airgas rant

[cayager]

well I think ive finally had it with airgas and the corporate **** that comes with them. about a month ago I bought a saw blade for a Milwaukee 8 inch saw. first they are overpriced but I needed it now so whatever. when I got the bill there was an $8 hazmat fee on it. I called the local store(which I was doing business with long, long before these corporate hacks bought them.) and was told that's what they do but I could call the head office if I wanted. I called the main number and told them im never paying that fee. ever,ever in a million years. I was told that "that's what every legitimate company does these days" my response is" I guess home depot isn't a legitimate company because they don't charge a hazmat fee for a saw blade. she then tells me to call the local store. so I ask her for her name so I can write it down and she hangs up on me. my head almost exploded but I let it go. the store did take off the charge.
fast forward. I get my tank lease bill today. oh boy stand back. they went from $43 last year to$57 this year. and a $20 haz mat fee. **** them. I have accounts at other suppliers and wont be a hostage to these a holes. they are overpriced and sell sh it Radnor crap. kind of the walmart of welding. so if anybody here works for them screw you.

[ClockMaker]

airgas rant

I bought a bobcat 250 two months ago from my local Airgas. Two weeks later I had the same lady that sold me the welder order me a miller cover for it. It took them over a month to get the cover in they charged freight and all the other fees they could tack on. My wife picked it up for me while I was at work. When I got home and looked at the cover I wondered how it was supposed to fit on that new welder. The lady ordered the wrong cover, a cover for the old rear engine mount bobcats, not the new style. We'll I'm still waiting for the return money and it's been over a month. Sure feels like a scam to me. I called norco over the phone and just told them to get me a cover on its way. They had it in two days no frieght just the product and a single tax charge. Same deal with a bottle lease, I paid 75$ last year and they jacked it to 108$ this year. I've got a pretty bad taste in my mouth with Airgas as well.

[fencemaker]

They must have merged with praxair. Sounds like the same kind of stupid.

[TRC]

They must have merged with praxair. Sounds like the same kind of stupid.

I dumped ag last week- pa ain't much better. They both only fill their o2 cylinders to 1200 to 1500 psi if your lucky

[WillieB]

In my case the local employees are good people. Corporate makes it difficult to support them. Argon went up 50% one fill to another, How are items like tig back caps, helmet lens covers, stainless brushes, and even argon hazardous materials? Why a hazmat fee on a tank lease renewal?

[MMW]

It just seems there will only be a few large suppliers left after they buy out all the little guys. I'm glad I only have like 10 more years to go. It is a shame because the old counter guys have to deal with it & their hands are tied. Pretty soon there won't be any LWS left, just corporate stores.

[Burnt hands]

I have been using this company for more than 30 years.

http://sjwelding.com/home.html

My 336 cu ft argon costs me $40 and a 276 cu ft oxygen costs $38.
I swap them out since I own the tanks.
Every 5 years I need to pay about $35 for a hydrostatic test on the tanks but I don't mind.

[Cgotto6]

Agreed, airgas is a joke. I called recently looking for what turns out to be a pretty rare product now days, a spool or er70s-3. I was working with some galvy and a few sources suggested -3 instead of standard -6. I painfully spelled out to them exactly what I was looking for, made sure to say this is not your common everyday mig wire and they assured me they understood and had what I needed. So I leave a job, hour drive, show up and they have only er70s-6 like I was expecting them to tell me on the phone. The really frustrating part is when I got pissed that they just wasted my time, the guy literally read word for word the genetic description of er70s-6, all the bs about how it's the premier wire, blah blah blah. So he said I don't want the -3 anyways. I tried explaining how the silicon content was different between the wires and multiple sources suggested -3 for my application. I will never go back. I have central welding shops in my area and they're great.

[Portable Welder]

That's why its important to support the little guys.

( Every one knows that you cannot own the big bottles the Government has a law about it.)

That's what all the welding suppliers claimed so I never perused buying them until I started doing research about it since I was renting 13 bottles.

I found out that was a bunch of bologna and that they all have been lying to me over the years.
So I forced my supplier to either sell me bottles or I was going else where.
It stung a little up front shelling out about $ 3,500.00 but it only took about 4-1/2 years to reach the break even point.

[tommy2069]

I have my account with national welding supply the guys at the counter are real nice and easy to shoot the crap with when I go in but I too don't see why we have to pay a haz.mat charge on the bottles. I haven't been charged a few for welding machines and supplies.i just see that fee on my bottle rentals.

[zank]

I finally gave up on airgas when they refused to remove the hazmat fee from a cylinder lease renewal. Maine Oxy is now getting my business.

[Can You Weld This For Me?]

Air Gas caters to the large corporations, medical fields and other companies who have robots that stamp a PO # on anything that comes across the desk and never even look at what is on the invoice. Little people can play the game or move along. They could really care less. It's just business.

[johnnyg340]

bump

[shovelon]

bump

What Bump????

Air gas is a predator company plain and simple. My advise is never sign any kind of lease without a lawyer looking it over. Don't ask me how I know.

[johnnyg340]

a bump keeps the topic at the top of the board. I agree with the above!