Major problems with the delivery of goods from Farnell in Europe

[max-bit]

Farnell (UK) has very serious problems with the delivery of ordered goods in Europe.
And this applies to the transport of this goods in Europe.
Until recently, even the goods ordered late in the afternoon until 6.00 p.m. (6pm) were delivered on the next day.

              Today, a week after the order, I don't even know if the goods were shipped from the UK !!!

I have not encountered such hopeless service yet. I can't even get an explanation if and when the goods will be delivered to me !!!
If I ordered goods in the USA (DigiKey, Mouser) I would have it after 4 days !!! (Ship from USA to Europe)

Currently, I sincerely advise against ordering components in Farnell, especially if we urgently need components!

[MadScientist]

Why companies persist in supplying the EU from outside it , is beyond me.

[max-bit]

Unfortunately, there is no large (universal) supplier in the EU such as Farnell, DigiKey or Mouser.
In Poland, I also have TME, but the choice is smaller than those mentioned above.

[nctnico]

Have you considered that it is nearly holiday season which means couriers are swamped with presents? Especially since a lot of people won't be able to spend Christmas with family so instead they decide to send a gift?

[tom66]

Farnell has always been useless, even in the UK.

We have a general rule that we don't order from Farnell unless there is seriously no other choice.

CPC for instance, delivering power supplies, promised 3-5 working days, reality was 2 weeks, plus they only shipped 2 out of 3 actual PSUs, the other was replaced with a completely different product but with the last two digits of the product code transposed.

I have had repeated issues with Farnell mucking up orders - general carelessness and lack of quality controls.  Promising lead times that never materialise.  And they continue to increase shipping costs and delivery thresholds on top of this.

If I order from Digi-Key or Mouser, my order always arrives on time & correct.

[magic]

Yes, parcel traffic is high in early December, but
- the worst that has happened to me this week was one day of delay
- I doubt that many people are buying presents at Farnell, so the excuse doesn't work for them

[nctnico]

@tom66: how do you order? I order stuff all the time from Farnell through their website and problems with orders getting messed up are very rare. I know that a lot of the things I order come from the UK warehouse so if the problems are structural I should see these as well. Not saying you are wrong or anything; I'm just surprised that our experience with Farnell differs so much.

[harerod]

In the past Farnell's strategy of two major warehouses, one in Liège/Belgium and one in England worked pretty well. You could even check the storage location online.
After Brexit, goods from the England warehouse have to be imported into the EU.
So, assuming Farnell for once has some stock of the device you want to buy, make sure which warehouse you are dealing with. If you can't find that info online, call their hotline, before placing the order.

https://www.farnell.com/preparation-for-brexit/

[tom66]

@tom66: how do you order? I order stuff all the time from Farnell through their website and problems with orders getting messed up are very rare. I know that a lot of the things I order come from the UK warehouse so if the problems are structural I should see these as well. Not saying you are wrong or anything; I'm just surprised that our experience with Farnell differs so much.

Perhaps since you are in the continential EU, most of your orders come from Liege?

My experience has been problematic with CPC (based in the UK and doesn't generally ship out to the EU) and Farnell when shipped from the UK from the Leeds warehouse.

However, I haven't ordered much recently, as I've just given up in frustration.