Larry H.

This is *the* mail order discount pharmacy for my United Health Care Plan. One of their favorite tricks is saying 90 day prescriptions are ready to be refilled, although they can't show the price. You order the refill, only to discover that you are charged the entire price for the drug. Insurance did not cover the refill because you ordered before it was refillable. When you confront them with all the problems, they mumble something about the website having issues. If you persist they put you on hold and then hang up.

Need I say more?

Bolt Depot has top quality fasteners at way-better prices than a hardware store. You can order individually, or in a small or large box. The website is even better set up than Amazon. They will consolidate orders to save shipping, call about duplicates in your order, and even sometimes send your package, if lightweight, via two day USPS when you paid for standard shipping. (It was a $200 order.) I have never seen such customer service.

And they really know their fasteners!

On December 28th I ordered a Klutch Bench Sander from Northern Tool. It cost $235 plus $68 shipping. It shipped two days later via UPS. After a UPS "mechanical failure" in the midwest (I am in California.), the item supposedly continued en route. A few days later UPS tracking said it would be delivered on January 9th. It wasn't. Then UPS said it would be delivered on January 12th; that day they said it had not yet been unloaded from the truck. On the morning of the 13th, UPS said it was "left in the warehouse." I called Northern Tool and they seemed very helpful, talking about possibly sending me another unit while they sorted out the problem with UPS. Today, January 14th, UPS again said it was "left in the warehouse." So I called Northern Tool back only to get the real story about their customer service and UPS.

The day before they instituted a trace with UPS, which actually had no idea where the package was. Until that trace was finished, they could do nothing for me. The trace would take three to five business days! So Northern Tool won't take any action until as late as January 20th. Based on experience I am confident that UPS has lost the package, and another one will need to be shipped. While I do not know the nature of their contract with UPS, I have never encountered this attitude toward a company's packages being lost by UPS. In the past the company has just shipped another, saying I should refuse the first one if it finally arrived. When Northern Tool says they are "sorry" about this, their tone says, "If you don't like it, tough."

So my bench sander, which shipped on December 30th, will probably arrive sometime after January 30th. Meanwhile I paid an additional $68 shipping for this premier service.

If a packages delivery is several days late, in this case five days, and the shipping company has no idea where the package is, the supplying company should ship a replacement and demand that UPS return the item (if they actually find it) and refund their original shipping fees. If this happened with Amazon, the replacement shipping service would also be upgraded at no charge.

Reading other reviews of Northern Tool, it is apparent that huge delays are always the customers problem, not theirs.

Update November 13,2015: Many people of have given my review one star, apparently because I should be complaining about UPS and not Northern Tool. To them I can only say that they do not understand contract law. Northern Tool contracts with UPS; I don't. Northern Tool is responsible for the negligence of UPS. It is that simple.