Wagner, I can understand your being mad with Digikey, but isn't it really YOUR FAULT for not allowing for 'screw ups' in your supply chain?? Why would you order parts that are apparently _critical_ to your product delivery date (Nov 8?) only 4 days before they're absolutely needed? What if Digikey had been out of stock? Then where would you have been? Yes, Digikey screwed up by sending you wrong parts, and by sending them by ground, but YOU screwed up by not giving yourself any headroom or a backup plan. And as anyone familiar with ISO900x will tell you, having certification only means that they will DOCUMENT their screw ups. It doesn't prevent them. They probably have a document that tells them that they must send correction orders by ground. I would approach your customer and explain the problem, and see if you can negotiate your way out of the penalty. It's not like they were launching a rocket. And you can always ask if they have always delivered absolutely perfectly all the time? If not, count it as a lesson to you about "Planning for Failures". Robert P.S. I have always been amazed how I can order parts from Digikey late into the night, and STILL have them on my desk by 10:00 the NEXT DAY (and I'm up in the great white north). The only time that hasn't happened was when the plane was grounded by bad weather, but I still had two weeks to get alternate parts (if it had come to that). They may not have 7x24 service, but it's pretty darned close. For the small quantities I use in prototyping, the cost premium is worth it. With nearly any other supplier you'd be looking at weeks to get your problem fixed. Wagner Lipnharski wrote: > > Using Digikey for many years, hundreds of times, by the first time they > sent a wrong part number. > In a list of purchase, I bought a bag of small aluminum electrolytic cap > 22uF x 10V, they sent a bag of 100nF x 450V cap, with the 22uF Digikey > label on the bag. Obviously they got the wrong bag and stick the right > label. > > The original purchase was done on Monday, Nov/4th, shipping via 2nd Day > USPS service - it was delivered clockwork, Nov/6th. > > 1 minute after receive the package, Nov/6th, around 2pm, I called Digikey > Customer Service and reported the problem. > > They were very prompt to ask me to take the wrong parts to UPS customer > counter (15 miles) or to the nearest UPS drop off box (3 miles) - to return > to them - my own packing box and tape, gas, time, etc, they sent via email > the UPS label, nice, my paper, my printer, again my time. Why do I need to > go through this if the problem is not mine? well, what a heck, everybody do > mistakes, even an ISO-9002 company as Digikey, well, it should not, > probably they need to rewrite the ISO books to avoid this problem to > happens. > > Digikey Customer Service promised to correct the failure and sent the > correct parts same day, to be delivered next day UPS Red Label, good, > perfect. It still in time to finish and deliver the final boards to > customer under the correct delivery lead time, no late-delivery fine, zip, > nada, zero killing. > > Correct parts should arrive next day, Nov/7th, Thursday morning. > > Today is Sunday, Nov/10th, and no parts - already paying few thousand > dollars in late-delivery fine to customer (agreement breach), nice Digikey > move. Checking their shipping records, they sent it by UPS GROUND > SERVICE - according to UPS, it is scheduled to be delivered next Wednesday, > 8 days after I complained about the wrong parts. Isn't this fantastic? > > A double mistake? in an ISO-9002 company? > > The ISO-9002 label is what makes people trust them more, pay more for the > parts, the ISO label should mean something, right? > > I tried to contact them on Saturday, nada, zip, just a recording, only on > Monday. > Sent them an email, received an auto-answer email, telling me that someone > will read it... on Monday. > > Now this I don't understand. My company is many times smaller than > Digikey, I have much less employees, and even so, I have customer service > and technical support 24h/day, 7 days/week. How can we do it and they > don't? > > My standby personnel answer emails within 6 hours of contact. On evenings > when we most receive emails from customers, they get surprised that we > answer in minutes up to 2am. My company is NOT on ISO-9000 yet, but > appears that we don't need it, we do our job as planned and as promised, > except, when a lousy supplier messes up with our plans. > > Wagner Lipnharski > UST Research Inc. > Orlando Florida. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.