> Does anyone have a recommended place to order stuff such as Resistors and
> TTL from on the net? I was at the local large seller of such stuff on
> Saturday and half the stuff I wanted they were out of.
Over three years ago I posted an article (below) to sci.electronics.
design detailing my experiences and impressions. Since then, they've
all improved, but Digikey remains the all-around best. They've done
an excellent job of expanding their passive component lineup over the
past couple of years and they still stock both TI and Fairchild TTL.
Tim.
From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa_at_trailing-edge.com>
Subject: Buying components on-line - my experiences
Date: 1999/02/24
Message-ID: <36D3FE51.32DE1F02_at_trailing-edge.com>
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Mime-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.components,misc.industry.ele
ctronics.marketplace
Many of the big-name distributors have, in the past few years,
added on-line ordering via the Internet as an option. Here
I recount some of my experiences with on-line ordering from
a few of the big names.
A bit of background: I do rather small-scale electronic parts
purchasing - electronics hardware is not my main business. But
I do a small amount of one-off and few-off industrial controllers,
adapters, and other custom jobs. Availability of the necessary parts
in a few days is vital. For small things I can hit the local
electronic shops, but for anything above something that
I can dash off in an afternoon, I usually use a big-name distributor.
My typical orders run from a few tens of dollars to around a
thousand dollars, with a typical outlay in the range of a few
hundred dollars per month. So I'm not a big-time industrial
customer. I don't feel any need to establish a personal relationship
with any particular supplier(s), I just want to know what's
available now, and painlessly order it if it's available.
I'm posting this "review" in the hope that future web-ordering
implementations run smoothly for me and others. I'm trying
to make the criticisms be constructive; in all cases I've sent
my suggestions/complaints to folks at the respective organizations
that claim to be responsible.
Now, my reviews:
1. Digi-Key (
http://www.digikey.com/ ). Overall, Digi-Key has
the best implemented on-line ordering system. Order entry tells
you real-time stock status, each order is assigned a number by which
it can be referenced, and I can electronically check the status
of each order very conveniently after placing it. For each package
shipped, I get a "clickable link" that takes me straight to the
UPS/Fedex tracking page for that package. If I enter my customer
number, I can easily check all orders that I've placed in the past
few years (several dozen by now), whether I placed them over the
web, by phone, or by mail.
Digi-Key prides themselves at overall availability of product, and
has several advantages over other vendors in this area. They claim
that all orders entered into their system by 8 PM central will
ship out same day, and this has been 100% true in my experience whether
the order is by phone or over the Internet. (Several times I've come
within a few minutes of the cutoff time and the order still shipped
the same day.) They do occasionally go out-of-stock on some items,
but thanks to the web I've noticed this while entering the order
(if anything is on back order, it's boldly displayed) and found
substitute items instead.
Digi-Key doesn't stock as wide a variety of stuff as some of
the other suppliers. In particular, they have a rather odd
selection of IC's, and are very lacking in the industrial sensor/
motion control parts I sometimes need. But they've done a wonderful
job at broadening their discrete component lines over the past few
years, they're the best supplier I've yet found for PIC microcotrollers,
and they're perfectly suited for handling many of my requirements.
My only concern with Digi-Key is security related; in order to
check my order status, all I need is my customer number and zip
code, which anyone who raids my mail could find. In my case, I
don't particularly care if anyone else knows what I'm building or
who I'm building it for, and I'd be surprised if anyone did care.
Of course, anyone could call Digi-Key up, knowing my name and address,
and get my customer number without much difficulty from the order line,
so the security issue isn't purely electronic, and it doesn't
bother me at all in practice.
2. Newark. (
http://www.newark.com ). Newark has always been
oriented, IMHO, towards selling to large corporations that do their
buying through purchasing departments. This leaves an odd "flavor"
to their business relations that I find unnecessary for my smaller
orders. That said, the availability of on-line ordering from Newark
has greatly increased the amount of business I do with them, as I
don't feel awkward asking for one of this, two of that, five of these
if I'm buying over the net.
Newark's current on-line order entry system is pretty slick. I get
real-time stock status, though the back-order status isn't
as obviously displayed as in Digi-Key's system (in particular, I have
to click on a "detail" display for each item that I've entered to
see if it's actually in stock.)
Newark's on-line database contains many
items (especially semiconductors) not listed in their paper catalog,
and this is a huge advantage to me.
For many items, I can click and view other similar items from the
catalog quite easily. Their search interface is quite complete.
Newark's on-line ordering system shows several deficiencies after
the order is entered, though. Often I've entered orders around
2 PM central time and not had them processed for shipment by the
same day - despite the fact that Newark claims this is the case
for every order. Often stock is split between multiple warehouses
scattered geographically over a wide area, and I've sometimes been
charged $3 in shipping for a $0.30 part. With the web interface,
it's not possible to tell in advance if an order will be split like
this. It seems to me that on-line orders are still entered into
their computer system by hand, and it sometimes takes several hours
for an on-line order to be acknowledged. In the acknowledgement,
a salesorder ID number is mentioned - but often if I attempt
to find the order status electronically I'm told that my salesorder
ID doesn't exist. It appears that online order status requests are
also done manually, as these are never acknowledged outside
"ordinary business hours" and even if submitted during ordinary
business hours it takes several hours to process. Only rarely do
I get any useful tracking numbers if I request order status online.
The Newark system completely falls over on any item that must be
drop-shipped from the manufacturer - many transformers and other
heavy items fall into this category. You can't tell whether any
particular item is going to be drop-shipped until you get the order
acknowledgment, sometimes several hours after you've submitted your
complete order, telling you that this part number can't be
ordered electronically, you've got to do it over the phone. This
is an area where they really, really need to improve their system.
At the very least, if a part isn't orderable over the Internet, you
should be told that and not allowed to build it into your Internet
order!
3. Jameco (
http://www.jameco.com/ ). I don't make many orders
from Jameco these days, but they have a pretty good stock in
semiconductors, "standard" connectors, transformers, wall warts, cheap
tools, and PC-clone accessories. Unlike Newark or Digi-Key, when
I order semiconductors from Jameco it's rarely obvious who the
manufacturer is going to be. In the past few years Jameco's
stock of discrete components has really taken a downturn, but
the remaining discretes that they do still carry are always very
inexpensive.
Jameco's web ordering interface is pretty good. I've never ordered
anything that turns out to be out-of-stock, so I can't comment on
this part of the system.
Jameco's after-order customer service (shipping status, tracking
numbers) is completely unavailable over the web. You have to call
them up by phone and ask. During some parts of the day, their
phones are quite busy, but after getting a real person on the other
end of the phone it's always been very quick and painless to get
my order status.
4. MSC Industrial Supply (
http://www.mscdirect.com/ ). These
folks aren't really electronics distributors, but they do distribute
all sorts of mechanical items, tools, bits, industrial sensors,
etc. MSC's on-line ordering page is almost non-existent - it's
a completely "open" form where you fill in the part number from their
Big Book, the quantity you want, and the price you think the Big
Book says it costs. When you're done, evidently, this form goes
to a real human operator who types in the order. While on-line,
there's no way to check for stock availability, or even if the part
number you've entered is a real part number that's in their system.
You may as well order by fax as by on-line methods.
On the other hand, MSC has always been very good for taking orders
over the phone. Their web interface has a long way to go, and I'm
going to stick with ordering from them by phone for now.
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa_at_trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
Received on Mon Jun 17 2002 - 20:08:54 BST