Wow I am going through the same thing as the author right now. I recently placed an order with Mouser doing side by side comparison shopping with Digi-Key. The last time I used Mouser was 12 years ago in my college days. I thought hey they were good back then let me just compare the prices and Mouser came ahead this time due to the shipping cost. I am just ordering replacement capacitors for an old PC motherboard tha…
And back in the peak covid days they asked for donations to keep them alive and operational. They wanted the community to support them based on goodwill and now they seem happy to burn that goodwill to the ground.
Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics
141–150 of 179 posts
Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics
#142Jameco is a smaller distributor, but they have great service. If you’re in the Bay Area you can even go and pick up your order from their warehouse and avoid any shipping costs.
Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics
#143Great deal if you're not in a hurry. I've read that this is intended for hobbyists and others that need small quantities; Digi-Key started out selling to hams and other low volume customers 50 years ago and, apparently they still value this customer base.
[1] https://www.digikey.com/-/media/PDF/Help/Order%20Form/order-... [2] https://www.digikey.com/en/terms-and-conditions "When a check or money order accompanies your order, Digi-Key pays all shipping and insurance (our choice for method of shipping) to all addresses in the U.S. and Canada."
Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics
#144How does a large business keep its (usually commission-oriented) sales organization from reverting to such completely pathological and short-sighted behavior for "small" customers?
I put "small" in quotes, because it's entirely likely that today's college student will be next year's engineer recommending parts for new designs.
Digi-Key never seemed to lose touch with their origin selling to radio hobbyists.
Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics
#145Wow I am going through the same thing as the author right now. I recently placed an order with Mouser doing side by side comparison shopping with Digi-Key. The last time I used Mouser was 12 years ago in my college days. I thought hey they were good back then let me just compare the prices and Mouser came ahead this time due to the shipping cost. I am just ordering replacement capacitors for an old PC motherboard tha…
Sort of like how in the mechanical world you just order from McMaster-Carr.
Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics
#146Mostly for hobby use, it's a mix between Digi-Key and Newark for me. Newark's website really isn't on par, but pricing can make it worth ordering both places.
Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics
#147Wow I am going through the same thing as the author right now. I recently placed an order with Mouser doing side by side comparison shopping with Digi-Key. The last time I used Mouser was 12 years ago in my college days. I thought hey they were good back then let me just compare the prices and Mouser came ahead this time due to the shipping cost. I am just ordering replacement capacitors for an old PC motherboard tha…
For a while, it seemed like DigiKey was doing some very shady crap with pricing. There were a couple times where I noticed that DigiKey was charging me MORE on certain components upon logging in. I dropped DigiKey like a hot potato for that and was quite vocal about it to the account manager as to why they were not going to get $250K+ of annual orders from us anymore. Mouser got all the business.
Sad to hear that Mouser is completely screwing up shipping--looks like it's time to go back to ordering from DigiKey and see if they've quit playing stupid games.
Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's also interesting because all four of these companies cater to professionals. And as a professional you never want to be talking to customer service, even if it costs you extra. I don't think I know how to contact Mouser CS, because I've never had to. And I buy a lot of parts. Enough that we've spent more on overnight shipping this year alone than the article's entire spend. I'm guessing that's related! But I do…
Mouser customer service (at least 5 years ago) as a big purchaser (University) was excellent. They would do things like screw up an order and then send the replacement free of charge, even for $300 parts. But then the uni order book was probably hundreds of thousands if not millions a year, so it's nothing on their margins.
This is supposed to be impressive? What would be impressive would be not screwing up the order in the first place.
Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics
#149I have had excellent experience with Digikey's customer service. They always answer the phone and resolve problems quickly. I've recently been using Mouser because their warehouse location means that the "standard" UPS option (@7.99) ships overnight to us in Houston. I greatly appreciate the fact that they autodetect the proximity and so actively block me from accidentally paying for upgraded shipping... I am curious…
Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics
#150I used to prefer Mouser because I thought their site was slightly easier on the eyes, and I felt they were basically interchangeable with Digikey.
A few years ago, I needed about 60 of a very specific, shouldered washer that only Digikey had. It was Friday afternoon and I needed it in Boston ASAP.
I called their support for the first time, with low expectations.
Within a couple hours, they were prepared to put a man from their warehouse on a plane to personally fly these parts to the nearest airport. It wound up being too expensive for the project, but their facility leadership burned multiple hours trying to help solve this problem for me, and I was a very small customer at the time.
After that experience, Digikey gets the lion's share of my orders, which have grown considerably over the years, and they continue to have incredible support, every single time.
They are our first place supplier and we only use alternatives if there is a stock issue, or the price difference is massive.
I've had other vendors try to tell me that Digikey charges too much. But when I get those same vendors to price our BOMs, Digikey is less expensive, has more stock and is far more efficient (e.g., I don't have to call and wait days to place an order and I don't have to order a lifetime supply of everything).
I heard the CEO on a podcast (Adafruit or Pick Place Podcast?) maybe last year sometime, and he came off as a genuine, nice human being.
Unless they somehow flip 180 degrees, Digikey has earned my business.