SALE (AU/NZ): Multicomp Pro MP710086 (Owon P4305 rebadge) at element14

[chubbymonk]

Several reports in another forum of people getting orders cancelled after they've been OKed because the AU warehouse is now out of stock and the order would otherwise be fulfilled from the UK.  Also be very, very careful about what you get charged on checkout, some people have reported being charged the non-sale amount because the order was switched to the UK.

Interestingly seems like my order might have slipped through... I had ordered one of the cheap Tenma supplies (rebranded Korad) on sale and it ended up being shipped from the UK with the sale pricing being charged. Received it a couple days ago and the invoice does indicate the sale order code. 

[plurn]

Not that it matters anymore since these cheap Multicomp Pro MP710086 power supplies have sold out, but the two I just received both have a really annoying and loud transformer buzz that the first one I got does not have (or it is quiet enough not to be noticeable). The new ones are at a slightly different tone to each other. They buzz all the time the main power is on even if the output is off. The buzz is just as loud as the fan is when you short the output.

It is an outrage - for AU$61.47 inc gst I expect perfection - kidding

Other than that, these buzzing ones did not have big holes in the boxes and they had Australian power cords with the other power cords missing. The buzzing ones are from December 2022 batch and the quiet one is from May 2022 I think. It will be pretty rare that I use these two so not a huge issue.

edit: on investigating transformer buzzing, it seems it can be caused by DC on the mains in excess of 0.5V, or too high AC voltage. I have about 0.08V DC so that is probably fine. My mains AC is typically around 243V and the MP710086 is rated for 220V +-10% so these MP710086 are not really suitable for Australian conditions. I tested the power supplies on my variable autotransformer and the buzz reduced at about 230V but not by much. Buzz was still evident at 220V and was acceptably quiet at 210V. My variable autotransformer has its own buzz though so does not really fix the issue. Anyway, I will just live with it. Perhaps they changed transformers between May 2022 and December 2022 and the newer ones are less suitable for Australia.

[EvgenyG]

There's been no changes in order status for 3 days now and I contacted the sales support. They said "there is a discrepancy in your order, a concerned team member will send you an email". The support person would not elaborate further. Very weird No email yet.

[plurn]

1L of Iso for 8 bucks, wow I should have ordered that, too!!
...

You must have missed my earlier post:

...
There is a bunch of other stuff that was further reduced in price today. So worth searching through their stock for items located in Australia. Some other bargain items I found:

cheap multicore solder - various types <AU$21 for 250g
CT-ISO1L Isopropanol 1l ~AU$9
KNIPEX 82 02 200 twingrip pliers ~AU$32
KNIPEX 87 01 125   cobra 125mm ~AU$26
various knipex super knips (electronics flush cutters) for <AU$30
various ender-3 3d printers for <AU$130 - usually over $300. Was tempted by this but not sure how much I would use a 3d printer.

If you need me to help you spend more of your money to get up to the $50 free delivery amount, I highly recommend those Knipex twingrip pliers to anyone that likes quality hand tools and if your interests go beyond just electronics. They have some really cool features. Will be less than AU$29 inc gst if you select the order code 3779553 one and use the 10% discount code. They are typically ~$47 on amazon AU and over $90 in local shops. They have already helped me remove some torx screws that I did not have the right bit for. I expect to get a lot of use out of them.

twingrip videos:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/L4doUWN6-iA

[plurn]

There's been no changes in order status for 3 days now and I contacted the sales support. They said "there is a discrepancy in your order, a concerned team member will send you an email". The support person would not elaborate further. Very weird No email yet.

I've had that with a number of orders from element14. It is really annoying. They rarely reach out so I usually had to follow up with them to find out what was wrong. Even then it is not easy as they don't seem to communicate well internally between support and the Sydney warehouse. The first time I ordered during this fire sale, once all the items arrived in their Sydney warehouse - nothing happened for days after that. I reached out to them and it took many days of them saying - "it will be send today" for them to finally tell me they can't send to "P.O Box as the address and contains Hazardous items which cannot be sent via post" so that was what was delaying it. I even suggested this might be the problem early on and asked them to check with the warehouse people if that was the problem but they would not and kept assuring me it would be "sent today".

That said, at other times their support can be really good. They try to be helpful - just bad internal communication letting them down.

So anyway here are some reasons I have had for delayed processing other than mentioned above:
- ordering an expensive item with credit card without saving the card in my profile - they needed my credit card details again - this was years ago and might not be a problem now.
- I did an order with combined shipping schedule. They thought they received all items in their Sydney warehouse and were about to dispatch then found one item missing and had to reorder it from overseas. It still showed as all items in Sydney though online. I had to contact them to find out why it had not been dispatched.
- I applied a 10% off code when all items had order numbers ending in 01 or 02 indicating they were already discounted and could not be discounted further - they asked if they could remove the discount and charge the higher price which I agreed to.

[Muttley Snickers]

My order from yesterday afternoon turned up an hour ago and I can't believe how quickly they are able to dispatch stuff to another state. 
There were a few items missing but I expected as much when I placed the order as it stated UK stock or similar. I've only had a quick play with the bench meter and at this stage I'm very happy with its operation. I did do some research before purchasing it and indications were that these are okay meters, nothing special but good value at $180.00.   

Also, I'm not used to back ground noise and the fan permanently running on the Tenma AWG is driving me nuts already, something I will need to addresss I guess.   

[EvgenyG]

Amazing. My order is still pending, no email, no nothing. Very disappointed

[Muttley Snickers]

I just ran a quick reference check on the bench meter and it looks to be pretty accurate and in agreement with some of my other meters. Also one of the reasons I bought it was I believe there is the ability to tweak the accuracy through the menu which is a great feature, there is a Youtube video and a thread about a similar model.

[PlainName]

[...] and it ended up being shipped from the UK with the sale pricing being charged.

Why on earth don't they flog that in the UK at the sale price instead of shipping it across the world to do so? Doesn't make sense to me.

[plurn]

Just checking some prices today and it seems like all the discounts have been removed or greatly reduced, even for items still in stock in Australia.  Example that Tenma AWG is now AU$565.81 inc gst. I had a cart sitting around at about $178 and now it has increased to $383. So perhaps the party is over. We had a good run. I'll check from time to time to see if it changes again.
edit: looking further into this, it looks like for items that are discounted, the discount is now 10%

[austfox]

I got lucky. I placed an order last night around 10pm of mainly fasteners which were heavily discounted, and now most of the items I ordered have reverted overnight to standard pricing.

A lot of the '02' firesale items have disappeared, the '01' sale items have moved back to standard discounts, and items that are no longer stocked in the Sydney warehouse have been purged from the website (including reference to the low 'crazy' prices).

At one point, standard pricing, '01' and '02' items all had the same one low price. I placed several orders over the past week, scoring a few nice items such as a Multicomp power supply and bench meter, Atlas Peak meter, and a number of test leads.

[EvgenyG]

I called them this morning and the reason why my order was stuck is a "card authorisation issue". Same card I used for orders many times and now stuck, smells bs tbh. They said order should be delivered in 3-5 days from now. Live chat had no clue all this time. Email was sent but never got a reply. Bad comms

[austfox]

I called them this morning and the reason why my order was stuck is a "card authorisation issue".

Did you need to enter a 6-digit authorisation code sent to your mobile or email address at the time of purchase? I found this extra level of security on higher value orders (maybe $200 or more). Smaller orders skipped this step (at least it did for my stored credit card number).

[EvgenyG]

No, did not have anything like that. Checked my email and phone - nothing. Anyway they said should be fine now. Will check again tomorrow.

[austfox]

I am pedantic about saving screen shots and printing pages to PDF when purchasing anything online just to make sure there is no funny business ofterwards.

That was welcome advice. The late night Friday order that I placed was processed this afternoon... my Firesale $150 order was charged to my credit card today at their regular pricing of $450!

Lucky I took screenshots of all the 33 items that I ordered... I have just sent an email requesting a credit.

Thanks Mutley, without those screenshots there would be no evidence of what prices I was buying at!

[EvgenyG]

Oh wow. I'll get those screenshots asap, too.

[EvgenyG]

Ok, so I called e14 this morning again and was told to wait for an email that should arrive in 2 hours. No email arrived.
I called them again right now, explained the whole situation and asked for an update. After hanging on the phone some time, the sales rep. came back and told me that some of the lines prices changed including the Tenma smaller PSU. I just asked him to remove it from the order. He then said that he'll sent me an updated pdf with the order to double check everything else. I was still hoping to get that GW Instek for $170. Unfortunately the email did not come through again but upon checking the order on their website, all prices went up. GW Instek was now priced at $737 instead of $170. I called back and asked to cancel the whole order. I am not in a position to pay more than a thousand bucks and then wait for a credit/refund which may or may not happen.

Anyway, lesson learned. I will never shop with e14/farnell/newark and will not recommend them to anyone. Once I press "buy now" button, the price is carved in stone, you can't change it.

[EvgenyG]

Lucky I took screenshots of all the 33 items that I ordered... I have just sent an email requesting a credit.
Thanks Mutley, without those screenshots there would be no evidence of what prices I was buying at!

Good luck getting a response! I sent them an email on Friday, no response. Talked to them over the phone and was promised an email 3 times which never happened. E14 - Avoid.

[Muttley Snickers]

Sorry to hear about all the grief and frustration, it's one of the reasons I avoid buying stuff nowadays as customer service has increasingly become customer avoidance.   

On the plus side, I cannot really fault my recent experience with Element 14.   
I got exactly what I ordered for the discounted prices and it was shipped faster than our local pizza delivery, and their communication and correspondence has been faultless. There were issues however, I could not log into my trade account so rang them and was instructed to set up another account so they seem to have a big problem maintaining correct information on accounts, now the whole thing is a dog's breakfast.   

PS: I am really happy with both the AWG and DMM, particularly for the prices I got them for.   

[PlainName]

Once I press "buy now" button, the price is carved in stone

Don't know how it is over there but that's not how it is here (in Blighty). The advert is an 'invitation to treat' rather than an offer, so is basically asking for you to offer to buy. You do that by hitting the 'buy now' button, but that's only half of it. The contract is made when they accept your offer, typically by taking the money.

In your case, the funds weren't yet taken so there is no contract - that would be the card authorisation issue, presumably. Had they taken the money you could sue them for the parts (and win if you aren't in the more than 95% of people that give up because they don't know their rights or how to enforce them). But, unfortunately for you, it didn't get that far and you have no grounds for expecting the parts are the advertised price.

On this subject, just for completeness, there might be a case for suspecting them of 'bait and switch', but since they did fulfill some orders and likely just ran out of stock (and no doubt had appropriate disclaimers in their T&C) that probably wouldn't fly. Or float.

[EvgenyG]

I might have tried that, paid full price, taken all screenshots etc. I could then take it to ACCC/Small claims and perhaps even win after all. I am pretty sure their T&C/Legal has taken care of that scenario already so chances are it could be a waste of time. It is not worth it. They've damaged their reputation and showed how sneaky they are. More than a few people noticed/affected. The word will spread out.

Next time there is a fire sale - just get the units you want in separate individual orders and double check the prices. They will keep one big order on stand by because one item may be out of stock. Ideally - avoid e14 at all.

[thm_w]

Yeah this is fairly common with newark/e14. Their system doesn't seem to reserve stock so while your order is on hold, someone else can come in and buy the stock from under you.

Its not really "sneaky" just poorly designed. Been this way for a while.

[aeberbach]

I dislike E14, more often that not they have gotten my orders wrong or taken longer than promised. To be fair, got my first sale order for a very good price, overnight. But I was also able to order isopropyl alcohol that I am not receiving though the system showed it was in AU stock. 80% off is about the right incentive to use them again

edit: Expectations were lived up to - a neighbour just knocked on the door. Element14 package with a big green sticker "SIGNATURE REQUIRED NOT TO BE LEFT etc" was left at the wrong house today when nobody was home. At least my address was on it.

[EvgenyG]

I am seeing some of the sale items resold on ebay now. Not surprised, but hey that's not fair! I think the only way you can make this sale fair is to restrict warranty transfer/number of units allocated to a single account. But I don't think they will bother. I finally got the email from them, quoting a price change for the line I did not even order. Pathetic.