DigiKey bait-and-switch "scam"

[1276-2449-1-ND]

I've run into an issue using DigiKey the past few months.

Parts that are backordered no longer show up as backordered on the product listing page, but only when they're in the cart. And even then they state that the order will ship a few days out (around exactly 1 week.)

However, after making payment if you check the status of the order the shipping date is now pushed back to the backorder date. In one case an order was pushed to several months beyond the published backorder date, implying that even some of their published backorder dates are fake.

At first I thought it was just a mistake, but now after speaking with their sales team I think it's done deliberately to avoid losing sales due to the current long backorder times.

These sorts of shenanigans from a supposedly reputable distributor is borderline unethical if not outright scammy. This is something I expect from someone on AliExpress, not DigiKey FFS.

These fake DigiKey backorders have caused serious problems for us because we took DigiKey at their word and now we can't build the product we're supposed to right now. Had they just used the real backorder dates (and stopped trying to hide them) this could have been easily managed and planned around.

DigiKey has dropped considerably in trustworthiness. How long until they start looking for "alternative sources" for their out of stock products -- if they haven't already?

[48X24X48X]

This happened to me last month. On the product page and checkout page shown available units around 29K units. After order placed, it showed they have none in stock. Then it back ordered to end of January. I had to buy from Element-14 as I needed to assemble board now and not end of January.

[asmi]

Yea, I had a bad experience just yesterday too. The shopping cart no longer showed that some items were on a backorder, but the Android app did show them as such when I was trying to place an order.
But then it got worse - it switched the cart into "USD" mode, and even after removing the backordered items and adding an equivalent items which were in stock, apparently there is no way to switch the cart back into "CAD" mode. And even lady at DK phone support wasn't able to help me with that. The only way around it was to export current cart into Excel file, then create a brand new empty cart and add all items into it. The reason the mode is important is that it has implications for delivery mode - for USD orders they deliver using CPT terms (meaning taxes and duties are due on delivery), for CAD orders it's DDP (all taxes and duties are prepaid).
That thing really left a bad taste after all was said and done, and that is yet another reason to switch to different distributor. Up until that moment they were super-reliable, I can't remember there being a single issue in all years that I was working with them, but looks like that is changing now. Will see how it goes - I'm willing to give them a benefit of a doubt for now, but if something like that will happen again, I will have to look elsewhere.

[Rat_Patrol]

An issue with how you ordered it?

Say you ordered a cut strip or Digi Reel but they only had full reels available (maybe they keep that separate, I don't know)?

Not sure, I switched to Mouser after 4 orders in a row from DigiKey didn't ship the same day, putting me back a day of work. Mouser has been very consistent in getting orders out on time.

[asmi]

Not sure, I switched to Mouser after 4 orders in a row from DigiKey didn't ship the same day, putting me back a day of work. Mouser has been very consistent in getting orders out on time.

Well Mouser wasn't flawless either. One time my order got stuck because apparently they required some documents from vendor of one of the parts for export, and they couldn't get hold of anyone for a few days - and Mouser didn't bother contacting me to let me know what's going on until I called them to find out what's up with the order. Another time they shipped me somebody else's order together with mine (got it RMA'ed few days later as it took them some days to issue an RMA label) - so that I mentally imagined myself being on the other side of such transaction while ordering some low-stock items and didn't like that image a single bit. Also Fedex didn't seem to mind shipping two packages with exact same labels on them - so part of the blame can go to Fedex for not paying attention to what's on a label like size and weight being different from the actual package.
But at least they don't play BS games with stock levels.

[Rat_Patrol]

Neither/none are flawless.

I've had to bounce back and fourth when one was OOS on a component. I'd likely use Digi Key more if they weren't 2 day ground to me. Mouser is also 2 day, but Digi Key is geographically close to me, just outside the 1 day shipping time.

My last Mouser order they missed shipping the same day. No problem, the upgraded to  NDA to get it to me on time. Great. UPS dropped the ball on that package (of course...), and delivered a day late anyway. At least Mouser did what they could do; nobody could have predicted UPS mis-sorting the package.

[SilverSolder]

[...] Fedex didn't seem to mind shipping two packages with exact same labels on them[...]

If the two packages were picked up at the same location, the computers would probably just assume the operator scanned the same package bar code twice...

[phil from seattle]

[...] Fedex didn't seem to mind shipping two packages with exact same labels on them[...]

If the two packages were picked up at the same location, the computers would probably just assume the operator scanned the same package bar code twice...

In my small business, it is trivially easy to reprint a label.  It was probably a simple mistake as it is not worth cheating at this level to save a couple of bucks.  Especially given the low likelihood of 2 packages shipping to the same location. Probably not worth putting the effort into preventing that kind of fraud, either.

I've used both DigiKey and Mouser but prefer Mouser.

[Bud]

[...] Fedex didn't seem to mind shipping two packages with exact same labels on them[...]

If the two packages were picked up at the same location, the computers would probably just assume the operator scanned the same package bar code twice...

If a shipment is a multi-packaged they go with the same shipping label. At least that was the case some years ago with UPS when i shipped.

[JohnnyMalaria]

[...] Fedex didn't seem to mind shipping two packages with exact same labels on them[...]

If the two packages were picked up at the same location, the computers would probably just assume the operator scanned the same package bar code twice...

If a shipment is a multi-packaged they go with the same shipping label. At least that was the case some years ago with UPS when i shipped.

That was my experience with FedEx a few months ago, too.

[wraper]

If a shipment is a multi-packaged they go with the same shipping label. At least that was the case some years ago with UPS when i shipped.

It's not the same label. Multi-piece shipment will have different labels, even if there is common tracking number for all of them.

[E-Design]

Can somebody cite some digikey part numbers as examples to show them. They do listen to feedback, Id like to submit this to them. If enough people complain, they may stop this. But we need exact examples.

[NorthGuy]

But then it got worse - it switched the cart into "USD" mode, and even after removing the backordered items and adding an equivalent items which were in stock, apparently there is no way to switch the cart back into "CAD" mode.

I also had troubles recently switching from CAD to USD. They had the best web site, miles ahead of others. Most importantly, there were no bugs. But then they started re-designing it and it got much worse, more difficult to use, and somewhat buggy. I have no idea why they're doing this.

At the same time Mouser is getting better - more things in stock, better CAD prices. I still prefer DigiKey, but this is mostly reminiscences from the past.

Delivering is falling apart too. I placed an order with DigiKey on Dec 22, and it only arrived today. But this is certainly FedEx's fault - DigiKey shipped it right away. DHL is taking weeks lately ...

[thinkfat]

Delivering is falling apart too. I placed an order with DigiKey on Dec 22, and it only arrived today. But this is certainly FedEx's fault - DigiKey shipped it right away. DHL is taking weeks lately ...

Well that at least is not a surprise. Carriers have been swamped with online orders as most people were obeying stay-at-home orders and doinc christmas shopping online instead of hitting the mall.

[asmi]

Well that at least is not a surprise. Carriers have been swamped with online orders as most people were obeying stay-at-home orders and doinc christmas shopping online instead of hitting the mall.

Actually it is surprising. I've placed orders with Mouser and DK on Dec 21st, and received the former on Dec 23rd, and the latter on Dec 22nd. Also placed another order with DK yesterday, and today it's already in my hands. So I didn't notice much delays - Mouser orders typically show up the next biz day, so the one I made on 21st was a day late, but this did happen on occasions before too, so not too surprising either. DK was right on the money for both orders - once I actually managed to place the order that is.
Same can be said of DHL - I had two PCB orders delivered to me - one right before xmas, and another one yesterday - both arrived few days before their own estimated times.

[NorthGuy]

I've placed orders with Mouser and DK on Dec 21st, and received the former on Dec 23rd, and the latter on Dec 22nd.

That's my mistake. I looked at a wrong tracking number. The DigiKey shipment was ordered and sent on Dec 28. On Dec 22, there was a different FedEx shipment, completely unrelated to DigiKey.

[pisoiu]

Same here with Digikey. Ordered some devboards, all in stock, paid, received order confirmation, again with all items on stock.
Few days later, I received shipping notice with invoice, one item on backorder.

[48X24X48X]

I had a chat with their online service just now because my order in December with back ordered items supposed to ship on 29 January and suddenly changed to 15 January. But, even as of today it didn't go out. Then they said "I'm sorry, it seems to be overdue. I will initiate a delivery in formation request or DIR to try to get more information". Then, I mentioned my part was in stock when ordered, paid and in fact 29K was in stock (I ordered 1K for a full reel). I even mentioned it is not me alone experiencing this now and this is what they responded "The website shows real time as close as we can. We do have thousands of orders going out at the same time". I was just too lazy to further entertain them after that. It can't be too coincidence for so many people experiencing this.

[Siwastaja]

Same here with Digikey. Ordered some devboards, all in stock, paid, received order confirmation, again with all items on stock.
Few days later, I received shipping notice with invoice, one item on backorder.

Literally the absolute #1 reason I completely ditched Farnell and went for Digikey for good was this shit Farnell was doing. I have zero tolerance for playing such games. Yes, I understand sometimes this can happen because,
1) they can't reserve the parts while in shopping basket; someone may have shopped just the same parts in the split second between checking the cart status, and clicking checkout,
2) sometimes inventory error (human error) happens.

But neither explains this happening all the time.

So I just ditch the supplier for good when they start doing this on a regular basis.

[pisoiu]

Well, I cannot say that I had very bad experiences with Farnell. Their prices are not too good but otherwise it was ok.
On your #1, there is a solution and TME uses it. The moment you press 'buy' for one item, the displayed qty drops with the ordered amount, it becomes reserved for you. If you do not finish the order in a certain amount of time, usually until the next day, all items in cart are released.
#2, yes, that happens everywhere but usually with the last few items or reels. The item which was backordered in my case was a devboard and they had quite a few on stock, over 10-20 pcs.
Otoh I had with Digikey another situation some time ago, more specifically with their free shipping. I ordered something like 5k pcs of hammond plastic boxes, which of course qualified for free shipping. After I paid, I received a notice that the free shipping will be around 600 usd. I understand that a pack of 5k boxes can be quite heavy and huge compared with a reel with ICs having the same value, but nowhere on their terms and conditions was stated such situation. During further dialogues I asked them how can I estimate the shipping if a similar situation will arise. They said to place the order and see because it cannot be determined before.

[Jester]

The same thing happened to me last week, part showed stock and now back ordered until February. Something is definitely no5 quite right at Digi-Key

[Siwastaja]

It happened to me with Farnell during the timeframe of about 2015-2016, at that point I stopped using them completely.

My average order was maybe 50 lines out of which about 5 on average went from good stock numbers to zero immediately after clicking checkout. This happened many, many times. Once I suspected this trickery beforehand so looked at the stock numbers every day for maybe a week before ordering, completely stable, not a popular part, stock isn't going down, and relatively high number (hundreds). Then it dropped to zero during the split second of clicking checkout. 99.99% sure it isn't because of someone buying the parts at the same time. Inventory error can explain some of the instance but it was too common so I suspected foul play.

[Mangozac]

Inventory error can explain some of the instance but it was too common so I suspected foul play.

Regardless of foul play I would have stopped using them simply due to frustration!

[olkipukki]

Exactly, around 80% orders have been cancelled for last 4-5 weeks (and went to another dists) after listen their dumb excuses such as "stock qty error" or "we sent you email, but you didn't response" etc.
My DK rule of thumb today - if they cannot ship on the next business day, cancel an order straight away and don't waste too much time

On positive side, they do not charge up front (yet) and don't need to deal with refunds (yet) 

[Dave8266]

I couldn't say that any of them are "fishy", but I've been shocked how many otherwise normal components have gone from stocks of tens of thousands, to nearly zero, in a matter of days lately.
Are large companies doing arbitrary "lifetime buys" to mitigate the supply chain shortages?  Is this the pandemic toilet paper situation, but in electronics?