Drop

[Karl5150]

I was wondering about other Bottleheads recent experience with Drop/Massdrop. I ordered a pair of HE4XX phones several weeks back to dip my toes into planers. After receiving shipping notification I continue to be informed it is not in the USPS tracking system. Is this business as usual, a covid induced delay, or...? Thanks for any info on what to expect.
Karl

[pboser]

I had a good and simple experience with them a couple of years ago.  Shipping is sporadic and slowed down in many areas.  But as always, feel free to bug them about it, especially since it seems the tracking info isn't working.

[caffeinator]

I've done a number of drops with Massdrop and now Drop, for a variety of items. The shipping time and communication has varied a bit, though has generally been acceptable to good. I ordered some of their Sennheiser x Massdrop HD6XX - two times - and both of those went smoothly.

They've never let me down, only kept me waiting a time or two. Sometimes, that (longer lead time) was known at the outset, a time or two it was the supplier, i think.

[Karl5150]

Thanks for the insights. Guess I'll have to rattle their cage...
Karl

[Doc B.]

I have only dealt with Drop on the B2B level. They are super nice guys. I think the company has experienced some growing pains at times and that has caused some delays. And yes they are at the mercy of the manufacturers they work with, who are sometimes big companies and sometimes small ones who get overwhelmed by the number of orders.

The shipping notification thing can be very misleading. A lot of places have automated setups where a shipping label is printed as the order is initially processed. This may or may not correlate well with the product shipping box getting the label attached and getting picked up. In these cases the tracking info is posted as soon as the label is printed, even if the product it is still sitting on someone's warehouse shelf waiting to be boxed.

We try not to abuse this and we only print the labels as we are actually packing kits into shipping boxes. On occasion we may not get every box packed that afternoon and a few might ship the day after the label is printed but most ship the same day the tracking info is posted. I can tell you a whole lotta ebayers print a label up to a week before they take the damned box to the PO.

At the other extreme is McMaster. Holy crap they ship fast. You can order at 2pm and the box arrives the next morning before you even get a shipping notice.

[Karl5150]

Doc,
Your observation about McMaster is so true. The Los Angeles area warehouse is on my way home from from work so I always go with will-call, ready for pick up in 1 hour. They offer same-day delivery of my crappy $10-$20 order if I call before 10 am, I just feel guilty about abusing them...
Karl

[oguinn]

Am I just trying to order the wrong thing from McMaster? I looked at wood screws there and I think they were like 5x the cost that they were from Home Depot.

[AB2KH]

Doc,Karl,and all,

Not to take this too far off track ( Doc you started it ), but I worked for a very prominent Wildlife Conservation Society for 32 years as supervisor of exhibits and graphic production & maintenance. In that time I ordered from McMaster-Carr 100dreds of 1000snds of dollars of hardware and supplies. Not once did they EVER have a back order, they may have had to ship from another warehouse but they ALLWAYS had what they sell in stock. And yes there shipping is very very fast. To this day I keep a personal account with them for my needs. Corporate account or personal the service is the same, so my box of 100 SS 8-32 KL nuts is at my door in about the time it takes to warm up my CRACK amp.

Chris/AB2KH

[Doc B.]

Mcmaster is not cheap. You order stuff from them you can't get at Home Depot. We get things like the exotic little ceramic washers we use in the tape path kits, odd sized standoffs, less common screw lengths, o-rings in all sorts of sizes and materials, etc. from them. They sell the sticky back real wool felt I cut the Jager tweeter diffusors from. I also buy a lot of fasteners for my race bike from them. This year I am changing all the motor mount bolts to a super strong stainless called Bumax 88. One year I bought a slab of LDPE for a seat base. You can waste a lot of time looking at the crazy exotic stuff they sell.

[Karl5150]

To put a bow on it, the phones arrived the other day.
Drop responded to my query within 48 hours - good on them.
The USPS never updated the tracking throughout.
Karl