Why is ordering from CPC/Farnell such hard work?

[John Stumbles]

Wanted some 0.2" Molex KK shells and inserts. Found the shells without too much difficulty on Farnell but the inserts listed as accessories said they were suitable for none of which I could find listed anywhere, and when I followed some link they seemed to be for

0.156" connectors, no mention of 0.2". Fortunately I've a paper copy of the CPC cat and it listed a few Molex KKs and mentioned that the inserts are the same for 0.156 and 0.2" so I went ahead and tried to order those. No go: Farnell minimum order is £20, goods ordered barely over a tenner, no way could I use double the amount I was already ordering or find anything else in their ghod-awful online cataloge to add to it so ... over to CPC.

CPC only do 3 way and 10 way shells but I've got a stanley so order 5 of the 10-way shells and some inserts. About £15 with VAT and delivery. Then it demands I either log in or register. Dig out the scrap of electrons with my username and password I'd registered before and bung it in: no dice, doesn't recognise it. Password reset ... wait for email ... back comes some random password, put *that* in - *still* no dice!

Eventually went back and registered a new account with a one-time throw-away username and ... now it's lost everything I ordered so back to the catalogue to find stock numbers again.

I really really would not have ordered from them if I could have got it from anyone else!

Oh and Maplins were helpful: I phoned up their shop to ask if they had

0.2" Molexes in, described the sort of thing, yes they have, some suitable sized shells and inserts, off I go driving across town in the rush hour. What have they got? Only 0.1" ones. Bar stewards. I have now spent the better part of my afternoon & evening trying to get a handful of bits of plastic and tin whose actual material and production cost is probably about 10p :-(

[mark]

I used to prefer Farnell about twenty years ago,now I never consider them. I rarely go past RS nowadays.. I used Rapid for a while until they kept insisting a reel of cable was on it`s way when in reality it was on several weeks back order.

[Tim Watts]

John Stumbles ( [e-mail]) wibbled on Wednesday 26 January

2011 22:22:

I just tried to order a load of AA/AAA/button batteries via CPC.

1st time - order accepted for delivery to work (a place CPC deliver arse loads to). 4 days later - no goods. Phoned them - oh, you specified a different delivery address to you CC address on a first order - order cancelled. Eventually found the email about it in my SPAM folder (which hardly every gets false positives).

Complained. They said - here, have an account number (WTF x 2?) -that'll work.

2nd time - used that number, placed the same order, accepted. 2 days later - order on Hold. Another email in SPAM.

I lost the will to live and bought them from Argos.

I tend to use RS these days - seems less painful.

[geoff]

In message , Tim Watts writes

Do they ever have anything in stock ?

They seem to have become masters of "not quite in time"

[Frank Erskine]

I last used Farnell (real Farnell rather than CPC) about ten years ago and was quite impressed. I ordered a few items by email from work at about 4·30pm (for myself) and they were delivered by courier (I can't remember who!) before 8·30 am the following day to my home before I left for work.

Just a reel of wire and a load of knurled binding posts, ISTR.

I retired (early!) about five years ago and have re-befriended myself with the semi-local RS trade counter and have no problem buying stuff there by CC...

[pete]

I always feel embarassed/guilty about using RS. The last order I placed with them was for a couple of I.Cs. for a whopping £13.50 (+free delivery) They arrived early next morning in a bag about 1,000 times their actual size, with more packaging and documentation than you could shake a stick at. Then the official invoice arrived by mail a couple of days later.

[Man at B&Q]

At one time Farnell would take smaller orders but you had to pay a handling fee.

The only problem I've had with Farnell recently is that orders under a certain weight are sent Royal Mail. RM still had a massive backlog a couple of weeks ago and stuff was taking a week to arrive that was usually next day or the day after at worst.

rarely go near RS due to their prices and insistance on MOQs of 5 or

10 for ICs that farnell or rapid will sell singly.

I find the Rapid website quite clear about what is in stock and what is on back order.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

Just checked my order history and I placed an on-line credit card order for less than =A32 in december '09 and was not charged any postage or handling!

I do have an account number but it's still a "cash" account, no credit.

MBQ

[The Other Mike]

They have got back into the habit of charging me for delivery, for a few months last year they forgot to charge at all, but I have lots of issues with delivery and delays in orders, they are driving me up the bloody wall with their excuses.

Farnells makes sense because delivery is 'free', even when it is dispatched from multiple locations including their warehouse near Liege, plus they use UPS rather than Parcelfarce who royally pissed me about with extensive 'snow' delay excuse when the roads were clear and every other delivery company made it through no problem.

...or almost too bloody late, or some time next week, or when we feel like it, or sometimes not at all as backorders drag out for months.

I topped an order up with some SMD LED's recently, I only needed a couple, they had a minimum order of 50, and it clearly took a complete day to pack them, delaying the rest of the order meaning next day delivery instead of Friday became Monday - and they still delivered them in two envelopes. Everything that I ordered was allegedly 'in stock'

Hopeless.

[John Rumm]

When they rebuilt the website a couple of years back, many of the already registered accounts got disabled.

Ah, there are some "features" of the CPC basket that can catch you out. If you add stuff to one while logged in, it also gets stored by the site and not just a cookie on your machine. So if you log back in later, the basket content is restored (overwriting whatever was in the basket at the time). So if you already have stuff in the basket before login, open a browser window with it displayed, and login in a different one. Then you can re-add the bits from the open window.

Another thing to keep in mind is if you add stuff while logged in, but don't order it and forget about it - it will restore it to the basket next time you login and you can end up getting stuff added to the next order that you actually bought elsewhere previously.

Finally stuff added to the pre-login basket times out after some time as well - so its not ideal for building up an order over time.

[geoff]

One bag?

They normally send the light stuff in a box and the heave stuff in another jiffy bag

...assuming they actually have what you want in stock

[Dave W]

Always check Maplins' website - it shows stock levels in shops. Then you have to ask for the item in the shop as it may be in the storeroom and not on display.

Dave W

[John Rumm]

Odd thing is, when I first started going to Maplin as a kid in the '80s (at their original and only branch in Westcliff) - it was all counter service - very little on display and no self service at all. At the time I thought it was a shame there was not more on display so you could go fiddle / look etc.

Only later did they expand the shop and do just that, and it became the model they copied for all the other shops. Alas having tried it, I realised the counter service worked much better in practice - especially for small bits.

[NoSpam]

As a kid (in the late 1960s) I worked in John Birkett's electronic bits shop in Lincoln - but I doubt anybody here remembers that - 'twas great fun.

[Bob Eager]

I worked in Technical Trading in Brighton, and occasionally Tottenham Court Road - anyone remember them? I stopped in about 1967..

[NoSpam]

That started me thinking - a quick google - and it seems that John B is still going!

[<me9]

Very good for semiconductors IIRC in the 70s. Has it gone defunct?

The Strait, Lincoln if memory is correct.

[NoSpam]

Yes, started at the bottom of Steep Hill and then moved down to The Strait - still seems to be going.

[tony sayer]

Yes all of those.. and Tottenham ct road and Laskys and Henrys radio bull electrical .. where yer wanna stop;?....

>

[tony sayer]

In article , NoSpam scribeth thus

We have H. Gee of 94 Mill road around here in Cambridge since Gawd knows when. Mr Gee is now gone but his wife and son carry it on they seem to have anything you need in there but sometimes, well most all of the time .. it takes forever to find;)...