Every radio amateur should have at least one in his hobbyist career wondered where to order parts from. Here in Greece, in the city I live, there are NO local stores that offer parts besides the most common ones.
So when I decided to build the mcHF, I have had my BOM's ready to upload them and get a price quote for the parts. The amount was respectable, about 200 Euros so I needed to find an economic solution. Since I was in Europe Farnell was the obvious choice, in terms of speed of delivery and customs. However due to an incident with a Farnell salesman I took the other way, across the Atlantic ocean.
Farnell has a "tool" to upload the BOM and give you a price quote. To my surprise this is NOT an automated procedure! You just upload the BOM and then wait until someone does something for it!
The same day I get the following reply on my e-mail"
"Would you like to place the order for the attached parts"
Besides the fact that there is no question-mark on this sentence, if I was to order I would have ordered, I wouldn't be asking for a price quote! The guy that replied to me was the "International Sales Co-ordinator"
Anyway I decide to be polite, and reply to him that I would like to know what would be the total cost to decide if I'm going to place the order or not.
A few minutes later I get this fantastic reply!
We have a great search engine with prices, technical data sheets etc
Imagine that! There is a web site that has the technical data sheets and prices of all the parts! And it's also a fantastic one!
Then I realized that I did not want to do business with the English guys. I went through the process of building a BOM for Mouser, I uploaded it to their web site, and in seconds I had my price quote! There were some parts out of stock, but I easily replaced them with the suggested alternative ones. Mouser had FREE shipping, and guess what else! No need to wait for customs clearance and to pay extra money on custom fees because they have settled everything for you! They use a special freight service in co-operation with FedEx in which they import the parts to Europe for you. Also billing was made from within the EU and if you have a business VAT number withing the EU, you can exempt VAT. The parts arrived within a week, and generally their customer experience is amazing.
So, the Americans beat us in this...
So when I decided to build the mcHF, I have had my BOM's ready to upload them and get a price quote for the parts. The amount was respectable, about 200 Euros so I needed to find an economic solution. Since I was in Europe Farnell was the obvious choice, in terms of speed of delivery and customs. However due to an incident with a Farnell salesman I took the other way, across the Atlantic ocean.
Farnell has a "tool" to upload the BOM and give you a price quote. To my surprise this is NOT an automated procedure! You just upload the BOM and then wait until someone does something for it!
The same day I get the following reply on my e-mail"
"Would you like to place the order for the attached parts"
Besides the fact that there is no question-mark on this sentence, if I was to order I would have ordered, I wouldn't be asking for a price quote! The guy that replied to me was the "International Sales Co-ordinator"
Anyway I decide to be polite, and reply to him that I would like to know what would be the total cost to decide if I'm going to place the order or not.
A few minutes later I get this fantastic reply!
If you visit our fantastic website, www.*******.com
Scroll down and click the farnell export link
Imagine that! There is a web site that has the technical data sheets and prices of all the parts! And it's also a fantastic one!
Then I realized that I did not want to do business with the English guys. I went through the process of building a BOM for Mouser, I uploaded it to their web site, and in seconds I had my price quote! There were some parts out of stock, but I easily replaced them with the suggested alternative ones. Mouser had FREE shipping, and guess what else! No need to wait for customs clearance and to pay extra money on custom fees because they have settled everything for you! They use a special freight service in co-operation with FedEx in which they import the parts to Europe for you. Also billing was made from within the EU and if you have a business VAT number withing the EU, you can exempt VAT. The parts arrived within a week, and generally their customer experience is amazing.
So, the Americans beat us in this...
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