Stung by Farnell/Element14 again...

[nctnico]

My 0.02€:
Meh, wouldn't call it a sting or a trap.
I guess it's more difficult to keep tracks of this kind of detail when you make a relatively big order; but you can't say that it's a scam.

I agree it isn't a scam but I'd wish Farnell disables the US stock by default. It would save me disabling it manually every time.

[DTJ]

Go witH RS Compnents where possible the freight is free - at least in Australia.

[Zero999]

This is a bit of a rant and also a warning to be careful how you use the online ordering system at Farnell.

I've been stung by hidden charges several times in recent orders.  A while back I got caught by the classic 'reel' trap where I didn't notice RL in the part number. Back then, the online system let you order 3 parts and showed the cost of 3 parts but (in my case) I got stung for a full reel and this cost doesn't appear until the end of the order. So it's easy to miss this in a large order and you can easily end up paying more than you realise for one item. I ended up with a reel of transistors when I just wanted 3 transistors at about 50p each.
So I ended up losing money compared to ordering at RS.

Another time they offered me a 15% discount on my next order which didn't work on my next (big) order. I could have got the stuff cheaper elsewhere but the 'discount that never was' made me choose Farnell. But their discount code bounced in their online system. So I paid full price.

Today they have got me again. I ordered loads of stuff (about £200 worth of various components) and in amongst this was a few resistors that were out of stock so I clicked on the alternative. But this cost me (hidden) extra delivery from USA and it isn't clear enough to the user that they do this in the order.

So I've lost money again and despite clicking on (free) next day delivery I ended up paying for shipping from the USA. I'm now tracking these 25 resistors (cost a few pence each) as they are now being transported across various states in the USA, then they will get flown here and doubtless they will travel around the various UK depots before finally arriving here.
I think I'm done with their online ordering system and I'll try going back to telephone orders. They enticed me over to online ordering because they said it would save me time and money because of the online perks but this hasn't happened in reality. I did try phoning them to stop the resistor order from the USA but they said tough because it's been processed. The easiest/sanest thing to do would be for the courier to simply throw the box in the bin somewhere in the USA as it is pure madness to send a few resistors costing a few pence across the USA/Atlantic/UK.

So if you are considering Farnell as a possible supplier, be very careful how you order stuff and double check every line item at the checkout. Don't trust the little popup window to tell you the true cost of the item. There could be hidden extra costs.

If you have  bad milk , you might use the withdraw right.When they  delivered  you the packet(all) , you inquiry to withdraw request( http://europa.eu/youreurope/business/sell-abroad/on-line/index_en.htm).

That depends on whether he ordered it from a business account or not, as that only covers end users, not businesses.

The information given on this page only concerns selling to the final consumer (B2C), not to other businesses (B2B).

If he's an end user and and didn't place the order from a business account, then yes, he should be able to cancel the order, though he may still have to pay for delivery.

[rob77]

i'm buying mainly ICs from Farnell in small quantities for prototyping, and it's not a problem to click "in stock + exclude US" , furthermore it's not a big deal to ignore the RL marked components and look for the ones with a "cut tape" note. it's just a metter of paying attention
regarding passives i buy only the "special ones" from Farnell - e.g. they have resistors in many tolerances and various tempcos - so you always find what you want. but for generic jelly bean passives i'm buying from TME - they sell virtually anything as cut tape , and even full reels of generic resistors are cheaper than Farnell (e.g. 10k 0603 1% when buying a 5k reel : 0.0012Eur + VAT @ Farnell while only 0.00076 + VAT @ TME).

however my very first order from Farnell was a bit of fun - i saw they have warehouses in UK and Belgium , one of the components was only in stopck in Belgium others were in stock in both UK and Belgium... i naively expected they'll dispatch the order from Belgium where all the items were in stock.... but nope... they dispatched it from UK and i waited 2 weeks for the remaining single IC till it was stocked up in UK since then i double check that every item is in stock in UK

[wraper]

however my very first order from Farnell was a bit of fun - i saw they have warehouses in UK and Belgium , one of the components was only in stopck in Belgium others were in stock in both UK and Belgium... i naively expected they'll dispatch the order from Belgium where all the items were in stock.... but nope... they dispatched it from UK and i waited 2 weeks for the remaining single IC till it was stocked up in UK since then i double check that every item is in stock in UK

They'll ship from Belgium only if you are registered as a business.

[HwAoRrDk]

They'll ship from Belgium only if you are registered as a business.

If that's true then they're not very good at following their own rules. I have a non-business account and twice in recent times they've shipped me part of my order from Belgium.

Once it was literally just ten resistors that they overnight UPSed so it arrived at exactly the same time. (They had been in stock in UK when I added to the basket, but next day when I ordered, stock had gone, and I didn't notice they would be sent from Liege.)

[vodka]

Conclusion selling 100 resistors for a price of 5k reel is a scam

You have to include the cost of fetching, counting, cutting, bagging, labelling, returning the remainder to the shelves. None of that is zero cost, and for low price components it can dominate the cost.

So , when  you go to grocery shop and you inquiry a pound of cucumber(by 0.87 €/lb) and you go out the shop with the bill of 64€ .

 Now we see the bill apportionment:

    1 lb Cucumber by                                                                                                                      0.87€
    Cost of inquiry cucumbers to wholesaler by                                                                                3 €
    Cost of delivered of cucumbers                                                                                                   5€
    Cost of unpacking cucumber                                                                                                      3€
    Cost handle of the waste of unpacking                                                                                       4€
    Cost to storage and custody of cucumber                                                                                  4€
    Cost of maintanance of the floor, shelves , doors and windows by used of  customers              8€
    Cost of the workers of the shop used for the customers                                                           15€
    Cost of the air breathed by the customers                                                                                 10€
                                                                                                                                                    +VAT(21%)
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                                                                                                                                                       64 €

Like they will apply the same method of the electronic components to the meals . We would die to hunger.

 Apart  it seems to the accounts of the "Gran Capitan":

 "By pikes ,shovels and hoes  100k golden ducats
   By perfumed  gloves for soldiers  150k golden ducats"
 

[tggzzz]

Conclusion selling 100 resistors for a price of 5k reel is a scam

You have to include the cost of fetching, counting, cutting, bagging, labelling, returning the remainder to the shelves. None of that is zero cost, and for low price components it can dominate the cost.

So , when  you go to grocery shop and you inquiry a pound of cucumber(by 0.87 €/lb) and you go out the shop with the bill of 64€ .

 Now we see the bill apportionment:

    1 lb Cucumber by                                                                                                                      0.87€
    Cost of inquiry cucumbers to wholesaler by                                                                                3 €
    Cost of delivered of cucumbers                                                                                                   5€
    Cost of unpacking cucumber                                                                                                      3€
    Cost handle of the waste of unpacking                                                                                       4€
    Cost to storage and custody of cucumber                                                                                  4€
    Cost of maintanance of the floor, shelves , doors and windows by used of  customers              8€
    Cost of the workers of the shop used for the customers                                                           15€
    Cost of the air breathed by the customers                                                                                 10€
                                                                                                                                                    +VAT(21%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                       64 €

Like they will apply the same method of the electronic components to the meals . We would die to hunger.

 Apart  it seems to the accounts of the "Gran Capitan":

 "By pikes ,shovels and hoes  100k golden ducats
   By perfumed  gloves for soldiers  150k golden ducats"

Except for the specific values and your silly points, yes that is general principle - but you forgot business rates, food spoilage, insurance, heating, and disposal of unpurchased food. It is the prime reason for the difference between the wholesale price and the retail price.

The actual markup depends on retail sector, of course, but in many cases (other than food) there is a 100% markup.

When I worked in a medium-sized design and development consultancy, the break-even charge was roughly salary*2.5. When potential customers complained, we told them the old engineering aphorism: "pay peynuts, get monkeys". If they didn't accept that, we didn't want them as clients.

[Monkeh]

however my very first order from Farnell was a bit of fun - i saw they have warehouses in UK and Belgium , one of the components was only in stopck in Belgium others were in stock in both UK and Belgium... i naively expected they'll dispatch the order from Belgium where all the items were in stock.... but nope... they dispatched it from UK and i waited 2 weeks for the remaining single IC till it was stocked up in UK since then i double check that every item is in stock in UK

They'll ship from Belgium only if you are registered as a business.

No, they'll ship from Belgium if the item is in Belgium. They don't care who you are.

[rob77]

Conclusion selling 100 resistors for a price of 5k reel is a scam

You have to include the cost of fetching, counting, cutting, bagging, labelling, returning the remainder to the shelves. None of that is zero cost, and for low price components it can dominate the cost.

So , when  you go to grocery shop and you inquiry a pound of cucumber(by 0.87 €/lb) and you go out the shop with the bill of 64€ .

 Now we see the bill apportionment:

    1 lb Cucumber by                                                                                                                      0.87€
    Cost of inquiry cucumbers to wholesaler by                                                                                3 €
    Cost of delivered of cucumbers                                                                                                   5€
    Cost of unpacking cucumber                                                                                                      3€
    Cost handle of the waste of unpacking                                                                                       4€
    Cost to storage and custody of cucumber                                                                                  4€
    Cost of maintanance of the floor, shelves , doors and windows by used of  customers              8€
    Cost of the workers of the shop used for the customers                                                           15€
    Cost of the air breathed by the customers                                                                                 10€
                                                                                                                                                    +VAT(21%)
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                                                                                                                                                       64 €

Like they will apply the same method of the electronic components to the meals . We would die to hunger.

 Apart  it seems to the accounts of the "Gran Capitan":

 "By pikes ,shovels and hoes  100k golden ducats
   By perfumed  gloves for soldiers  150k golden ducats"
 

i would say it's an inaccurate analogy....

i would adjust your cucumber analogy to  "i wanted 2 slices of a cucumber and they charged me for a whole cucumber plus a fee for slicing it up?" and my answer would be of course they did... if you don't need the whole cucumber then it's better to buy where they sell sliced cucumbers by default

[Towger]

No, they'll ship from Belgium if the item is in Belgium. They don't care who you are.

This is exactly what they do.  In saying that I have had problems recently with items dissappearing off an order from CPC. Silly excuses about their courier not carrying dangers goods, funny Farnell don't have this problem with same items. What's more I can believe it over compressed air etc, but 3 pin XLR plugs..... What dangerous about them...!

BTW no one in the UK buys cucumbers by the pound any more.  The British government tricked their subjects into believing it was illegal to use non metric units under a EU directive etc etc. 

[HwAoRrDk]

In saying that I have had problems recently with items dissappearing off an order from CPC. Silly excuses about their courier not carrying dangers goods, funny Farnell don't have this problem with same items.

That's comparing apples to oranges, though. CPC have a different warehouse, different systems (apart from website) different shipping methods, etc. They might as well be a wholly separate company altogether.

[vodka]

Conclusion selling 100 resistors for a price of 5k reel is a scam

You have to include the cost of fetching, counting, cutting, bagging, labelling, returning the remainder to the shelves. None of that is zero cost, and for low price components it can dominate the cost.

So , when  you go to grocery shop and you inquiry a pound of cucumber(by 0.87 €/lb) and you go out the shop with the bill of 64€ .


 Now we see the bill apportionment:

    1 lb Cucumber by                                                                                                                      0.87€
    Cost of inquiry cucumbers to wholesaler by                                                                                3 €
    Cost of delivered of cucumbers                                                                                                   5€
    Cost of unpacking cucumber                                                                                                      3€
    Cost handle of the waste of unpacking                                                                                       4€
    Cost to storage and custody of cucumber                                                                                  4€
    Cost of maintanance of the floor, shelves , doors and windows by used of  customers              8€
    Cost of the workers of the shop used for the customers                                                           15€
    Cost of the air breathed by the customers                                                                                 10€
                                                                                                                                                    +VAT(21%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                       64 €

Like they will apply the same method of the electronic components to the meals . We would die to hunger.

 Apart  it seems to the accounts of the "Gran Capitan":

 "By pikes ,shovels and hoes  100k golden ducats
   By perfumed  gloves for soldiers  150k golden ducats"
 

i would say it's an inaccurate analogy....

i would adjust your cucumber analogy to  "i wanted 2 slices of a cucumber and they charged me for a whole cucumber plus a fee for slicing it up?" and my answer would be of course they did... if you don't need the whole cucumber then it's better to buy where they sell sliced cucumbers by default

More than inaccurate analogy , i exaggerated a little. But you don't believe that i go to misguided.

Once time , my father went to visit to architect for asking the prices, when my father terminated to talk with him. The arquitect did a bill , simply for asking the prices.
Of course ,my father outraged and i said him:

 "I don't pay you any " DURO" because you don't give me  any service , only i went to inform me and  to ask the price, and if you want to denunciate to police , you had my name and surnames". 

And he went out and  he still is waiting the denunciate .