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  • #3022
    Rhonda
    CVRS Member

    This is a two part post:

    Part I – Is there an equivalent company with their extensive inventory? I just spent two wasted hours today trying to place an order online only to have it “disappear” when I tried logging in (I forgot my login name and password). They are a great company as long as you do not have to deal with a “Hu-MON” or “inDUHvidual” on the other end of the line.

    Part II – Be aware that their front end ordering is very clunky. You can start an order anonymously but remember to WRITE down the Web ID and Access ID number so if things go sideways, you can retrieve the order. If you do not do this, it is next to impossible to find it. They had two people on their end try and find the order with no luck. The alternative is to login first and then fill in an order. Sadly, they could tweak this and make their front end a little easier but they won’t do it as this is not the first time this has happened to me. I have a customer number but cannot use it in their front end (or it is not that obvious) – so why even bother with these?

    In the end, I understand I am just a “number” in their system but like I told the lady on the other end of the line, “How would YOU feel if you just lost two hours that you could have spend with your children or your grandchildren?” She really didn’t have an answer to that either.

    So buyer beware.

    Regards,

    Gerry

    #3023
    Ed Stone
    Forum Participant

    Hi Gerry,

    I ordered a couple of small relays from Digikey a couple of months ago – thankfully I had no problems ordering (as a guest). Amazingly the relays arrived within 2 days (to Canada from the US).

    Ed

    • This reply was modified 2 years ago by Ed Stone.
    #3043
    Rhonda
    CVRS Member

    Hi Ed:

    Most of the time, they are pretty good to deal with. In the past my orders were small and had 6 – 8 items so it was easy to re-enter the data if the ordering system did a hiccup.

    This was a big order for me as I needed parts for 4 projects including a battery eliminator I am building for a Marconi 199 farm set.

    Just saying “Buyer Beware” as the people who put together their website probably do not order parts from Digikey (probably Digikey employees and it’s just a J.O.B.) so they have no idea what kind of frustrations their customers deal with. And I have sent them feedback with suggestions on how to do things better – they just get ignored.

    #3067
    Grodi1956
    Forum Participant

    Hi Gerry,

    Another large company is Electro Sonic (Canada). According to one website they have six Canadian Locations, but I believe most of their product is shipped from Toronto.

    I haven’t ordered much from them but had no problems when I did place an order.

    Cheers,
    Grodi1956

    #3120
    Jagtech
    Forum Participant

    I’ve dealt with Digikey for a number of years, both as a business and individually, and they have been excellent. Make sure you get and keep a customer number. Their overnight shipping for $8 is hard to beat, and their online catalog is complete and up-to-date. Don’t give up on them!
    BTW, I always call my orders in to their toll-free number.

    • This reply was modified 2 years ago by Jagtech.
    #4835
    phil
    Forum Participant

    I have been going to Mode electronics on boundary road and they have a pretty good selection in the shelves, and from what I have experienced , fair pricing.
    https://www.mode-elec.com/
    also to note , try clicking on the “find a distributor” tab near the top, it seems to list a lot of other electronic parts distributors
    Phil

    • This reply was modified 2 years ago by phil.
    #4845
    Gerry O’Hara
    Keymaster

    Mouser offers a large selection also – comparable to Digikey – and seem to get reasonable reports from customers (I have never used them though). I buy most of my resistors and capacitors from JustRadios, with occasional purchase of capacitors and other parts from RadioDaze and AES. I used to buy some parts/tools from Active on Boundary before they shut up shop. I occasionally use Lee and Main Electronics, both located on Main St. in Vancouver, along with RP Electronics occasionally, now located on Rupert St. I also buy from UK suppliers from time to time for some semiconductors, tubes and other parts, eg. BA thread hardware. I buy tubes from several suppliers, though I tend to go to Roger Gould at vacuumtubes.biz as a first stop, sometimes Pacific and occasionally AES and others.

    Gerry

    #4848
    Rhonda
    CVRS Member

    Wow! Lots of good resources here. Thank you everyone. I was in Active in Edmonton and they actually had stuff I needed for a project. That’s been a first in quite awhile.

    Best regards,

    Gerry Shand
    780-910-7031

    #5206
    Stephen
    Forum Participant

    I have dealt with DigiKey for years in a professional capacity, I have never ordered online or for personal use.
    In my experience they cannot be beat for shipment speed. If it’s in stock, you’ll have it within 2 days.

    Another supplier in Canada is Newark-In-One, another large inventory electronics supplier, but their turnaround time on delivery is nowhere near as good as DigiKey.

    https://canada.newark.com/

    #5228
    Rhonda
    CVRS Member

    Haven’t dealt with Newark in years. Last month I had another issue with a Digikey order: panel mount potentiometers came without the jam nuts or washers. The in-duh-vidual at Digikey denied that the pots were supposed to come with mounting hardware. A day later, after they checked, they shipped the hardware out to me – gosh, golly, gee the pots do come with mounting hardware afterall. No apology or anything else. Hmmm. I wonder if I order knobs if I have to ask them if the set screws come with them, or do I have to order them separately?

    So Digikey is no longer a supplier I can blindly trust and forget using them for large orders on a JIT project if this is going to be how they respond to a customer concern.

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