RS Components vs. Farnell

[Trevor Wilson]

Well, things must be hotting up between these two, excellent suppliers. RS
sent me a promotional email at 2:05PM today and Farnell sent me one at
2:15PM. Presumably, I am not alone in receiving emails from these guys.

 

[David L. Jones]

Well, things must be hotting up between these two, excellent
suppliers. RS sent me a promotional email at 2:05PM today and Farnell
sent me one at 2:15PM. Presumably, I am not alone in receiving emails
from these guys.

Farnell are now trying to compete with Digikey and Mouser.
Have already lowered their prices on tons of stuff, and have just given us
special web based "contract" pricing which appears on the website in a
different column, tied to my login name. Their intention is to match Digikey
in pricing for about 80,000 items. Haven't checked out the comparisons yet,
but it's good to know they want our business.
Presumably they will give the same deal to most people if you ask, I think
it just came online last week.

RS usually don't rate much on my radar unless Farnell don't have it and I
need it local. Mostly mechanical stuff form RS lately.

Dave.

 

[Sylvia Else]

Well, things must be hotting up between these two, excellent suppliers. RS
sent me a promotional email at 2:05PM today and Farnell sent me one at
2:15PM. Presumably, I am not alone in receiving emails from these guys.

I haven't heard from them - but maybe I've changed my email address
since I last bought anything from them. I rarely do, because their
minimum shipping cost makes single items very expensive.

Sylvia.

 

[David L. Jones]

I haven't heard from them - but maybe I've changed my email address
since I last bought anything from them. I rarely do, because their
minimum shipping cost makes single items very expensive.

Farnell charge a paltry fixed $10 for same/next day courier.

Maybe a tad expensive for a single $2 part you can get from Jaycar, but for
most other things it's really quite good value.
Electus charge more than that.

Dave.

 

[Trevor Wilson]

I haven't heard from them - but maybe I've changed my email address since
I last bought anything from them. I rarely do, because their minimum
shipping cost makes single items very expensive.

**The freight cost is minimal, when dealing with mission-critical jobs.
Usually the few Dollars can be absorbed into the cost of the job. The nice
thing about Farnell and RS is that their component quality is guaranteed.
The costs of buying dodgy components from DSE, Jaycar and WES can often far
outweigh any savings.

[Anecdote] One of my mates runs a TV repair business. He purchased some
MOSFETs from WES to service a TV set. After the third MOSFET failed, his
tech almost decided to give up the business. On my suggestion he ordered the
same part from Farnell. It worked perfectly. The MOSFETs he was being
supplied with from WES were sub-prime spec (probably fake) devices. Although
WES refunded the money (about $8.00) for the cost of the parts, that paled
into insignificance beside the 6 hours his tech cost him in wages.
Naturally, he was unable to charge the customer the full amount.

I've been caught by dodgy parts from WES and Jaycar in the past.
Fortunately, I tested them before I installed them.

 

[David L. Jones]

In the UK farnell have just increased the minimum order charge from
£20 to £35.

You also have to watch out for items marked "US stock" as these parts
incur a one off shipping charge of around £16.

Farnell Oz have a minimum order of only $10, but that's for credit card
payment only (common with many companies who take credit card). You can turn
up to the trade counter and buy a single 5 cent resistor with cash if you
want. And AFAIK we don't pay any extra for US, UK, or Singapore stocked
items, they just take a few extra days to get here.

Farnell are quickly losing all their business to Mouser and Digikey thanks
to their bigger stock range, lower prices and (reasonably) cheap postage to
Oz. So they are doing their best to win back customers.

Dave.

 

[David L. Jones]

Farnell are now trying to compete with Digikey and Mouser.
Have already lowered their prices on tons of stuff, and have just
given us special web based "contract" pricing which appears on the
website in a different column, tied to my login name. Their intention
is to match Digikey in pricing for about 80,000 items. Haven't
checked out the comparisons yet, but it's good to know they want our
business. Presumably they will give the same deal to most people if you
ask, I
think it just came online last week.

I've heard some extra info in that only some components have been "price
matched" and linked to the new web based price file like this so far, the
rest are just a generic 10% discount until such time as they are updated.
There is a team of people in Singapore beavering away updating the prices to
match Digikey on all the components. A big job I suspect, so will take some
time.

Dave.

 

[Trevor Wilson]

Indeed they do. I recently told Electus where to stick their account - it
was
cheaper to buy $150 retail of stuff at the local Jaycar than through the
wholesale end, by the time I added GST and freight to the cattledog price.

**I don't see that happening in real life. Most Electus prices are
significantly discounted over the Jaycar ones. Particularly the stuff
imported by Jaycar. However, feel free to provide your parts list.

 

[David L. Jones]

Indeed they do. I recently told Electus where to stick their account
- it was cheaper to buy $150 retail of stuff at the local Jaycar than
through the wholesale end, by the time I added GST and freight to the
cattledog price.

I haven't really found that.
The Electus wholesale prices are substatially discounted from the Jaycar
retail prices, and the Jaycar "trade" price too. Around 50-60% of the retail
price for 1-off usually.
You just factor in the $15 postage.

Dave.

 

[David L. Jones]

Try 25 off HB-5970

That's a good example due to the high qty wholesale price break (100+) and
low qty retail price break (10+).
$6.95ea retail ($173.75)
$6.30ea whole inc GST ($157.50 + $15 postage = $172.50)

So essentially the same price to buy wholesale, except you get free delivery
and you save your time going to the store where they might not have that
many in stock.
Still no reason to give Electus the flick IMO, that example is mostly the
exception than the rule. I find I save quite a lot of money by buying
wholesale.

Dave.

 

[David L. Jones]

That's a real example. And Altronics (H0472) is even cheaper. Their
trade card doesn't enter the equation, as it only provides the 10+
price split. Jaycar's card is similar - no benefit on that example
purchase.


I'm out and about often enough, pickup at either is no drama.


It seriously depends on which items, what quantity, and whether the
saving on the order value outweighs the shipping cost.

Sure, but like I said Electus has always been cheaper than Jaycar for me
every time. That's my experinence, I'm surprised yours differs enough to
make you want to give them the flick.
Even in your example (worst case most likely?) Electus wholesale is the same
price or cheaper, and you get free delivery to your door thrown in. Still
worth using I recon.

Take for example the LCD used in my uWatch project (QP5519):
$23.70 retail for 10+ at Jaycar
$16.17+GST wholesale from Electus for 10+

Then of course if you want say a bit of gear, savings can be substantial
when you buy from Electus, just for a 1-off.

And for most stuff I order, X-on are far cheaper than Electus could ever
dream of.

Sure, but that's a different point. For idential parts available from
multiple suppliers you obviously use the supplier that's the cheapest to
your door.

Dave.

 

[The Real Andy]

Farnell Oz have a minimum order of only $10, but that's for credit card
payment only (common with many companies who take credit card). You can turn
up to the trade counter and buy a single 5 cent resistor with cash if you
want. And AFAIK we don't pay any extra for US, UK, or Singapore stocked
items, they just take a few extra days to get here.

Farnell are quickly losing all their business to Mouser and Digikey thanks
to their bigger stock range, lower prices and (reasonably) cheap postage to
Oz. So they are doing their best to win back customers.

Dave.

Last time I bought something from farnell the broke it into 2 shipping
orders after I explicitly told them to wait until they could ship it
as one. Big business so I can understand how they did not follow my
instruction.

Parts orded were Microchip ICD-2 and the microchip motor drive dev kit
that uses the Internation Rectifier IRAMS series parts. ICD-2 shipped
from AU I copped the shipping charge, then dev kit shipped from UK and
I copped conversion rates + shipping.

Well I have never ordered from farnell since. If I have to pay
international shipping rates and conversion I might as well ship it
from the US at the cheaper rate...

 

[Davo]

In the UK farnell have just increased the minimum order charge from £20 to
£35.

You also have to watch out for items marked "US stock" as these parts incur
a one off shipping charge of around £16.

I work for a power company in Western Australia. RS doesn't charge us at
all for freight. If we buy less than about $30 worth of stuff they make
a loss. We're about 200km from the nearest RS outlet.