OT Grainger OT

alaskanassasin

  I know there are quite a few among us that appreciate excellent customer service.  That said I wanted to forward my recent experience with Grainger.

  I am making a knife grinder/belt sander and needed a electric motor, so I ordered exactly what needed from Grainger.com $300.  It arrived today, I opened the poorly packaged box and called Grainger 1800.

 

  A very chipper American lady asked "how can I help you"  I gave her my order number and told her "the 30lb motor I ordered was upside down in a box, with a piece of newspaper and saran wrap in another box, the capacitor cover is bent but the capacitor looks ok and the motor mount is bent, but I can straighten it.  Here is what I am willing to do, I can fix it and you can discount the motor or I can send it back and you can mail me another"

 

  Her reply... "Here is what we are going to do, mail you another motor for free and you can hang on to the damaged one or toss it in the garbage."

shtgunal3

I do a ton of business with Grainger as my profession is in industrial maintenance. I would have to agree with you. They do have exceptional customer service. We place orders with them almost daily and sometimes multiple times a day. I have experienced instances in the past just as you speak of. They truly believe in taking care of the customer, at least in my experience they do. 

Killit_and_Grillit

Being the good Alaskan you are...I know you’re keeping that extra motor for parts, yes?

The_Stache

They are great folks to work with!!!!

alaskanassasin

Killit_and_Grillit said:

Being the good Alaskan you are...I know you’re keeping that extra motor for parts, yes?

Ha! I don't know what to do with it, but it seems like at least once a year myself or my buddy are needing a electric motor for something.

lousubcap

I have zero experience with Grainger but the above will steer me in that direction especially given the poor to non-existent service that is the daily norm.   

Lit

My job is to bid and create demand for our supply chain to order materials to build cell phone towers. Grainger and Graybar are pretty much the same level they have great customer service but you are paying a huge premium for it. I create probably 2 million a week in material orders and they are pretty much a last resort if we dropped the ball and need the item now. That is with the huge discount we get for bulk ordering.

GregW

I deal with Grainger periodically. They are a good company, but I have noticed that their prices are higher than other vendors.They are around 20 to 25% higher than other vendors. This is primarily caused by the way they do  their pricing. The more you buy the better the price. My company probably spends around 25 to 50K per year and it's not enough to get the prices down to levels that are competitive with other vendors. As @Lit said, there is a premium price to be paid for their customer service.

 

FarmingPhD

Agree with the service comments, have had good experiences with them, but are pricey.  They are one of our “preferred” suppliers, but we operate on our own project budgets and will generally order from McMaster over grainger.  Similar service, better price, and a superior website when it comes to finding parts.  

Lit

GregW said:

I deal with Grainger periodically. They are a good company, but I have noticed that their prices are higher than other vendors.They are around 20 to 25% higher than other vendors. This is primarily caused by the way they do  their pricing. The more you buy the better the price. My company probably spends around 25 to 50K per year and it's not enough to get the prices down to levels that are competitive with other vendors. As @Lit said, there is a premium price to be paid for their customer service.

 

We spend a lot and they don’t get to competitive prices. My market spends a lot I can export 2018 PO to them but I would guess atleast a million so far this year and we have multiple markets and this is just one subsidiary under our parent company. As the OP said though their service is good I can tell them I need a 480 to 240 single phase transformer and they not only tell me what transformer I need but make sure I get the correct lug and neutral kits and I can get a will call set up in hours if it’s in stock. 

nolaegghead

I have ordered a ton of stuff from Grainger when I was "the guy" that fixed all the instruments at our lab and built new labs.  They are super expensive, with that level of mark-up they cater to commercial clients that don't care about price as much as service. For subcontractors who charge for materials plus a mark-up, typically 20%, high price and good service is a bonus.

I would not buy anything for myself from them unless it's a last resort because I'm cheap.  That said, I have.

But hey, it works, they're in every major city and that's capitalism.

YukonRon

My experience with Grainger has been flawless. Time is money, and not having to deal with BS on inferior products, or out of stock, is worth it.
I often have less than 24 hours to recover a project that has gone full FUBAR in production facilities, where downtime equates to potentially tens of thousands of dollars per hour.
In those situations, 20%+ markup on parts, is not an issue.

jabam

If you are buying big ticket items, you can call your account rep, and they will usually give you a very competitive price. That being said I get most of my stuff through McMaster, much simpler to order and better price. 

DoubleEgger

Do they still send out those gigantic catalogs? They used to send about 20-30 of them to our office. We had the postman pull up to the dumpster and offload all but two catalogs. 

jabam

DoubleEgger said:

Do they still send out those gigantic catalogs? They used to send about 20-30 of them to our office. We had the postman pull up to the dumpster and offload all but two catalogs. 

Yes they do, they are ok for a quick look up, but
they don’t have the prices anymore, you have to go online for price. 

poster

DoubleEgger said:

Do they still send out those gigantic catalogs? They used to send about 20-30 of them to our office. We had the postman pull up to the dumpster and offload all but two catalogs. 

McMaster still does and includes the prices. Thing is basically a cube 4040 pages to be exact

Botch

I'm surprised they sent something out so poorly packaged.  Good on them, though, for following through.  

alaskanassasin

Botch said:

I'm surprised they sent something out so poorly packaged.  Good on them, though, for following through.  

Yes! I did notice washer or nut scratches on the mounting plate... maybe from testing or floor model or return? Who knows, if the new one comes boxed properly with foam inserts or something I will know there was shenanigans!