UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

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- - RS Website (https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=166915)

Just for info - the RS website is down "temporarily". Not for long I hope - I am halfway through placing an order.

In view of CPC's new raised limit for free postage, does anyone know if RS have changed their policy?

Mike

Seems to be back up again now..

Many years ago I opened trade accounts with both RS and Farnell, so I neatly sidestep the burden of order size to get free shipping.

Craig

"Many years ago I opened trade accounts with both RS and Farnell" Do you have to buy X amount of bits per year Craig? I've bought the odd few bits from RS but find the site hard to use, the search option is just plain weird. Also they often don't have the bits your after.

Used to use CPC but got fed up with only getting the full order sometimes months later and excessive packaging , like individually packaged resistors. That said got an order from Farnell the other day which arrived in 3 separate packages, but all in one day. One dip 8 IC was in a one of those toobs, but the toob was 8" long in a 10" long anti static bag, had to smile. Maybe the bloke who wrapped individual R's for CPC now works at Farnell.

Andy.

RS say this at checkout:

"Free delivery explained?
Online orders have free next working day delivery for standard products.If you have an Extended Range (10 digit stock number) item in your basket and the total value of the item(s) is below £100, a £10 handling charge will be applied."

Not sure what an extended range item is! I've never been charged for postage/handling though.

I ordered recently from RS, and had free postage. Total was less than £10.

Same here, delivery always free and faster than most.

I buy nearly all my stuff from rs. Ordering very low value items say for a couple of quid and having it delivered for free cannot be sustainable forever, once the free delivery (ESPECIALLY NEXT DAY) is gone that's it, it will never return.
I always wait until I have a fair few things that I need before I order, at least it helps a bit to make it worthwhile for them to keep providing this service.

One thing that's raised my eyebrows is that prices have nearly doubled in last few months especially resistors>(( They seem to have less vishay axial polyprop caps and more kemet ones which are eye-wateringly dear:-X.

poppydog

Yes, I once brought a plug from RS for 90p, and nothing else. Still free next day Parcelforce delivery!

Interestingly, the recent order I mention, came on two days. Both parcelforce. One of those was a package with 10 resistors in it! So next day and day after next day.

Here's a quick cheer for RS Online: last night I found I was missing some 22pF SMT caps for a project I was working on. Ordered from RS at 8:30pm. At 9am this morning they were delivered! That was an order valued at just £2.

God, I really miss Maplin. I could get 95% of what I wanted from them, and use RS and CPC only when I really had to. I find their websites to be awkward, and long-winded to use. Their search functions seem hit and miss as well.

RS website search has lots of false hits and misses to me!

I've let them know. But their data entry is inconsistent - they'll have, for instance, one electrolytic capacitor rated 100Vdc, and another, 100V dc (with a space).

Search facility won't pick up both, unless you search for both!

RS service though is excellent.

I can't quite match Keith956's experience (which was almost surreal), but I ordered a bench power supply from CPC last week - placed order 3.00pm, and was staggered when it arrived at my door 3.00pm next day. All with standard 'free' postage, as over the minimum order value for that.

Got to give it to them, one thing these suppiers seem to have sorted is the very rapid delivery thing. Difficult to see, though, how RS can continue its policy of free postage even for 80 pence worth of components.

Mike

I suspect that such a small percentage of their orders are for so little that it is cheaper for them to stand the occasional small loss than operate a more complex system. If people started to abuse the free delivery service it would soon change.

"If people started to abuse the free delivery service it would soon change".

Reading some of the last few posts it seems people are.

I do not know the amount of small orders they receive. I do know, however, that I (or at least my company) made orders in the range £2 to £2000 in the last few months so I don't feel like I'm abusing their service.

I am sure they have costed it all in. The loss they make when obliged to send one 1N4148 in a jiffy bag, they probably recoup when the same buyer goes straight to RS for a £100 item instead of shopping around. I use RS and CPC extensively, placing orders almost daily ranging from £1 to £1000.

But I would echo the comments about the search, was only talking to my account manager yesterday about it. The data entry and parameter definitions are inconsistent, compelling the searcher to steer around the errors with no guarantee of hitting on all the available options. E.g. Device x can be either AC or DC input. They offer 27 models, 9 are listed as AC input and 7 as DC input. If you filter with that parameter to DC, you automatically miss any of the remaining 11 that are DC, which can only be found with that filter off. There are capacitors that you can only find by searching for resistors, a connector gender choice of female, male, panel plug, male plug, screw terminals and panel-mount, and other frustrating mistakes that would not generally occur in print, having been picked up in proof reading when the juxtaposed categories didn't make sense. Found a nice equipment box that you like the look of? Try finding the next size up in the same style...

The underlying problem is partly with the data entry being inconsistent, and partly with the inherent limitation of an SQL query that will never be able to convey the contextual information that a human editor would rely on when organising products in a catalogue. The latter is not RS's fault but still impacts on the purchasing experience. I've raised this with them at a number of levels and they know it's a problem. I still keep my 2010 catalogue and use it sometimes, and the account manager commented that I'm not unique in doing so. Other than that, I cannot fault the service. Have had excellent support from RS over many years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucien Nunes (Post 1253197)

I cannot fault the service. Have had excellent support from RS over many years.

Same here. Anyone who doesn't like them will find plenty of alternative outlets they can use.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keith956 (Post 1253196)

£2000, is that all??:devil:

poppydog