My 2 new Beta tool cabinets showed up the other day, and I am very excited to start loading them up.
There was a bit of a headache though.
I’ll start at the beginning.
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I LOVE the Beta Tools cabinet that I ordered over 15 years ago.
I had been wanting to get more Beta Tools single bay rolling cabinets for a while. I inquired about USA availability 5 years ago and then asked about country of origin 3 years ago as I was seeing mixed messaging at different sellers.
Beta Tools did send over an RSC24 for testing, but with a 5-drawer configuration that’s not very useful to me, at least not for regularly-accessible tools. I’ve tried a few different setups, and it’s been holding supplies nicely.
I’m reorganizing my workshop, and there’s now immediate need and room for 2 single bay cabinets with shallow drawers. Yay, I can finally justify them!
On paper, Beta cabinets don’t seem like a good value compared to other options, but I’ve been using my older orange model for long enough to know the quality is great.
With a Zoro 20% off coupon in-hand, I placed the order for 2 RSC24 cabinets in blue and orange.
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After I had attempted to cancel my recent Beta Super Tank order, I contacted Zoro and requested cancellation of the 2 single bay Beta tool boxes too. There’s a whole story as to why, but that’s not important here. All you really need to know is that I had changed my mind.
Zoro said that they would request cancellation and that they give their suppliers 2 business days to respond.
I checked the other day, and it said my order was cancelled. I was a little disappointed, but also glad.
I was out with my family on a New Year’s Eve snack run when I got a phone call.
A delivery driver had pulled up to my house and asked if it was okay to leave the items in the driveway.
WHAT DELIVERY?
Apparently my order was cancelled, shipped anyway, and the cabinets were in my driveway.
I got home, removed the cardboard covers, cleared out some stuff from the garage (I’d been cleaning it and wasn’t ready for any delivery), and brought in the cabinets.
Leaving them outside didn’t seem like a good idea, as we were set to get more snow overnight.
Here they are.
I looked at my email history, and apparently Zoro sent me a notification the other day saying that both items were removed from my order. Zoro also never charged my credit card.
Before that happened, they told me that cancellation wasn’t guaranteed and that if the order shipped and arrived I can then contact them about a return. I told them that if the cabinets shipped out anyway and couldn’t be canceled in time, I’d keep the order (assuming all was well and there wasn’t any damage).
If they didn’t ship, I wanted the order cancelled and refunded. If they did ship and there was no damage, I would have been okay to keep them, because I have been eager for these cabinets for a while.
Once my Beta SuperTank order (discussed in the other recent post) was cancelled, I placed an order for a Gedore mobile workbench. (I still need more storage, I had some test sample funds to spend, and love exploring storage.) For that order, Zoro immediately put a payment charge/hold on my credit card, despite it not expected to ship for 2 weeks.
For whatever reason, I cannot find any charge or hold on my credit card for these Beta cabinets.
I emailed Zoro.
I couldn’t touch the cabinets for 2 days, in case they needed me to return them.
I’m happy to assist you today. Your order has successfully been canceled and the items will not ship.
But they did ship. And were sitting in my garage. Now what?
I called Zoro and… this kind of thing happens, where a cancelled order will still be shipped. They had a protocol for manual invoicing, and so that’s what we did, and they’ll process the payment for the order.
I asked what would have happened if I hadn’t called, and the customer support agent didn’t have an answer.
But I needed to call – I don’t need any bad karma hanging over me or these tool cabinets.
So, I ordered the cabinets, cancelled them, they arrived anyway, and I paid for them.
They’re a little redundant now, as the incoming Gedore workbench I ordered also has mostly shallow drawers, but I definitely have use for them.
As they did last year, Beta Tools USA jacked up their prices on 1/1. I could have sent these back, but if I changed my mind again and decided to buy in 2026, it’d cost me a bunch more.
This was definitely a very annoying situation. I couldn’t find any COO info on the packages, but the last I checked the RSC24’s are made in Italy.
I’m looking forward to breaking down the pallets, installing the wheels, and putting these cabinets to use.
Getting more Harbor Freight US General roller cabinets would have been less of a headache, but I really like the Beta cabinets’ size, build quality, and user experience.
blocky
If anything, they look better in your shop than they do in the product images.
Happy New Year!
Robert
Stuart, if there is supposed to be to be an image of the Beta cabinets directly above the words:
“ Here they are.”
Then something is wrong.
On iPad I see a rectangular box with a small blue box inside with a question mark.
On PC I see the words “Beta Tool Cabinets December Delivery 2025, and no rectangle.
Stuart
Thanks, fixed it! It’s the same image as at the top. I haven’t installed the casters or moved them yet.
Bonnie
I’ve begrudgingly come to accept the usefulness of shallow drawer tool chests like these, though I don’t think I could stomach that price in anything but a commercial shop (which I suppose yours is).
I’ve had great luck in picking up free or cheap lateral file cabinets and flat files as local offices either shut down or reduce how much paper they’re storing. They hold a lot more weight than people tend to assume. Most flatfiles have the same per-drawer weight capacity as those Betas, though you can’t stack as much on top without adding a work surface.
Stuart
I’ve shopped for and bought different options over the years. There are some suitable alternatives is price is a primary factor.
But for holding hand tools or shallow parts and supplies, that’s where this type of configuration works well.
I have small tools split among several boxes since the drawers are too deep to the space efficient.
There are ways to split the height of drawers with different types of organizers or trays, but that doesn’t work for everything.
These are only worth it because it’s the best drawer configuration for my needs, and also because it’s for my business and not personal use.
Scott K
I’ve seen a bunch of posts on FB for free cabinets like this and thought about how they might work for tool storage.
At some point, I’d love to swap out my current organization system for shallow tool drawers. This would be much more space-efficient than what I currently use- a mix of pegboard, surplus ikea drawers, and bins on shelves. The nice thing about pegboard is that I can immediately see if something wasn’t put back.
Stuart
Regarding flat file cabinets, I did have Ikea Alex cabinets due to the price point, and while decent for the money the drawers were not full-extension.
When it comes to tool storage, there are often priorities and compromises.
There’s a pegboard back panel that can be added to these cabinets.
CMF
I have also had good luck with used office cabinets, not free but very cheap; $10 to $50. Even before the working from home became popular during the pandemic, I was always seeing used office furniture and cabinets were so cheap.
I was a taxi driver many tears ago and I remember occasionally grabbing a suitcase to put in the trunk and it was almost too heavy to pickup. When I asked, most often these super heavy suitcases were books. Filing cabinets, hold files, lots of files and added up they are super heavy.
I use them all over my garage, workshop and sheds. I can build something but for a heavy duty filing cabinet with good slides for $20, these are great.
B
*scouring zoro for open box discounts on beta cabinets for the next month*
Stuart
Good luck with that, I paid for and am keeping these.
Plain+Grainy
I hope to get a couple of small cabinets similar to these. One to keep near my table saw for accessories like dado blades, ect. Maybe one for my drill press also.. Maybe if you have trouble stopping their orders in the future. You may want to contact your physician, perhaps he can prescribe a beta blocker for you!
Jim
Those US General roller cabinets would be a lot more interesting if they’d replace 2 of those shallow top drawers with a single deeper drawer.
Matt_T
Stuart used a picture of their older roll cabs. The current ones do have a deep top drawer.
S
Contact harbor freights customer service department. If the slide is in the right spot, they can likely sell you the drawer.
I know toolbox tours had a guy that changed out 2 of his icon boxes thin drawers for a thicker drawer for like $40.
Nate
Isn’t country-of-origin information legally required? IANAL, but I wonder who’s dropping the ball here, and if that might actually be a problem for them. As the “ultimate purchaser”, you’re supposed to have received this information.
It’s a big deal for some of us.
KMR
COO is required to be listed on the product or the product packaging, which only come into the purchaser’s possession at the end of the transaction. COO currently does not need to be disclosed by any other means AFAIK, which means if you ask a supplier prior to purchase, they can choose to be forthright or just shrug their shoulders.
IMHO, the law/regs need to be updated so that COO is required to be published at the point of transaction prior to completion of the transaction (ex. on a product web page). This would require all ecommerce sites, at least those in the USA, to make COO information public.
We also need much harsher penalties for company that strip COO from product packaging and/or do not publish COO on the products/packaging. I know at least one of my competitors, because they use a supplier in Germany, frequently touts the products as “from Germany”, when in reality they’re being produced in India for the German firm. The product, conveniently, arrives without any COO info at all on the packaging or product. But the “we source these from Germany” statement was already planted in the consumer’s mind on the webpage which they interpret as the COO.
MM
I agree with you that the laws need to be updated.
As I understand things, in the USA the law is laid out in the McKinley Tariff Act of 1890. That is the law which requires the labeling of COO of goods imported into the USA. However, that applies to the goods themselves–i.e. those “Made in _____” stickers or markings that have been on products for decades. However, that doesn’t extend to, say, things being advertised on a website. I agree with you 100% that information should be made public so the customer is informed before a transaction takes place.
Stuart
It’s not always on the packaging.
I bought a True Temper snow brush and it took a lot of emails and messages for them to tell me where it was made.
A lot of European imports also don’t mention COO.
Most retail packages do have COO info, although sometimes they try to confuse things with “designed in USA” and similar.
https://toolguyd.com/lufkin-shockforce-tape-measure-packaging/
A company asked if they could send me a free tool sample package over the holiday season, presumably because they wanted some free promotion.
I asked them for an update on their pledge from 4 years ago to focus on USA-made tools. Never heard back.
Years ago I asked Home Depot why they disclose COO on their Canadian website but not in the USA. They weren’t able to give me an answer. Nothing has changed since then.
CMF
“although sometimes they try to confuse things with “designed in USA” and similar”…I would like to see changes here also.
You can put designed, developed, it was Joe’s idea, or anything else, but Made In ______ has to be there and more prominent than any of the other stuff. Of course the law should stipulate (I believe it already exists) what exactly is or what percentage meets the criteria for where it is made.
Peter
If it does not clearly state Made in the USA I automatically assume it is not made here.
That carries a lot of weight at least in my world and they can charge more for that or use it as an additional selling point.
So to me it would be a missed marketing opportunity.
KMR
“A lot of European imports also don’t mention COO.”
There may not be a requirement for COO on the product or product packaging for items originating outside of the USA, BUT COO must be stated on the Proforma Invoice and customs documentation. So importers receiving foreign goods, even when they go through multiple hands and countries before ultimately arriving in the USA, should have the knowledge of the origin COO for the item.
On every Proforma I get from the EU and UK manufacturers and suppliers I use, they list the appropriate HS code and COO for each line of the invoice. Afterall, this is the only way that US Customs has to calculate tariff rates on items entering the USA.
CMF
Stuart, you mentioned a Gedore Mobile Workstation, but didn’t see any mention of the model. I did a quick Google search to get an idea what it would look like and found either this
https://www.amazon.com/Gedore-Mobile-workbench-vice-6620620/dp/B000UYWLPS
or covered opening like this
https://www.amazon.com/Gedore-1504-0511-Workbench-Drawers/dp/B000UYYZQG
Both beauties and if yours is slightly different, I am sure it is well made by Gedore.
may I ask where you bought yours, which model it is, and also what the price was? Was pricing similar in many other places (although Gedore vendors are few) or was what you got a great deal?
Stuart
Same size but with 18 drawers (2 banks with 9 each).
I ordered from Zoro with coupon and business credit card. Price was close to $3K.
At half the price I would have ordered it without hesitation. At this price, “well someone needs to review it and see what sets it apart” factored in.
CMF
I forgot to mention about 7-8 years ago, a place liquidating their Hazet products had a Hazet mobile workstation, similar to the Gedore I linked above, but it came with every drawer full of Hazet tools, in the foam inlays for the tools. It was around $1600 with tools and all, even delivery was included. I thought about it a lot for weeks and did not get it. Boy do I regret that now.