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Customer Service & Companies w/ Good & Bad Deals

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Adam Munich

Wed Nov 24 2010, 09:53PM

Registered Member #2893 Joined: Tue Jun 01 2010, 09:25PM
Location: Cali-forn. i. a.
Posts: 2242

BGmicro: No problems whatsoever with any orders. Very fast shipping with reasonable prices on all sorts of assorted components.

DIPmicro: Great source for LEDs in bulk, but they are not top of the line LEDs. Great customer service, but they lack a huge inventory.

All Electronics: A huge assortment of all sorts of odd components and hardware. Great customer service and I have never had any problems.

Allied Electronics: Large assortment of products but often take a long time to ship small orders. Sometimes even a month.

We all know that DigiKey is great, and I've had nothing but good things to say about newark.

C&S sales: Great company that carries a variety of tools and electronic kits. They hand out generous coupons like candy too if you join their mailing list.

Hobby King: A good source for all things remote control. Things take a week or two to arrive though. Their 15 dollar 6 channel 2.6GHz controller+receiver preforms nearly as well as a $150 futuba one.

Dimension Engineering: They sell excellent high power motor controllers for relatively low prices. The sabertooth ones are by far the best controllers for your money, and handle better than even Vantec ones. They also PWM above hearable frequencies, so they are completely silent.

Steve Conner

Thu Nov 25 2010, 09:44PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Nicko wrote ...

When I order from Farnell, it arrives next day, even if I order at 5pm. They are astonishingly good.

That's not how it works around our place, though I doubt it's Farnell's fault.

If you want some parts, you fill in an "order request form" by hand - we type them out on our computers if there's a large number of parts involved.

This then gets printed out, signed and taken to your manager, head of department, etc. for countersignature.

It then gets handed into the school office where a long-suffering secretary types it all back into the E-Procurement system.

The parts then arrive at the school office in little Farnell packages addressed to "Mr. E. Procurement", irrespective of who actually ordered them, so it's impossible to tell whose stuff is whose, except by the size, shape and weight of the package, noise it makes when shaken, and so on.

It's far quicker to order the parts yourself, but then you can't claim the money back.

quicksilver

Fri Dec 10 2010, 06:57PM

Registered Member #1408 Joined: Fri Mar 21 2008, 03:49PM
Location: Oracle, AZ
Posts: 679

I wrote a bit about OT ELECTRONICS (which ships world wide as it's a Chinese company) and was very surprised when at the very low prices they had; their parts are excellent and total time from order to receiving my parts was 16 days. Which is not that bad for international! I actually have not found a company that could beat their prices on their selection albeit not nearly as wide as a full scale electronics firm but specifically HV.

Good customer service: appropriate contact and tracking number & generally positive interaction.

I AM comparing this with an American HV firm which quoted me 300% mark up on the small parts and demanded that I buy a minimum of 100 units. Both of these firms are specific HV electronic companies but the American company had actually some of the poorest customer service I have come across.
I am purposely going to omit my poor experience with the American firm as I think it's only fair to say that it may have been a one time experience & they are not a hobbyist firm what so ever.

Proud Mary

Fri Dec 10 2010, 07:47PM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

quicksilver wrote ...

I wrote a bit about OT ELECTRONICS (which ships world wide as it's a Chinese company) and was very surprised when at the very low prices they had; their parts are excellent and total time from order to receiving my parts was 16 days.

Like Quicksilver, I've had only good experiences with OT Electronics and never found cheaper for HV diodes, of which they always have a very full range. I've also bought their polystyrene HV capacitors, and found these to be of good quality too.

I placed an order for eight 30kV 30mA diodes with them nine days ago, and the parts came this morning, which is brilliant for something that comes all the way from China.

Nicko

Sat Dec 11 2010, 07:38AM

Registered Member #1334 Joined: Tue Feb 19 2008, 04:37PM
Location: Nr. London, UK
Posts: 615

quicksilver wrote ...

I wrote a bit about OT ELECTRONICS...
Good customer service: appropriate contact and tracking number & generally positive interaction.
...

"ff77hh" on eBay

quicksilver

Sun Dec 12 2010, 04:12PM

Registered Member #1408 Joined: Fri Mar 21 2008, 03:49PM
Location: Oracle, AZ
Posts: 679

I had a situation VERY similar to what Steve McConner had pointed out where I worked. - We had to Email the head of IT and CC Procurement & submit a specific request detailing why and how we found a part amiss or in need, CC'ed to all management - etc. It was unbelievable.

Generally I snapped at this and did my best to hurry so that all would be smooth as it could be. I hurried and brushed things along as quickly as possible.

Then I started to get very sick of that system and I did exactly the opposite. I waited till I had the time to Email, I put ALL the responsibility on the system. Quite predictably the situation became serious becasue parts were not available, computers were down, work was not being processed and (of course) tempers flared.
When asked: I simply stated i was working within the system. So used to Daddy or Mommy running to fix what was wrong, that when the responsibility was put back to the system's inefficiency the glare of their inefficient procurement struck them like a punch. I strongly suggest, that IF possible, that the responsibility of a system be placed back where it belongs - ...Or the child gets spoiled.

radiotech

Sun Dec 12 2010, 09:15PM

Registered Member #2463 Joined: Wed Nov 11 2009, 03:49AM
Location:
Posts: 1546

The American surplus dealers are meticulous about
shipping the goods promised when you deal with credit cards. The
reason is there lurks regulations with enforcers who employ
people too nasty to work for the IRS !

Proud Mary

Mon Dec 13 2010, 09:57AM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

If like me you simply couldn't cope without HV vacuum relays, hydrogen thyratrons, PMTs, Teflon HV capacitors and the rest, there are very good ebay dealers in Central and Eastern Europe who sell Soviet-era kit, much of it of very superior quality if you know what you are buying, and what it would otherwise cost.

I have dealt with suppliers in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia, with 100% good results.

When buying Russian gear, it's a good idea to learn the Roman transliteration of Cyrillic characters, as the vendors frequently get it wrong, with the result that you cannot find a data sheet to see whether or not you want to buy something.

A second problem can arise when the seller does not understand the Russian part numbers system.

Here is an example, which shows failure of both types.

A vendor in Georgia is advertising a very nice looking X-ray tube as "2BSB22-Co" at a rock bottom price.

Here is the correct Cyrillic designation given to the tube at Baptism:*

1.2Ð‘CB22-Co

To simplify explanation, I will divide this into its three constituent parts thus:

(1.2) (Ð‘CB22) (-Co)

The digits in the first group is the tube power rating in kW - in this case 1.2kW. The seller has dropped the "1." for no clear reason.

In the second group, the seller has transliterated the first two letters correctly, writing BS for Ð‘C, but failed to render the Russian B as the Roman V.
The correct rendering of the whole type number is BSV22.

The third group is the anode element, cobalt in this case, which the seller added - correctly - after I'd asked for anode element details in a previous sale.

Now, BSV22 is available in two power ratings: the W, Mo, Ag, Cr, Cu, Ni and Co anode types are all rated at 1.2kW. Hence 1.2BSV22-*

And one 600W type available with a gold anode only - hence 0.6BSV22-Au.

So now you know!

* In heathenish Soviet times, the baptism of X-ray tubes was performed by priests of the Russian Orthodox Church in a secret crypt beneath the Svetlana factory in St Petersburg. After the Offering of the Holy Offal, the tube would be given its mystic name - "I name thee BSV22" - and placed before an ikon of the Blessed Fugg, while a libation of Buckfast Tonic Wine was drunk in honour of St Dipsomasius.

Nicko

Mon Dec 13 2010, 10:54AM

Registered Member #1334 Joined: Tue Feb 19 2008, 04:37PM
Location: Nr. London, UK
Posts: 615

Farnell (and all the companies they own, like CPC, Newark, Element-14 etc.) are owned by Premier Farnell plc, listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) as PFL.L - market cap GBP 1.01 Bn and sales of over GBP 1 Bn annual.

RS are owned by Electrocomponents plc, listed on LSE as ECM.L - market cap GBP 1.16 Bn and sales of about GBP 1 Bn annual.

Both have gone up by about 60% over the last year, compared with the FTSE 100 which has managed about 11%. Arrow (market cap GBP 2.54 Bn) & Avnet (market cap GBP 3.18 Bn) have had far less dramatic performance this year.

See

Digi-Key annual sales are about USD 1 Bn (GBP 636 M) and its privately owned - I believe its now the 4th Largest in the US. Future is also privately owned.

Interesting, though out-of-date, article here about the top 10 US suppliers in 2004

The interesting thing is that even then, Arrow, Avnet & Future were HUGE!

Cheers

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