Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

For small personal projects I have switched to LCSC in part because I can automate the BOM order when I generate the PCB gerbers all out of Kicad via gitlab pipeline. All I have to do is add the LCSC part numbers as an extra field in my Kicad schematic. If I order from JLCPCB I also get a shipping discount at LCSC.

Mauser and digitkey are very expensive to ship here (Switzerland) so unless my order is larger it's not worth it for small project that don't need any guarantee on where the part came from.

So when we choose the cheapest shipping option, we should expect shipments to just disappear, and customer support reps to lie or mislead us about what's going on, fail to refund or replace, and when they do refund, keep the shipping fees, despite not having actually shipped anything?

The only difference with cheaper shipping is that it should take longer to arrive. That's not what happened here.

I'm baffled that Mouser and Digi-Key haven't put the same effort into a Kicad pluggin to replicate that capability.

If you have the money, and you're going to use the tools regularly, it's often worth the 'buy once, cry once' premium.

One of my cats passed away last year, and before I realized he was having kidney problems he'd taken to dusting a closet in a spare room. I tried and tried with my old carpet cleaner (10y+ old upright thing) and just could not make progress even with nature's miracle enzymatic shampoo/etc. I recently got a puppy and decided to just bite the bullet and buy a commercial Big Green and it's been amazing. The day I got it, I did a rush job cleaning it for maybe a half hour between a couple meetings, and I got a ton of glitter and other stuff out of the carpet that'd survived through at least 2 meticulous passes with the old carpet cleaner. It'd been a girl's room before I got the house, I think, I found other stuff that fell into the vent in there. And after a pass or two with the new cleaner, I got a couple of those older stank spots out, no problem. Just an obviously better job cleaning.

Anyway point being... the "buy the harbor freight one and then replace it if you use it enough to break it" is fine as far as it goes, but yeah, I'm increasingly this way too, I like having professional stuff that makes the job easier instead of adding additional problems. Some stuff the cheap version just is not good at all, or works OK for a little bit and then craps out.

I have had the same problem with vacuum sealers. After a while the vac-u-saver systems just don't pull a good vacuum or don't make good seals. Eventually I start getting bags that let loose in the freezer/etc and get air into the bag. I've cleaned the heat bar carefully, replaced seals, etc, and the consumer vac-u-saver systems just don't work all that well after 6 months or so of usage. Kinda bizarre and I know it seems to work fine for other people (although perhaps they are more accepting of bags letting go in the freezer/etc) but I can't figure it out. It's unfortunately a lot of counter space but I'm thinking seriously about getting a chamber vacuum sealer for the same reason. Maybe if I upgrade my oven to a convection oven and then get rid of the air fryer I'll use the recovered counter space for that.

It's hard to put a price on frustration and wasted time. Living alone/with ADHD I "don't have many spoons", and when I'm ready to do a project I wanna get it done, not fight crappy tools.

Yes, actually a lot like that, because in the mechanical world you'd order from either McMaster-Carr or Grainger. They're largely equivalent in broad strokes, no one would fault you for favoring one over the other.

In 2015 that was the exact same situation for DigiKey and Mouser. Small differences, both have great selection, great service, competitive prices.

This would be like either Grainger or McMaster-Carr just shitting the bed. It would be shocking to hear a consensus of serious mechanical engineers saying "When people order from Grainger, that's a huge red flag for me."