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Buying wire from amazon??

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6.8K views 14 replies 10 participants last post by  paulengr  
#1 ·
have any contractors on here bought romex wire from amazon for for your business? Prices are cheap as hell! ($60 per 250ft 12/2) Don’t know if i should trust it or not
 
#4 ·
have any contractors on here bought romex wire from amazon for for your business? Prices are cheap as hell! ($60 per 250ft 12/2) Don’t know if i should trust it or not

I have done it several times.... what is there not to trust?... Southwire is Southwire regardless of where you buy it. If you end up buying consistently I would recommend that you get free shipping by becoming a Prime member.

I know that, what I meant was did you receive all that you paid for or Was it the right size? stuff like that
 
#6 ·
Amazon is horrible with knock-off products.

Their shipping has become horrible too. Most packages are late and I have had many issues lately of packages never arriving. I will get an email saying that it is lost in transit and to call them, but when I call them I spend 30 minutes on the phone trying to resolve it.

And what I do receive is often beat up. I used to get panels but the covers are always damaged and a few times they dropped it so hard on the corner that it broke the rivets holding the panel together.

So, do you want to deal with a coil of cable that has a cut down 5-10 wraps and is essentially useless?
 
#8 ·
I once bumped into what looked like a good deal on Amazon. FS boxes for around $3.75 each. It was supposed to be 10 boxes for $37.50. Delivery arrived and there was one in the box. Raised hell and told them they owe me 9 boxes. They said the listing had an error and the price is $37.50 PER BOX (they run around $5.50 at the SH). They refunded my $37.50, told me to keep the box, and I told them they're stealing from people charging $37.50 for a $5 box.


There were 2-3 other items we use which I sourced on the same day. Same thing happened with every one of them. We buy nothing from Amazon as far as supplies. We will buy office equipment, toner, etc. but not devices, parts, etc.



The only time I'd reconsider is if the seller was the manufacturer or if it was Amazon. If you're finding Southwire selling wire on Amazon, I would not hesitate to try that out and see how it goes. But if JimmyJimBob'sMother'sBasement is selling on Amazon, I'm not touching that with a 2,000' pole.
 
#10 ·
I have never ordered electrical stuff from them, but I am a Prime member and just got a package today I ordered yesterday. They have a warehouse here. Spartanburg SC.
The order was 2 day free shipping.

I have not had any issues so far. Delivery is great and I usually get it when they say or sooner.
No broken stuff and most of the packages come USPS or UPS.

I'm done with my Christmas shopping because of them. This the part I love. No traffic. No mall or store and no BS.
I only had to go to one other site for a present. Amazon did not have the exact thing I needed. I'm glad I looked at the item at the manufacturers web site as well.
I would have messed up had I ordered that present from Amazon.
 
#11 ·
I get parts from them all the time. I can't stand going into the SH and being told that they don't have this or that, and it'll take a week to get.

I say nope, just ordered it on Amazon while you were trying to figure out why you are out of stock on breakers. I'll have it in two days.

Never had an issue with a damaged package, but have had a few items not arrive on time. Pay attention to the ship dates before you checkout though, I have clicked on some items that say "2 Day Free Shipping", but when you go to checkout it has something 2-3 weeks out.

Sneaky bastards!
 
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#12 ·
That happens to me all the time :vs_laugh:

Sure, it's 2 day shipping, but 2 days from when the item comes back in stock in April :biggrin:

In my area Amazon sometimes has free same-day. When my modem was giving me issues I ordered one on Sunday morning and had it later that afternoon. Sometimes they can be great.

But it's been going downhill. I used to order stuff and then schedule a job. For example, I would order a generator cord, inlet, and interlock on a Monday. It would say that it was going to be delivered on Wednesday, so I would schedule the job for Friday. I won't do that anymore because they have caused me to cancel too many jobs due to late or lost deliveries.
 
#15 ·
Depends on what it is. Even ebay can work out in some cases. Just be prepared with a backup plan so don't order on Friday with a job scheduled on Monday. Be very careful like ebay to check on who the seller is. And if they contact you and try to get you to pay outside of ebay/Amazon do not even click on the link! Report it and abort immediately because it's a scam. If the package arrives destroyed photo it and report via the web site immediately. When buying be aware what the local prices are.

I frequently buy SCE boxes from Omega (same or better than Hoffmann at 1/3rd the price), relays and such from Automation Direct, some hardware from Grainger or McMaster, Allen Bradley stuff when possible from PLC Cables, cable from Anixter or Graybar. I've been doing more locally though since now I can go direct for SCE and Socomec relay stuff at the same or better prices. A lot of the local suppliers when it comes to cable are just going through Omnicable which is a huge distributor. The relations never cease to amaze me. Like I can literally pick up rolls of Essex tray cable literally at the factory. The plant is in the same city as my warehouse. But Essex prices themselves right out of the market so at best I order from Service Wire which has their plant way over by Charlotte 4 hours awsy.

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