Digi-key sales support

I asked them for some more of their cool red PCB rulers for my engineers, and they sent a bunch. They actually sell them now for $5.

Their search engine is (mostly) great.

Yeah, I got that from the text above digikey logo (the part number). Mine has date code JUL 2017, so may be a later revision than yours. It also has the localised domanin name "digikey.co.nz" above the font samples, however re-ordering got me one with "digikey.com" in that place.

Yes, and after hours as well. Plus they make it very easy to return anything, no questions asked. IIRC, just fill out a simple online form.

I'm looking at a Digi-Key flyer I got a weeks ago, "SAME-DAY SHIPPING NEXT-DAY DELIVERY on orders entered by 8:00 pm CST." Wow, I usually pay $25 to 45 to FedEx to get that. Does it really work? I've been working too hard on the AoE x-Chapter book's deadline to place any orders and find out.

Oh, wait, it says next-day delivery, but oops, it doesn't say anything about free.

Digikey has always seemed good. I don't like how they trimmed their selecto r guide and how it excludes certain filers once the search is set. I still found it better than Mouser, but not by alot.

Both those companies are now operating under the Element 14 umbrella. So is Newark. I haven't dealt with them in a while. Maybe I should check them ou t again. Whatever.

Digikey should lower their shipping, at lest to here. I know how much it re ally costs and it looks like they put the man hours to pull the order into the shipping charge. Well they do ave a markup right ? Pay them out of that !

But you get that everywhere. It's like they charge a dollar for every stapl e they put in.

Years ago I heard something about Digikey. It was that if you snail mailed in an order with payment like a postal MO or something as strong, they woul d ship for free. I don't remember where I heard that so I just don't know a nd never tried it. Does anyone here know if that was EVER true ? Just curio us.

DigiKey is a classy company with their act together. (Refreshing to see in this day and age.)

Their inventory control is world class -- or at least it sure seems so from the outside looking in. Out of all those parts, they know EXACTLY how man y "widgets" they have in-stock. (We are of course, officially envious!)

The only time I remember an error was years ago when I ordered a particular B&K Precision IC programmer. They showed stock of "1", but it wasn't true . They called me back within 30 minutes and offered to ship me the better (more capable) upgrade unit for the same price! A savings of over $150. Nice.

Another weirdness, speaking of DigiKey's part selector guide.... Sometimes things don't show up where you expect them to.

For example, we still have a few products that use 16x2 character LCD, (white letters, blue LED background). Circa 1980 stuff.

But you can look all day in their "Optoelectronics" parametric search engine and never find 1471-1236-ND.

(elsewhere it says that personal checks must be us)

but I can't find a link to that form from their website.

You do not read enough Science Fiction...TINSTAAFL

TANSTAAFL.

"Isn't No" is ungrammatical. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Agreed, except that they apparently have no good way of dealing with short cut tapes. It would be a very nice addition to be able to see whether the part I'm ordering is available in continuous tape.

Not infrequently some comedian in their warehouse will ship 10 cut tapes of 10 pieces each.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

'There Is No Such Thing' looks perfectly fine to me.

Jeroen Belleman

I was told that the big-name distributors are going the other way, not stocking anything. Sort of becoming sales reps that take orders.

Correct, for Newark. I think Digi-Key is private. Mouse is a "TTI and Berkshire Hathaway company".

It was true a couple of months ago when I ordered from them. I live in southern MN (they are in northern MN) so even with snail mail I usually get less than a week turn around.

Same here - that's just how I interpreted this variant of TANSTAAFL. :-)

It's in their current Terms And Conditions document:

1. Shipping Charges. Except as otherwise provided on the Site, (1) shipping or freight charges and insurance will be paid by the customer*, (2) all sales are made FOB Digi-Key's warehouse in Thief River Falls, MN, USA, and (3) shipping or freight charges from Digi-Key's warehouse in Thief River Falls, MN, USA are prepaid and added to the invoice, billed collect or billed to a third party.

• When a check or money order accompanies your order, Digi-Key pays all shipping and insurance (our choice for method of shipping) to all addresses in the U.S. and Canada.

And, although it seems to be hard to find on their site, a quick Google-search for "digikey mail order form" turns up a printable PDF of the snail-mail order form.

The URL on their site seems to be

Another (from their 2011 catalog, apparently) is

? Many parts seem to be available also in "DigiReels" and/or full reels.