Store for buying test equipment.  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: MD Kowshik
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 27, 2019, 08:03:08 am
content: What's the best store in USA where I can buy genuine test equipment.i.e. Tektronix, Fluke, JBC (I know it's a tool) and many brandsBut I don't trust online buying. I want to physically go to the store and buy the products.

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2019, 08:25:05 am
content: Quote from: MD Kowshik on January 27, 2019, 08:03:08 amWelcome to the forum.The most popular with members here are Saelig and TEquipment, both online sellers that offer EEVblog member discounts. Both can be trusted explicitly to support whatever they sell.http://www.saelig.com/https://www.tequipment.net/Their discount threads are easily found on the forum and the ~6% savings are worth having.Otherwise most test equipment manufacturers have a north american presence and therefore a shop.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2019, 11:45:11 am
content: Quote from: MD Kowshik on January 27, 2019, 08:03:08 amThe usual procedure for buying test equipment is to get a unit on loan. Depending on the price a dealer can send you a piece of equipment for evaluation OR someone can demonstrate it to you and leave it. After the evaluation period you send it back. If you like the equipment, you can order it.I think some electronics stores may have some test equipment but in this day&age where online buying is standard these kind of stores are dissapearing quickly.

author: MD Kowshik
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 27, 2019, 04:48:19 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on January 27, 2019, 11:45:11 amSo, I Guess online shopping is the way to go... But are they trustworthy?

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2019, 05:43:11 pm
content: Why wouldn't they be? Online commerce is the way the world works today, it's been that way more or less for over a decade now. The reputable online dealers are every bit as trustworthy as brick & mortar stores. Equipment like oscilloscopes is esoteric enough that few physical stores selling that type of gear could stay in business. I've been doing most of my shopping online for close to 20 years and can count on one hand the number of problems I've had.If you happen to live in one of the tech areas that has a Fry's then you will probably still find a limited selection of test gear there, otherwise there simply isn't much left.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2019, 05:47:24 pm
content: Quote from: MD Kowshik on January 27, 2019, 04:48:19 pmThat depends on the shop. When I want to know about a shop I google the name of the shop and the words 'warranty' and 'problem'. In other words: do some online research and don't go by what it says in the website itself.

author: DaJMasta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2019, 05:57:25 pm
content: Quote from: MD Kowshik on January 27, 2019, 04:48:19 pmBy no means all places, but since it's generally industrial/commercial equipment, any major seller with a history probably is fairly trustworthy - sales in those sectors relies on return customers and customer service a lot more than the consumer sector.That said, there's a good bit of info around here on several major sellers, then there are user feedback and such for other sellers (like on ebay, and there are major test equipment makers who have an ebay presence for used units, like Keysight). For new equipment you can also contact the manufacturer directly and they can point you to an authorized reseller - most of the ones mentioned are authorized resellers and advertise it, but if you wrote to Rohde and Schwarz or Tektronix or the like, they could certainly point you towards a vendor or a more local place for rental/sales.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2019, 01:15:22 am
content: Quote from: blueskull on January 27, 2019, 06:41:44 pmFor good reason. Vetting an official distributor is always a good idea. There are a few I won't buy from.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2019, 04:40:52 am
content: Vetting sure, but automatically not trusting any online vendor? Why? Name any brick & mortar store and you'll find horror stories too. Whether it's online or in person makes very little difference.

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2019, 06:14:58 am
content: I have yet to see a brick and mortar store that sells test equipment on display like you would find TVs and other consumer gear.You might find a cheep bench PSU, scope or multimeter on the shelf in stores that sell components such as Conrad or Radioshack or the numerous small shops. But i have never seen anything from Keysight,Tek,Keithley etc on the shelves. This is not the sort of thing that someone walks in saying "I want an oscilloscope" and then browses trough the scopes on the shelf to decide on the one they want.The typical costumer would do a good bit of research before hand and come in with "I want one Keysight MSOX3034T with the LAN adapter and the serial decode option", there is no way a brick and mortar store would just happen to have one on hand. Not to mention that such a thing costs 10 times as much as a typical TV.You can buy directly from Keysight or Tek if you contact them. Otherwise just go trough a well known distributor. Sometimes component distributors also carry test gear such as Farnell/Newark/Element14. They might not have the best pricing tho, and you sometimes get gear that been sitting unopened in a box for >2 years (Tho that's sometimes a good thing if you need older firmware to make a hack work).

author: 0culus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2019, 06:21:24 am
content: So far I've had good experiences buying online, even from fleabay. I stick only to sellers who have pretty extended good rep.

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2019, 06:47:31 am
content: Where i live the electronics stores are pretty crap. The small places that sell components only keep old standard parts in stock and big guys like Conrad have gone the way of RadioShack where they now just sell consumer electronics. Tho these small shops are often distributors for Digikey or Farnell so that you can get a a single component from Digikey without the costly shipping. People are used to ordering all this stuff online here.I never actually bought anything directly from Keysights website, but seeing the pricing and big buy buttons all over i assumed the procedure takes you to buy directly from them. I bought used gear from them before and that goes mostly trough e-mail with there used resale team, but the gear comes in a new box and with some warranty. I think i also bought a Agilent DMM from Farnell or something.That being said very little of my gear is modern and even less was bought brand new. I rather pick up old clunkers off Ebay on the cheap. Sure it might be 20 year old gear that sometimes needs a thing repaired here or there, but its still perfectly usable today while saving your wallet. This is not like PCs where they become obsolete in 5 years, a bench PSU from 30 years ago still pushes out the same electrons as a fancy new Keysight thing, it just might not have the luxuries such as LAN, USB or a color screen. Tho careful of old Scopes, those have come a long way in 20 years.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2019, 06:53:38 am
content: Last time I was at Fry's Electronics they had a few Tek scopes on the shelves, but only a limited selection and there are only a handful of Fry's stores out there. I happen to live in one of the big tech areas, a lot of people do not. For better or worse, a lot of commerce has moved online, this is especially true of niche stuff like oscilloscopes. Only a very very small portion of the general population has any use for one, you're not going to find them in Costco or similar places. There used to be stores that sold lots of electronics hobby stuff but those have been dropping like flies over the past 20-30 years, there is not much like it left in the US. Manufacturing has moved to China so that's where all the surplus is.

author: 0culus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2019, 06:54:58 am
content: Quote from: Berni on January 28, 2019, 06:47:31 amI'm fortunate to have a local Radio Shack that still stocks components. You won't find anything particularly esoteric, but if you need standard things they have it. Guy and his wife who run it are both hams too.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2019, 06:55:54 am
content: Radio Shack is still around? All of the ones that were around here are gone, I thought the whole chain went bust?

author: 0culus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2019, 07:09:20 am
content: Quote from: james_s on January 28, 2019, 06:55:54 amStill around. A lot of stores are gone, and most of the ones that exist are purely consumer electronics. My local one is a unicorn, and when that couple decide to retire it will likely be gone.