McMaster Carr Denied Order

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JHZR2

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I have been using an email account that is on a foreign (German) server for ten years. Never had an issue. It was a good deal when I signed up since they were giving 1GB of space when most were 25-50MB. Didnt matter that I barely speak a lick of German, as I usually use a POP3 type interface.

Ive ordered a lot of stuff from McMaster. Tools, grease, rubber, other miscellaneous stuff. Never a problem, and stuff always comes next day.

Ordered some tools on the 21st. Not a big order, not a lot of duplicate stuff, just some sockets, a box wrench and a t-handle driver. Like $125 total. No big deal.

I was asking about nut drivers on here, so I emailed them to see what country of origin theirs were (it is USA, by the way). They replied back to me not giving me the answer, but stating that they canceled my order that I had placed that day because though the order originated in the USA and was being shipped to the USA, the final destination of the items was not the USA... WHAT??!??!?!????

So I replied back stating that it indeed was, to which I got this:

Quote:
We believe that some or all of the items you are looking to purchase from us will be exported from the United States based on your email address. We will be unable to accept your order or to continue doing business with you. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you.


My email address??!? A computer item that anyone can sign up for from anywhere? So if I ordered from a gmail or verizon.net address, the world would be sunshine and roses and domestic use, but since my email server was someplace else, Im magically using the items elsewhere??!?

...As if someone in Germany can't get a gmail.com email address???

So they made a gross assumption, totally wrong, from zero basis, and that's how they operate?

I called the Robbinsville office and they fixed the order and re-placed it (with a different email). What a hassle.

So I then called the IL main office to talk to a manager. They said it had to do with IP address, which is funny because I was working for like 18 hours doing research in a DOE facility, and ordered the parts on my midnight break... So the IP address is definitely a good one. They took my email and said they were going to look into it. Who knows if they will.

If they werent so fast, close (I can will call items if Im driving that way), and source a lot of American-made stuff, Id just stop doing business. Will have to see how they resolve this, if they do.

What a pain.
 
Its better you get a generic account like gmail for online purchases to keep the spam down. Online retailers "sell you" to spammers. Known as a "list service". If the spam gets out of hand, just make another one, retaining your personal email for personal use.
 
They think you will ship the item back to Germany once you receive it at your US address.

Was the item "restricted technology.," or maybe something that is also for sale in Germany at a higher price?
 
McMaster Carr gets a little funny sometimes with what they're willing to sell to whom. A friend of mine has me ordering everything I buy from them under his business name because if he doesn't spend enough any given year he'll have restrictions placed on items he can buy. It works for me because I get free next day delivery out of the deal.
 
McMaster-Carr have been fined by US Commerce Department for multiple violations of provisions of the US Export Administration Regulations (EAR).
Whey would they risk paying more fines for a $125 order ?
 
Would a little sense work into the equation? I was buying sockets, a box end wrench and a t-handle driver. Nothing earth shattering.

The insult in this is that if I had used gmail, there would have been no question. So all the resellers can use gmail or equivalent and whatever they are trying to stop will just keep happening.
 
The liability is the shipping location not the .de or .eu domain extension. It doesn't makes sense, .com could be anywhere. Unless there's something I'm missing.
 
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
The liability is the shipping location not the .de or .eu domain extension. It doesn't makes sense, .com could be anywhere. Unless there's something I'm missing.


Shipping and billing address was to NJ.

The email is from a German company, but it is a .net domain, just like you would get in the USA. No .de or anything like that.
 
Quote:
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security charged that McMaster-Carr failed to report its receipt of boycott-related requests within the time period required by the EAR. The alleged violations occurred in eight transactions involving sales of goods from the United States to Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. McMaster-Carr voluntarily disclosed the alleged violations to the Department.

http://www.bis.doc.gov/news/2003/mcmaster_carr.htm

They got a fine for simply not forwarding information on time. They might be a little jumpy.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
The liability is the shipping location not the .de or .eu domain extension. It doesn't makes sense, .com could be anywhere. Unless there's something I'm missing.

Shipping and billing address was to NJ.
The email is from a German company, but it is a .net domain, just like you would get in the USA. No .de or anything like that.

My guess is the IP address of the SMTP server is German based (as you indicated that your e-mail was hosted on a German server) and this is what was detected. I work for a Norwegian company and I have had this happen when making purchases with US companies (I am based in the US), because the SMTP gateway for our company is in Norway and the mail is "detected" as having a non-US origination.

I do agree that it is a little silly though since (just as you mentioned) I could easily grab a Hotmail, Yahoo, GMail, etc. account and carry on and none would be the wiser.

Almost all SMTP servers have IP addresses that are "listed" and this is what is used to blacklist known spam havens; even though the domain extension was .net, it is the IP address that is used to identify the location of the server behind the scenes.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Originally Posted By: Tempest
Quote:
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security charged that McMaster-Carr failed to report its receipt of boycott-related requests within the time period required by the EAR. The alleged violations occurred in eight transactions involving sales of goods from the United States to Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. McMaster-Carr voluntarily disclosed the alleged violations to the Department.

http://www.bis.doc.gov/news/2003/mcmaster_carr.htm

They got a fine for simply not forwarding information on time. They might be a little jumpy.


An $8,000 fine a decade ago.... yeah that could explain it. An outfit like McMaster isn't going to be run by the same kind of guys who run Walmart. Then again, if you order over the phone instead of the Internet and drop off a copy of [proof of residency] for them to keep on file the next time you're in the area you should be golden.
 
The weird thing is that I have literally bought thousands of dollars worth of things from them, using the same email address. Only this time ordering ratchets did I get a problem...
 
I just got a call from them. Apparently because I complained they looked up my account and determined that there was no issue. Apparently they had put my account into the export group, though it was not the case I have remedied the fact so it should not be an issue in the future.

I have come to expect really good service from McMaster Carr, and it appears that they are maintaining that level of service and have remedied the issue.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I have come to expect really good service from McMaster Carr, and it appears that they are maintaining that level of service and have remedied the issue.

+1 - I have used them for various fasteners and bits and they usually have things that others do not OR at prices that others cannot match.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
I doubt they use your email address. Most likely its the address your router got from the ISP. At least if they have any brains thats what they would do,


I did this on my midnight break sitting in a DOE Synchrotron Light Source. It was a government IP address. Doesn't get more domestic than that...
 
Someone on another forum was traveling out of the country. He placed a order while he was away so the items he needed would be waiting for him when he returned home. He got a email that the order was canceled and could no longer be a customer. He started a thread similar to this one. McMaster Carr had actually seen his thread and contacted him and reinstated his account. Might be worth it to you to forward them the thread link.
 
And did it again. For as good as MCM is and the stuff they have and the speed of which they can ship, what a hassle.

Apparently a 12oz can of chain lube with Moly is hazmat and somehow requires special approval for me to pick up at will call.

And since my email is based in another country, they ASSUME, I'm reselling there with zero basis. Had I put gmail down, I could have been an Iranian nuclear physicist and they would let it go. But heaven forbid a server in an allied Euro country.

Ugh. Too bad Amazon doesn't have better industrial supply. Maybe it's time to jump ship to Grainger??? What a waste.

They told me last time that all was fixed. Apparently not. I get it that I'm not a million dollar industrial account, but why sell to the public and then waste their time with stupid, not well thought out "rules"? And then not even inform the buyer of the situation?

Ugh.
 
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