CPC, components out of stock - packaging overkill.

[Diabolical Artificer]

Digikey are very quick, I ordered some transistors two days later they arrived with UPS.

Why can't you reuse airbags Wendy, I do

My winge about CPC wasn't so much about packaging in the parcel more like pre packaging. They've been doing it for years.I have some NOS resistors from the 70's in individual packets. Farnell cut how many you need off a roll and bung em in a bag with a label. So CPC must have a resistor packing machine, which must cost them more. Someone still has to bung them in a bag and label it.

There's no logic to CPC parcel policy either. Some orders come in a jiffy bag some in a box with airbags. Perhaps they have a God of packaging, we all know gods are fickle. Or maybe an Igor or an Alf in the packaging department : )

RM shot themselves in the foot with that daft letter gauge. I avoid using RM if possible. The last jiffy bag with a socket inside I sent took weeks to arrive. As it was one micron too thick the parcel police seized it, bunged it on a shelf, forgot about it and two weeks later sent the recipient a " you have a letter, give us some dosh notice" . You also have the hassle of driving to the PO if you don't live near a PO, queing for 10 - 20 minutes etc to post a parcel. A courier service picks it up and it isn't much cheaper with RM.

My posty's a good un and we have a good understanding, I have him well trained by the use of a whip and a fiver at Xmas, but Parcelforce are different. They run past the letter box, all you see is a flash of high viz, stick a card through the door and leg it, leaving the parcel 5 miles away at an obscure rural PO that only open's for 5 minutes on the third Wednesday in the month . It being quicker and easier to do that than knock on my door and get me to sign for it. That way their home in time for T and Blue Peter on the box.

Apologies, for the anti RM tangent. Andy.

[superdirto]

Hi, this may help,

Stock is bagged up, (as correctly guessed) in the bagging machine on receipt from the manufacturer ( singly ) before warehousing, it waits there protected in its bag until it's eventually picked as part of one order, then packed with the air bag making machine and shipped in a range of standard sized boxes.
I,m their bench engineer and also have to open each component when I take stock for my use, I, like some of you, also save and reuse all incoming servicable packing and send repaired items out with this, so applogies if your repaired Amplifier came in a scruffy old box or packed with old bubbles, but even as an old skinflint, on occasion I still have to make a trip to the bag making machine for fresh air lol.

Cheers Johnny CPC Technical

[MrBungle]

Thanks for the insight - much appreciated

[Diabolical Artificer]

Could you tell me why Johnny CPC think a resistor is better protected in an individual bag rather than on the manufacturer's reel? Also why CPC have a problem with stock? Ta for the heads up.

The last batch of resistors I ordered from CPC finally arrived 3 months and two weeks later. I ordered 20 got four with my "order", the rest came in three separate delivery's - insane, though this time not in a huge box but jiffy bags.. I ordered 5 heatsinks too on the same original order, got two in the original order, three came months later.. Having completely forgotten about them you get a little parcel, think hooray, a pressey, "Oh it's just those bits I ordered from CPC in 2001" a bit like an unwanted Xmas present, "Oooh what's this? "Oh it's a neon lemon jumper with Xmas puddings that look like dead flys hand knitted by Aunt Maude"

Excess packing isn't new. I recently got a box of valves off a forum member. In it was a black object about 10" long. The black stuff was oilskin or tarred canvas. Inside was a box wrapped in two layers of greased paper. The box was made from heavy duty cardboard 1/4" thick. Inside that was a tube wrapped in, yes, greased paper, inside of which was a wad of 3/4" thick horse hair, the equivalent of air bags. Inside that was about five layers of more grease proof paper in which was a lamp/light bulb 4" long.

This was probably heavy duty packaging a la' wartime military US Navy designed to survive submersion
at 1000ft or dropped from aeroplanes into swamps. I can see the point of the second but am still baffled and slightly grumpy by CPC's individually wrapped resistors.

A.

[superdirto]

Hi
In this case, without doubt, it is better protected in a bag, it's not exacty clean inside warehouses, and its a pretty massive one, open for lorries, forklifts etc. despite their dedicated cleaning teams, theres always dust on anything left out for more than a day, and what happens when someone ( ahem not me, I might add) drops the whole box on the floor, at least the bags dont roll.
I would imagine they started bagging eveything, decades ago as a result of customer feedback (aka complaints) as that actually seems to be the driver of most of the things they do.

My personal favorite is the natty little lengths of SMD tape someones had to cut and bag.

I dont do stock, so the stock control is a mystery to me and many other workers there as well, and dont start me on the website oh and as someone said earlier we are Farnell as well, for some things.

[MrBungle]

25x BC547:



24x BC547 now:



Only dropped 4 on the floor from unpacking, 2 were bent and 1 was an empty bag!

Seriously CPC, get some clue please

To be fair I'm thankful the 100 1n4148's I ordered for matching come on the roll, although it looks like I'll have to count them...

[Philips210]

25x BC547:

and 1 was an empty bag!

Hi.

I've had that a few times over the years and in the latest example, the transistors were of low monetary value so it wasn't worth the effort making a claim for shortages. I also agree it's baffling why the order is sometimes sent in individual packets when a single bag for the 20 transistors would suffice. The resealable polythene bags are welcome though as these always get reused.

Regards
Symon.

[MrBungle]

Sometimes I wonder if I should argue over a few pence

I re-bag everything in heavy duty ones from ebay. They are like leather and last considerably longer in use.

[MrBungle]

I put a relatively small £13 order through for some TTL ICs for a couple of things I'm working on. It just turned up. Each line item has it's own cardboard IC box and for one special IC, a lowly 74LS107AN, they even bothered to put the antistatic box inside an antistatic bag!

On a positive note I now have lots of nice little IC storage boxes!



Edit: thanks mods for merging. I couldn't find the original thread.

[Peter88gate]

Never used Farnell before, but not only is the level of packaging scatty but they seem to be barcode bonkers as well judging by your last post Mr B!!

Peter

[Lucien Nunes]

CPC are great for some of our work stuff, they have some useful items at realistic prices and overall their customer service is pretty good and very friendly to deal with. But the packaging, I agree, is totally random. Sometimes excellent, sometimes absolutely hopeless.

Whoever would think of putting 32kg of SLA batteries, half a dozen PCB-mount DC-DC converter modules packed only in ziplocs and some shrink-wrapped photosensitive board all in the bottom of a large box and filling the space above with Airfill bags? Not surprisingly, the pins on the DC-DC's scratched the PCBs before the lead-acids folded the pins flat. Another time, a heavy item made its escape through the box wall followed by some of the smaller items. CPC sent out a repeat shipment immediately without any complaint, packed the same way, and the same thing happened. A lady there contacted me to discuss as she was concerned, and I am sure she investigated the problem.

Re the individual packs, it probably depends on the quantities ordered by typical customers. If they often get orders for single items, they'll pack singly for speed in order fulfilment. If they often get orders for bulk, they'll pack accordingly. It doesn't pay to stock lots of different pack sizes, nor is there always time to pack to order.

[Oldcodger]

Bit O/T, but for packaging overkill try RS. I ordered a fluorescent ballast recently. Very handy for me ,as RS are a couple of miles down road.Order today- pick up tomorrow. The ballast was almost biblical in proportions- approx 2 inches ,by two inches and four inches long. But the box was about A4 size and about 4 inches high. Inside was ( I exaggerate, but it gives an idea), enough brown paper to gift wrap a Ford Fiesta, all scrunched up on top of poor little ballast .

[ionburn]

Just received a jiffy bag from RS containing four antistatic bags with four different types of transistors. Perfect packaging in my opinion, but I suppose it is often down to the oddest shaped item in an order.

The most interesting thing about the items I bought were the wide sourcing:
Each type of transistor from a different country - China, South Korea, Malaysia and (surprised!) United Kingdom