Fastenal

Fastenal carries a large number of different and useful parts. Unfortunately, we have had repeated issues with Fastenal.

In January of this year we placed two separate orders. One order was necessary for the installation of equipment in late February. Today is March 10 - nearly a month after we needed the parts - and the first order finally arrived.

Why? Apparently Fastenal does not deliver the order to the actual building and room and instead call once they have arrived somewhere nearby (emphasis on somewhere) to ask that the customer come outside and pick up the order. Well, they had the wrong phone number and so they were unable to contact us. Now, Fastenal apparently tried several times to deliver, without success.

A normal company might then wonder why they were not succeeding and so email or otherwise contact the customer. Not Fastenal!

Eventually, we called Fastenal and learned the above details. Okay, fine. We made sure they had the correct phone number and they guaranteed that our order would arrive yesterday. Nope! We had to call them again today - they promised to deliver by 12:30 PM. They actually did deliver - at about 1:30 PM.

Upon looking at the packing slip we learned that they did not even charge for the order until late February - over a month after we ordered.

Oh, and the second of the two orders mentioned? Never showed up. We're buying that part on Amazon instead.