Mouser Decline?

[phil from seattle]

I've been a steady customer of Mouser for almost 20 years. They have always given me excellent service and fast shipping (<24 hrs from order, often same day). And, their parametric search has been the gold standard for me.

Lately I have seen a real decline in their service. They made some changes to their web site and parametric searches seem to be flakey/unreliable.  Clicking on a major category link often gets me "no results".  Huh, you don't have any linear regulators??? Just now I tried Products/Semiconductors/Integrated Circuits - ICs and got a "403 Access Denied". This has been going on for at least a month now.

The recent storm in Texas has really pushed them over the edge. They notified me that they shipped an order but FedEx didn't pick up until 2 days later.  OK, I get that FexEd was whacked by the great Texas snowstorm but when I got the package, it was not my order.  Some guy in Germany didn't get a couple of Seeed Studio displays and my 25 Magjacks were no where to be seen. Hope he can do something with my Magjacks. You can't blame that on the delivery company - it had the correct packing list.  So what started out a 4 day delivery turned into 9 or 10. And I'm now about to be out of Magjacks for my product (I sell them as part of an upgrade kit). I will be stocking larger numbers of parts just to avoid this in the future - probably to create a 30 day buffer. I have been targeting a week, not a good idea in hindsight.

They said they are making my order right but this leads me to wonder what has happened to cause Mouser to slip so badly. I'll give them another chance but will also consider my options. I will probably order more from Digikey and LCSC and not rely so much on Mouser.   

[JohnnyMalaria]

I'm not experiencing any problems. I placed an order on 14th Feb and expected delays. It arrived yesterday following a number of emails explaining the delays and the free shipping upgrade I always manage to get.

[wilhe_jo]

Well, my last order took them 5 or 6 days at their warehouse...

Their local office did nor reply to my emails... so maybe you're right.

73

[Simon]

I had a delay in an order but got it OK, you sound like the unlucky one where someone just slipped up in packing. Beleive it or not I am happier getting stuff from mouser than either RS or Farnell in the UK. RS is a 40 minute drive from me!!!

RS don't allow me to filter out what is not in stock and to trawl through 100 listings of the same passive part trying to find the 10 that they have stock of is not a good use of my employers money. Farnell on the other hand will allow you to filter out what is not in stock but the data is 2 hours old so the first you know about it is after you have placed the order. To cancel items will be a nightmare with accounts as I need to get someone to amend the order having contacted Farnell. For a few quid's worth of parts this is again not worth my employers money as I already have the workload of 2 people. Farnell are also very prone to errors in their listings which means that the parametric search results need investigating thoroughly before I use the part - by which time remaining stock could have been sold.

Mouser on the other hand always have plenty of stock. I have never had an issue with something not being available after I ordered based on available stock. their search is indeed good although lately a bit slow and whatever they are using for it there is no clue that they are "working on it" the page just does nothing until the results update which with the delay can cause issues as I may try to select the same thing again and mess it up. But overall I am happy with them and often tell my boss that it is easier to get parts from Texas USA than it is Corby or Leeds UK. Their prices are also generally good.

[Kean]

My last two Mouser orders have taken a week to pack and ship, compared to them normally shipping my orders the same or next day up till as recently as a month ago.  I am sure that there are real issues going on that are causing this (peak demand because of CNY, COVID safety, bad weather).

I've not seen any web site issues, but certainly IT staff working remotely will be slower to respond to issues, and staffing a busy warehouse must be a nightmare right now even when a lot of the processing is largely automated.

I haven't ordered from Digikey recently, but I saw mention that they are also are having shipping delays.  Their website currently says "Your order may take 1-3 days to ship due to peak order volumes combined with ensuring the health and safety of team members due to COVID-19."

Local shipments from RS & Element14 here in Australia have not really been affected, but stuff they have to bring from O/S has been taking a few days longer than normal.

[wilhe_jo]

I had a delay in an order but got it OK, you sound like the unlucky one where someone just slipped up in packing. Beleive it or not I am happier getting stuff from mouser than either RS or Farnell in the UK. RS is a 40 minute drive from me!!!

From my experience, the "quality" of a distributor is very much dependent on your own location.

Just as an example: I'm located pretty close to an airport from which fedex and dhl operate.
Hence, every distributor using dhl or fedex is quicker in delivery if they need to fly things in.
Fedex does not have any drop-off/pick-up locations in the city where I live - DHL does.

So the service that I receive is better from the once using DHL even though this has nothing to do with the distributor itself.

I very seldom use Mouser, since I have to wait pretty long to receive the stuff.
Digikey also has long delivery-times for me, but they seem to directly get my stuff to Europe whereas with Mouser it takes some hops within the US.
So again, this may be very much unique to my location within Europe.

RS-Components got "bad" since they have a lot of stuff in the UK which now is a problem for me (I'm in the EU).
However, RS-Components marks the stuff accordingly. If they claim it gets to you over night, it will!

My last order from Mouser had every component available for immediate delivery.
But the orders' status was "in warehouse" for ages! That's not a nice thing...
There was one item which was maybe very slow-turning for them.
Maybe that one was the issue... but it would have been nice from them if they would flag this!

Anyhow, in the last year I moved almost completely to TME... works very nicely for me.

73

[olkipukki]

Mouser - exactly 2 weeks since one of order has placed and about to be delivered today, orders placed a week ago - will delivery (hopefully) later this week. 

P.S.
DK is backed to a normal days

[MadScientist]

I normally use DK , but gave mouser an order two weeks ago. Took 6 working days to get to me , not on a par with DK.

I still don’t understand why they don’t have a warehouse in Europe. Shipping small parcels from TX doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.

[HB9EVI]

I use to place one order per month at Mouser, and except for the last one beginning of February, where the shipping was delayed, likely due to the weather related problems, I always received the parcel within time (2 to maximally 3 days)

also parametric search never caused me any pain so far; much better than other suppliers

[JohnnyMalaria]

I normally use DK , but gave mouser an order two weeks ago. Took 6 working days to get to me , not on a par with DK.

I still don’t understand why they don’t have a warehouse in Europe. Shipping small parcels from TX doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.

So you placed the order in a middle of a major weather event that crippled the distribution system?

[phil from seattle]

Weather delays are understandable.  I can't fault them for that. However, slow fulfillment (aka - sitting in the warehouse) is a symptom of something else.

On the web site and search.  I just tested the simplest of actions - from the front page, mouse down the product list to Semiconductors to get the "Types of Semiconductors" panel and select "Integrate Circuits - ICs". I get "No Results".  Other items on the panel get results to select from. This tends to change over time.  I randomly get "No Results" from things that have worked.  Also, I've noticed that Sorting by clicking on column headers in a search results table does weird things.  Sorting by price doesn't always work (should toggle between highest to lowest and lowest to highest). It sometimes gets stuck in "random" (my name for it). Sometimes it works fine.  Feels like they fired all their experienced web developers and replaced them with interns.

[Simon]

I had a delay in an order but got it OK, you sound like the unlucky one where someone just slipped up in packing. Beleive it or not I am happier getting stuff from mouser than either RS or Farnell in the UK. RS is a 40 minute drive from me!!!

From my experience, the "quality" of a distributor is very much dependent on your own location.

not really, for me personally from wanting to order to receiving a supplier 1'000's of miles away is easier to deal with than one that is 20 miles away despite the new customs issues in the UK. I am including the quality of the site (parametric search), the ability to have stock and to be up to date with it on the site so that I don't have to constantly cancel and repeat orders.

Yes RS and farnell are that bad for my particular use case that a foreign supplier the other side of the Atlantic ocean is my go to.

[thm_w]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/something-is-very-wrong-with-mouser/

[Mangozac]

Digikey is by far the king of the parametric search. Being able to set the quantity break for pricing and then sort by availability is the most useful tool when looking for new parts to spec into a design.

In general I've found Mouser to have better pricing than Digikey and they have always been same day dispatch until lately. We too are experiencing long warehouse delays with Mouser but it feels like this started before the extreme weather event in Texas. I just checked and I was incorrect. The delays we've been experiencing from Mouser seem to be directly linked to the weather event, so they're certainly understandable.

[Simon]

Yes the digikey searh is second to none although they are more expensive but they have more stock and different parts..... you get what you pay for....

[Rat_Patrol]

I order multiple times weekly forever, haven't had any issues.

The weather the last few weeks was a one-per-century event. UPS/FedEx literally shut off logistics to/from TX and surrounding areas for over 3 days. The backlog was insane.

Then there were the rolling blackouts. Many people didn't/couldn't get to work (at Mouser), and since they couldn't ship and/or may not have power reliably, I'm sure Mouser shut down. When I called CS to get an order status update (just an estimate for when they would be opening again), she told me that all office personnel were working from home, but less than half of them had power/internet at any given time.

Quit frankly, those folks down there had more pressing things to worry about than getting our orders out. I'm sure they also had temps working as well, which doesn't help with reliability.

I've ordered before, during and since the extreme weather in Texas from Mouser, and IMHO, they have always done a good job. If there was ever an event when they couldn't ship same day, they upgraded my shipping to NDA at no charge to me.

I'm a happy customer.

[jrs45]

I've had several orders delayed by a week already, and they still haven't shipped. It's extremely worrisome.

Of course, they still claim "same day shipping" on their website during the order process, which just pisses me off.  If they have serious problems, they should at least be honest about it, and not surprise us with leadtimes AFTER the order is made.

Ridiculous!

[NorthGuy]

I placed an order on Feb 11. Mouser said they shipped on Feb 22 because of the wheather. FedEx received it on Feb 24. I'm still waiting. Usually, it takes 1-2 days.

I haven't noticed the parametric search problems. To the contrary, my impression is that Mouser is constantly improving. They also have more and more things in stock. There were few times they had something in stock while DigiKey didn't. Five years ago I only used DigiKey. Now I use both DigiKey and Mouser somewhat equally.

[phil from seattle]

Got an indirect error on Mouser last night.  Sigh.  Maybe they just don't like me!

For what it's worth,  I placed a Digikey order on 2/27 @ 12:07 PM and today 3/3 @ 11:30 AM it is still listed as submitted.  Everything is listed as in stock. So, maybe they are all screwing up.

edit: 3/4 @ 2PM, order status is still submitted.  4 working days just sitting there.

[jrs45]

Had another order delayed by 5 days, and they told me a day after placed the order.  They are still claiming "same day" shipping online.  I'm getting pretty irritated now.

[phil from seattle]

Got an indirect error on Mouser last night.  Sigh.  Maybe they just don't like me!

For what it's worth,  I placed a Digikey order on 2/27 @ 12:07 PM and today 3/3 @ 11:30 AM it is still listed as submitted.  Everything is listed as in stock. So, maybe they are all screwing up.

edit: 3/4 @ 2PM, order status is still submitted.  4 working days just sitting there.

Well finally!  My Digikey order was processed today.  Got paypal notice at 10 AM, 3/6.  A couple hours short of 8 full days after placing the order. I have 2 day delivery with this order (same as with Mouser) so earliest I can get it is Monday - 10 days from placing the order.  MIght show up on Tuesday though.  We'll see. At leas they didn't charge me until they actually filled the order.

FWIW Mouser, even with the extra ship time to deliver the correct package, delivered in less time than with a single ship Digikey order. As long as Mouser can ship me the right package, I'll stick with them.

And as long as I'm here.  Mouser's web site is still pretty flakey for me. I've run into a number of broken links to the datasheets.

[Kean]

It will very likely depend on the items on your order.  Different warehouse staff & training required for dealing with small components, and I'd prefer someone who has that training to pick my order.  Otherwise you can receive a packet of panel lamps instead of SMD resistors, and crazy things like that.  I won't name the company who did that to me - twice!.

My most recent Mouser order on Tuesday 24 Feb shipped on Tuesday 3 Mar, arriving in Australia on Friday, but it had 25 lines of cut tape parts and some loose THT components.  The previous Mouser order on 11 Feb also had 8 lines of loose SMD & THT components, and took 8 days to ship.

My most recent DigiKey was placed on Wednesday evening Sydney time and shipped out within 12 hours - but it had no SMD components or anything that would need special picking or repacking.

[phil from seattle]

The digikey order had 2 items: one cut tape and 40 ethernet Magjacks.  The mouser order had 8 items, mostly cut tape and 25 Magjacks.

[PartialDischarge]

Mouser's web site is still pretty flakey for me. I've run into a number of broken links to the datasheets.

That is true, I find myself many times looking up the datasheet on Digikey and buying from Mouser.   

[wilhe_jo]

ufff, another "slow" one...

I orderd on 5th and just got a dispatch notice (5 days later!).
Expected arrival is on 16th....


73

[sam512bb]

Good day All,

I also have had recent shipping issues with both Mouser and Digikey.  Both saw 7 to 10 day deliveries which in context was not the end of the World for me.  However, if you are expecting or needing parts in 1-2 days then it can be an issue.  Speaking to both companies I was told by Mouser that they had a significant Covid-19 outbreak that affected about 100 workers.  The result was a shutdown, deep cleaning, etc.  Digikey had something similar happen to them.  Even Fed Ex... who are typically the Gold Standard for shipping, took 2 weeks for a delivery that would or should have been 3-4 days tops.  All in all I suspect that with Covid still active every part of a supply to receive chain is going to have continued issues for a while yet.

Welcome to the new World we are now in.

Cheers,

Sam

[jrs45]

How horrible!  I wish they had just been honest with us and said exactly what the cause of the delay was, instead of vague descriptions. 

I just had another Mouser order delayed a solid week.

Others, such as Richardson, Newark, and (especially) Arrow, has been solid.  Arrow even does free overnight shipping.

[phil from seattle]

Got an indirect error on Mouser last night.  Sigh.  Maybe they just don't like me!

For what it's worth,  I placed a Digikey order on 2/27 @ 12:07 PM and today 3/3 @ 11:30 AM it is still listed as submitted.  Everything is listed as in stock. So, maybe they are all screwing up.

edit: 3/4 @ 2PM, order status is still submitted.  4 working days just sitting there.

Well finally!  My Digikey order was processed today.  Got paypal notice at 10 AM, 3/6.  A couple hours short of 8 full days after placing the order. I have 2 day delivery with this order (same as with Mouser) so earliest I can get it is Monday - 10 days from placing the order.  MIght show up on Tuesday though.  We'll see. At leas they didn't charge me until they actually filled the order.

FWIW Mouser, even with the extra ship time to deliver the correct package, delivered in less time than with a single ship Digikey order. As long as Mouser can ship me the right package, I'll stick with them.

And as long as I'm here.  Mouser's web site is still pretty flakey for me. I've run into a number of broken links to the datasheets.

Jeeze, my order from Digikey on Feb 27 is due to arrive on March 12.  That is a full 2 weeks.  Definitely staying with Mouser.

[PartialDischarge]

Ordered again on the 8th, expected to ship by 15th

they had a significant Covid-19 outbreak that affected about 100 workers

I would like to know if these outbreaks are just positives from the fakePcr tests where no one has any symptoms, or in fact anyone got sick. From what I’ve seen many times it must be the first.

[Simon]

Thing is as soon as they say they had a Covid-19 outbreak customers will stop ordering fearing infected packages even though the likelihood is near nill. I just found the behaviour of some people at work rather amusing as they thought they were protecting themselves when receiving goods into the stores. Their efforts were totally useless but made them feel better.

At my talking newspaper the old boy that does the receiving and despatching of reusable plastic packaging we send out and is disinfecting every one, It is quite possible knowing these things that he can miss a bit as it's not easy to get into every corner of the item and he would be far safer leaving the returned stuff for a week and using last weeks returns than disinfecting this weeks, but his fear has taken over reason. One of the questions raised in discussions about restarting the service was could we get sued if we sent out an infected package which is ridiculous but fear does funny things to people an as we are run by Rotarians all they can think about in life is suing and being sued, it's their past time so surfaces in anything in the face of actual reality.

[phil from seattle]

Yes, it has been pretty much proven that Covid doesn't spread from contact.  You have to breathe infected particles and usually within an enclosed space.  Unfortunately, the health care system has been mostly guessing about how to prevent it.  They lurched from one set of rules to another. That has lead to a lot of people dismissing the rules. I think the current rules - social distance, avoid enclosed spaces and use masks are right but I can understand why the previous ones have stuck and why so many don't believe.

[DrG]

.... but his fear has taken over reason....

Sometimes, it is fear and sometimes it is malevolent ignorance that takes over reason. The important thing is that we teach the children NOT to have reason.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/07/idaho-mask-burning/

[/sarcasm][/anger][/frustration][/I should not be surprised]

[schmitt trigger]

I sit on material review boards for my corporation.

For an engineer, those meetings used to be a perfect time to check your personal mail, because there was nothing for us to do, with a very occasional request to find a replacement for something simple, like an electrolytic cap.

Not anymore. In the last couple of months, sh!t has really hit the fan. We are having daily meetings nowadays, and the situation for many components is really dire. Problems caused in many instances by distributors, even though they have had blanket orders for years.
But many times it is related to logistics, but in other instances the manufacturers themselves have simply run out of  capacity and have no stock anywhere.
Engineers are now swamped with substitute component evaluations.

The purchasing director, which has over 30 years experience, mentioned that she has never seen such a wide, across the board component shortage.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Ordered again on the 8th, expected to ship by 15th

they had a significant Covid-19 outbreak that affected about 100 workers

I would like to know if these outbreaks are just positives from the fakePcr tests where no one has any symptoms, or in fact anyone got sick. From what I’ve seen many times it must be the first.

 

[Simon]

Yes, it has been pretty much proven that Covid doesn't spread from contact.  You have to breathe infected particles and usually within an enclosed space.  Unfortunately, the health care system has been mostly guessing about how to prevent it.  They lurched from one set of rules to another. That has lead to a lot of people dismissing the rules. I think the current rules - social distance, avoid enclosed spaces and use masks are right but I can understand why the previous ones have stuck and why so many don't believe.

No that is not what I meant. After a week on any surface it is dead so as we have the option of keeping a bag of returned mail for a week before touching it I deem that a safer option than trying to disinfect this mornings returns. But do nothing seems illogical to many so they instead go for the worse options because they have some ineffective defence that they believe in or a defence that has to be so rigorously applied that it's not worth trying. My comment on disinfecting was that if they wanted to go that route get a tub of isopropyl and just dip the damn things in it then let them dry, but the inside of the plastic wallet will not get cleaned and if someone tried to they would definitely not succeed and put themselves at more risk. So having spent all of 10 seconds weighing this up my suggestion was do the apparently irrational, nothing for 7 days.

There is a chance of transmission via surfaces but it is minimal but still it is possible. Someone touches the inside of their nose/mouth and then a surface. Someone else touches the same surface after and touches their nose/mouth/eyes or other mucus areas. But for it all to happen just right is indeed unlikely but not impossible.

[phil from seattle]

There is a chance of transmission via surfaces but it is minimal but still it is possible. Someone touches the inside of their nose/mouth and then a surface. Someone else touches the same surface after and touches their nose/mouth/eyes or other mucus areas. But for it all to happen just right is indeed unlikely but not impossible.

It is more complex than that.  A dangerous covid infection is due to a large viral load.  You can inhale one virus particle and not get sick.  A healthy immune system will handle it.  You have to keep breathing the same air of an infected person for at least a few minutes to get enough viral load to overwhelm your immune system. While the virus can last a fair amount of time on a surface, unless an infected person lays down a large amount of saliva (say a major sneeze) directly on the surface, it is highly unlikely anyone will pick it up.  And, it is also the case that the lungs are the primary location that covid gets started. It all about breathing it in - the so-called aerosol transmission (vs ballistic).  That is why bars and restaurants are so dangerous and masks so effective.

[Simon]

Yes it is more complex I grant you which is why I said that it's unlikely but not a possibility to be erm... sneezed at 

Employers have duties of care etc and the same for venues to customers so things get overdone a bit just to make sure that everyone is happy and it's impossible to have done it wrong, particularly in a lawsuit happy country.

[wilhe_jo]

The purchasing director, which has over 30 years experience, mentioned that she has never seen such a wide, across the board component shortage.

Oh, well, I remember 2008/2009/2010 when "high-voltage" (dc-link; 3-phase inverter) high-capacitance caps had something like 50-60 weeks lead-time... even the samples for the new developments were affected!

I think some 5 years ago, high-voltage ceramic caps where kind of unobtainium.

Ok, that was for projects where we needed around millions of parts.... so she maybe just refuses to remember... as I try to do as well

But mouser needing 5 days to pack some parts in some bags seems a little odd.
Especially when I consider that all distributors shipping from the EU (so not the RS-Components UK stock; that has its own problems at the moment) can deliver overnight with ease!

73

[Simon]

If they are having problems with Covid-19 outbreaks they are likely running with reduced staff and possibly closing earlier to get the place disinfected.

[jmelson]

Yup, I ordered some parts from Digi-Key on Wednesday afternoon, now it is Saturday, still no indication when it will ship.  It used to be if you ordered before 8 PM central time they would get it on a truck that night.  Not any more!

Fortunately I'm not in a super hurry for these parts, the boards are just shipped from China.

Jon

[SilverSolder]

Yup, I ordered some parts from Digi-Key on Wednesday afternoon, now it is Saturday, still no indication when it will ship.  It used to be if you ordered before 8 PM central time they would get it on a truck that night.  Not any more!

Fortunately I'm not in a super hurry for these parts, the boards are just shipped from China.

Jon

Same here.  I don't understand "why now", they have been fine throughout the crisis so far?

[Simon]

Yup, I ordered some parts from Digi-Key on Wednesday afternoon, now it is Saturday, still no indication when it will ship.  It used to be if you ordered before 8 PM central time they would get it on a truck that night.  Not any more!

Fortunately I'm not in a super hurry for these parts, the boards are just shipped from China.

Jon

Same here.  I don't understand "why now", they have been fine throughout the crisis so far?

My workplace has been fine so far, now both machinists have gotten Covid-19 separately and our machine shop is out of action,

[SilverSolder]

Yup, I ordered some parts from Digi-Key on Wednesday afternoon, now it is Saturday, still no indication when it will ship.  It used to be if you ordered before 8 PM central time they would get it on a truck that night.  Not any more!

Fortunately I'm not in a super hurry for these parts, the boards are just shipped from China.

Jon

Same here.  I don't understand "why now", they have been fine throughout the crisis so far?

My workplace has been fine so far, now both machinists have gotten Covid-19 separately and our machine shop is out of action,

I guess if you knock out a few key employees, most modern "lean and mean" companies will be in trouble...

[Simon]

Yep, well as a relatively small company each department is small enough that even with some people missing for a prolonged period from one department we'd have problems.

[PartialDischarge]

I guess if you knock out a few key employees, most modern "lean and mean" companies will be in trouble...

It is not that different in large companies, since most employees are hidden under the "noise" and do as less as possible or the minimum required. It is estimated that the people that really carry the work/knowledge or really matter in a company of size N is sqrt(N)

[SilverSolder]

I guess if you knock out a few key employees, most modern "lean and mean" companies will be in trouble...

It is not that different in large companies, since most employees are hidden under the "noise" and do as less as possible or the minimum required. It is estimated that the people that really carry the work/knowledge or really matter in a company of size N is sqrt(N)

sqrt(N) isn't much, LOL!

[NorthGuy]

I guess if you knock out a few key employees, most modern "lean and mean" companies will be in trouble...

More importantly, if one employee contracts COVID, all others who have been in contact are ordered to stay home by the governments. So, the effect self-magnifies.

[Simon]

pft, not where I work.

[Mecanix]

This whole miserable fockin covid never ending nightmare crap.... causing a great deal of headaches, and unnecessary loss of lives. fedup...
(Sorry, thought I'd add a valuable contribution to the thread)

[SMTech]

pft, not where I work.

In theory what should happen is the tracing people should be in contact, they'll ask about prolonged contact and existing precautions, and recommend anyone who meets their criteria self isolate. However in theory providing your workplace has measures in place (which are required) nobody should really fall into that window. In our devolved region HSE would not deem masks as acceptable, but 2m+ a screen is. Its not exactly a surprise tho' that the biggest high profile outbreak outside of food processing is a government institution with outdated systems, hot-desking in crowded offices in a deprived area.

Everyones rules are different but I think the biggest impact of a workplace outbreak isn't whether people want your goods, or the disruption, it's the perceived quality of care you provide for your staff.

[jmelson]

I ordered some stuff from Digi-Key on Wednesday afternoon, no shipping info emailed to me.  So, now Monday, I called, and they could not even give me any idea when it will ship!  YIKES!  So, that order has now been sitting for nearly 4 whole days.

As for Covid, it looks like the virus is wearing out.  I think this is a well-known thing, that infectious agents in pandemics become MORE infectious, but LESS harmful, over time.  The number of deaths in Missouri have been in a STEEP decline since middle February (now a 20:1 drop), and now the general US death rate also seems to be falling rapidly (about halving every week.)
I think it is too early to attribute this to vaccines.

Jon

[SilverSolder]

The virus is probably running out of victims naturally:  all those who are least resistant and behave the worst in terms of propagation will have been covered by now.

The vaccine is still important, especially to those who have low resistance and have got this far due to good behaviour!

[SMTech]

I ordered some stuff from Digi-Key on Wednesday afternoon, no shipping info emailed to me.  So, now Monday, I called, and they could not even give me any idea when it will ship!  YIKES!  So, that order has now been sitting for nearly 4 whole days.

As for Covid, it looks like the virus is wearing out.  I think this is a well-known thing, that infectious agents in pandemics become MORE infectious, but LESS harmful, over time.  The number of deaths in Missouri have been in a STEEP decline since middle February (now a 20:1 drop), and now the general US death rate also seems to be falling rapidly (about halving every week.)
I think it is too early to attribute this to vaccines.

Jon

Possibly the wrong metrics to be looking at, the world has had over a year to understand this disease and how to treat it. We're almost all testing more and treating earlier and more effectively. There remain widespread restrictions on mixing, masks travel etc, these are the things along with a little herd immunity either from vaccine or prior contact, that are currently limiting the spread and hence reducing deaths. There isn't yet any sign of a significant less contagious or aggressive strain, instead we seem to be tracking several that are worse. Look beyond your borders and you can see glimmers of hope in places like Europe getting crushed as they roll back limits too quickly, again.

Globally the response should have been quicker and more decisive in the beginning, we're all sick of this crap.

[SilverSolder]

I ordered some stuff from Digi-Key on Wednesday afternoon, no shipping info emailed to me.  So, now Monday, I called, and they could not even give me any idea when it will ship!  YIKES!  So, that order has now been sitting for nearly 4 whole days.
[...]

I ended up sourcing the stuff I needed on eBay and canceling my DigiKey order.

The cool thing about eBay is that is is de-centralized...   there are thousands of vendors, you just need to find one that is still alive and kicking! 

I've noticed that time and time again during the pandemic crisis that the small eBay vendors are often more "on the ball" than the big guys.

Hooray for diversity and redundancy! 

[SilverSolder]

[...]
Globally the response should have been quicker and more decisive in the beginning, we're all sick of this crap.

Yeah, mostly Asian countries got the speed and scale of reaction right.  We sleepwalked into a much worse problem than it needed to have been.

[PartialDischarge]

I ordered some stuff from Digi-Key on Wednesday afternoon, no shipping info emailed to me.  So, now Monday, I called, and they could not even give me any idea when it will ship!  YIKES!  So, that order has now been sitting for nearly 4 whole days.

Digikey did work yesterday Sunday as they sent me the tracking # on a order that was not previously picked.

As for Covid, it looks like the virus is wearing out.  I think this is a well-known thing, that infectious agents in pandemics become MORE infectious, but LESS harmful, over time.  The number of deaths in Missouri have been in a STEEP decline since middle February (now a 20:1 drop), and now the general US death rate also seems to be falling rapidly (about halving every week.)
I think it is too early to attribute this to vaccines.

Covid now will follow the same pattern as flu, high peaks in cold months and that's all

[Simon]

pft, not where I work.

In theory what should happen is the tracing people should be in contact, they'll ask about prolonged contact and existing precautions, and recommend anyone who meets their criteria self isolate. However in theory providing your workplace has measures in place (which are required) nobody should really fall into that window. In our devolved region HSE would not deem masks as acceptable, but 2m+ a screen is. Its not exactly a surprise tho' that the biggest high profile outbreak outside of food processing is a government institution with outdated systems, hot-desking in crowded offices in a deprived area.

Everyones rules are different but I think the biggest impact of a workplace outbreak isn't whether people want your goods, or the disruption, it's the perceived quality of care you provide for your staff.

my employer is hopeless, they always follow the law as loosely as they can and adhere to the bare minimum. Nothing has been done yet about the noise as covid arrived. The proposal was instead of making the noise levels lower by say putting booths around the machines that everyone wear noise cancelling earphones as this is clearly cheaper. Those wanting the type that has an input jack for music can have it but will have to pay the difference themselves.

When covid broke out they made arrangements at the last minute, they bought hand sanitizer but this was alcohol free at a time when it was said that this type was ineffective. other than sticking notices up about what to do taken from guidelines they have done nothing. So it's OK for people to pile into the toilets together for example. Where I work you can't treat people like adults, they act like children. The only saving grace is that the government said that people who can work from home must so the office is never more than half full. They were so slow to react that by the time they had sorted out a 2 team solution to halve the office population they were having to tell everyone to work from home anyway. There is no system of office workers checking that it is OK to come in so in theory it is possible that all 10 could decide to come in on the same day.

The only reason we have not been more affected on the manufacturing is that people work alone in large spaces so have no working reason to come within 5m of each other.

My boss commented on how is was easy it is to bump into someone (literally) in a corridor, I pointed out that it could be made one way as there is an alternate route, he sort of agreed but nothing happened, i doubt the MD can be bothered with the idea.

Our quality manager forwarded some health and safety information to the MD about air recirculation from air conditioning. The information in itself was pretty wishy washy but at least it raised the point. The MD just forwarded it to everyone, i replied asking what was the decision and go no reply. 10 of us share on AC system, you can't leave it up to individual choice, you have to make a decision at company level, nothing, some of us open the office window to help keep the air changing over.

It was only because I cased a fire regulations issue by propping doors open to avoid sharing the door handles that the decision was made after a discussion between the sales manager that agreed but realised this could not be done willy nilly and the MD who agreed that it was a sensible non observance of fire regulations to protect from a greater risk that we would keep them propped open from then on.

[dermeister]

I have been a frequent Mouser customer for at least a decade and don't blame them for the recent shipping delays since I have had similar issues with vendors across the board and I realize things have been tough with COVID, Texas power outages, etc. What I have found very concerning though is that Mouser appears to be selling my data to 3rd parties, including information about the items I ordered. I recently received a spam call from an electronics supplier I've never heard of, mentioning that they saw that I purchased a specific model of zener diode (purchase I made on Mouser) and asked if I am interested in ordering components from them. Today I received a request on Linked In asking me if I was interested in ordering Nordic NRF52840s (I recently bought an NRF520840 dev board on Mouser). I don't recall ever agreeing to Mouser selling my data (I'm sure it's hidden somewhere in the fine print), but really think it is a dick move to do this. Has anyone else experienced this?

Edit: I guess that this could also be Google selling my data from the email receipts, but I have not seen this issue with Digikey, Newark, etc.

[PartialDischarge]

That does not make any sense, mouser selling your information so they can lose you as a customer. Either someone on the inside is doing that, or somehow your email is compromised ( and there are various ways this can happen).

[floobydust]

They're all doing it- sharing your private information to third-parties, affiliates etc. in the name of analytics and targeted advertising.
Read Digi-Key's Privacy Statement and it's:
"... we and our third party service providers or partners may collect certain information automatically from your device."
"... may include information like your IP address, device type, unique device identification numbers, browser-type, operating system, date and time of visit, referring website, the search engine queries used to get to our website, broad geographic location (e.g. country or city-level location), and other technical information..."

"We may disclose your personal information to .... our related companies and third party suppliers, partners and services providers (for example, to support the delivery or drop shipment of products ordered, to provide functionality on, or help to enhance our services or the security of our website, to provide advertising services and web analytics, or for order fulfilment or market research purposes), or to those who otherwise process personal information for purposes that are described in this Privacy Notice or notified to you when we collect your personal information. "

[NorthGuy]

Mouser selling my data (I'm sure it's hidden somewhere in the fine print), but really think it is a dick move to do this. Has anyone else experienced this?

I've never experienced anything like this.

[JPortici]

I ordered some stuff from Digi-Key on Wednesday afternoon, no shipping info emailed to me.  So, now Monday, I called, and they could not even give me any idea when it will ship!  YIKES!  So, that order has now been sitting for nearly 4 whole days.

Interesting, i ordered stuff from digikey a couple of days ago (I'm stockpiling components for this year's prototype production runs) and yesterday they arrived. I was expecting like a week or two delay based on reports from here and from our contractor

[phil from seattle]

I think it more likely you googled the specific diode.

[Simon]

They're all doing it- sharing your private information to third-parties, affiliates etc. in the name of analytics and targeted advertising.
Read Digi-Key's Privacy Statement and it's:
"... we and our third party service providers or partners may collect certain information automatically from your device."
"... may include information like your IP address, device type, unique device identification numbers, browser-type, operating system, date and time of visit, referring website, the search engine queries used to get to our website, broad geographic location (e.g. country or city-level location), and other technical information..."

"We may disclose your personal information to .... our related companies and third party suppliers, partners and services providers (for example, to support the delivery or drop shipment of products ordered, to provide functionality on, or help to enhance our services or the security of our website, to provide advertising services and web analytics, or for order fulfilment or market research purposes), or to those who otherwise process personal information for purposes that are described in this Privacy Notice or notified to you when we collect your personal information. "

Yea, I will give your personal information to a third party too! how am I supposed to ship the order otherwise? I would expect them to be sudo-anonymising data they pass out of the company unless they are employing another company to contact you on their behalf.

[SilverSolder]

I think it more likely you googled the specific diode.

This.   Google tracks absolutely everything you do, all it takes is one site to leak your email address and you'll be spammed from then on.

To defend against it takes quite a bit of knowledge, there is no simple remedy.  The solution is at the political level, where the EU is probably the most active body politic defending privacy at the moment.

[jmelson]

So, now, a WHOLE WEEK after I placed a web order with Digi-Key, I called AGAIN, and they said they would try to get the order out today!  GEEZ, this is SURE a BIG change from just a month ago, when I got same day shipment.

I was getting ready to duplicate the order at Mouser, but I guess I'll hold off for a bit.  This is a $570 order.  I don't want to get caught with twice the parts as I need.

Jon

[Simon]

Um, just in time delivery? works great until there is a change and that system working at 99.5% of required capacity now needs to do 105%, those extra 5%'s add up day by day.

[SilverSolder]

I think we are entering an era where it begins to make sense to keep some things in stock...

[jmelson]

I think we are entering an era where it begins to make sense to keep some things in stock...

Well, I've been doing this for decades, but what about a new project?  I just designed this board last week, and got the blank boards in from PCBway this morning.  As soon as I placed the PC board order, I placed an order for all the parts.  Pretty sad when PCBway can build the boards custom and get them from China to the US faster than Digi-Key can pull some items off the shelf and ship them a few hundred miles.

Jon

[floobydust]

They're saying semiconductors are the new toilet paper - semiconductor shortages aggravated by people panic buying. So Mouser and Digi-Key might have heavy order volumes.

[SilverSolder]

I think we are entering an era where it begins to make sense to keep some things in stock...

Well, I've been doing this for decades, but what about a new project?  I just designed this board last week, and got the blank boards in from PCBway this morning.  As soon as I placed the PC board order, I placed an order for all the parts.  Pretty sad when PCBway can build the boards custom and get them from China to the US faster than Digi-Key can pull some items off the shelf and ship them a few hundred miles.

Jon

Yep, same thing happened to me - I'm sitting with a bunch of boards...  parts are beginning to arrive now, from random eBay sellers.  Pretty fast turnaround from them (I picked ones that are not too far away).  Definitely faster than the "pros"! 

[TimFox]

Apparently, even Toyota is now maintaining an inventory of parts, and has thus had less trouble with the semiconductor shortage for automobile production.  They were famous for requiring "just in time" delivery from their suppliers to avoid holding an inventory.  See  https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-02-15/toyota-broke-its-just-in-time-rule-just-in-time-for-the-chip-shortage

[phil from seattle]

I think it more likely you googled the specific diode.

This.   Google tracks absolutely everything you do, all it takes is one site to leak your email address and you'll be spammed from then on.

To defend against it takes quite a bit of knowledge, there is no simple remedy.  The solution is at the political level, where the EU is probably the most active body politic defending privacy at the moment.

One thing to do is turn off images in your email program/web site. This prevents the mailer from confirming you actually read it. I started doing that a number of years ago and the level of spam has decreased dramatically.

[SilverSolder]

Defense against the slime is worth a whole thread on its own...

[dermeister]

I'm sure I googled the parts I received the spam about before purchasing them on Mouser, but I have never had 3rd party vendors call me on my phone and message me on Linked In about a product I simply googled. One of the vendors specifically said "I saw you purchased XYZ diode...". Both of these spam calls/messages were related to products I had just purchased on Mouser 1-2 weeks earlier. Definitely a bit suspicious.

[allegroagitato]

haven't had any trouble with Mouser's website ever. But the long processing time for orders is a pain. It has been like this since january. I'm used to it now, but what bugged me in the first place is they don't say anything on their website about longer processing times. I was used to getting my orders within 2-3 workdays. And my ordering habits were tuned to that. For time critical orders i've had to sometimes order parts at RS or Farnell.

[Simon]

You mean RS and farnell have stock and correctly report it on their site?

[SMTech]

You mean RS and farnell have stock and correctly report it on their site?

Funny

[Simon]

You mean RS and farnell have stock and correctly report it on their site?

Funny

Yea until you try to order. RS will not allow you to search based on availability, so you spend more time trying to find out what 1k resistors they have than some specific chip. Farnell's online stock reporting is 2+ hours out of date. I watched once as I ordered the last stock there was of something, amazing it was actually in stock and I looked in now and then, hours later it went out of stock due to my order.

[jmelson]

So, now, a WHOLE WEEK after I placed a web order with Digi-Key, I called AGAIN, and they said they would try to get the order out today!  GEEZ, this is SURE a BIG change from just a month ago, when I got same day shipment.

I was getting ready to duplicate the order at Mouser, but I guess I'll hold off for a bit.  This is a $570 order.  I don't want to get caught with twice the parts as I need.

Jon

I call Digi-Key daily, they still have no idea when my order will ship.  It has now been SEVEN full business days the order is just sitting.
They did tell me they have 80 warehouse staff on quarantine, but said they were "catching up".  I sure don't see any proof of that.

Jon

[NorthGuy]

I call Digi-Key daily, they still have no idea when my order will ship.  It has now been SEVEN full business days the order is just sitting.
They did tell me they have 80 warehouse staff on quarantine, but said they were "catching up".  I sure don't see any proof of that.

May be your order requires some processing.

I had two orders shipped this week. There was only 1-2 day delays.

I keep having problems with FedEx, mostly lengthy delays. One of my FedEx orders (from Mouser) was sent to Paris and back. Even now, a DigiKey order sits in Winnipeg in "picked up" state since March 16 without any movement.

[jmelson]

I call Digi-Key daily, they still have no idea when my order will ship.  It has now been SEVEN full business days the order is just sitting.
They did tell me they have 80 warehouse staff on quarantine, but said they were "catching up".  I sure don't see any proof of that.

May be your order requires some processing.

No, I have used them for "value added" items in the past, it usually causes no delay.  But, this order had NO value-added items at all,
just SMT resistors and capacitors.  I did order some solder paste, which might need some kind of special handling, placards and labels or whatever.  Their phone system was bolixed today, I got a message "this mailbox has not been set up yet" and then they hung up on me, 3 times.  This was on their 800 number!  I finally got through with their onliine chat, and they said they hoped to get my order out today.  We shall see!  Grumble.

Jon

[jmelson]

Well, finally, later Friday night, Digi-Key shows the order as "shipped", meaning it is in a box with a label on it.  So, that's over SEVEN business days.  I'm guessing they are mostly shut down with 80 warehouse staff off work.  With tens of thousands of orders pouring in every day, I don't know how they will ever get caught up.  Sounds like a nightmare.

Jon

[SilverSolder]

Meanwhile, the last of my eBay "back fill" orders came in today.  I bought a few books of SMT components to make sure the chances of running out of R and C is minimal!

[jmelson]

And, finally, my order from Digi-Key on March 10 came in today!  Geez, this is starting to make things hard.  One day short of TWO calendar weeks.

Jon

[phil from seattle]

I have another order into to Mouser and it has been sitting 2 days in "Processing".  I got this in email a few minutes ago:

We are working as quickly as possible to ship your order. We expect your order to be shipped by 2021-03-26. These delays are due to extended warehouse processing times, caused by peak volume, and COVID prevention procedures.

I'll give them credit, they are learning.

Phil

[phil from seattle]

And, finally, my order from Digi-Key on March 10 came in today!  Geez, this is starting to make things hard.  One day short of TWO calendar weeks.

Jon

I have been buying from LCSC and with DHL shipping, I'm seeing 4 day delivery.  My last JLCPCB PCB took 5 days from the pushing the buy button to holding it in my hand. Makes you wonder...

[ve7xen]

I have another order into to Mouser and it has been sitting 2 days in "Processing".  I got this in email a few minutes ago:

We are working as quickly as possible to ship your order. We expect your order to be shipped by 2021-03-26. These delays are due to extended warehouse processing times, caused by peak volume, and COVID prevention procedures.

I'll give them credit, they are learning.

Phil

To add to the pile, I placed an order on 2021-03-17 and have received two of these e-mails now, the latest estimating shipping today (2021-03-24). It hasn't shipped yet at 5:30 PDT, any bets on whether it'll go out tonight, or I'll get another e-mail pushing the date a few more days? 

Pretty annoying that my PCBs will probably be manufactured and delivered from China before Mouser even finishes packing my parts order.

[phil from seattle]

Guess it is, literally, a first world problem. 

[ThomasRR]

No problems here. Even receiving the order in UK: the Brexit is making the import process a mess, but it took a week.
Many companies are facing delays with the courier services. The Covid19 safety protocol is one of many problems right now

[YurkshireLad]

You should try living in Canada. It can take 10 days to get a really small package shipped from British Columbia or Saskatchewan to Ontario.  You just gotta roll with it. 

[NorthGuy]

You should try living in Canada. It can take 10 days to get a really small package shipped from British Columbia or Saskatchewan to Ontario.  You just gotta roll with it. 

It was total disaster in December/January. It's getting much better now.

[SilverSolder]

You should try living in Canada. It can take 10 days to get a really small package shipped from British Columbia or Saskatchewan to Ontario.  You just gotta roll with it. 

The average speed of the Pony Express (including changing to a fresh horse every 10-15 miles, and a fresh rider every 75-100 miles, with a total of 75 horses needed for a one-way trip) was 10mph...    Would these teams using thousands of years old technology have beaten today's postal speed?

[TimFox]

Initially (1860), the Pony Express charged $5.00 for 1/2 oz av. when the normal postage was $0.02.  It still lost money, and did not survive the Civil War.

[SilverSolder]

They obviously applied an enormous amount of resources to achieve 10mph.

Today, you could use a van and switch drivers every 200 miles...    oh, is that what they do already? 

[TimFox]

Yes, the technology is ancient.  The motto misquoted as “neither rain, nor sleet...”  dates back to Herodotus, ca. 500 BC, referring to the Persian royal message service.

[SilverSolder]

The Pony Express would definitely have beaten a package I received a couple of weeks ago from Oregon, which averaged only 8mph!   Progress...

Can't help being impressed by the Pony Express.  What would be the equivalent no-expense-spared postal run using today's technology -  launching a missile loaded with letters, coast to coast?  Using a fighter jet to deliver the mail?


Edit:  A stagecoach could also achieve an average of 10mph,  and is not quite as resource intensive as the Pony Express.




There are so many things we could do to improve the situation from where we are now! 

[ve7xen]

You guys aren't giving modern couriers nearly enough credit. FedEx can get a package from me in Vancouver to Hong Kong in ~72 hours, across the Pacific, and at an average speed of ~88mph. Or across the country to Toronto in a little over 12 hours for ~140mph. Sure, it's expensive as hell, but so was Pony Express.

I'd also wager that the cheap postal service is also an order of magnitude faster today than in the 1800s.

[SilverSolder]

You guys aren't giving modern couriers nearly enough credit. FedEx can get a package from me in Vancouver to Hong Kong in ~72 hours, across the Pacific, and at an average speed of ~88mph. Or across the country to Toronto in a little over 12 hours for ~140mph. Sure, it's expensive as hell, but so was Pony Express.

I'd also wager that the cheap postal service is also an order of magnitude faster today than in the 1800s.

By the late 19th century, there were between six and twelve mail deliveries per day in London, permitting correspondents to exchange multiple letters within a single day...   we have gone backwards in many respects.

[NorthGuy]

By the late 19th century, there were between six and twelve mail deliveries per day in London, permitting correspondents to exchange multiple letters within a single day...   we have gone backwards in many respects.

Really? How many timers per day can you exchange texts?

[SilverSolder]

By the late 19th century, there were between six and twelve mail deliveries per day in London, permitting correspondents to exchange multiple letters within a single day...   we have gone backwards in many respects.

Really? How many timers per day can you exchange texts?

OK make it a small trinket of some kind - a little PCB perhaps?

[NorthGuy]

By the late 19th century, there were between six and twelve mail deliveries per day in London, permitting correspondents to exchange multiple letters within a single day...   we have gone backwards in many respects.

Really? How many timers per day can you exchange texts?

OK make it a small trinket of some kind - a little PCB perhaps?

There were no PCBs in 19-th century

[TimFox]

The city of Paris had a pneumatic tube network in service from 1866 to 1984 (although some government office connections lasted until 2004).   It was operated in a similar manner as the telegraph agency and lasted longer than pneumatic systems in other major cities.
Maybe 30 years ago, I read a calculation of the data rate in a private pneumatic system in New York between major banks that carried magnetic media.

[SilverSolder]

Imagine how Covid would spread via that vector...

[TimFox]

Only with improper data handling.

[MadScientist]

You guys aren't giving modern couriers nearly enough credit. FedEx can get a package from me in Vancouver to Hong Kong in ~72 hours, across the Pacific, and at an average speed of ~88mph. Or across the country to Toronto in a little over 12 hours for ~140mph. Sure, it's expensive as hell, but so was Pony Express.

I'd also wager that the cheap postal service is also an order of magnitude faster today than in the 1800s.

By the late 19th century, there were between six and twelve mail deliveries per day in London, permitting correspondents to exchange multiple letters within a single day...   we have gone backwards in many respects.

Indeed, I have a picture of the offices of the LNWR ( London North Western railway ) in my birth town in Ireland , from 1912, etched onto the beautiful glass windows was " Items received will be in London the next day ", Today couriers are taking 2-3 days

!!!

[SilverSolder]

You guys aren't giving modern couriers nearly enough credit. FedEx can get a package from me in Vancouver to Hong Kong in ~72 hours, across the Pacific, and at an average speed of ~88mph. Or across the country to Toronto in a little over 12 hours for ~140mph. Sure, it's expensive as hell, but so was Pony Express.

I'd also wager that the cheap postal service is also an order of magnitude faster today than in the 1800s.

By the late 19th century, there were between six and twelve mail deliveries per day in London, permitting correspondents to exchange multiple letters within a single day...   we have gone backwards in many respects.

Indeed, I have a picture of the offices of the LNWR ( London North Western railway ) in my birth town in Ireland , from 1912, etched onto the beautiful glass windows was " Items received will be in London the next day ", Today couriers are taking 2-3 days

!!!

I'm pretty sure they intentionally delay "normal" parcels, just so they can charge a premium for the "express" ones.

[phil from seattle]

I'm pretty sure they intentionally delay "normal" parcels, just so they can charge a premium for the "express" ones.

Or perhaps they simply prioritize filling express orders first because the customer paid more for shipping and thus indicated a need to have it sooner.  I know it nets out to the same observed effect but sounds like a reasonable way to do business. When you pay for a lesser class of shipping you are telling them you don't need it fast. In the face of an overwhelmed fulfillment system, prioritizing by shipping rate makes complete sense.

No sane company would intentionally delay a package. It gives them no benefit if the warehouse is not busy. I can not imagine a company doing that. As a small business selling and shipping products I have learned that you don't make much, if any, money on shipping. I'd be willing to bet the Mouser and Digikey MBAs have metrics that measure their order fulfillment system. Pretty sure the goal is to minimize the time between order and handing package to the shipper, regardless of shipping class.

[SilverSolder]

I'm pretty sure they intentionally delay "normal" parcels, just so they can charge a premium for the "express" ones.

Or perhaps they simply prioritize filling express orders first because the customer paid more for shipping and thus indicated a need to have it sooner.  I know it nets out to the same observed effect but sounds like a reasonable way to do business. When you pay for a lesser class of shipping you are telling them you don't need it fast. In the face of an overwhelmed fulfillment system, prioritizing by shipping rate makes complete sense.

No sane company would intentionally delay a package. It gives them no benefit if the warehouse is not busy. I can not imagine a company doing that. As a small business selling and shipping products I have learned that you don't make much, if any, money on shipping. I'd be willing to bet the Mouser and Digikey MBAs have metrics that measure their order fulfillment system. Pretty sure the goal is to minimize the time between order and handing package to the shipper, regardless of shipping class.

I was talking about couriers and mail services - for those companies, there is an obvious commercial interest in making sure there is product differentiation between $100 Express and $20 Normal service, no matter how busy or not busy they are.   All you have to do is make sure you make more money on that, than you lose in warehousing costs.   

You would't even have to warehouse that much either.  All you have to do is make the slower service "unreliable"...   i.e. you would deliver faster if your warehouse levels begin to rise too fast, and slow down again when things are less busy...

You can see I am in the wrong career, right? 

[phil from seattle]

I'm pretty sure they intentionally delay "normal" parcels, just so they can charge a premium for the "express" ones.

Or perhaps they simply prioritize filling express orders first because the customer paid more for shipping and thus indicated a need to have it sooner.  I know it nets out to the same observed effect but sounds like a reasonable way to do business. When you pay for a lesser class of shipping you are telling them you don't need it fast. In the face of an overwhelmed fulfillment system, prioritizing by shipping rate makes complete sense.

No sane company would intentionally delay a package. It gives them no benefit if the warehouse is not busy. I can not imagine a company doing that. As a small business selling and shipping products I have learned that you don't make much, if any, money on shipping. I'd be willing to bet the Mouser and Digikey MBAs have metrics that measure their order fulfillment system. Pretty sure the goal is to minimize the time between order and handing package to the shipper, regardless of shipping class.

I was talking about couriers and mail services - for those companies, there is an obvious commercial interest in making sure there is product differentiation between $100 Express and $20 Normal service, no matter how busy or not busy they are.   All you have to do is make sure you make more money on that, than you lose in warehousing costs.   

You would't even have to warehouse that much either.  All you have to do is make the slower service "unreliable"...   i.e. you would deliver faster if your warehouse levels begin to rise too fast, and slow down again when things are less busy...

You can see I am in the wrong career, right? 

OK, maybe the couriers do that though I think it is the same logic. The faster (and more expensive) delivery services get priority over the cheaper ones. If you paid for 5 day delivery, you get it in 5 days and someone who paid for faster gets theirs sooner, how is that bad?  Still not seeing any bad behavior here.

But, the discussion has been about an order sitting in the "processing" state, prior to shipping. I don't think anyone was complaining about USPS, UPS or FedEx in this thread.

[SilverSolder]

[...] If you paid for 5 day delivery, you get it in 5 days and someone who paid for faster gets theirs sooner, how is that bad?  [...]

I didn't say it was bad -  I said the way they implement it might not necessarily be shipping via different methods behind the scenes, it might simply be an intentional delay on the lower priced package.  You get what you pay for, but the delay can (and I believe, probably is) intentional in at least some scenarios at the couriers.

But, the discussion has been about an order sitting in the "processing" state, prior to shipping. I don't think anyone was complaining about USPS, UPS or FedEx in this thread.

Yes, sure, I'm wandering off topic.  The situation at Mouser/Digikey et al is obviously not intentional or "artificial delay" in any way, and they have absolutely nothing to gain by intentionally waiting for anything, as you said.

[phil from seattle]

You keep saying intentional delays.  I seriously doubt that.  If there is capacity to fulfill or ship, they will use it.  If there are too many orders to process, they probably prioritize based on shipping priority.  It is just that simple.  There are no intentional delays. I just don't that happening.  Why would they not use capacity that is available?

[nigelwright7557]

 I have a few suppliers.
I usually go for best price including shipping.
I try to buy higher volumes where possible to keep the price down.

Some of the search engines are dire, I tried to buy a wall wart off CPC and took about 5 minutes to even find wall warts !
Its a shame because CPC are often cheapest. I wanted some MJ15003 and they were half the price at CPC than elsewhere.

However RS do free shipping for trade accounts and mostly next day delivery if order is made before 8pm.

[Enliten Audio]

Bye Bye same day shipment which was still happening at the peak of the pandemic here in the US. We order gazillions and now consistently get 2-4 day fulfillments. Mouser used to be our best disty - we worked with them for 10+ years since the baby Mouser days. A call to our rep gives us the company line but I'm not sure the excuse really fits as things are calming down here in US COVID-wise. I think it's loss of people during pandemic (work vs stay home and get paid anyway) or it's just a way to reduce costs /  increase Mouser $$$ IMHO. A sad thing in either case... we loved Mouser!   

[floobydust]

Mouser is short staffed, they're hiring 34 positions right now. So I think it's bottleneck with people and hopefully it gets better.