Taps and dies

[Lynn Eades]

I went in and edited my previous post as the infomation, I posted was wrong.

[motto]

McMaster-Carr have an unbelievable array of tooling and used to do mail order. Should be worth a look.
David

[Grant Bowker]

I have tried to buy from McMaster-Carr and had my order for simple hardware (nothing green) refused because they wouldn't sell if they believed the parts will end up outside the US. I had asked them to ship to a US address. In my case the giveaway was that they saw that my credit card was issued by a Canadian bank.
It has been suggested that this might be overcome by sending payment by money order from within the US and asking the product to be sent to the US address. If there's nothing to indicate an eventual foreign destination, perhaps they'll ship?
Another method is to ask an American friend to order your supplies for shipment to him and then ask him to ship to you so McMaster only sees an "American" purchase.
They may have relaxed their policy, or you may be more lucky than I was. Either way, please let us know how you make out dealing with McMaster-Carr.

[motto]

Sorry Grant, I can't report on any attempted dealings with McM-C. I only know of them through a fellow I used to work with up until I retired three years ago. I recall at the time that he was having some sort of trouble with them. That's why I said 'used to do mail order'.
Before posting my response to Derrick's question, I had a quick look at their site and saw they were still in business and that their catalogue went to over 3,000 pages. I assumed that being in that part of the world he would have no problem dealing with them.
I wonder what's wrong with them. It sounds like their management has been taken over by a bunch of educated, insular idiots who believe that anyone outside the borders of the good old US of A is a potential enemy and not worthy of any form of contact. I truly resent the inference that we are not good enough to deal with.
David

[Grant Bowker]

I agree that it looks like they sell decent stuff at a fair price. After my order was refused, I called looking for an explanation. The people I spoke with all seemed like decent individuals dealing with a policy they didn't understand or personally see the need for.
If the problem is at the corporate level it might be a case of they don't want to do Customs documentation for what looks like a relatively small sales volume, of course with that attitude the volume will never grow to be of value.
I sometimes wonder whether the problem isn't further upstream, usually after someone in their government (who should know better) blames Canada (as the nearest handy foreign target) for their latest problem, terrorists that they let in themselves, bank failures, mad cow disease, oil spills, health care, cold weather, the list goes on.
Another company, not McMaster, that deals in surplus MV parts has apparently gotten enough trouble from the government saying that if the part was ever used in any MV, then even if it also is an original application on a civilian car the part is subject to the controls on the export of military hardware. Apparently Delco distributors, generators and similar parts fall in this category.
The end result was that I couldn't give them my money in exchange for product. Everyone lost that day. I speak based on one experience and would be quite happy if someone were to tell me that the policy has been changed or if they've found a better workaround than the one I suggested.

[Aidan]

Wow I wonder why they allow this USA bashing on this Forum

AIDAN

[Lynn Eades]

Your reponse to whats been said, is exactly the problem. The USA treats the rest of the world with disregard. Even its staunchest allies.