Well, it had to be too good to be true, didn't it ? After last week's
efforts by Farnell to inject a bit of sense into their shipping policy, this
week, it's back to the fragmented nonsense that it usually is.

Yesterday, I ordered some ceramic lamp connectors from Rapid Electronics -
value about a tenner. Order acknowledged, processed and dispatched within 2
hours. Arrived, in a Jiffy bag, by Royal Mail, 9:30 this morning with the
rest of the post. Sensible, sensible Rapid.

At the same time, ordered two high power bridge rectifiers from Farnell.
Value about 7 quid. Really needed them for a job this morning. Again, order
acknowledged and dispatched within 2 hours. And there, the similarity ends.
These parts finally arrived late this afternoon, when I had to be out. They
were in a Jiffy bag smaller than the one that came from Rapid, but how had
they been shipped ? By good old "we deliver any time from 8am to 6pm" UPS,
of course ...

Fortunately, my neighbour caught them about to leave, despite the notes on
the label that told them to try his address if no reply, and took the item
in for me. The label on it says "0.5kg" as always. I assume that this is the
minimum spec for a parcel that UPS have. If the items did indeed weigh half
a kilo, then UPS might be appropriate, but I shouldn't think that the whole
package actually weighed more than 70g , so first class letter post, as
Rapid used for their package, and indeed as Farnell sometimes randomly do,
would have been the most appropriate, and almost certainly most cost
effective.

Which all goes to show that, contrary to what some on here fondly believe,
Farnell really don't have a shipping policy that is anything other than
"make it up as they go along" ... :-)

Arfa

On Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:39:58 +0100, Arfa Daily wrote:
Fortunately, my neighbour caught them about to leave, despite the notes
on the label that told them to try his address if no reply, and took the
item in for me.

What happens if you leave a note on your door to that effect? UPS here in
the US seem to honour such things (but maybe it varies by crew and area)
and treat them as authoratitve over whatever instructions they'd received
via the shipper.

Which all goes to show that, contrary to what some on here fondly
believe, Farnell really don't have a shipping policy that is anything
other than "make it up as they go along" ... :-)

That's the problem with a lot of places. Plus shipping companies love to
change the game rules all the time, plus package size (rather than
weight) seems to affect things a lot more than it used to.

cheers

Jules

Well, it had to be too good to be true, didn't it ? After last week's
efforts by Farnell to inject a bit of sense into their shipping policy, this
week, it's back to the fragmented nonsense that it usually is.
...

Farnell can do even worse. A few times now, I have ordered a few
items at around 7pm - plenty of time to go before their 8pm cutoff.
When I check the website the next morning and find that the order is
still "processing" I phone to be told that one of the items is only in
stock in Belgium, so the whole order is being shipped from there.
Unfortunately, the Belgium cutoff is 6pm UK time, so I get the goods
two days later. Usually the item coming from Belgium is something I
didn't need urgently and would have left off the order had I known.

When I really needed some components badly the next day (with clock
ticking at a test house) I ordered from Farnell and RS just to be
sure.

Farnell deliveries used to be really reliable - it would be nice if
they could manage it again.

John

"John Walliker" wrote in message
...
Well, it had to be too good to be true, didn't it ? After last week's
efforts by Farnell to inject a bit of sense into their shipping policy,
this
week, it's back to the fragmented nonsense that it usually is.
...

Farnell can do even worse. A few times now, I have ordered a few
items at around 7pm - plenty of time to go before their 8pm cutoff.
When I check the website the next morning and find that the order is
still "processing" I phone to be told that one of the items is only in
stock in Belgium, so the whole order is being shipped from there.
Unfortunately, the Belgium cutoff is 6pm UK time, so I get the goods
two days later. Usually the item coming from Belgium is something I
didn't need urgently and would have left off the order had I known.

When I really needed some components badly the next day (with clock
ticking at a test house) I ordered from Farnell and RS just to be
sure.

Farnell deliveries used to be really reliable - it would be nice if
they could manage it again.

John

Yes, you're so right. Farnell had been my preferred supplier for years.
Everything you needed just a phone call away to those nice pleasant northern
lasses, and latterly lads. Then they buggered that up by making it so that
you had to be ordering 30 quidsworth to talk to a human and still get free
postage. Ordering on-line is actually a pain in the arse, and takes at least
four times longer as talking to someone on the phone did. Then a few months
back, they suddenly imposed a 30 quid minimum on line as well. When I
complained bitterly to them and told them that I would stop using them, they
told me to go and re-register the credit card as a 'corporate' one, and then
the restriction would be lifted. What a pity they didn't tell us this before
they just did it. It would have saved me making up a 10 quid order to 30
quid at 9 o'clock at night when you couldn't query it on the phone with
anyone anyway. I had to make the order up as I needed the parts, and would
rather have more parts to use in the future, than waste whatever
extortionate amount they wanted for the shipping charge.

This 'out of stock' thing is becoming an issue with them, as well. They
never used to be out of stock of anything, ever, but now, more and more,
they are - and sometimes for weeks. I recently ordered some items from them,
and they then sent me an email the next day to say that several of the items
were out of stock. A couple of these items were important, and the main
reason for the order in the first place, so I emailed them and complained
loudly that the items were not out of stock because the live on-line
ordering system had said that they were in stock. They emailed back and said
that it wasn't possible and the items must have shown as being out of stock.
I mailed them back and politely again stated that the website had shown them
as being in stock, otherwise I would have sorted out an alternative or
sourced the parts elsewhere. They then got a bit snotty, and said that if I
could demonstrate to them that the website had said that the items were in
stock, then they would look into it.

As it happened, I had the order acknowledgement email that was issued just a
few minutes after the order was placed, and it showed all the items as being
in stock. I was able to extract that information, and paste it into a reply.
That shut them up. It didn't help with the parts, mind. One of them still
took 6 weeks to come into stock, but it certainly made me feel better to be
able to effectively say "There ya go then. Up yours ... ! "

Just as a matter of interest, I ordered from them yesterday, and I tried a
new tack by using the 'special instructions' field on the order. Not the one
on the right that allows you to put in special delivery instructions that
the courier can just ignore, but the one that allows you to say things like
"Please leave items in manufacturer's original packaging". In this field, I
said "Please ship in padded envelope via Royal Mail rather than UPS if
possible please. Thanks ". And lo ! it came in just that way. Didn't make it
in the first post at 9:30, but was still there by lunchtime. I was actually
not in, but the village parcel van driver, knew to just put it through my
door, and if it had been too big, he would have left it where we have an
arrangement. I'd like to think that this was a result, but it was probably
actually just another random example of Farnell picking an arbitrary
delivery method, based on what the warehose manager had for lunch, or
something ... :-)

I'll try it again on the next order, and see what happens.

Arfa

On 6 Aug, 18:52, "Arfa Daily" wrote:

Just as a matter of interest, I ordered from them yesterday, and I tried a
new tack by using the 'special instructions' field on the order. Not the one
on the right that allows you to put in special delivery instructions that
the courier can just ignore, but the one that allows you to say things like
"Please leave items in manufacturer's original packaging". In this field, I
said "Please ship in padded envelope via Royal Mail rather than UPS if
possible please. Thanks ". And lo ! it came in just that way. Didn't make it
in the first post at 9:30, but was still there by lunchtime.

I might try this, as I prefer Royal Mail - the local sorting office is
5 minutes walk away so I can collect if I miss a delivery.

However, there is a potential problem. I gave up using messages
because they result in the order going on hold until a human has
examined the message. If they are busy late in the day, the order
gets carried over to the next day.

John

On 6 Aug, 18:52, "Arfa Daily" wrote:

Yes, you're so right. Farnell had been my preferred supplier for years.

I sometimes now order from Digikey or Mouser, but I have a gripe with
Digikey too. I have given both companies my VAT number. Mouser use
it and don't charge me VAT.

Digikey print it on the paperwork but ignore it. The delivery driver
then wants payment plus a large handling charge. If I'm not in he
won't leave the package on the doorstep as I haven't paid him. Then I
phone my card details through to pay the VAT and handling charge. I
then have to jump through hoops in preparing my VAT return entering
the original amount (without VAT), the VAT paid, the handling charge
and the VAT on the handling charge. Finally I get the VAT back but I
have unnecessarily paid the handling charge and had a lot of hassle.

The trouble with Mouser is they don't usually have what I want in
stock...

John

On 6 Aug, 18:52, "Arfa Daily" wrote:
"John Walliker" wrote in message

This 'out of stock' thing is becoming an issue with them, as well. They
never used to be out of stock of anything, ever, but now, more and more,
they are - and sometimes for weeks.
It's not just Farnell, either. I tend to use RS for components we
need urgently, and I'm really starting to get p***ed off with the
number of times I check stock and get 'Temporarily out of stock - back
order for despatch 7-12-2010' or similar. Good business for them in
the short term, perhaps, since I often have to get a few parts of
higher spec at 20x the price to use while I'm waiting for stock from
elsewhere - but it doesn't encourage me to keep using them long term.
Mike