RS Components UK - good for the planet!

[Gurner]

So I placed an order with RS Components (UK)  yesterday...only about twenty quid's worth of a veritable plethora of small surface mount ICs.

I arrive home tonight & there's this rather long package from them....

(the CD is just to give a sense of scale)



how curious, they must have sent me something in error, cos all my bits & bobs are very small. Result!! - let's open her up!



cool, it looks like I might have scored something here!! (cos I didn't order anything that warrant ESD packaging that long!)


Alrighty then, let's see what's inside the ESD wrapping....


excellent, a component tube!

Hmmmm....ok, let's take a closer look.....




Damn, 1 single TSSOP14 IC!! (about the size of my little fingernaIl)..... & nothing else in the big box at all!

Cheers RS....doing your bit to keep the planet green!

[jasperoosthoek]

Farnell sent a smd to dip converter board the size on a stamp (no ICs) in a special antistatic box. And i thought they were green.

Send them a message explaining this is lunacy.

[Gurner]

Farnell sent a smd to dip converter board the size on a stamp (no ICs) in a special antistatic box. And i thought they were green.

Send them a message explaining this is lunacy.

It is lunacy.

Now,  I'm no 'right on' tree hugger (in fact I openly encourage Brazilians to chop down rainforest trees & burn them with accelerant  ...ie anything to warm up old blighty a couple of degrees!) , but that's got to be hurting their bottom line (all my other stuff from the same order came in a jiffy bag - could they not have just trimmed the tube down & put it in that?)...and if their bottom line is getting hit, then that drives prices up.....if their prices go up, then that sucks canal water.

[Hides-His-Eyes]

Disgusting.

[jasperoosthoek]

Now,  I'm no 'right on' tree hugger (in fact I openly encourage Brazilians to chop down rainforest trees & burn them with accelerant  ...ie anything to warm up old blighty a couple of degrees!) ,

I hope you mean that  . Burn it down! 

but that's got to be hurting their bottom line (all my other stuff from the same order came in a jiffy bag - could they not have just trimmed the tube down & put it in that?)...and if their bottom line is getting hit, then that drives prices up.....if their prices go up, then that sucks canal water.

I ordered some new Seymour Duncan '59 humbucker pickups and they arrived this week. They were sent in a cardboard envelope without any padding or bubble wrap (!!!). Somewhere during transport the package fell on the floor and the cardboard was torn. It had to be repaired with some tape. The heavy plastic boxes were cracked! I found out that I couldn't use the pickups (I thought they had four wires). But due to the damage of the boxes they cannot be sold as 'new'.

So I have to send them back. This time with adequate padding from all the ridiculous packages that had to much bubble wrap...

[karesplat]

I'm also in the UK but I've only really ordered from Farnell. They can also be a little daft or extremely service oriented, which is how I prefer to see it. For instance, I ordered a resistor, a single solitary resistor of some oddball value. I did not notice it was out of stock in the UK but in stock in Belgium. Farnell always send orders the same day by UPS so I was able to track the resistor being air freighted overnight from Belgium to Leeds and then from Leeds to Bristol. I had it and the rest of my order in my hands by 12.00 the very same day. 2 flights and a not too short road journey just for a single resistor. I was humbled thinking that my 2p resistor would be given this much urgency. It's less special when ya realise it just shared it's journey with lots of other packages but that doesn't make it any less expensive for Farnell who have to pay the courrier out of my order. At least Farnell chop their IC tubes to length before shipping them!

[Jaicen_solo]

Jeez, and I thought it was excessive when Maplin sent me my 3 backordered resistors in an A3 jiffy bag.

[StephenGiles]

Jeez, and I thought it was excessive when Maplin sent me my 3 backordered resistors in an A3 jiffy bag.

Ah but were they the right ones???

[Jaicen_solo]

Ah, well that's a whole other kettle of fish
. This is the second time (in two online orders) i've had to contact customer services to get my order corrected. In all, I received three parcels for this one order. I think the people they have picking resistors may be colour blind..

[Gurner]

Off topic - but a top tip for my fellow Brits is to open an account with RS. As a DIY/hobbyist pleb, I hadn't realised I had the option - but I did, so I did! (I gave them a business sounding name when I opened the account, but they asked for no proof)

What's the win?

Free next day delivery on any order size   ....whereas Farnell want you to make the order up to £20 for free P&P.

This is really handy where you only want/need £5.00 to £10.00 worth of stuff quickly. They actually have no minimum order for free P&P (but I'm embarrassed to order anything less than a fiver!).

The £5.00 delivery cost that Farnell apply to small orders makes for a very expensive pack of TL072s! (even Cricklewood Electronics - who by & large have very fair prices - want to stiff you for about £4.00 on a very small order...so the RS deal is a wheeze)

[deadastronaut]

ha ha..mass packaging...very funny...lol....

i no longer deal with cricklewood..they p****d me off ages ago, ...

i do have an acount with farnell though!....

but now i will be going with RS i think....great tip gurner!..cheers.
i have a semi local one too!..

warning , RS lie about there enclosures though!. they say they are hammond, they are not,  they are eddystone...
they just put a sticker over the eddystone label...blatant!...

[StereoKills]

Newark did the same to me, 4 foot shipping tube with a component tube inside. My order you ask? 3 smd ic's shipped from Farnell UK to the US. Ridiculous!

[sundgist]

Off topic - but a top tip for my fellow Brits is to open an account with RS. As a DIY/hobbyist pleb, I hadn't realised I had the option - but I did, so I did! (I gave them a business sounding name when I opened the account, but they asked for no proof)

What's the win?

Free next day delivery on any order size  

I did the same. I'm the M.D. of Sundgist Productions.
I believe it also allows you to buy from their trade counters, though I've never bothered.

[karesplat]

Thanks for the tip, Gurner!

[zombiwoof]

Most likely, RS receives those IC's in that container, they had one left in the container and shipped it out to you in it, leaving it to you to dispose of the package.

Al