CPC vs Farnell?

In article , Bob Eager writes

We (uni dept.) won't use them 'cos of catalogue spam.

We made ONE test purchase to see what they were like and since then have been inundated with their bloody catalogues addressed to whoever's-name- they-can-find at our office address. Currently, we receive about a dozen hefty paper catalogues every six months, all of which go straight into recycling. All calls asking for the deliveries of catalogues to stop are ignored.

I WILL NOT do business with spammers. End of.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson
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one of them - I

Farnell in CPC prepacks..

lead-acid UPS batteries

components also tend to come

Can't remember what

For components, I'd agree Digikey are very good and have an unbeateble range, but the poorer exchange rate now means that Farnell are now often cheaper - I just did a production order that a year ago would have mostly gone to DK but now all I'm getting from them is the stuff Farnell don't stock.. However Digikey have really taken their re-reeling service for produciton surface mount parts seriously, with pretty much every line available whearas Farnell seem to have all but abandoned theirs since it went free, with a pitifully small and seemingly static proportion of their range available re-reeled. Digikey's parametric search also blows away the competition (Farnell : poor data but mostly useable, RS : useless), as the data has obviously been entered by someone who actually understands what it means (e.g. 5V = 5v =5.0V = 5VDC etc.) ...If they'd only add 'sort by price' to their website.

I just can't figure out why they can't sort out this PITA business of collecting VAT via UPS - they already do the (harder) import duty part, so why they can't just add the VAT to the invoice as well is beyond me.

Reply to
Mike Harrison

Mike Harrison coughed up some electrons that declared:

(Farnell : poor data but mostly useable, RS : useless), as the

I agree - was looking for 12v or 24v water valves the other day. Never seen so many typos on "12v" - a bloody perl script with a basic regexp could have pre filtered most of that into something sane during data input fairly trivially.

At least with Farnell, you have combo boxes so multiple selection is possible even if you do come across such problems.

Reply to
Tim S

Precisely - RS's data is just as bad as Farnell's but the inability to select multiple items renders it mostly useless. You wouldn't believe the number of times I've explained this to RS reps at exhibitions..... (along with a request for the ability to filter by 'in stock') but they don't appear to pay much attention, so Farnell continue to get most of my business.

The main problem with Farnell is where some parts have no entries in their parameter fields so they get filtered out when they shouldn't.

Reply to
Mike Harrison

Did you try emailing them? I've dealt with them that way before and they're helpful and prompt (at least for the US side). Plus they're based only just up the road from me (relatively speaking) - so if needed I can head up there and pick stuff up in person (not worth it due to fuel costs for non-important stuff, but cheaper than same/next day)

cheers

Jules

Reply to
Jules

In message , Mike Tomlinson writes

Well done, you've saved some fluffy kittens there

Reply to
geoff

The biggest differences I've seen are for connectors. Farnell will sell you a 0.1" header strip made by a brand name (Molex, Harwin, etc) for 10p/pin. CPC will sell you an unbranded Chinese one for more like 2p/pin. Sometimes it's useful to be able to buy a specific manufacturer's numbered part, and that's where Farnell comes into its own, but not for basic things like this.

Theo

Reply to
Theo Markettos

Not my experience for identical components.

"Similar" is irrelevant. Farnell will be cheaper than Farnell for "similar", but different, components.

As above, that's simply not a valid comparison. There will always be differences between brands.

You've obviously never worked in a real production environment with proper quality control. Often its *essential* to be able to buy a specific manufacturer's part number as that is all that has been qualified to go into a particular product, or it's what the customer specifies on the Bill of Materials. Unbranded chinese would certainly not be acceptable without a lot of extra paperwork. Case in point are some unbranded chinese LM317 that were unstable when used in the same circuit as LM317 from, say, National, and required extra decoupling.

MBQ

Reply to
Man at B&Q

Currently, we receive about a

You can email snipped-for-privacy@digikey.com to be requested to be taken off the catalog list. Just include your company and address. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Reply to
webmaster

But often cheaper at Farnell.

--------------------------

I've usually found the opposite, I order via the name onecall and that is basically Farnell and CPC order codes.

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an example.

Fume extractor Xytronic 426DLX Farnell 4683705 1 off £79.95 CPC SD00895 1 off £49.65

I emailed them and asked them why the price differnce and was told Farnell have an extensive technical help deptartment.

So guess what I did......

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we have end colum pricing so get it for £35. Yes it's a bit different but it looks sexier with those curves.

When I become an MP and get expenses I'll get them from Farnell and have them gold plated with my own initials and get them courier'd by naked virgins. :-)

Reply to
whisky-dave

In article , snipped-for-privacy@digikey.com writes

OK. Please tell me why a single test purchase, by one named person, resulted in you sending unwanted catalogues to others in our department, who most assuredly did not order them (including our secretary who gets very upset by spam in all its forms)? Where did you get their names?

Why should I have to email Digi-key to decline catalogues we didn't ask for? Why should we have to deal with a load of very bulky catalogues we didn't ask for and don't want?

You're a bunch of bloody spammers, worse than email spammers in fact, with all the paper you waste. Tell your "marketing" team to get a clue, will you?

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

In article , whisky-dave scribeth thus

Thats gone up to 61.30 plus VAT...

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I emailed them and asked them why the price differnce and was told Farnell

Supplied by Russ Andrews no doubt;!...

Reply to
tony sayer

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