RS items Frequently bought together

[whisky-dave]

I was ordering some MC3008 's and RS think drill bits are frequently ordered with them, Weird.

anyone else noticed any strange bought together items.

[Jeff Layman]

Two things strange about that - the "frequently" and the price of that drill bit. Or was that for a dozen? Can't check as the RS-online site is down at present.

[whisky-dave]

I thought it a 'bit' expensive ;-)

But we get a deal Price Each Was £23.81 You pay £20.95 excluding VAT

I dounbt I'd buy that drill bit, I'm usually buying bits of less than 4mm D and less than a couple of quid each.

even when I;'ve bought a whole set I'd pay less than £20.

Product Details HSS Straight Shank Carbide Tipped Jobber Drill (A160) HSS Straight Shank Carbide Tipped Jobber drill for machining hard, abrasive materials up to x4 diameter Bright finish with Steam Tempered flutes Manufactured to BS328/DIN338 standards

Standards DIN 338; BS 328; ISO235

[michael adams]

That will probably be because an inventory code of one of those items is similar or identical to the inventory code of an item which it would actually have matched,

Inventory codes may or not be assigned sequentially as new items are added to the stock

The customer buys on the description or product code, not the inventory code so any discrepancy should show up prior to the sale or despatch,

The "likes" will be determined solely by the inventory codes of pairs of items bought previously, not by the product descriptions or codes as the latter are determined by manufacturers and may come in different formats. Whereas RS can use whatever format they like for their inventory code for their internal operations which among other things makes generating likes easier.

michael adams

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[whisky-dave]

To me it shows that AI and/or similar is only as good as the data you throw at it. So this shows a flawed system that needs changing a system set up by a human.

what's likes got to do with it ? There''s no like button

But totally screws with what most people would use the frequently purchsed together actually means or meant to mean.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I probably have bought the two together, but a) from CPC, not RS, and b) it was a 1.2mm drill bit.

[michael adams]

On other sites it would be a "you might also like" prompt."

Same thing.

But only in this case because there's been a mismatch which is probably quite rare. And can provide some innoocent amusement until a wet blanket like me shows up.

There's actually proper names for this a) where theres a totally arbitrary relationship between numbers and the things they represent and b) what happens when things go wrong. Offhand I've forgotten what they are.

michael adams

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[whisky-dave]

so what did you buy the ADC for ? and

The thing is normally there is a connection between such products that is the aim it.

Such as Soldering iron and they also purchased solder. or someone bought a burger they also bought fries. someone bought viagra they also bought an angle grinder isnlt as helpful.

[The Other Mike]

You won't get a carbide tipped engineering drill of that size listed much cheaper than RS.

For instance

Carbide tipped masonry bits will be much cheaper.

RS appear to conflate individual dispatches on one overall and sometime company wide call off order into their suggestions. The order number is the same, the delivery address one of a few dozen across the country. Some locations / departments/adjacent desks might be buying hydraulic fittings, electronic components, DIN rail screw terminals, fasteners, and some might be buying drill bits.

The customer benefits from the lowest price level RS offers but all other customers appear to end up being presented with s**te information about linked products.

At least the RS website is not quite as shit as it once was.

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[whisky-dave]

And why would someone buying a ADC also like a drill bit, they might also like a latte.

No on Facebok they have like buttons, if you like what someone has posted you like it, it doesn't mean much else.

And what use is a wet blanket then ?

Useful ;-) I'd call it a f*ck up or balls up, there are many others descriptions.

[whisky-dave]

Well if yuo say so, but most products I can get cheaper than RS do them, RS are good and quick free delivery so we do use them but I always check prices.

and you think I don't know that working with 3000+ or so staff working here .

And I don't find that very useful and I'm sure it's customers don't either.

Customers I'm sure would like such things that could be linked would help. I'd expect such things as customer bought an angle grinder they also bought some tile cutting blades. rather than customer bought an angle grinder they also bought a TuTu.

Still isn;t very good though, I find it quite annoying, we also order far less from them than we used to, partly due to their website. If their website were better I'd encourage our studetns to use it and order from them.

[whisky-dave]

Most of teh links I find on amazon are useful not all but with amazon they sell just about evertying that can be legally sold so I'd expect such oddities.

I've 3 things on my next amazon order. two of them just list things as below.

Sponsored products related to this item Recommendations & Popular Items Customers who viewed this item also viewed Compare with similar items

One item being LANMU 0.96" I2C IIC SPI Serial 128X64 White Blue OLED LCD LED Display Module

Frequently bought together Elegoo 120pcs Multicolored Dupont Wire 40pin Male to Female, 40pin Male to Male, Elegoo UNO R3 Board ATmega328P ATMEGA16U2 with USB Cable for Arduino

See all the above items are strongly linked to the original product , in fact the student has a UNO and has bough some of those leads off me last time.

Can yuo tell the differnce in usuefulness between Frequently bought together and any other recomendations.

[Jeff Layman]

I'm not clear on what we are comparing here. Maybe it's just the description that RS is using. The Drill-Service bits appear to me to be /solid/ tungsten carbide (linked from

). The RS ones are HSS with a carbide tip (as stated at and shown in the photo on that page). Or have I got that wrong?

[The Other Mike]

It was my bad choice of link

Exact same Dormer A160 drill, similar price

For a tipped drill those are indeed relatively expensive compared to solid carbide from the likes of Guhring, Kyocera and Dormer. (circa 30 quid list for a 6mm drill)

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[The Other Mike]

Well it was you that said it was weird in your original posting, as if you didn't know why it was happening.

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[tabbypurr]

Bosch carbide tipped multimaterial bits are a tenth that price on screwsatan. The RS description is unclear whether they're TCT or solid carbide.

NT

[Jeff Layman]

That's an even worse link! It has an immediate popup:

"We suggest upgrading to Chrome to enjoy all the features of this site. Please download the latest version of Chrome"

Yuk...

Agreed, although solid carbide can be very brittle. I just can't see what makes those TCT drills that "special" - see tabbypurr's reply.

[whisky-dave]

Did yuo actual read my original posting ?

didn't think so.

[Brian Gaff]

Amazon are always doing this sort of thing. You buy a connection lead and they try t9o sell you a computer or in some cases some rather dodgy book about DIY sex toys if you buy a tool. I think sometimes staff have a laugh and deliberately embed embarrassing or silly algorithms when the get bored on a Friday afternoon. Brian

[whisky-dave]

But not quite the same as I've posted what amazon say. To my basket I've added a MCP3008

Frequently bought together Elegoo 120pcs Multicolored Dupont Wire 40pin Male to Female, 40pin Male to Male, 40pin Female to

Yes I agree with that as I've bought about 30 of those. These are commonly used with breadboards or protoboards or even soldering. amazon also list

Sponsored products related to this item

which include protoboards and arduninos

ANd again I see this as logical and correct and much better than RS but as amazon don;t pay their taxes and RS do I assume then maybe that is the reason.

It;s gotta be better than the crap reasons some have claimed.

In that case I could do a much better job of that.

People that have bought this Angle grinder Frequently purchase gimp masks.