Farnell always screwing up my orders - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 11:01:54 am
content: It's really disappointing. The last three orders I've made with Farnell, including one that came in yesterday have had items wrong. In every case I can see that they have transposed a single digit on the item code. Last order was small - £100 odd. Order before that was £850 and because of that screw up, had to go down to trade counter and get parts exchange.It's frustrating, but they are the only major supplier in the UK that stocks what I need. (I'd love to buy from RS more but they want to set up a credit line, and their stock range isn't quite as broad.)This isn't to mention their overcharging by about 3x the 1ku price for 1000u of ADI's chips. (ADV7819, for example, $6 from ADI, $16 from Farnell.)

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 11:28:14 am
content: whats wrong with digikey? do you get high import tax in uk or something?

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 11:40:55 am
content: 20% VAT + 8% "courtesy charge" by RM + £8 import charge + £££shippingUsually ends up more expensive than Farnell, except for very large orders (the £850 project also had £400 spent at Digikey, but we needed some parts quicker)

author: msr
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 11:44:25 am
content: What about Mouser? They have warehouses in Europe (germany and spain at least I think)

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 11:47:12 am
content: damn, remind me never to move to the UK.In NZ there's no import tax for orders less than ~ NZ$400 and if it's sent regular post (instead of courier) stuff usually slips through regardless of price.Digikey has free shipping on orders over NZ$125, so everything is sweet for getting electronics in NZ. no extra charges as long as you keep the order under $400 (i usually keep it under 350 to be safe)

author: ElektroQuark
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 11:48:49 am
content: Mouser ships to Spain from USA. Free shipping from 60€ + TAX. Orders arrive in 3 days.I was a Farnell client. I was, but Mouser is cheaper, a lot, here.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 11:51:42 am
content: If you are a business you simply deduct the import taxes. Still the import handling charge is adding to the cost. I recall Digikey or Mouser advertising to include the handling charge in the shipping costs.It is weird Farnell messes up that bad. I think I put in 40 to 60 orders per year and they have hick-ups in 2 at most. Some of the things I order get shipped from the UK.Mouser ships from the US indeed.

author: con-f-use
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 12:38:00 pm
content: I have changed from Farnell to mouser after Farnell got rid of the student discount. It's cheaper and more reliable. Also less bullshit.Farnell manged to screw up orders and payment very often.I got wrong parts from them or smaller quantities. On top of that every second order I payed with credit card didn't go through. They don't even send e-mails when they fail to charge a card. First time I waited three weeks before asking what's wrong. Then they tried again, and the same card magically worked. Never had problems with the card anywhere else.If a company can't even manage to get payed, they don't deserve the money.

author: baljemmett
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 03:30:26 pm
content: Quote from: tom66 on September 17, 2014, 11:40:55 amHmm - I think you might be getting tripped up when ordering from Digikey then - if you order from their .co.uk site, you prepay VAT to them and shipping is free over £40 (IIRC). Spent a touch over £100 with them recently as a first order, the VAT was included in the order total and there were no extra shipping, courier or import charges; ordered on a Friday evening and had the parts Monday morning.(They sent it INCOTERMS DDP so if there had been customs duty to be paid on that order, I'd expect it to have also shown up at order time rather than be charged through the courier…)

author: fcb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 04:08:45 pm
content: I have used both Farnell and RS for since I was small. I use Farnell perhaps 95% of the time now, and I have to say that their service has been a little patchy of recent.In fact the last couple of orders I've had to ring them through (instead of do them online) as their website keeps rejecting my card (the advice from there support was "we've been having problems with it, just try three times and ignore the first two rejections, it'll go through on the third even though it says it's rejected"...That said, there deliveries are usually UPS and nearly always turnup nextday by 0915, and that's free if your order is >£20. The other day they delivered some tiny Wurth SMT inductors and the they cut the plastic tape without care and cracked the inductors (they are super delicate) - rang them up, explained the problem - they took notes for the warehouse manager and shipped replacements nextday by UPS.Digikey are OK, but they aren't any cheaper. Bizarrely RAPID are very good on price for 0805 reels.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 05:15:32 pm
content: For delicate stuff you are better off ordering more than you need. Another caveat is with ordering cables which have a flat bit every half meter or so. Be sure to order an extra meter because the people in the warehouse have no clue where to cut it exactly.In the past I have also received empty lead-in strips of reels. That was sorted quickly and it happened only once.

author: marmad
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 05:33:06 pm
content: Quote from: fcb on September 17, 2014, 04:08:45 pmHmm... is that a country thing - or a customer thing? My next day deliveries from Farnell are ALWAYS free - even if I just order € 0.22 worth of parts. I use them all the time for tiny quantities exactly for that reason. If I need a lot of stuff, better to use Mouser (cheaper parts and free delivery above a certain threshold).

author: marmad
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 05:39:23 pm
content: Quote from: tom66 on September 17, 2014, 11:40:55 amYes, I agree with previous posters: use Mouser. They've streamlined their European ordering in the last couple of years. Cheaper parts (and wider selection) than Farnell or RS; you can use a credit card (no surcharge); free delivery over € 75 (or something around that); and I believe Mouser has restructured their business so there are no VAT charges - I don't see it on my invoices from them, but they may have my VAT number on file; I can't remember.

author: baljemmett
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 07:02:30 pm
content: Quote from: marmad on September 17, 2014, 05:33:06 pmFarnell UK's current rules appear to be £20 minimum spend for non-account-holders, no minimum spend for account holders but a £3.95 'delivery' charge on orders below £20. That small-order charge was only introduced about a year ago, from memory; before that it was the same here as for you.

author: 8086
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 07:05:00 pm
content: Farnell has not been in my good books recently (wrong resistors in correctly labled bags etc - so you have to check the colour codes on everything).I have had better experiences with Mouser - and the stuff only arrives 1-2 days later than Farnell, from the US.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 09:03:52 pm
content: Add me to the list of Mouser fans, they're very VERY good.

author: steve30
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 10:06:01 pm
content: I'm just wondering, could it be quite easy for them to make accidental mix ups? I expect it would, especially at places like Farnell where there are so many items with many enormous product codes.Not had any trouble with them myself, but I don't use them very often.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2014, 10:08:21 pm
content: Yes, since I got shipped 4 connectors instead of 4 inductors, it seems likely the picker took the wrong reel. The part # was printed correctly on the package, so I figure human error. It happens, and I wouldn't otherwise mind... but it's happened so many other times before, that I'm getting a little peeved off.In one previous case, I was able to find the exact error they had made. Instead of picking (e.g.) item 123-4567 they had picked 123-4576. In this case, the printing was wrong on the packet too, so at least the error was more obvious.

author: TMM
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2014, 12:11:55 pm
content: FWIW Farnell/Element14's UK warehouse seems to be a lot more competent than their Australian one. I've never had incorrect items sent from the UK warehouse. The Australian one is hopeless.One time I was trying to buy transistors in TO220 packages, they sent me DIP8 opamps (in a baggy marked as the TO220 transistors) three times in a row. By the end of that ordeal they were treating me like i was lying so that they would send me free components (even though i sent them pictures of the still-sealed bags each time) and eventually they told me that after searching their warehouse they didn't actually have any stock of the component i was after (despite their site showing 3000+ in stock?) and that they would refund me.On the bright side, i ended up with 30 not-cheap opamps for free.At the Australian warehouse it seems that it's always that the bins are stocked incorrectly, rather than the person picking the parts screwing up. I've received incorrect but numerically similar items many times e.g. 82Kohm resistors instead of 82ohm. In the above case however, nothing was similar at all, even the item numbers were wildly different

author: Towger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2014, 02:18:38 pm
content: You will find that it only takes one incompetent to destroy a company's reputation, especially if the management does nothing about them.

author: all_repair
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2014, 03:00:53 pm
content: E14 singapore are quite good. Almost no error so far for me. My order is about once or twice a week. The problem yo me is the "no longer stock" is happening too fast for too many parts.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2014, 04:47:30 pm
content: Quote from: tom66 on September 17, 2014, 11:40:55 amDigikey now charge VAT on the order, just like Farnell.I often find Mouser cheaper though

author: nukie
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2014, 09:52:47 pm
content: Quote from: all_repair on September 18, 2014, 03:00:53 pmI hate it when I look at E14 SG prices it's mostly cheaper than E14 AU despite the same company.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 08, 2014, 09:18:23 am
content: Quote from: nukie on October 07, 2014, 09:52:47 pmBought anything recently?That was always the case, but E14 AU seem to have dropped prices quite a bit in the last couple of months. I just compared a bunch of passives / semis / hardware I ordered a couple of days ago, and many things are now 20~30 cheaper here even after figuring in the SGD-AUD exchange rate. e.g. I chucked in a couple of ATmega328-AU's because they were only $2.53; at E14 SG they're SG$3.77 (~AU3.50). And that's < 1/2 the price they were 4 months ago...That said there do seem to be a lot more "no longer stocked" items recently, and I get the feeling they've reduced the locally-stocked range quite a bit and have to ship more from the UK/US/SG.

author: nukie
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2014, 01:39:58 pm
content: I have larger shipment from digikey and mouser once a project is final. Element14 is for prototype parts, many passive components are reasonably priced beating digikey. I suspect they are not quick enough to adjust according to the currency exchange. I also have a few reliable sources from HK, China, Taiwan and Japan. I go to these suppliers when Digikey has stupidly long lead times like 30 days or more. Where these Asian suppliers can get them in a week.

author: brucer37
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2016, 08:17:22 am
content: I order perhaps 4-5 a year. It's disappointing that error hit rate on my E14 AU orders is currently around 10%The 2014 hit was providing a 1/2w carbon resistor, as a Beaglbone Black substitute.After trusting their own "let's count our stock to see..." I got the BBB. Did not have to return the resistor - so 1 up.The latest is providing 1 Beaglebone Black Industrial instead of 2.They're "counting our stock" again.It is excellent to see that the signed Statement(s) of Quality Assurance is/are so perfect.Maybe they're Strawberry PI users.My glasses arr sta.ting to fogg... darn!--Edit: the fog clears.A week and a few calls to Sales. Email got no response.E14 counted the boxes and found a "shortage" - what ever that means. Took my payment details, created new order for the missing BBB, and said they will refund 1 BBB from original order.BBB recieved. Waiting the refund.