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Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

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Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#171

Post by JohnFen »

paulmd wrote: post #28
WalterBright wrote: post #19

When the cable guy came to add another outlet to my previous house, I watched what he did and chatted a bit about his tools. He was using Digikey tools. I then ordered identical tools. For my later house, I installed all the cables and outlets myself, with the Digikey tools. All I can say is two thumbs up for them. Quick and easy, and not a single bad connection. I did this because of my troubles soldering, which all…

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…

> I have had the same problem with vacuum sealers.

A great example! My sealer is very cheap, and doesn't work reliably. But I use it almost entirely to package dehydrated food that I take backpacking, and getting a good one isn't worth it to me.

Instead, after I seal the food, I just leave everything out for a couple of days to find the ones that have leaked, and reseal them.

This is fine for my use case -- not ideal, but not a big problem. If I used the sealer more widely, it would absolutely be worth investing in a good one.

But then lets talk about toasters. I've yet to find one that is reasonably decent no matter what price point I've tried. So I just buy the cheapest one I can lay my hands on.

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#172

Post by mindcrime »

markrages wrote: post #157
mindcrime wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

only-for-big-companies distributors like Allied and Newark. Huh? I'm strictly a hobbyist and I order from Newark all the time, and have never had any issues with them. If anything they are my first "go to" site to check for parts, or possibly it's a "1A / 1B" thing with them and Mouser. Nothing about my interactions with Newark have ever given me a "only for big companies" vibe, FWIW.

Maybe I was thinking of Arrow.

That would make sense. I know at least in my own mind, I see Arrow as one of the "mainly focused on big businesses" distributors. Then again, I've never actually tried ordering anything from them, so I could be wrong about that...

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#173

Post by mindcrime »

FWIW, I was doing a lot of electronics stuff last year in particular, and made dozens and dozens of parts orders with Mouser, Newark, Digikey and Jameco all throughout the year (in addition to stuff from Amazon, Sparkfun, Adafruit, etc). And I don't recall any specific degree of trouble with anybody in particular, including Mouser.

I did have one semi-annoying experience with one or the other of (Newark|Mouser), but I can't remember which one it was now, but it wasn't anything shipping related. It was a billing issue. I don't even remember all the details now, but I did have to spend quite a bit of time on the phone with customer service, but things did get squared away in the end. It was the kind of thing that I was fairly pissed about at the time, but in all honesty, looking at it from a "law of large numbers" perspective, you expect a few gaffes here and there when you are talking about companies that operate at that scale.

All of that said, after reading this, I might be a little more skittish about ordering from Mouser in the future. But at least so far, nothing has happened to me first-hand to put them on the "don't use" list.

EDIT: just for context, I ordered from Mouser 18 times last year, and have ordered from them twice so far this year.

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#174

Post by joshvm »

TylerE wrote: post #148
joshvm wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> They would do things like screw up an order and then send the replacement free of charge, even for $300 parts. This is supposed to be impressive? What would be impressive would be not screwing up the order in the first place.

Ah I misspoke - in this case it was our fault. We accidentally ordered a camera with the wrong serial interface and Mouser just shipped the right one.

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#175

Post by tomxor »

JohnFen wrote: post #170
tomxor wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretty good advice in general. The cost value curve of different things is different, and as you suggest, for the majority of things the functional value cut off is at quite a low cost point. What I find particularly amusing is when the cost value relationship invert, often after a stupidly high price point, especially when they introduce complexity.

> What I find particularly amusing is when the cost value relationship invert, often after a stupidly high price point See "audiophile" equipment. It's true that you often can't reliably tell quality from the price tag. I remember in marketing classes learning about what companies do when their product doesn't provide value commensurate with the cost. One approach is to reduce the price. Another approach is to increa…

> people who are really buying status

Yes, this is a huge area of value, which is why I was careful to write "functional value", because there are different kinds of value.

There are non-functional value which are tangibly important beyond pure function though. e.g As humans aesthetic is important to us, it affects our every day experience, and at a certain point that can even cross over into art. I will admit for some products I will make a choice based on form, and materials, but it's useful to recognise when you are doing this because even on a personal level it doesn't always make sense.

I particularly dislike "status" though, this is a hollow invention of consumerism that intentionally confuses quality and functional value with branding.

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#176

Post by sschueller »

ssl232 wrote: post #37
sschueller wrote: post #22

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…

Care to share your GitLab pipeline? Are you using KiCad 7's new CLI interface?

Here is my write up: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35922207

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#177

Post by paulmd »

JohnFen wrote: post #171
paulmd wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> I have had the same problem with vacuum sealers. A great example! My sealer is very cheap, and doesn't work reliably. But I use it almost entirely to package dehydrated food that I take backpacking, and getting a good one isn't worth it to me. Instead, after I seal the food, I just leave everything out for a couple of days to find the ones that have leaked, and reseal them. This is fine for my use case -- not ideal…

I really don't like the taste of carbonized bread, even if I do toast it's always been on the light side, golden brown at darkest. And an air fryer pretty much satisfies me for those needs - with the grille inside it gets good airflow around the back and makes decent toast at max heat. 2 mins at 350-400 will toast up a hamburger bun to the point of it starting to dry out and toast. That's fine for my toasting needs, if I was going to do bread that'd be a good start too.

Perhaps I'd have enjoyed toast more with better toasters growing up that didn't burn the bread (it's probably time to just junk my ancient toaster, I never use it). I like it in BLTs and such of course, and will sometimes toast up a bun for a burger/etc, but, like mayo, toast is one of those "as a main ingredient? no." things for me. It's an accent, not the main course.

Toast and popcorn also both have a sensory issue for me where they dry out my lips and it feels stingy and chapped and bad afterwards (even if I wash/chapstick/etc). Popcorn it's partially the salt, but it also occurs to some extent on homemade popcorn without/with less salt, and I also get it on BLTs/etc. Maybe the dryness of the bread is getting me in both cases. But I simply don't enjoy eating foods that trigger that chapped lipfeel.

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#178

Post by macjohnmcc »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #141
macjohnmcc wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you have a source for this? I am on their mailing list and order fairly often. I don't remember any requests for donations or any point where they were about to go out of business during covid.

I don't anymore. They were asking for donations about 2 years ago.

Re: Why I'm done with Mouser Electronics

#179

Post by macjohnmcc »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #159
macjohnmcc wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Huh? Mouser has never asked for donations. Are you thinking of OSH Stencils?

No it was Mouser. One of the few places I order electronics parts from. Digikey and Jameco did not.
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