RS introduces delivery charge

[McMurdo]

Just a heads up to users of RS, today they introduced an automatic delivery charge for any order under £20, full trade account holders included. This is not clearly shown on the website and is easy to miss.

[ThePillenwerfer]

Thanks for the warning. How much is the charge?

- Joe

[Nickthedentist]

Kevin,

Does that mean that all orders >£20 are still free, for everyone?

What's the situation with Farnell at the moment?

Nick.

[ColinB]

When I use Farnell with work, they appear to deliver for free, generally next day (though not guaranteed to be) even on small orders. Generally very impressive, assuming they have what you need in stock.

Don't know if this is because we have a credit account with them and are a business though, sorry.

[McMurdo]

Not sure about non-RS accounts, but it will no doubt be on the website soon.

Farnell account holders are still free if placed online, they operate a variable carriage charge for phone orders depending on what sort of customer they regard you as.

[evingar]

Can't say I'm awfully surprised by this, Have to confess to often ordering on a "job basis" these to keep stock and cost down - especially as the work is diverse and extra stock ordered may take a very long time (or never!) to be used.

Have to confess that Farnell is my preferred vendor these days - I seriously can't get on with the "Mickey Mouse" RS search engine and everything I want from them seems to be out of stock with some monstrous lead time. I wonder if they are struggling?

[McMurdo]

The RS rep (remember them?) told us that their above-average prices and Standard Supply Multiples were there to keep the carriage free no matter how small the order...'every customer of RS is important..large or small'.

[Skywave]

Originally Posted by McMurdo

The RS rep. .....'every customer of RS is important..large or small'.

But he forgot to add that "some customers are more important to us than others, irrespective of size".

Al.

[JoshWard]

Damn They were always my go to place whenever I urgently needed a component and didn't want to foot the £5 or so most other companies charge as a standard delivery rate.

[ekcopyephilips]

Just to note I found out today that Farnell and CPC (same company) are now touting that they are now not charging delivery. I believe their company is called 'one call'.

[Vicboduk]

A note concerning; Farnell, Onecall, Element14, CPC (all the same). It’s worth while checking the CPC price first. I’ve just had to order some toggle switches, on entering the manufacturers part number two hits were returned for the same component.

My work establishment being an account holder means that we can mix CPC part codes with Farnell part codes when placing an order. I don’t know if this is so for non account holders.

Vic

[McMurdo]

My work establishment being an account holder means that we can mix CPC part codes with Farnell part codes when placing an order. I don’t know if this is so for non account holders.

Really? I have an account with both but can't seem to do this.

I hope Farnell group don't jump on the RS bandwagon...there are people like Rapid Electronics who charge delivery under {whatever} but their item prices are peanuts.

Edit: Apparently this service is for Educational Establishments through the NUWPEC system.

[GrimJosef]

Sounds right. My old employer was NUWPEC and we could mix and match Farnell and CPC in one order. The stuff came from different places so it must have cost Farnell/CPC more to do it this way. But if you placed a phone order the woman (IME it always was a woman) on the computer clearly had access to both 'companies'' items through the same screen. The odd thing was that if you happened to miss the cheaper CPC option they would happily let you order the expensive Farnell one. They must have judged that the extra profit was worth the occasional annoyed customer who'd been kept in the dark about the money-saving option.

Cheers,

GJ

[Heatercathodeshort]

I must admit I am not surprised. Have you posted a parcel recently? It cost me over £10.00 to post a few bits of light weight junk. I have often thought that the goods cost less than the postage in many transactions with free postage supply companies. Pity but it's just a sign of the times. J.

[Paul Stenning]

Yes, I have an account but only order once or twice a year and probably only about £5 of parts each time. By the time they have paid for delivery, packing etc they can't be making any money on accounts and orders like mine. It seems reasonable that they charge delivery on smaller orders for small account holders, and I'm surprised they haven't before now.

[McMurdo]

My point as made by their rep was that the higher price point of components compared to the competition was the reason they could afford free carriage. I know that RS negotiate extremely cheap rates for their carriage and shift such a lot of stock that profit margin is maximum. You only have to look at American suppliers' prices (Mouser, Newark, Allied, Digikey, Jameco etc) to see the difference.

As a random example, a certain Chinese stepper motors from the US is £5.00 plus carriage plus duty. The same motor from RS is £35. 100 amp IGBT modules, from the US, £80 delivered free. RS price, £235.

I already place any order of £50 or more direct from the states because no UK company can match their prices across the board nor offer such a complete, stocked range of such diverse devices.

Anyway I am in danger of ranting and I'm best doing that to the companies concerned!

[camtechman]

Last week I ordered some caps from RS (under £20) and there was no delivery charge. Could it be that I've held a trade account for over 25 years?

[McMurdo]

I don't know, you tell me! I opened our account in 1989 but it seems to count for little.

[Radio Wrangler]

We just got hit last week at work with the first delivery charge on an RS order. The boss went round checking to see if anyone else needed anything to make sure orders got consolidated, but we moved more over to Farnell some time ago, and just use RS for things not at Farnell.

The RS website navigation and search facilities just waste too much time.

Too many suppliers have made their websites friendly to purchasing departments, and made them damned difficult for designers shopping for components. It's odd, that, because if the designers don't design something in, the buyers never will order production quantities.

David

[McMurdo]

The problem with both the aforementioned is that they are very advert, java and bloatware heavy. This slows my P3 works computer down to a crawl each time you select an option. I've complained to them but to no avail. Mouser, on the other hand, is an engineer's web ordering system and is fast, lean and efficient. The British suppliers must learn.