Welding supply rant

D

dodge trucker

Tractorologist
Member
Got a question
MIG stands for Metal INERT GAS. inert means not hazardous. 75/25 gas used with it must be inert as it doesn't light up in a fireball when it hits the weld pool.
So WHY was I just charged a 25% HAZ MAT surcharge on a bottle of 75 25?
$28 damn bucks just for the surcharge. And I think sales tax is computed as if I had instead bought a $28 item off of the shelf.
Is it just the AIRGAS company
Is it time to switch gas suppliers or do they all screw us customers like this?
I just had to pay $153 for a bottle today. After they added this bogus charge. Ive been buying from this place since the late 90s before there was such a place as "AIRGAS". I've seen where car repair shops add a "shop supply charge" which likewise is BS most of the time, but even that isn't 25%.....
 
Well when I looked at the receipt and started complaining about this charge, Pat, from whom I've been buying from at this place for years, just went dead silent/ like he became part of the furniture and didn't say one word. I expected him to try to defend this charge but, no. It still pisses me off, thinking about it 2 days later. It may cost me more the first tank if they force me to buy it but if they don't charge this BS trumped up charge in the long term it will wind up cheaper to start buying across town.
My son who works at Nucor steel (as I did for a few years from '05-08) says they deal with both welding gas places in the area and that "he could have told me that Depke was cheaper" and didn't know that Ive been dealing with AIRGAS all these years. And all he could say was not to be so pissed because there was nothing I could do about it. That may be, that still doesn't make it right though. I wonder if enough of their customers rant, if it might eventually change anything my son never did say whether either replace stuck his work with such charges.
Well Years ago when I was in the market for a welder I went into the company that Depke had since bought out and they had a machine I was interested in. I asked about the price and they said they couldn't sell it that it was being transferred to their other place 40 miles away and that I could drive there and deal with them to buy. Here I was with cash in hand needing a mig at the time since my last one had burned out, and they refused to deal. I would have saved them the trouble of hauling it. But, no.
So I went across town and the former place that AIRGAS used to be bent over backwards to make sure I got what I needed and gave me the first couple of bottles on them even... No paperwork, no nothing. No requirements for me to rent or buy the tank, because as they said "id eventually have to bring back to them to fill/swap anyway".
I later went back and got a bottle of oxygen and a bottle of acetylene and same thing. Just pay for the gas inside not the tanks. I still have those same tanks (well not exactly but I've never had problems swapping them out not have I ever been asked for paperwork) that's why I have stayed there but apparently they have worn out their welcome.
 
That said when I googled a hazmat charge I got responses from various sites saying the poster was surprised that AIRGAS was still in business due to some of their practices. I guess people have been charged hazmat from the on welding clamps, on spools of wire, on consumables for their guns. And I guess the amount varies based on how the counterman feels that day.
 
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