Mouser 'Export review'

[twospoons]

I ordered a handful of fairly ordinary parts from Mouser - some op-amps, LEDs and diodes. Nothing showed up for a week - so I checked the order status. "In Export Review"  it said. Waited some more, still in review. Emailed the export review dept - no reply. Emailed the local sales dept,  they replied within minutes that they'd pass the message on to export review dept. Waited some more - nothing, still in review. Emailed export review dept again - nothing. Got an email from websales asking for a review of my recent purchase experience - naturally they got one of these as their rating  . Still no response from export review. So today, after 15 days of getting steadily more pissed off, I cancelled the purchase and ordered the same stuff from Digikey. A mere two hours later and my DK order is on its way via DHL.

Mouser 0
Digikey 1

/rant

[ebastler]

Meanwhile, in a parallel thread...
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/digikey-keeps-flagging-me-for-export-compliance/ 

[asmi]

I ordered a handful of fairly ordinary parts from Mouser - some op-amps, LEDs and diodes. Nothing showed up for a week - so I checked the order status. "In Export Review"  it said. Waited some more, still in review. Emailed the export review dept - no reply. Emailed the local sales dept,  they replied within minutes that they'd pass the message on to export review dept. Waited some more - nothing, still in review. Emailed export review dept again - nothing. Got an email from websales asking for a review of my recent purchase experience - naturally they got one of these as their rating  . Still no response from export review. So today, after 15 days of getting steadily more pissed off, I cancelled the purchase and ordered the same stuff from Digikey. A mere two hours later and my DK order is on its way via DHL.

Mouser 0
Digikey 1

/rant

Over years I've had various issues with Mouser (but to be fair, vast majority of orders - like 99% - were flawless with no issues whatsoever), and the fastest way to resolve any issues is to CALL your local office. You will get the resolution immediately in most cases right as you're on the phone, or they will tell you if they need anything from you (like forms, documentation, etc.).

[brabus]

I ordered a handful of fairly ordinary parts from Mouser - some op-amps, LEDs and diodes. Nothing showed up for a week - so I checked the order status. "In Export Review"  it said. Waited some more, still in review. Emailed the export review dept - no reply. Emailed the local sales dept,  they replied within minutes that they'd pass the message on to export review dept. Waited some more - nothing, still in review. Emailed export review dept again - nothing. Got an email from websales asking for a review of my recent purchase experience - naturally they got one of these as their rating  . Still no response from export review. So today, after 15 days of getting steadily more pissed off, I cancelled the purchase and ordered the same stuff from Digikey. A mere two hours later and my DK order is on its way via DHL.

Mouser 0
Digikey 1

/rant

Over years I've had various issues with Mouser (but to be fair, vast majority of orders - like 99% - were flawless with no issues whatsoever), and the fastest way to resolve any issues is to CALL your local office. You will get the resolution immediately in most cases right as you're on the phone, or they will tell you if they need anything from you (like forms, documentation, etc.).

This. I had the exact same issue a couple of weeks ago, they solved the problem right after the call and I received the goods quickly as usual.

[Benta]

Perhaps you're on the TDO?

[mikeselectricstuff]

I've had a very few Mouser orders held - maybe 3 or 4 over the years - the annoying thing is they don't notify you - you have to check order status & then chase them.
Seemed unrelated to order content- last time was a couple of DC/DC converter modules

[twospoons]

the annoying thing is they don't notify you

This is the bit I don't understand. If they wanted a form filled out or something, why not just flick me a boilerplate email? 10 seconds work. Instead they've lost a customer. Thats just plain dumb.

Anyway, I don't expect any answers - I'm just screaming into the void.

[asmi]

This is the bit I don't understand. If they wanted a form filled out or something, why not just flick me a boilerplate email? 10 seconds work. Instead they've lost a customer. Thats just plain dumb.

Maybe they don't want customers who don't know how to make a simple phone call?

[twospoons]

Seriously dude? Maybe some customers have hearing issues that make phone calls difficult.

[dzungpham0703]

I have same experience with Mouser too, they not have any email about "Export review". Until I login to their web and see the status.

[srb1954]

Seriously dude? Maybe some customers have hearing issues that make phone calls difficult.

Or they don't want to make an expensive international call and be on hold for ages.

[audiotubes]

I had not ordered from these big companies since in the past I lived in places with very good local parts availability.

In the past month I had two orders through Mouser, both got here about as fast as a local order, despite going through customs on both ends and travelling across the sea. I have to say Mouser and FedEx did an amazing job.

But on the most recent one I saw there was a delay in France, turned out the "security" people found my box of solder and MSP430s a reason to be alarmed

Despite them opening the box and finding nothing scary or offensive, the FedEx guy showed up before lunchtime as scheduled

[nigelwright7557]

The bloke at northridgefix (youtube channel for pc repair) put an order in with either mouser or digikey and they refused the order because he had a muslim name.

[ConKbot]

The bloke at northridgefix (youtube channel for pc repair) put an order in with either mouser or digikey and they refused the order because he had a muslim name.

Are we spouting half truths or omitting context to try and paint a narrative on the Internet?
Is it "a Muslim name" or  is it actually 'shares a name with or is very similar to another individual who is on some sort of naughty list, which due to the US spending 20 years in the middle east is rather large. Heaven help anyone with the middle eastern equivalent of Bob Smith as a name'

[nigelwright7557]

The bloke at northridgefix (youtube channel for pc repair) put an order in with either mouser or digikey and they refused the order because he had a muslim name.

Are we spouting half truths or omitting context to try and paint a narrative on the Internet?
Is it "a Muslim name" or  is it actually 'shares a name with or is very similar to another individual who is on some sort of naughty list, which due to the US spending 20 years in the middle east is rather large. Heaven help anyone with the middle eastern equivalent of Bob Smith as a name'

Just repeating what he said in one of his video's.
I watched it again and it was digikey who refused the order based on his name Hussein Ali.
Video at:

[rteodor]

A few years I had a basic export control training (I had to even if I did not work directly with clients).
I have to say it is scary how much happens in this area behind public scrutiny. And this is for a variety of reasons, first of all being that things are not stable nor fully known even for those that made gray hair in this area. People dealing with it mostly have to figure out things on the way and while they are doing this things are changing again.

Another reason is unclear regulation. An example related to this is bank accounts: banks do check accounts against a watch list every midnight. The regulators do not require this, they merely specify that banks must have 'due process' for checking for terorist activity. Somehow the banks arrived at a solution of buying the "World list" (that leaked a few years ago) from a company in Australia that compiled it from a variety of sources. When it leaked it was found out that there was no oversight and no process. Anyone who was put on this list was financially obliterated.

The banks list is related to this one: to check some client I would have to check among other things if and what bank account was presented. A "proper" bank account would indicate that the client was checked against that list. If this "export control" happens at Mouser/DK/etc. and payment is possible means things changed again and more things are taken into consideration for individual clients. To this, I can only recommend to use a "clean" email address and payment method. What "clean" means you and I would only speculate. I would say "digital hygiene" but who knows what happens deep inside?!

[SiliconWizard]

Well as I said before, if anyone finds discriminating against a person's name ever acceptable, in any circumstance and without further evidence of guilt of anything, I'd be curious to hear them. That's completely nuts.

[Monkeh]

Well as I said before, if anyone finds discriminating against a person's name ever acceptable, in any circumstance and without further evidence of guilt of anything, I'd be curious to hear them. That's completely nuts.

You only have to be at the gate of any flight to the US and listen to the names being called to the desk for further checks..

[Infraviolet]

Discriminating one name is not only unacceptable, it is stupid. If some foreign dictator with a well known name were buying things, does anyone really think they'd do so under their own name? Someone who shares a name with some global villain of the day is therefore perhaps the least likely customer to actually be that villain. Not that, frankly, it is any business of a company to refuse to provide orders even if they genuinely are addressed to a villain, the principle of free trade should transcend governmental rivalries.

[rteodor]

Keep this in mind: no business wants to loose even a few customers. But they may loose a few in order not to loose fast tracking custom privileges for example. Which in turn would loose a lot of customers or the entire business. What would happen if Mouser orders would usually take a month or more to clear customs instead of a few days ? they would loose their business.

That is what these companies are forced to choose: lose a few customers or loose their administrative privileges that make them competitive, huge fines and even prison time. Yes, you heard it right: someone in a company could go to prison if a wrong sale or even wrong knowledge is passed to the wrong entity. This is why I had to take that export control training even if I did not needed it: the company wanted to be very clear about the consequences on their business and wanted to absolutely take no risk.

So now it is apparent that Mouser did a wrong job at selecting what customers to loose based on the name. Well, in today's world it is so hard to say what conditions triggered that refuse. And based on what I know it is hardly that the name was the sole reason. Speculations: it is so very possible that that guy sold some equipment on ebay to the wrong person. Then his email address ended in some database that Mouser uses to purge liable customers. And that database may be compiled by another company contracted by Mouser. Or he has someone on whatsapp contact list that the government does not like. Or he paid the wrong person that is of origin in some sanctioned country. It is impossible to say (for the reasons said 4 posts above). So we argue as kids in the schoolyard on silly reasons.

[Njk]

Indeed. Don't blame the trader for that. They naturally would be happy to trade with devil as long as it's profitable. While another sort of guys wants to control everything and rule everyone. No idea who's better, that's a part of human nature. But each time a disagreement arose, the traders have to comply because of lack of executive power. I'm afraid very soon each customer, except for those in the US and in a couple of the most aligned nations, will have to submit a form like this. No declaration, no shipment.

[ebastler]

Indeed. Don't blame the trader for that. They naturally would be happy to trade with devil as long as it's profitable. While another sort of guys wants to control everything and rule everyone. No idea who's better, that's a part of human nature. But each time a disagreement arose, the traders have to comply because of lack of executive power. I'm afraid very soon each customer, except for those in the US and in a couple of the most aligned nations, will have to submit a form like this. No declaration, no shipment.

Do Mouser still ship to Russia at all, if you complete that form (and are not working on military products etc.)? I thought they had joined the embargo in response to the war against Ukraine?

[Njk]

No, of course. Check the date in the document