk you sell". Or being out of a close out item. One time after 5 minutes of that BS they asked the guy to leave and not come back or order on line. :D

You can't blame them if they just got done dealing with another "Legend in their own mind type". Its does get tedious after a couple in a row. IMO

[sidneyt]

It's not too difficult to see why Wholesale Tools doesn't have a very good selection of gear cutters especially in the small pitch sizes, the prices are lower than just about any other vendor and I don't think they have restocked any of these cutters in quite some time. In other words they have gradually been selling out what they have and don't seem to restock much. I ordered a couple of gear cutters last year from Travers (48 pitch) when it was apparent that wholesale tools was not going to be restocking this size ever.

[Tyro 001]

I used to go to the Indianapolis store frequently. It's in an old Loews store. The building and store furniture are old and well worn, but the merchandise is usually in good shape. Customer service is decent. The big problem is because of the economy, they don't restock everything and I have to order a lot of stuff that I used to be able to buy off the shelf. As nearly as I can tell, they are just about the last store that's left in Indianapolis, which sells machine tools, etc. If anybody on this board happens to know of other stores in the Indianapolis area, I'd like to hear about it. If you don't mind, please send the info to me in a pm as well, because I don't get on this board often and I might miss the reply. Thanks.