Newark Electronics misleading advertising - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: whalphen
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2023, 03:13:00 pm
content: I frequently buy many parts for use in my volunteer activities teaching electronics to students at local schools in Michigan. Recently I needed to buy some P-Channel MOSFETs (Microchip VP2106N3-G) with specific characteristics for a project. I did an internet search and it popped up an advertisement from Newark Electronics which showed the parts at a special promotional price at a 31% discount. I went to the Newark Electronics website and it confirmed the promotional price and listed it as in-stock and ready for same day shipping. What luck! This is normally a hard-to-locate part. And here it was at a discount price and in-stock!I placed the order, along with some other parts that were not discounted. But it did not get shipped the same day. The next day I got an email from Newark. They refused to ship the part stating they have a restriction on the sale of the part “to prevent the restricted business accounts from purchasing the item with a valued customer account”. Not clear on what that means, I contacted Newark and asked for an explanation and got no further explanation. The only thing they could recommend is that I open a business account and I may or may not get approved to purchase the part. They offered to ship the other, non-promotional, parts on the order. But they simply refused to ship the parts having the promotional offer.Now, a couple weeks later, they still list the promotion with the parts in stock and available for same day shipping. There is no indication that there are any restrictions on delivering the parts to customers who don’t have approved business accounts.Since this is not the first time they have done this to one of my orders, I suspect that they don’t want to deal with small customer accounts and are just refusing to ship the products in some cases.Interestingly, last time they did this to me I called the manufacturer directly. The manufacturer had the parts in stock and agreed to sell them to me. But their stock was in Thailand and the shipping cost was a deal breaker. That project had to go on hold.And, in another case, Newark notified me they had parts in stock in a European location and couldn’t deliver them right away. I asked them to cancel the order. But they didn’t and they shipped the parts anyway – later than I needed them.I’ve decided to stop doing business with Newark. And, unfortunately for Newark, the students I work with are getting the message that Newark is too difficult to do business with.As for the P-Channel MOSFETs, I ended up placing my order with TME Electronic Components. They shipped the parts quickly from Poland, though I ended up having to pay almost twice as much as Newark’s supposed promotion offered.

author: Kim Christensen
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2023, 03:24:07 pm
content: QuoteI think they are trying to prevent resellers from buying them all.I haven't bought from Newark in a long time, but don't they still have the option to not ship partial orders?Then you would have a position to "negotiate" from. ie: Ship it all or none of it, when they call you.

author: whalphen
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2023, 03:42:42 pm
content: When I call for assistance with an order, the sales support typically doesn't answer my questions directly. Instead they state some boilerplate response which doesn't really help. And, no matter who else I talk to, they state the exact same paragraph -- which will also sometimes be word-for-word the same in emails they send. So I suspect they are trained to only read responses from a screen rather than think and try to solve issues. When I explain that they didn't ship the part, they will typically offer to take my order for the same part that they refused to sell to me. When I again explain that I already placed the order and it didn't get shipped, they offer to connect me with the technical team to select an alternative part.Unsupportive "support" teams seem to be infecting many companies today. Whether you ask for help via phone, email, or online chat, you get the exact same scripted unhelpful response. They leave you will the impression that you either take the poor quality service they offer or they don't want to be bothered with your request.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2023, 09:20:54 pm
content: What is the part number in question?The European shipping location is totally normal, you just have to look for this text in the Price column: "Delivery in 2-4 business days from our UK warehouse for in stock items"But yeah, orders tend to get hung up with Newark more often than anywhere else. So I don't order from there if I need something within a few days.

author: jonpaul
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 13, 2023, 02:50:27 am
content: use only Digi Key or MouserGave up on old line disty decade's agoJon