Anyone ever order from Zephyrtronics? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: SirNick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 11, 2014, 01:40:19 am
content: I'm looking for a good place to buy solder paste in hobby quantities in the US. I usually buy everything from e.g., Digikey / Mouser, but they won't send paste, flux, or CR2032s via USPS. And Fed/Ups to Alaska is on the order of $40 minimum. For $12 worth of supplies. Not happening. (USPS is usually under $10 for a couple hundred bucks worth of parts.)I found some forum posts recommending Zeph.com, so I gave them a shot. I got an order confirmation email, and after two weeks of waiting for my 2-3 day air shipping, I emailed for a status update. No reply. Called the next week. Phone was picked up, then hung up. Called back. Phone was picked up and hung up again.At this point, I opened a case with my CC's issuing bank, and they contacted the merchant. They got through, but the party mysteriously disconnected while the rep tried to conference me in. The rep called back and went straight to voicemail.I sent a follow-up email advising them that I was proceeding with a charge-back unless the items arrived within the 2-week (from date of CC posting) minimum required by my bank. I got a mildly apologetic reply thanking me for "bringing the matter to our attention", and promising the order would ship today with some flux swabs thrown in for my trouble. I don't know that a few free Q-tips is going to restore my faith.Wondering if anyone else here has dealt with them? Or, for that matter, where I might go to get some solder paste? I could always hit eBay, but... well... as much a shining example of retail integrity as eBay is, I'm not sure it's any better than my current supplier. Who knows if I'm getting solder paste or a tube of elephant jam.

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 11, 2014, 02:04:11 am
content: ebay and aliexpress are your best options for small quantities. Problem is that "small" may well be smaller than advertised, for something advertised as 50g, you might get 30g gross (maybe 20g net!).dx.com used to sell lodestar 50g pots which really were 50g, unfortunately they seem to have stopped selling it and only have some very small 20g net pots of leaded (which I suspect are probably old stock), and some more expensive lead free which is supposedly 50g, but nobody has reviewed it.Be careful when buying solder paste from china (ebay, ali, dx, taobao... ) because they also tend to call paste flux "solder paste", you have to look carefully to determine if what you're buying is solder, or flux...An example -This is solder pasteThis is flux paste

author: Clear as mud
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2014, 12:07:53 am
content: I ordered a soldering station and solder paste fromSRA Soldering Products, and they had good customer service. That was a more than a year ago, and I think they had solder paste in 1 oz. containers then. Now they have some 25 g tubes, and one 250 g container.I'm not actually sure what size the containers were that they sold last year. I ordered two of them, and when I got my order, only one container was in the box, so I called them and said I only received one container. They sent another one out. After I called them, I thought they might have just sent me twice as much in one container, so I looked at the web site, but there were no sizes listed. So I waited, and when I received the container, it was labeled Qty: 1 oz, but it was half the amount I got in the other one. They must have sent everything I ordered the first time, but they still sent another one when I asked for it. That's why I said they have good customer service.

author: orion242
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 05, 2014, 12:29:17 am
content: Quote from: SirNick on June 11, 2014, 01:40:19 amWow. I have used them a few times for paste, flux, and a few other misc supplies. Never had an issue with them. Even emailed to make changes to an order and they where more than prompt and helpful. Shipping on the paste is expensive, but they pack it with ice packs and overnight from memory.

author: DavidDLC
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2014, 01:30:06 am
content: I haver ordered three times, and two out of the three times I didn't have a good experience.No problem on my first product, which was a solder mill. It came with white rubber pads.The second solder mill I bought took long time and several emails, I sent emails to david@zeph.com with no answer. This one has black rubber pads which leave marks on my bench. The picture on the website shows white rubber pads.I ordered a third one and specify white rubber pads, again it took long time to arrive several emails and it arrived with black rubber padsThe reason I kept order from them is because I want my three solder mill to be the same.David.

author: SirNick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2014, 12:00:48 am
content: I finally got my stuff, and it was technically what I ordered, but yeah... something must've changed. No ice, no extra care in packing, just all the stuff crammed into a mailing envelope. Kinda seems like the old guard has gone, and whomever is left to run the shop would probably rather not.Too bad. I was excited to find them, but I don't think I'll ever order from them again. They appear to have completely sold out of give-a-@%$^.

author: orion242
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2014, 12:14:47 am
content: Must have went to crap just recently.My last paste order was 7/16/14 and it came with ice & overnight. 2/28/14 they answered emails within 24hrs and made changes to an order on the fly, jose@...com

author: SirNick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2014, 12:37:01 am
content: This was a month before your first order. Jose was the one who finally answered me too. However, sending email to David@ and getting replies from Jose@ didn't help my shaken confidence by that point. While it may not be the pinnacle of professionalism, I don't have any issues with a one-man op using a personal email address for sales. But, after the run-around, radio silence, and getting emails from third parties, I was pretty sure I was about to get scammed. I consider myself lucky to have received a tube of paste and not a zero-balance at my bank.