The Bad Shopping Experience Thread

[wxtyz]

Greetings everybody, silent forum user deciding to break the ice here . Without further ado, can I actually mention DIGIKEY in this thread? That sounds like fun! 

I was in the market for an evaluation board to try out from SGX Sensortech and Digikey had one with my name on it, or so I thought. Now, to be upfront, I should have known better and, as it will become evident after I give the details, the issue is more due to “politics” than due to “personal”, so I won’t press further, this forum is not about politics, however, I think Digikey’s way of handling (or lack thereof) this kind of matter needs to be pointed out, since Digikey won’t, so other unsuspecting customers know what they're getting into, unlike me. Nothin' personal, you see.

Order summary:
•   Digikey had what I wanted in stock and for a better price; I hadn’t shopped with them before, except one time when I was in faculty many years ago, different Iceage; but my usual places did neither have the board, nor have any in stock;
•   Wanted a hassle-free delivery, with minimum involvement on my side, so I checked out my cart with DDP incoterms shipping option;
•   Automated email with invoice after a couple of hours revealed these terms got changed to CPT;
•   I immediately replied to Digikey to check if there is no mistake, I was certain I choose DDP option and the web form was ok with that;
•   Due to time zone differences, I first get an automated notification, the next day, saying, order has been ready’d and due pickup for shipping; only at the end of that day did I get a reply from customer service, saying I was missing the relevant information, thus the terms got changed to CPT;
•   I immediately replied to that saying I wanted to cancel the order in these conditions, since I did not agree to that (seemed reasonable to me, the parcel hadn’t left the country yet, from tracking info at that time) – I never got any response for that message;
•   Since there was no reaction, I used a return form found somewhere on their website, to bring to their attention again I want to cancel things;
•   Next, one morning, I get notified by UPS the parcel has arrived in the destination country, needs clearance – I tell them I refuse reception, so they can send it back or do whatever they want; UPS complies, updates tracking info with my decision to refuse the package;
•   Later that day, I get an email from Digikey customer service, saying they have been contacted by my local UPS, they have been notified that the “order has clearance issues”, saying that I should contact UPS and “push for customs clearance”, or ELSE: scenario one – the parcel gets returned, so I first loose the right to claim my due VAT amount, which I had to pay in advance, since it'll be incurred anyway, then I’m good to pay import fees back in the USA, whatever their Customs decide is due paid, plus shipping costs, or, scenario two – the parcel is abandoned – I loose any right to claim my money back, plus I’m good to pay for the shipping costs incurred so far, plus any Customs’ taxes incurred, if any decided, this time, at the (failed) receiver’s side;
•   After a few days, somebody responds to my return claim form, saying they looked into the issue within their carrier group, saying I have been already answered, giving again the message they changed incoterms because… same explanation as before…Then go sorry for the inconvenience.

Now, I have yet to see the end of this story; from tracking info, the parcel is still in the process of returning, but, so far, if anybody is willing to share with me their thoughts on the matter, tell me, have I already lost my marbles, if:
•   I expect default behavior from online shops (at least the claimed reputable ones) to not move shipping when there is the ever-so-slightest doubt there might be additional costs incurred to the buyer, given the specifics of each individual order? If some order terms need to be changed due to lack of provided info, isn’t it reasonable to halt processing until matters are discussed with the client? I specifically mailed them, as soon as I could, to let them know I have an issue, yet they move on like it’s none of their business?
•   If I consider it reasonable that a package from an order, such as this one was, the sole property of the sender (Vendor) right up until it gets delivered to the destination address, after which the receiver can take claim on it? I haven’t read the fine print in Digikey’s Terms & Conditions (shame on me for that), but I’m pretty sure elsewhere on other vendor’s sites, at least ones more locally to me anyway, they make it explicit of the matter; even if you pay upfront, it’s still their dough, right up until you receive it. I do window-shop and occasionally buy on evilBay too, but I always chuckled when I read those messages “Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing”, given my experience there... If I’m to follow Digikey’s “or ELSE” La-la-land reasoning - in their own wording  , “Since we[Digikey] processed and shipped your[my] order as you [_I] requested, you [_I] will be billed for any additional fees accordingly” - going from this, can I please pay ALL of Digikey’s costs of doing business from now on? I’d like to be responsible for that as well… From my own pocket; if I happen to kick the bucket, heck, I've got relatives...

[Kean]

Greetings everybody, silent forum user deciding to break the ice here . Without further ado, can I actually mention DIGIKEY in this thread? That sounds like fun! 

I was in the market for an evaluation board to try out from SGX Sensortech and Digikey had one with my name on it, or so I thought.

snip...

I pretty much only have one complaint about Digikey, and that is they use CPT incoterms.  Their main T&Cs at https://www.digikey.com/en/terms-and-conditions only list CPT under section 7. Shipping Charges, and the same applies for the Australian T&Cs for when I order in AUD.

As far as I know CPT is the only incoterms option that has been offered by Digikey for the last several years at least, but I guess it may depend on which website you ordered from.  Maybe you saw the option for DDP on another website?  I know Mouser offer DDP incoterms, and thus they have gotten some of my larger valued orders when stock availability and pricing is otherwise comparable.

My suggestion is that you start a new shopping cart and go through the ordering process again and see if you can reproduce the DDP shipping option.  If you can, then screenshot it and provide that as evidence to assist with customer service... but if not, then it was likely your own mistake.  I guess they may have corrected an error on their end, which you won't be able to prove unless you got a confirmation email showing DDP.

In any case, I think that refusing the delivery was a bad idea without first reviewing their T&Cs which state that returns must be authorized, and will encounter costs for return shipping and potentially restocking fees when not due to their error.  Those are pretty typical T&Cs.

The few times that Mouser/Digikey/Farnell have sent me an incorrect or damaged part (it happens with many years of regular purchasing), they generally tell me to keep it and ship me the correct part for free by express shipping, even if only valued a few cents.  When they do want the incorrectly shipped parts back, they have organized free return shipping labels.  Last year I ordered 10 metal rulers from a supplier when they were on special, but I was shipped 100 pcs (5 x 10pks in two sizes).  I was glad that the supplier organised the return shipping label, as I really didn't envision a use for that many, nor did I want to dispose of perfectly good (if cheap quality) items.

[wxtyz]

Thanks for your input! The option with DDP did pop up only after changing currency, though; settings are default to local currency and there you have one choice, but when I changed to EUR at least, shipping with DDP terms appeared as an option. Mouser indeed offer DDP incoterms and I have used them many times without any issues, however, this time, they didn't have my item in stock and, well... maybe got divine punishment for trying to buy from competitors  . Now that you mention it, I do remember last year I went and read the T&Cs to search for incoterm details and recall I also found only CPT, it was what turned me down from trying back then. This time I guess greed got the best of me, and I skimped through checkout without raising any flags. I added a snippet from a mock checkout to show it actually pops as an option, even though in the previous screen I haven't given a VAT number, which they claimed afterwards they needed.

[Kean]

when I changed to EUR at least, shipping with DDP terms appeared as an option

Interesting!

When you change currency and have the DDP option appearing, are you still on the same Digikey website?  Does the Terms & Conditions link in the page footer change?

I mostly use the Digikey Australia website, and the T&Cs link goes to https://www.digikey.com.au/en/terms-and-conditions which only mentions CPT like the default USA site T&Cs.

[Robert Stone]

hey guys. Does any one have experience of this store?
https://store.siqma.com/index.php?route=common/home