Finding Reputable Suppliers

[Kasper]

Hi Everyone,
A client of mine is looking for about 500x BME280 asap and having trouble finding them.  Must be unused and from a reputable supplier.  Octopart says JAK electronics and Star River Electronics have them but I am not familiar with them.  Is anyone familiar with them?  Are they trustworthy?  What makes a supplier trustworthy?  Are any suppliers trustworthy?

I know if the price is too low, that is a bad sign, but aside from that, how do I vet a new supplier?

[Mangozac]

If they're not an authorised distributor you simply can't be guaranteed. You could order a couple of parts as samples and then run the date codes past your rep at the manufacturer, but that's only partially helpful. Grey market suppliers get their parts from multiple sources, so even if one batch is good future batches could vary.

We make a point of buying ICs only from authorised distributors but I understand sometimes lead times make this impossible. In that case you simply have to buy the parts from wherever you can and ideally swap one out on a prototype board and give it a bit of a test. In our experience dodgy parts are generally a go/no go thing - they always failed on production test.

[Kasper]

Ok, that makes sense, thank you.  They are not on Bosch's list. 

In your experience, when they failed on production test, were you able to get a refund?

[bdunham7]

Abacus, which is an authorized distributor for many brands but not Bosch, says they have 40K in stock.  They are an actual business with a location not to far from me (as opposed to HK or Shenzhen) and you can always call them and ask straight up what the history is on the product.  I doubt it would be fake and these are a new product so you aren't buying 40-year-old stock.  There's always the odd case where something happened like they were retrieved from a shipping container that sank, but usually these companies deal with liquidations and so on.  I've actually had good luck getting some pretty rare stuff from these types of companies--there's a bunch locally--but of course you should always be careful.  They won't be cheap, b/t/w. 

https://www.abacuselect.com/search/?q=BME280&utm_source=octopart#

[Mangozac]

In your experience, when they failed on production test, were you able to get a refund?

When this has happened for me it was purchased via a third party (one of our associates in China), so they paid to have replacement parts delivered from Mouser so we could be sure of provenance. They didn't bother trying to get the bad parts sent back and I don't believe got any refund.

[Kasper]

Abacus, which is an authorized distributor for many brands but not Bosch, says they have 40K in stock.  They are an actual business with a location not to far from me (as opposed to HK or Shenzhen) and you can always call them and ask straight up what the history is on the product.  I doubt it would be fake and these are a new product so you aren't buying 40-year-old stock.  There's always the odd case where something happened like they were retrieved from a shipping container that sank, but usually these companies deal with liquidations and so on.  I've actually had good luck getting some pretty rare stuff from these types of companies--there's a bunch locally--but of course you should always be careful.  They won't be cheap, b/t/w. 

https://www.abacuselect.com/search/?q=BME280&utm_source=octopart#

Thanks for the suggestion.  Sounds like they are worth a try but failed my attempt to verify them.  I checked a handful of companies in their line card.
https://www.abacuselect.com/electronic-components/line-card

Hammond, TE Connectivity and FLIR for example, I went to their websites and checked their list of distributors and couldn't find Abacus.  Is that a bad sign or am I missing something?  Maybe they just don't bother listing all their distributors?

I emailed a couple of them to ask if Abacus is an authorized distributor, waiting for response now.

[Kasper]

In your experience, when they failed on production test, were you able to get a refund?

When this has happened for me it was purchased via a third party (one of our associates in China), so they paid to have replacement parts delivered from Mouser so we could be sure of provenance. They didn't bother trying to get the bad parts sent back and I don't believe got any refund.

Did they require any evidence from you to show the original parts were bad?

[Mangozac]

Did they require any evidence from you to show the original parts were bad?

Yes, in that specific case I'm remembering they had shipped ancient, original silicone revision parts that were full of bugs. It wasn't difficult to document and show as proof.

[Kasper]

Did they require any evidence from you to show the original parts were bad?

Yes, in that specific case I'm remembering they had shipped ancient, original silicone revision parts that were full of bugs. It wasn't difficult to document and show as proof.

Ah, well, that's lucky... kind of.

[mon2]

Hello fellow Canadian 

Found them...contact Bea @ win-source.net electronics in hk.

Have used them numerous times. They are a reliable vendor.

BME280 is in stock.

Shout back if you have other questions or need other agents in China.

[Kasper]

Hi mon2, thanks for the connect eh

My client just found some also, actually the PCBA house I connected them with years ago found some.