On Fri, Jun 30, 2006 at 09:11:04PM +0200, Wouter van Ooijen wrote:
> >> How's your experiences with buy.microchip.com been?
> > 
> > Just fine.  They usually have as good or better prices than 
> > distributors for
> > small volumes of PICs.  The other nice thing is that the 
> > whole Microchip
> > product line is available, not just the part the distributor felt like
> > carrying.
>
> Their prices for my quantities (25 .. 500) are well below the
> distributor I used to deal with. And unlike foreign sellers I officially
> buy from a microchip branch in my country, which makes VAT and customs
> (otherwise a nuisance) a non-issue.

Just called them up myself actually. Aparently all "silicon" is shipped
direct from Thailand, however it's shipped "DVP" (duty something paid)
so in my case I should only have to pay the standard GST/PST plus a $22
shipping/handling/everything fee. No silly $50 brokarage fees.

Not bad if you can put together a decent-sized order.

> My only complaint is about their handling of credit card payment claims
> in replation to backorders: the first claim the total amount, then
> charge only what they ship. This leaves the (total!) claim active, which
> reduces the amount I can use for other CC purchases.

Good point there, wouldn't do much good for me, with my very, very low
student credit limit.

> And a nitty-gritty: you can choose your country by flag, but the Dutch
> and Luxemburg flags are almost indistinguishable...

Looking at that select your country page reminds me of how few novel
ideas there are in flag design... Must be the european standard bearers
tradition or something.

-- 
pete@petertodd.ca http://www.petertodd.ca
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