PICdude wrote:
> Newark scammed me -- won't touch them again.

Can't say I've tried Newark, but the UK arm of the same company 
(Farnell) are fine.

> Arrow is a joke -- they every time I call for pricing, I get a  
> runaround saying that some other department (another state) should be  
> handling my account, so I call there, and then they ask me how come  
> I'm calling them  In 3 such experiences over the past couple years,  
> I've not been able to purchase a single thing from them.

Yep, had that from them, though usually more along the lines of "we 
don't want to hear from you until your order meets our MOQ." Ask what 
the MOQ is, and you're told "we can't tell you."

Reminds me of my school days. "*I* know a secret, and I'm not going to 
tell *you*!"

> Avnet is a good company, but generally requires higher volumes, so I  
> only use them for specific products.

Oh, AVNET are great.

They bought out MEMEC a while ago (thus acquiring Insight-MEMEC, 
Unique-MEMEC and a few other subsidiaries in the process). A few weeks 
after AVNET took over, I got a letter that could be summed up as "you 
haven't bought enough stuff from us in the last year to make it worth 
our while, consider your account closed."

At the time, MEMEC were basically the only company that stocked the 
entire range Xilinx CPLDs and FPGAs -- Farnell only had a partial 
distribution agreement covering a few low-end parts from the XC9500XL 
series.

For bonus points, they bought out ASP Infotec a bit later on, thus 
completely cutting off my supply of Seiko thermal printer mechanisms... 
I was sent another copy of the same form letter they sent me when they 
bought out MEMEC.

Definitely not impressed.

> Don't care for Jameco -- ordered a couple hundred SOT-23 transistors  
> and got a whole bunch of strips with 10 pcs each,

LOL!

Think of it this way -- they fit into component boxes better :)
Though it makes using them with pick-and-place kit a lot harder (if not 
outright impossible).

There's an option on the Farnell website: "Use manufacturer packaging 
where possible". I usually have this ticked -- basically they cut up the 
waffle trays, etc. for parts instead of repackaging them in ESD foam. 
Saves a lot of bent pins. Also means that "reeled" parts tend to arrive 
on reels, especially if you order a thousand or so of them.

> Since you mentioned McMaster, I begged them for a catalog for years,  
> since they had many things I use, and their website was buggy then.   
> Kept saying they would but never did, and I eventually found out that  
> they would not send me one cause I was not big enough for them.   
> Nowadays I place about 20 orders a year with them for at least a  
> couple hundred dollars each, and suddenly a catalog showed up  
> recently.

DigiKey seem to have a rule of sending out a catalogue as long as you've 
placed at least one order in the past year. Awful nice of them 
(especially considering the weight of the catalogue). I've still not 
managed to get a paper catalogue out of Farnell, even though I know they 
exist (the Trade Counter always has one). Maybe I just don't buy enough 
from them... :-/

Also FYI: the easiest way to get a catalogue CD is to either ring the 
main sales desk and ask for one, or pick one up from the trade counter. 
The webform doesn't seem to go anywhere...

-- 
Phil.
piclist@philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/
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