Element 14....

[peteb2]

So OK i don't want to sound like a grumpy old fart but is anyone else having problems with supply of even garden variety components (that are listed online on their 'live' ordering webpage as being available, in-stock with same-day of order delivery) but after you commit to an order days past and hmmmm.  Then when you make inquiries discover the items you ordered are now weeks or months away as they have to come from their suppliers!

It's entirely possible that someone else has made a huge order minutes before you did and consumed all stock but i kind of wonder is that really possible? It's happening for almost all items in my order....

I've supported this company over what now amounts many years. Most it was design/prototype or in some cases an urgent repair using what i knew were genuine high quality name brand devices. They have truly been fantastic for the quick delivery with always stocked service i ever ordered but recently that's changed.

I kind of have to ask what gives because even when i end up talking to a person their reaction is one of being fairly nonplussed when i say i simply can't wait, cancel my order and have to go back to the computer screen, hunting other likely places who can take my money.

I don't want this to be a rant about shite service.... i just like to know if anyone else has the same trouble, what's happening at E14 and maybe whether it's a good idea now to start spreading my love around other component suppliers.... I'm being the one copping the "yeah right" when i'm asked if xyz has been sorted & i say no parts yet.

[Dubbie]

I have recently been using digikey to try to get parts on time when usually I 100% use E14
I have noticed that supply is not as good as usual for some reason.

[donotdespisethesnake]

Yes, everyone is having trouble getting components, there is a worldwide component shortage. It's been discussed here recently, and you can find plenty of reports about it via google, it's never made mainstream news.

It's a pain if you just need a few parts for a hobby or prototype. I'm paying 3 times the price for my BOMs, simply finding parts in stock is a chore.

[thermistor-guy]

So OK i don't want to sound like a grumpy old fart but ...
... i just like to know if anyone else has the same trouble, what's happening at E14 and maybe whether it's a good idea now to start spreading my love around other component suppliers.... I'm being the one copping the "yeah right" when i'm asked if xyz has been sorted & i say no parts yet.

I've been surprised recently by some "jellybean" parts from Element14 taking one or two weeks, but they did arrive.

Mouser has proven to be a pleasant surprise lately, on prices and delivery. It's now the first supplier I check when looking for expensive precision components.

[Synthtech]

I have been noticing the same thing. I used to depend on E14 for quick delivery from their Australian warehouse but now their catalogue just feels like reading a catalogue from a foreign country. It’s especially unpleasant as they list items as in stock for next business day shipping that take weeks to come, I used to consolidate my orders to save them shipping cost but no more, the last time I did that was last month and I waited 3 weeks for it to ship because of two minor items that they were waiting on.

I ordered an expensive Keysight multimeter last year that was listed as in stock and nothing arrived and I rang them after two weeks and they told me that the stock was 3 months away and they acted surprised and annoyed when I cancelled the order. 

I feel for them, it must be increasingly difficult to warehouse such a huge catalogue these days but due to the inaccuracy of the stocking information on their site they are no longer a “trusted supplier”, I am increasingly choosing other suppliers ahead of them. 

[hermit]

This sounds like a place that is on the verge of being insolvent.  When you lie to get an order hoping the customer will just wait it out and not complain the end is usually in sight.  Tying up your money/time/whatever  like that is usually a sign of a cash flow problem.  I signed up for an account but never placed an order because they wouldn't estimate/quote shipping until I  put in a credit card number.  I contacted them and asked if this was a mistake or oversight but they never got back to me.  Moved on and never looked back.

[Electro Detective]

Luckily (for now) I no longer have to rely on RS Components and Element14/Farnells? and just wing it with whatever parts listed in the yearly Jaycar, Altronics and Radio Parts PDF catalogues,
which I blabbed about at another post > eevblog.com/forum/chat/pdf-catalogue-links-rs-components-and-element14-in-australia/msg1913672/#msg1913672

and whatever NOS and Frankenstock from equipment pulls I have, gathering dust (somewhere)   

It's a real annoyance not being able to find any current or jurassic PDF catalogues from RS Components and Element14,
and TBH I could most likely finish off the repair or project 'good enough' quicker than having to stuff around surfing their websites for parts that may not even be listed correctly 
on top of the issues the posters above have brought forward.   

Are there any other players in Australia (or NZ?) that may have parts catalogues... and the possibility of stock?

[Synthtech]

WES Components at Ashfield in Sydney have a pretty good range at good prices and a lot of older semiconductors, they also still produce a paper catalogue.

[Electro Detective]

WES Components at Ashfield in Sydney have a pretty good range at good prices and a lot of older semiconductors, they also still produce a paper catalogue.

Thanks for mentioning WES, I forgot about them as I'm nowhere near NSW to pop in, but they too like RS and E14 have a lot of catching up to do in todays PDF world

This is as far as I got with WES > www.wes.com.au/login.aspx?ActionType=l5KnWkvxmoh2EucVdVebrg==

i.e. no concrete PDF catalogue to browse through, just a wait wait online thingie 

What part of "Hey mate, I want to peruse the wares before buying, much less enlisting to your site first" is not clear ?!! 

I reckon it's costing them heaps of sales by not having their bog standard products on a PDF file,
that can't be that hard to update yearly, surely...how do the local players Jaycar, Altronics and Radio Parts do it? 

Radio Parts must play it safe and exclude prices because of the ever changing global currency exchange BS, but at least they let you know what they are selling

Am I the only hot iron wielder here with an inherited old school mindset? 

[Whales]

I've also had these issues with E14 and RS almost every time I have ordered.  "Next day" means "next week".  Even worse is that I'm supposed to be in a "same day" area for some of these orders.  That has never happened, and usually doesn't even end up coming the next day.  Ringing up always and asking typically leads them to blame the courier (~it's marked as departed).  Interesting to hear I'm not the only one.

I've only had one Digikey experience so far, and it went very well.  I'll have to wait and see if this continues.

+1 for WES Wagner.  It's right next to Summer Hill train station now (it moved a little while back) so you don't need a car.  Unfortunately their advertised prices are only for business account holders, so if you go as an individual it ends up costing more.

[station240]

Aztronics in adelaide have online shop and part catalog (stock lists download)
http://shop.aztronics.com.au/

[Electro Detective]

...Unfortunately their advertised prices are only for business account holders, so if you go as an individual it ends up costing more.

You have to love company policy:  The 'individual' (little person?)  takes the time (which costs money) and makes the effort to get to the store,
literally puts the money via cash or card for the goods in the company's cash strapped lap NOW,
yet has to pay more than the mates rates 'business account holders' who pay weeks/months later,
or go belly up (bankruptcy/name change/new account) and don't pay at all.

Electrical dealers/holesalers suck even more lately, they can stitch the unwary 3 or 4 times the price on generic installer stuff you can likely find at Bunnings or other DIY home hardware places.
And many times the older gen counter monkeys act like they are doing you favours too.   

That's assuming they can even find the stock on their snail speed computer > the stock that you have to NICELY point out to them sitting on the rear shelf, just behind them, without upsetting their arrogant butts...
(you wonder what these turkeys see or do all day-every day there, whilst getting paid for it  )

then the price wait and the added GST result, if they can put the phone down long enough to get that far with the mouse,
and let's not forget the patient wait through the usual printer crash or jammed paper feeder for the invoice...

You can expect to be there half an hour or more sometimes for a short order list,
that's if luck is on your side and it's not Monday or Friday 

[Spragnut]

I'm a procurement manager for a small oem, the majority of our buying is RS/Farnell/Mouser etc due to time constraints and quantities we are buying. We're not buying enough to be in the big leagues. We have a contract with Farnell so prefer to buy from there, the overall discount, say over a year of buying, far exceeds the savings on individual higher quantity parts.

Component supply is poor everywhere, looking for an LT part yesterday, no stock available, lead time 4+ weeks. Don't even get me started on capacitors and resistors!! A single reel of resistors on average has increased in price 3 fold due to supply issues.

And yes, I quite often buy all the stock these distribution companies have, likewise someone else out there has just bought all the stock I was about to buy.

Talking to many different suppliers, the general consensus is this is not likely to get back on track until 2020.

I'm not looking forward to next year as it's only due to get worse, I've already got suppliers giving me 14 week leadtimes for parts that were in stock, in abundance, a few months ago.

A 52 week lead time on capacitors is the norm at the moment, fortunately there are plenty of options so we pick and choose what we fit. I bought 1 million, 100n, capacitors when this is all started just to make sure we don't run out.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[Whales]

Regardless of what the market is like, distributors are the ones promising next day and same day performance.  If they can't meet that then they should not be promising it, it's straight out lying to customers.

Condolences to everyone involved in ordering, building and selling.  I've only done a few small runs of projects, so I'm only occasionally dragged into this.

[bd139]

Farnell are the worst at this. Even on very low volume prototyping I look at the in stock, put my order in and then I end up with back ordered stuff on stock allocation.

Go straight to LCSC now. They deliver. Even if I have to wait a week. And they actually have reasonable quantities of some of the parts in. For about three months I couldn't get hold of any 0603 100n ceramics. LCSC had stock. Probably because they're close to the source.

The more steps you are away from the source, the worse the problems are and the customers of the big euro disties are right on the end of the chain.

[Whales]

My experiences with LCSC have also been good.  Whilst they only offer longing shipping times, so far they've always delivered within what they promise.

[generic_username]

Mixed expirience with Farnell,

When I had short shedules to finish a prototype, times to get the components start to get critical and in the past years Farnell did a great Job.
ocasionally it happend that a part was out of stock, when it was during the order process in stock.
I only know it from my company but the Farnell webpage is slow as f**k now, used to be better (at least in my memory  )
So whenever I need parts and don't want to spent 2 hours just because the search is taking forever I usually go now to digikey, never had the problem with parts available, deliverytime is longer as I'm not US based and shipping costs are higher. Parts may be higher priced sometimes but for small quantities it doesn't matter that much.