What is going on at Mouser?

[mikeselectricstuff]

So for the second time in a month, my order has been "held for export review" for a week with NO Notification.
No reply to an email I sent querying it
And now I get an email saying it's been cancelled, with NO explanation.

What the hell is going on? Mouser used to be a reliable supplier - are the wheels falling off?

(the order items were some LIN transceivers, bog-standard transistors and terminal blocks, nothing remotely export sensitive)

[aeberbach]

Best guess is that your name matches one on some kind of watch list, which of course they will not tell you? If shipping to the UK as your flag indicates it's the only thing I can think of.

[amyk]

Looks like you're not the only one... https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/mouser-export-review/

[mikeselectricstuff]

Best guess is that your name matches one on some kind of watch list, which of course they will not tell you? If shipping to the UK as your flag indicates it's the only thing I can think of.

Whatever the reason, there is absolutely no excuse for no notification of a delayed order - it's just pure incompetence.
No similar issues with Digikey, ever.  TBH I only tend to use Mouser for things DK doesn't have in stock, or where Mouser are significantly cheaper.

 

[jc101]

Interesting did you try giving the UK office a call?

I need to order some bits soon, wondering now if I should look elsewhere...

[TimFox]

Best guess is that your name matches one on some kind of watch list, which of course they will not tell you? If shipping to the UK as your flag indicates it's the only thing I can think of.

Whatever the reason, there is absolutely no excuse for no notification of a delayed order - it's just pure incompetence.
No similar issues with Digikey, ever.  TBH I only tend to use Mouser for things DK doesn't have in stock, or where Mouser are significantly cheaper.

There is a similar recently-posted problem with DigiKey:  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/digikey-keeps-flagging-me-for-export-compliance/msg5061691/#msg5061691

[mikeselectricstuff]

Good morning

Thank you for your email and the details provided

There has been a increase in export restrictions in the United States due to the current situation in Russia as a result we are having to place more orders on export review in order to comply with US export regulations. We are sorry for the inconvenience it is causing and we will investigate this cancellation with our export department and get back to you. I have also copied UK customer service manager to make her aware of this situation. As soon as I receive additional information from our US export compliance team I will advise.

Apologies again for the inconvenience caused by this

Still no explanation for the lack of notification, which is my major complaint, not to mention the cancellation.
I've had no similar issues with Digikey.

[MK14]

Still no explanation for the lack of notification, which is my major complaint, not to mention the cancellation.
I've had no similar issues with Digikey.

My understanding, is it is because of (somewhat) new rules imposed on them.  Which DON'T allow them to tell you what is going on.  These rules, are rumoured (or explained), by the current (war related) sanctions and stuff.

I also seem to gather, that it is overly sensitive (too easily triggered), because of silly text (and so fourth) matches, rather than sensibly done.

So, I'd suggest you don't get angry with Mouser over this.  They are just trying to listen to new rules and regulations.

I'm going by things I've read about, so don't take what I say in this post as an exact science.

[vk6zgo]

A couple of years back, I remember, over on QRZ.com, a very irate ham complaining that a radio used in a WW2 B17 bomber was "export controlled".
This despite such radios having been available surplus all over the world in the 1950s.

A bit different but of the same level of idiocy, was when the German Customs, looking for concealed drugs, drilled holes in some external anode RF power tubes, turning them into very expensive doorstops.

[SiliconWizard]

Still no explanation for the lack of notification, which is my major complaint, not to mention the cancellation.
I've had no similar issues with Digikey.

My understanding, is it is because of (somewhat) new rules imposed on them.  Which DON'T allow them to tell you what is going on.  These rules, are rumoured (or explained), by the current (war related) sanctions and stuff.

I also seem to gather, that it is overly sensitive (too easily triggered), because of silly text (and so fourth) matches, rather than sensibly done.

So, I'd suggest you don't get angry with Mouser over this.  They are just trying to listen to new rules and regulations.

He has every right to get angry with a company he's doing business with and which provides very bad service. Whatever the reason is. If the current political decisions turn out to render many businesses bad for their customers, I think this is going to be a serious problem. Just saying.

[MK14]

He has every right to get angry with a company he's doing business with and which provides very bad service. Whatever the reason is. If the current political decisions turn out to render many businesses bad for their customers, I think this is going to be a serious problem. Just saying.

You and everyone else, has every right to be angry with any organisation, for any reason.

But, if the reason is entirely out of that organisations control, and would mean they would be breaking certain laws and/or liable to lose a substantial amount of business, as a result.

That it may not be such, a good idea, blaming that organisation.

E.g. You eat a really nice meal, outside, on the restaurants tables.  It then pours with rain, a huge wind blows, a storm brews, and you have a terrible time.
It wouldn't necessarily be fair or nice, to blame the restaurant for the terrible weather.

But, you would be within your rights, to do so (blame them for the weather).

[Someone]

But, if the reason is entirely out of that organisations control, and would mean they would be breaking certain laws and/or liable to lose a substantial amount of business, as a result.

This assumes there is some law (that no-one can reference) which obliges the retailer to say nothing. Until that is proven it is entirely reasonable to blame the lack of communication from the retailer.... on the choices the retailer made.

[MK14]

This assumes there is some law (that no-one can reference) which obliges the retailer to say nothing. Until that is proven it is entirely reasonable to blame the lack of communication from the retailer.... on the choices the retailer made.

You are free and welcome to do such things, if you desire.

But what happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Many things, don't or can't be absolutely 100% defined and proved.  So, if you only ever make decisions based on insisting on absolute 100% exact information.  It may be found, to hinder some activities.

Such as buying stuff from a retailer, who (perhaps?) has done absolutely nothing wrong at all.

[ataradov]

There may or may not be a law that explicitly states that. But if the the law is not crystal clear, the lawyers will err on the side of caution.

When I see a flag on a ticket, there is a text in red warning me to stop all work and communication on the ticket until the flag is cleared. I can't tell you why there is a delay in my responses. And it sucks and does not feel good, but there is nothing low level workers can do.

You can blame organization, for sure, but I'm not sure if it will achieve anything. Hopefully that all gets clarified and resolved sooner rather than later.

And individual pressure is also not likely to do anything. Bad review on a forum is not great, but a government investigation is so much worse.

[Someone]

This assumes there is some law (that no-one can reference) which obliges the retailer to say nothing. Until that is proven it is entirely reasonable to blame the lack of communication from the retailer.... on the choices the retailer made.

You are free and welcome to do such things, if you desire.

But what happened to innocent until proven guilty?

That would be your inversion of the presumption of innocence.

Bad retailer is a bad retailer for not communicating delays/issues with an order.

If people want to offload that bad publicity/feedback by claiming the retailer is obliged to take that action, then it's on them to show the obligation. Not me to show the absence of an obligation (which is impractical). But well done trying to sound like you can form a functional argument, and failing right on your own claim.

Great thing about laws is they are explicitly required to be made public.

[Someone]

There may or may not be a law that explicitly states that. But if the the law is not crystal clear, the lawyers will err on the side of caution.

If the organisations actions create an unpleasant customer experience then we can rightly point the blame at the organisation. As you say it's not the front line workers choosing to be unpleasant here.

I find it implausible there is a law which requires zero contact/update to the customer. If the organisations lawyers are going conservative on some interpretation of a vague clause in some law then that is still a fault of the organisation.

[ataradov]

I don't think enough people get flagged for them to worry about that.  And there may also be different types of flags. International shipments in general may be more suspect.

From the previous thread, it looks like DigiKey communicated that there is a delay.

I doubt complaints will make them improve, only time and lawyers figuring out how to work and comply with those rules.

[themadhippy]

I find it implausible there is a law which requires zero contact/update to the customer.

No surprise at all,in fact id be more surprised if there wasnt, why tip off someone that the government suspects them of being involved in something dodgy?

[ataradov]

Yep, that would be a reason for me not to tell even after the flag is cleared.

I'm not sure how it all supposed to work from the legal point of view. From what I understand, the law just prohibits trade with the people/organizations under the sanctions. But there is no one specific list of such people, so companies contract various providers of this data. So, even the databases used by different companies may vary.

From the few cases I've seen, some of those databases are too broad. They may prevent someone from working for the government or the military, but should not matter for buying resistors from Mouser.

[SiliconWizard]

Agreed, and anyway as I said before, discriminating people based on their name with no further evidence, whatever the reason, is a very wrong idea IMHO. Oh well.
After the dreadful shortage now parts are available but (some) people can't buy them anymore. How ironic.

[Someone]

I find it implausible there is a law which requires zero contact/update to the customer.

No surprise at all,in fact id be more surprised if there wasnt, why tip off someone that the government suspects them of being involved in something dodgy?

Great, so find this magical law that people think exists. Or any law which obliges a corporation/company/organisation/entity to halt all communication with proscribed people.

You say it exists, so it should be easy to find.

[ataradov]

The law is not going to say "stop all communication", it would say something generic, like prohibit to do business or something like this. Talking on any topic may be considered doing business. Companies just want to be extra careful. They will get some negative feedback, but a few delayed orders out of 10000 is not such a big deal.

I doubt anyone on the EE forum known all the applicable laws, it would have to go to some lawyer forum (that pace must be fun).

[CatalinaWOW]

I am not sure what communication would have made you feel better.

A.  We have received legal advice regarding sales of our parts and cannot ship until we understand and resolve the issues.

B.  There have been problems cropping up in our delivery of these parts and cannot at this time make a reliable prediction of delivery dates.

C.  An employee has been found to be making illegal exports and now all orders from the department employing that person have been sequestered for evidentiary reasons.

D.  A fire in our warehouse damaged some of our parts, and also damaged some of our records.  We are trying to find which parts are undamaged and deliverable, which must be replaced, how we can obtain replacements for those parts which must be replaced and whether our backup systems have correctly repaired the damage to our records.  We cannot give specific dates for when full recovery will be complete.

I doubt if you would be happier having received any of these explanations, any of which are plausible, and all of which may have been covered by a gag order to protect the interests of one or more of the involved parties.  Even the most detailed of them doesn't really change anything for you.

It sucks when your business gets caught up in someone else's affairs, but getting upset about it seldom improves the situation and always makes your own life less enjoyable.

[Someone]

I doubt if you would be happier having received any of these explanations, any of which are plausible, and all of which may have been covered by a gag order to protect the interests of one or more of the involved parties.  Even the most detailed of them doesn't really change anything for you.

It does make a big difference, because with some form of information the customer can decide what action to take. Easy hypothetical:

Supplier: hello customer, we are unable to ship out your order and are unsure when we can
Customer: thanks for telling me, I'll cancel the order and take my business elsewhere

vs:

....... radio silence
Customer: deadlines are passing and where the hell is my order?

[Someone]

The law is not going to say "stop all communication", it would say something generic, like prohibit to do business or something like this.

Exactly why I keep asking people to point to any such law, this is likely some wildly conservative overreach that should be called out for what it is rather than people defending businesses going silent on the possibility of perhaps some law (stupid corporation). If such a law exists then sure we can say its not the corporations fault (stupid government) and learn how to avoid getting stuck in that stupid hole (like say using resellers, sticking to suppliers not under the laws, etc).

Accepting this as normal, making no attempt to find out what is going on, and attacking anyone who questions it. That's some scary trained compliance.