CPC in the UK are a disaster of a company

[bd139]

I've dealt with supplier problems over the years but these guys take the fucking biscuit.

Ordered 12 line items, capacitors for a refurb just before the weekend. Paid next day priority courier (UPS).

Yesterday order arrived. 3 line items were missing and 1 was incorrect (wrong capacitors!). Phoned up and complained. Told I was going to be shipped 4 replacement line items today.

Just arrived today. Only 3 line items arrived, one of which was incorrect again and an item that wasn't on the original order!

Phoned up and complained again. Turns out one has gone for "order checking" in the warehouse with no ETA and the other one will be reshipped again. I declined and told them to refund the two remaining screwed up lines.

Worst company ever. This is about the 5th problem I've had with them in the last year over trivial things. One order they shipped me a box of gloves and someone else's SSD when I ordered some resistors. I'm done. Added to my shitlist.

[james_s]

Strange, I went there in 2011 and bought a whole pile of stuff, no issues at all, I ordered at the counter and waited there to collect it though.

I wish I'd bought more of the ceramic lamp sockets actually, they were on sale for something like 79p and they're quite nice. I hauled about a dozen of them back to the US and have used up most of them by now.

[bd139]

TBH they have got worse in the last year. I rarely had problems before that.

I'm going to have to get mugged by RS now. Not much I can do. 

[The Soulman]

Worst company ever. This is about the 5th problem I've had with them in the last year over trivial things. One order they shipped me a box of gloves and someone else's SSD when I ordered some resistors. I'm done. Added to my shitlist.

 

Order 25p worth of resistors every week and see what comes in the mail, cheaper and more fun than buying lottery tickets.

Arrow is pretty good, but maybe shipping cost and time might be prohibitive.

[bd139]

I'm actually looking at Mouser now. Most of the orders I do just push over the free delivery limits and the stock min quantities are reasonable unlike RS where you have to buy 1000 capacitors just to get a decent price break to use two.

[CJay]

They've always been piss poor, 20 years ago we regularly got other people's orders, random stuff dropped from our order, random stuff added to our order, there was always a box somewhere in the workshop for them to collect.

Having said that, they're cheap, supply stuff other companies don't and were often the *only* source for some parts.

[james_s]

Arrow was fantastic while they were offering free shipping, but without that they're not competitive with digikey and mouser. Not sure if that's true outside the US.

[Mr. Scram]

An SSD for the price of a couple of resistors? Sign me up!

[bd139]

It was a crappy no brand 32Gb SSD 

[Mr. Scram]

It was a crappy no brand 32Gb SSD 

Only 4 GB? That's not very impressive. More memory card than SSD.

[MosherIV]

CPC are a Farnell owned company.
Curious that prices differ between them.
I have found that CPC can have decent special offers. Picked up cheap desoldering iron.
Never had an order go wrong with them but have not used them in the past year.

RS and Farnell are like supermarkets, some stuff is cheaper at one while other stuff is cheaper at the other.

[bd139]

It was a crappy no brand 32Gb SSD 

Only 4 GB? That's not very impressive. More memory card than SSD.

32 GiB. Should have been more anal about my units there. +1 point to you 

[Mr. Scram]

32 GiB. Should have been more anal about my units there. +1 point to you 

Sorry, couldn't resist being a dick about it. 

[themadhippy]

Whilst ive never had any problems with cpc i have noticed there stock of  components has been  getting smaller over  the years.Only the other month  i was after a load of 4000 series ic's, most were "no longer stocked",  thankfully farnell had everything i was after.Maybe there new marketing  strategy is to be a  maplins  replacement.

[james_s]

It was a crappy no brand 32Gb SSD 

Only 4 GB? That's not very impressive. More memory card than SSD.

32 GiB. Should have been more anal about my units there. +1 point to you 

Even 32GB is smaller than a lot of micro SD cards today, although a proper SSD is probably going to be better for endurance.

[JamesAllen]

I've never had issues with CPC. All my deliveries have been correct and on time.

At the moment I'm using RS as they seem to be quick on the ball. I can order before 20:30 and have the parcel delivered before 0900 next day. The courier service they use is pretty good.

Their stock availability also seems to be quite extensive. The only thing I would watch out for is the pricing can sometimes be out.

[tom66]

I have had both CPC and Farnell mess up my orders many times in ways that Digi-Key, RS and Mouser have not managed.  Quite impressive really.

So I never order anything time critical through them because 10-15% of orders I will be calling them up to sort it out. 

[CJay]

I've never had issues with CPC. All my deliveries have been correct and on time.

At the moment I'm using RS as they seem to be quick on the ball. I can order before 20:30 and have the parcel delivered before 0900 next day. The courier service they use is pretty good.

Their stock availability also seems to be quite extensive. The only thing I would watch out for is the pricing can sometimes be out.

Thumbs up for RS, on the rare occasions they screw up they're a dream to deal with.

[nali]

At the moment I'm using RS as they seem to be quick on the ball. I can order before 20:30 and have the parcel delivered before 0900 next day. The courier service they use is pretty good.

@JamesAllen Who do they use when sending to you? I ask because I have a bit of a problem with RS deliveries which are by Parcelforce. I now work from home, but I have a small business unit next door, and the dopey driver doesn't read the labels properly so just dumps mine in with their delivery. The equally dopey guy who signs for them just leaves them on a shelf.

So I have no clue that the package I'm waiting for has been actually been delivered... no card through the door and last time it happened the tracking info didn't update until about 6PM, by which time next door had finished and locked up for the day. Their "service" is delivery up to 6PM so until then it's not officially late

[JamesAllen]

Hi Nali,

Sorry for the delay, they use Parcelforce here with me in Yorkshire.

Perhaps I'm on a good route for them. I normally get them delivered to my work rather than home which is easier.

Thanks

At the moment I'm using RS as they seem to be quick on the ball. I can order before 20:30 and have the parcel delivered before 0900 next day. The courier service they use is pretty good.

@JamesAllen Who do they use when sending to you? I ask because I have a bit of a problem with RS deliveries which are by Parcelforce. I now work from home, but I have a small business unit next door, and the dopey driver doesn't read the labels properly so just dumps mine in with their delivery. The equally dopey guy who signs for them just leaves them on a shelf.

So I have no clue that the package I'm waiting for has been actually been delivered... no card through the door and last time it happened the tracking info didn't update until about 6PM, by which time next door had finished and locked up for the day. Their "service" is delivery up to 6PM so until then it's not officially late

[TerraHertz]

Order 25p worth of resistors every week and see what comes in the mail, cheaper and more fun than buying lottery tickets.

I like the way you think.


Maybe they have some guy in order fulfillment, who is severely retarded and random, but they can't fire him because diversity.

My reshipper in the USA seems to have recently developed that kind of problem with the guy who takes the photos of 'what's inside the box' of parcels that arrive. Used to be they were quite informative. The new guy doesn't seem to have any comprehension of what these photos are for. For eg, a ring binder containing a manual arrives. I get three photos of the outside back cover, from very slightly differing angles. Never mind the title on the binder spine, or the inside title page, oh no!

Shit like this is what kills otherwise good companies.