CPC vs Farnell?

[adrian]

HI Folks

Just spend a happy few hours rippint two thick layers of paint off our wooden front gates. Seems that they were 2nd-hand when the guy that biult the house reused them for our gates - they'd already been varnished, then he slapped a coat of some unknown paint on top of the avrnish, and then we unwittingly put our own coat of paint on top of that lot.

Of course - the rains's got in - and now the whole lot needs to come off

- before applying the microporous preserver...

Anyway - turns out the best tool for the stripping was one of those 'Flap wheels' that goes into an electric drill. Found one at the back of a cupboard - and it's done the job well.. - covered me in ground-up gerrn & gery paint - Incredible Hulk, anybody ?

Went looking on CPC for a replacement flap wheel (CPC are ideal because they'll deliver to us out here in South-West ireland without charging silly prices for P&P). They'd only got a few wheels.

Now - I'd always thought tha CPC and Farnell were very much the same company - but a search on Farnell's website showed a much wider range of flapwheels - even though the website looked very much like the CPC one - just rebadged..

So - what's the deal ? - anybody use both and prefer one over the other?

Thanks Adrian

[Bob Minchin]

Horse for courses. CPC, Farnell and Buck & Hickman all part of the farnell group and have some overlap in stock but their individual pricing and discount structures. Just like castorama, Brico depot, B&Q, screwfix and trade depot are all one group

Travis perkins, toolstation, trade counter the same applies.

It is what a large business does. They form different outlets to suit various customer sectors.

Buy from whoever you feel comfortable with.

Bob

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , adrian writes

I think Farnell took over CPC, and it's a matter of branding. It seems to me that CPC is aimed at the Maplin crowd (bling 'n' crap) and Farnell are more aimed at the RS crowd.

You can always find the same stuff on Farnell that you can on CPC, and vice versa. It sometimes requires some fiddling with order codes. Prices are usually about the same. The people on the phone are usually helpful if you can't find something on Farnell that you can on CPC or vice versa.

Not much in it I think - just go on price.

[BigGirlsBlouse]

as someone else has said they are both part of the farnell group. they do appeal to different customers tho.... in my job I have to instal dab radios and CPC have a very good range... FEC have none. Also, service kits for various electronic equipme t are provided by CPC, but not by FEC. The other problem we have as a company is that CPC do not send an invoice... the delivery note doubles as an invoice which is fine for private buyers but not for companies with separate invoice depts.

[John Rumm]

To be fair they do send a proper invoice - stapled to the delivery note usually. The tricky thing is you can't get them to send that to a different place from the goods.

[Bob Eager]

The product ranges are very different, although they overlap quite a bit. CPC are aimed at supplying consumers and small electrical shops, etc. Farnell are more 'trade' (well, electronics trade) based.

For example, I buy loads of different stuff from CPC (but avoid anything too fragile, given the monkeys in their packing department). From Farnell, I buy stuff such as hard to find chips (e.g. a rare UART and hard to find static RAM, recently).

CPC have no minimum order, but a small order charge, etc. Unless you have an account, there is a minimum order at Farnell of 20 quid, which you *have* to spend. But at basic carriage level, carriage is then free. They both use UPS fro delivery but I think the default Farnell service is 'next day' (which it isn't for CPC, although most times the stuff does arrive next day).

[adrian]

Thanks for the explanation....

I did notice the minimum order on Farnell (which seems to be 35euro - so hopefully that would include 'free' delivery to Ireland).

I've requested a printed catalogue - so we'll see what turns up...

I like the CPC == Maplins / Farnell == RS analogy -

The good thing about CPC (putting their tendency to 'bling' aside!) is that their delivery rates to Ireland are very reasonable. Lots of UK suppliers (especially the eBay ones) seem to think that Ireland is just next door ot Outer Mongolia - and charge crazy prices for delivery...

Another catalogue to read in bed - sad or what ??

Thanks guys Adrian

[Andrew Gabriel]

If you have an account, you get a monthly invoice, which goes to a different address (or can do). The trouble with that one is that it only has their invoice numbers on it, and not your purchase order number, which most accounts departments require in order to make a payment.

They do at least seem to have sorted out receiving BACS payments for last couple of years. At one time, they didn't automatically reconcile received BACS payments with accounts, until they'd sent you a nastygram for non-payment, and you had to ring up and get Accounts to crawl back through their BACS receipts to find the payment you'd made months before.

[Andrew Gabriel]

The Farnell one is a boxed 3-set. CPC is just one, albeit big. (They used to do a separate White Goods catalogue, but that seemed to stop about 8 years ago and you have to ring up for White Goods spares now.)

[Clive]

What was the question?

[geoff]

In message , BigGirlsBlouse writes

You have to separate the del note and invoice and forward it ?

My heart bleeds

We manage it here

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Clive writes

Not the brightest bulb in the box, are you "Clive" (aka Rob the Tiscali Idiot, troll extraordinaire) ?

[BigGirlsBlouse]

the problem is that the individual customer of a large company receives the goods but does not realise that the invoice is attached..does not forward to invoice dept and the company eventually gets put on block for none payment.... given up using CPC cos good never arrived because we were on block and never informed of same!

[John Rumm]

Its also a bit annoying when you want to drop ship something to a customer. You then need to get them to forward the invoice back to you, and it also discloses your markup.

[neverwas]

Some of us might applaud them for spreading transparency from MPs' expenses to traders' mark-ups :)

[John Rumm]

Well MPs might survive without their markups, but traders kind of depend on them!

[Man at B&Q]

But often cheaper at Farnell.

[Mike Harrison]

CPC started off specialising in the TV etc. repair parts business, and have diversified from there, including Maplin type toys etc.. They still do quite a lot of replacement parts for consumer electronics, & white goods etc. and have a massive range of AV accessories, cables, connectors etc. Some of their 'gadget' type stuff does occasionally seem to escape into the Farnell catalogue.

Although there is some overlap, there is a lot of stuff only available from one of them - I frequently order from both at the same time. I have had stuff come from Farnell in CPC prepacks..

I'd disagree on this - IME (mostly components, connectors etc.) CPC are (and have always been since before Farnell bought them) generally cheaper for identical and similar items, but it's always worth comparing.

CPC have always been less good at packing heavy/fragile items (I've had lead-acid UPS batteries arrive un-padded in one of their flimsy cardboard cartons). Things like components also tend to come in individual bags, which can be a PITA if you need a lot of something.

My general order of pricing in ascending order is : Rapid CPC Farnell RS And CPC's min order for free shipping is higher - £45 I think at the mo - Can't remember what Farnell's is as I buy so much from them I get free shipping on all orders.

[Andrew Gabriel]

one of them - I

Farnell in CPC prepacks..

I've had the reverse.

lead-acid UPS batteries

components also tend to come

This is a running joke in the office. First time this happened, someone had ordered a bulk load of D batteries, and in the same order were a set of those terrible tubular filament lamps. As we collected the box, the batteries were rolling around loose inside and powdered glass was streaming out of the corners...

I ordered about 10 T4 fluorescent tubes. Someone thoughtfully wrapped them all in bubblewrap, and then bound them in the middle with sellotape, so tightly that all the tubes were snapped in half.

Often boxes arrive burst open, but remarkably few have actually lost any contents. I did have one I was watching on the UPS tracker, which suddenly changed to "burst, leaking, returned"! It included a 5 litre container of screen wash concentrate, so I'll bet that was fun in the back of the UPS van.

Now, each time someone says they need a light bulb, several others around the office chip in with needing 40 D cells, or similar... But we still use them.

[Bob Eager]

one of them - I

Farnell in CPC prepacks..

I've had stuff come from CPC with Farnell labelling...!

lead-acid UPS batteries

components also tend to come

They've recently promised to do something about the bags. But to expand on my earlier comment about monkeys in the packing department...on more than one occasion I've received a large box, with all the stuff in the bottom and a load of the air-filled plastic bags. One of the items rattling around was a hard disk - in nothing but its antistatic bag. That's happened too many times (despite complaints, mostly ignored) for me to buy fragile items any more.

I agree.

Can't remember what

If you buy 'cash', it's min order 20 quid, and free shipping always.

My favourite for components now has to be Digi-Key. Order in morning of Day 1, delivery in morning of Day 3 (shipped by air from Minnesota). Carriage flat rate 12 quid, free if you spend 50 quid. Pay VAT (and that's all) on delivery.