Did you pay by credit card? Are you saying the true total wasn't shown on that amount? If so things have changed since I last used RS.
I dunno if Farnell do the same. Although CPC is owned by them they might well have different deals.
Erie used to make a series of resistors and capacitor which were "plug-in" for easier production line assemby (no leads to trim). A good picture of their resistors here:-
and some capacitors:-
Style unimportant for replacement.
Sort of. My annoyance was that I saw the page to which I linked (above) while I was ordering, and the first mention of the Handling Charge was in the T&Cs, which I skimmed through, as one does, especially as there was, on this occasion, somebody holding on Chat as I completed the order, as I had been unable to pay the previous night, and I did not want to keep her busy longer than necessary. So the Handling Charge was only mentioned in the second part of these long T&Cs, and then appeared on the first invoice they e-mailed me, after ordering, and not on the Final Total as I checked out, that still said Free Shipping, making no mention of Handling. This first invoice did not have VAT included. They then sent a second invoice, but this had no Handling charge, but did have VAT on the parts. So neither of the invoices had the final total that was charged to my debit card, parts + VAT + Handling. To me, it was not at all clearly shown, or executed. If the page above had mentioned a Handling Charge, and the circumstances under which it is charged, then I would not have had a problem, as I would have known what I was paying before I did so.
I agree it's 'only' £4.95; but how many other customers have been caught out by the same thing, but have not bothered to complain, if they even noticed? And £4.95, if your your order is say £21, is q uite a large chunk. Mine was £50, and so an unexpected 10% was still unwelcome. And it was only £50 due to the minimum quantities of items available, I needed less than the whole £50-worth.
The whole thing would have been avoided by making Handling clear on the Shipping page. It just leaves a bad feeling.
As you suggest, CPC/Farnell will probably get my second (small) order, especially as RS have not replied to my complaint!
Ah - sorry. I assumed you'd ordered via their website. I've not use telephone ordering for many years.
I did order via their website. When I tried to place the order, at night, it would not accept my debit card, it didn't accept that I owned my card, so didn't even go any further into the process. The next morning, I started an online Chat session, and the girl said she would stick with me while I tried again. I didn't even have to re-enter the card data, it was still there, and it went straight through without a hitch. So everything I have related about this mysterious charge is from their website.
So are you saying the sum you tried to charge to your credit card didn't include the low order surcharge? I don't see how that's possible.
No. 1: Running Total £43.15 Delivery Charge £4.95 Order Total (excl. VAT) £48.10
No. 2: Running Total £43.15 Handling fee: £0.00 VAT £8.63 Net Order total £51.78
As you can see, neither of these has both VAT and the £4.95 Handling charge. I agreed to £51.78. If I proceed towards checking out with my second order, but don't go that far, I see on the Check Order page, a £4.95 Handling fee, with the explanation that it is there because the order is less than £20. Fair enough, it fits the condition explained on the Shipping page (
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I'm still not sure what you mean. Are you registered on the RS site? That creates an 'account' - but only in the technical sense. You don't get credit or whatever with it. It's not a business account in that they didn't require references.
My last purchase was for goods to 53.23. All that was added was VAT. I do tend to make up an order to get free postage. And to avoid the small order surcharge.
However, I only tend to use RS for stuff I can't get from CPC.
I opened a Private Account. If it had been a Business Account, then there would have not been the Handling Charge.
According to the RS T&Cs, as opposed to the Shipping page, and my own experience: if your Account is Private, not Business, then you should have been charged the $4.95 Handling Charge. The Handling Charges are specified in the T&Cs, about 3/4 of the way down, under 'Additional Information on Services'. Para. 1.2. Do not complain!
I can understand why. My second order for parts will be placed with CPC/Farnell later today. Like you, I will use RS only reluctantly again, if indeed I ever need to use any of them again.
I've just had a look at the RS site and in conditions of service it does mention a handling charge for private accounts unless the good are collected. It is dated November last year, and the last order I placed with them was also November, but not charged. If they are doing that to everyone now I'll simply go elsewhere. Since their prices are already on the high side.
Rapid are often good value too. But as with all of these sort of companies you do have to look out for small order excess or high postage charges when working out value for money.
In article , Dave Plowman (News) scribeth thus
FWIW we tend to buy from RS more often that not as they have what we need and a lot of the time price isn't -that- much of an issue.
But most all of the time we're spending in excess of a 100 odd quid or so but last week we were changed a "handling fee" for stuff that was ordered up on the web which was a nuisance more then much else, we just added it to our customers bill but I have noticed that these small charges do add up from other suppliers.
Needed spare key fobs for a project, "sure thats 10 odd quid for 10 but carriage that's 7.60m plus VAT"..
You could have put then in a small jiffy bag but no!, can't do that Sir;(...
I had thought that ~£50 was above the £20 minimum, but it was the near-hidden-ness of the only mention of the Handling charge, and the In-Yer-Face-ness of the FREE SHIPPING on the Shipping page, that caught me out. CPC/Farnell got my second order, and they had much smaller minimum quantities of capacitors than RS did. I should have gone there first. Bye-bye, RS!
You too! But you could pass the cost on, I couldn't. See what I mean about "how many others have been caught out by this"?
In article , Davey scribeth thus
Well this was an order below 20 quid so that rarely happens...
They ought perhaps make it a bit clearer..
How about if a bunch more people complain? I already have, with no result. Over to you folks.......
snip
Nearly there, but not quite.
I fitted all the new caps, with the exception of the two C69s, which are too difficult to get at without a complete dismantling of the board's wires etc. Two caps unchanged, out of 20 or more. If I ultimately have to change them, then I will do so. Replaced the damaged resistor. Checked that the cassette player would play through both channels, Balance and Volume controls worked, etc. Re-assembled everything, including outer casing. Repeated cassette player check. Brought FM aerial down to workbench from usual location, plugged into socket. Selected FM, no sound except for a very faint cross-talk, when at full volume, from the cassette player. No FM, though. The Tuning lights appear to respond, so the failure is somewhere after them. Oh dear. Back to the diagram and interior of the Module 80. When I get more time. Grrr.
One day.......
I fixed that ok, it was just a broken wire. But I then dragged the record deck down, and plugged that in, and there is only one channel getting through the system. More debugging.
That was the track you broke earlier.
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