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Wow I am going through the same thing as the author right now. I recently placed an order with Mouser doing side by side comparison shopping with Digi-Key. The

Wow I am going through the same thing as the author right now. I recently placed an order with Mouser doing side by side comparison shopping with Digi-Key. The last time I used Mouser was 12 years ago in my college days. I thought hey they were good back then let me just compare the prices and Mouser came ahead this time due to the shipping cost. I am just ordering replacement capacitors for an old PC motherboard that probably has just a few more years of intermittent use out of it so my highest priority was cost. Ok they delivered a little slow but thats fine, this is not a serious project. Now I am sitting 3+ weeks after ordering it and no indication if my package will ever arrive. The difference between this and Digikey was only 2-3 dollars. Big mistake I made there. Its disappointing to see given I had fond memories of Mouser 12 years ago.

Osiris 3y ago
3 weeks? You would have gotten them faster directly from China and probably for a lot cheaper. The only reason for me to order from a US based company is faster shipping.
- konschubert 3y ago
  What's the best place to order form china?
  - fest 3y ago
    lcsc.com. But keep in mind that their prices for Western companies ICs is often worse than DigiKey/Mouser. The passives and connectors are a lot cheaper.
    - fpgaminer 3y ago
      I agree, the few times I've used LCSC it's been a perfectly fine experience. But LCSC parametric search is worse, and their product photos and data are often wrong. Mouser/etc have decent parametric search which, for me, makes them the best place to find parts. LCSC has so much garbage data, a bad UI, multiple languages, etc. When I need a cheap, china specific part I usually just have to resort to manually searching through the 1,000 or so parts by hand. About as much fun as one imagines. And then their website starts throttling you for opening too many PDFs. SMH.
      - fest 3y ago
        For certain parts, https://github.com/yaqwsx/jlcparts https://github.com/yaqwsx/jlcparts can be useful to find what you need quicker.
  - CamperBob2 3y ago
    Honestly? Amazon.
- themodelplumber 3y ago
  > The only reason for me to order from a US based company is faster shipping. You don't see any service and support benefits? Component QA benefits? (Relevant to your comment and general experience, not so much the specific company in the post...)
  - riceart 3y ago
    > You don't see any service and support benefits? Read TFA?
    - JohnFen 3y ago
      TFA is talking about an issue with a specific company. It doesn't invalidate what themodelplumber is saying.
- tomatocracy 3y ago
  Depending what you're ordering, in my experience Chinese sellers on AliExpress can have issues with counterfeits or with chips obviously removed from old boards being sold as "new". If I want to ensure genuine parts I'll go to Farnell, RS, Mouser, or DigiKey.
  - hammyhavoc 3y ago
    Yes, holy shit. Empty IC shells are super common in counterfeits. If they aren't counterfeit then QC is a nightmare, if you need consistency and spot-on values, they're dire.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > The only reason for me to order from a US based company is faster shipping. The primary reason I will always prefer to buy electronic parts from Digi-key (or similar) or directly from the manufacturer is that I'm substantially less likely to get counterfeits.
TylerE 3y ago
Sort of like how in the mechanical world you just order from McMaster-Carr.
- reaperman 3y ago
  Yes, actually a lot like that, because in the mechanical world you'd order from either McMaster-Carr or Grainger. They're largely equivalent in broad strokes, no one would fault you for favoring one over the other. In 2015 that was the exact same situation for DigiKey and Mouser. Small differences, both have great selection, great service, competitive prices. This would be like either Grainger or McMaster-Carr just shitting the bed. It would be shocking to hear a consensus of serious mechanical engineers saying "When people order from Grainger, that's a huge red flag for me."
  - exmadscientist 3y ago
    It's also interesting because all four of these companies cater to professionals. And as a professional you never want to be talking to customer service, even if it costs you extra. I don't think I know how to contact Mouser CS, because I've never had to. And I buy a lot of parts. Enough that we've spent more on overnight shipping this year alone than the article's entire spend. I'm guessing that's related! But I do know how to find Digi-Key's customer service, and I'm growing increasingly annoyed with them as a company. Not dropping them or anything rash. Just... annoyed. Their continued misadventures with their same-day shipping deadline have cost me a lot of money. So yay! Parties all around!
    - op00to 3y ago
      For all of these 4, your customer service is your sales rep.
    - joshvm 3y ago
      Mouser customer service (at least 5 years ago) as a big purchaser (University) was excellent. They would do things like screw up an order and then send the replacement free of charge, even for $300 parts. But then the uni order book was probably hundreds of thousands if not millions a year, so it's nothing on their margins.
bee_rider 3y ago
It’s funny, when I was randomly picking a parts website in school (electrical engineering), Digikey gave me much better vibes. I mean look at their websites! One is clearly the result of getting a handful of hardware engineers in a room and telling them “we need to put our catalogue online!” The other looks like it has been infected by “UI” and “design” and other non-engineering concepts.
- hunter2_ 3y ago
  Can you offer some examples? I just went to each site, and compared their home page, product listing table, and product page. They are so comparable in design/UI (to the point that it feels like any time one makes any change, the other probably follows suit) that I have no idea which one you consider to be afflicted.
- mason55 3y ago
  > One is clearly the result of getting a handful of hardware engineers in a room and telling them “we need to put our catalogue online!” The other looks like it has been infected by “UI” and “design” and other non-engineering concepts. 1. I'm not sure why you think UI and design are not engineering concepts. If people can't figure out how to use your product then it's useless. 2. These sites are almost exactly the same https://www.mouser.com https://www.mouser.com https://www.digikey.com/en/products https://www.digikey.com/en/products The home pages have a search box & drop down menus at the top, product menu on the left, carousel in the middle. Then some featured products, some featured manufacturers and a footer. https://www.mouser.com/c/electromechanical/relays-contactors-solenoids/solid-state-relays-ssr/solid-state-relays-pcb-mount https://www.mouser.com/c/electromechanical/relays-contactors... https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/solid-state-relays/183 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/solid-state-relay... A product category has a bunch of combo boxes for filtering plus a table showing results. The results tables are almost exactly the same except Mouser freezes the left columns. Both have a lightbox popover for the product image. https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Omron-Electronics/G3VM-41UR4TR05?qs=rQFj71Wb1eVgPSxJA8F5ew%3D%3D https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Omron-Electronics/G3VM-... https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/panasonic-electric-works/AQY280SX/646347 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/panasonic-electri... Product pages both have photo, specs, number in stock and pricing. The only thing possibly offensive about Mouser's is that the sections on the pricing page are collapsed.
macjohnmcc 3y ago
And back in the peak covid days they asked for donations to keep them alive and operational. They wanted the community to support them based on goodwill and now they seem happy to burn that goodwill to the ground.
- KennyBlanken 3y ago
  A $4BN/year revenue corporation, the seventh largest electronics distributor in the world according to Wikipedia, asking for donations...wonders never cease. ....they're owned by Berkshire Hathaway. So, basically people were 'donating' to Warren Buffet. Nice.
- WillPostForFood 3y ago
  Do you have a source for this? I am on their mailing list and order fairly often. I don't remember any requests for donations or any point where they were about to go out of business during covid.
  - macjohnmcc 3y ago
    I don't anymore. They were asking for donations about 2 years ago.
- phendrenad2 3y ago
  Is that real? Do you have a link?
- CamperBob2 3y ago
  Huh? Mouser has never asked for donations. Are you thinking of OSH Stencils?
  - macjohnmcc 3y ago
    No it was Mouser. One of the few places I order electronics parts from. Digikey and Jameco did not.
bsder 3y ago
It swings back and forth. For a while, it seemed like DigiKey was doing some very shady crap with pricing. There were a couple times where I noticed that DigiKey was charging me MORE on certain components upon logging in. I dropped DigiKey like a hot potato for that and was quite vocal about it to the account manager as to why they were not going to get $250K+ of annual orders from us anymore. Mouser got all the business. Sad to hear that Mouser is completely screwing up shipping--looks like it's time to go back to ordering from DigiKey and see if they've quit playing stupid games.

Osiris 3y ago

3 weeks? You would have gotten them faster directly from China and probably for a lot cheaper. The only reason for me to order from a US based company is faster shipping.

konschubert 3y ago
What's the best place to order form china?
- fest 3y ago
  lcsc.com. But keep in mind that their prices for Western companies ICs is often worse than DigiKey/Mouser. The passives and connectors are a lot cheaper.
  - fpgaminer 3y ago
    I agree, the few times I've used LCSC it's been a perfectly fine experience. But LCSC parametric search is worse, and their product photos and data are often wrong. Mouser/etc have decent parametric search which, for me, makes them the best place to find parts. LCSC has so much garbage data, a bad UI, multiple languages, etc. When I need a cheap, china specific part I usually just have to resort to manually searching through the 1,000 or so parts by hand. About as much fun as one imagines. And then their website starts throttling you for opening too many PDFs. SMH.
    - fest 3y ago
      For certain parts, https://github.com/yaqwsx/jlcparts https://github.com/yaqwsx/jlcparts can be useful to find what you need quicker.
- CamperBob2 3y ago
  Honestly? Amazon.
themodelplumber 3y ago
> The only reason for me to order from a US based company is faster shipping. You don't see any service and support benefits? Component QA benefits? (Relevant to your comment and general experience, not so much the specific company in the post...)
- riceart 3y ago
  > You don't see any service and support benefits? Read TFA?
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    TFA is talking about an issue with a specific company. It doesn't invalidate what themodelplumber is saying.
tomatocracy 3y ago
Depending what you're ordering, in my experience Chinese sellers on AliExpress can have issues with counterfeits or with chips obviously removed from old boards being sold as "new". If I want to ensure genuine parts I'll go to Farnell, RS, Mouser, or DigiKey.
- hammyhavoc 3y ago
  Yes, holy shit. Empty IC shells are super common in counterfeits. If they aren't counterfeit then QC is a nightmare, if you need consistency and spot-on values, they're dire.
JohnFen 3y ago
> The only reason for me to order from a US based company is faster shipping. The primary reason I will always prefer to buy electronic parts from Digi-key (or similar) or directly from the manufacturer is that I'm substantially less likely to get counterfeits.

TylerE 3y ago

Sort of like how in the mechanical world you just order from McMaster-Carr.

reaperman 3y ago
Yes, actually a lot like that, because in the mechanical world you'd order from either McMaster-Carr or Grainger. They're largely equivalent in broad strokes, no one would fault you for favoring one over the other. In 2015 that was the exact same situation for DigiKey and Mouser. Small differences, both have great selection, great service, competitive prices. This would be like either Grainger or McMaster-Carr just shitting the bed. It would be shocking to hear a consensus of serious mechanical engineers saying "When people order from Grainger, that's a huge red flag for me."
- exmadscientist 3y ago
  It's also interesting because all four of these companies cater to professionals. And as a professional you never want to be talking to customer service, even if it costs you extra. I don't think I know how to contact Mouser CS, because I've never had to. And I buy a lot of parts. Enough that we've spent more on overnight shipping this year alone than the article's entire spend. I'm guessing that's related! But I do know how to find Digi-Key's customer service, and I'm growing increasingly annoyed with them as a company. Not dropping them or anything rash. Just... annoyed. Their continued misadventures with their same-day shipping deadline have cost me a lot of money. So yay! Parties all around!
  - op00to 3y ago
    For all of these 4, your customer service is your sales rep.
  - joshvm 3y ago
    Mouser customer service (at least 5 years ago) as a big purchaser (University) was excellent. They would do things like screw up an order and then send the replacement free of charge, even for $300 parts. But then the uni order book was probably hundreds of thousands if not millions a year, so it's nothing on their margins.

bee_rider 3y ago

It’s funny, when I was randomly picking a parts website in school (electrical engineering), Digikey gave me much better vibes. I mean look at their websites! One is clearly the result of getting a handful of hardware engineers in a room and telling them “we need to put our catalogue online!” The other looks like it has been infected by “UI” and “design” and other non-engineering concepts.

hunter2_ 3y ago
Can you offer some examples? I just went to each site, and compared their home page, product listing table, and product page. They are so comparable in design/UI (to the point that it feels like any time one makes any change, the other probably follows suit) that I have no idea which one you consider to be afflicted.
mason55 3y ago
> One is clearly the result of getting a handful of hardware engineers in a room and telling them “we need to put our catalogue online!” The other looks like it has been infected by “UI” and “design” and other non-engineering concepts. 1. I'm not sure why you think UI and design are not engineering concepts. If people can't figure out how to use your product then it's useless. 2. These sites are almost exactly the same https://www.mouser.com https://www.mouser.com https://www.digikey.com/en/products https://www.digikey.com/en/products The home pages have a search box & drop down menus at the top, product menu on the left, carousel in the middle. Then some featured products, some featured manufacturers and a footer. https://www.mouser.com/c/electromechanical/relays-contactors-solenoids/solid-state-relays-ssr/solid-state-relays-pcb-mount https://www.mouser.com/c/electromechanical/relays-contactors... https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/solid-state-relays/183 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/solid-state-relay... A product category has a bunch of combo boxes for filtering plus a table showing results. The results tables are almost exactly the same except Mouser freezes the left columns. Both have a lightbox popover for the product image. https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Omron-Electronics/G3VM-41UR4TR05?qs=rQFj71Wb1eVgPSxJA8F5ew%3D%3D https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Omron-Electronics/G3VM-... https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/panasonic-electric-works/AQY280SX/646347 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/panasonic-electri... Product pages both have photo, specs, number in stock and pricing. The only thing possibly offensive about Mouser's is that the sections on the pricing page are collapsed.

macjohnmcc 3y ago

And back in the peak covid days they asked for donations to keep them alive and operational. They wanted the community to support them based on goodwill and now they seem happy to burn that goodwill to the ground.

KennyBlanken 3y ago
A $4BN/year revenue corporation, the seventh largest electronics distributor in the world according to Wikipedia, asking for donations...wonders never cease. ....they're owned by Berkshire Hathaway. So, basically people were 'donating' to Warren Buffet. Nice.
WillPostForFood 3y ago
Do you have a source for this? I am on their mailing list and order fairly often. I don't remember any requests for donations or any point where they were about to go out of business during covid.
- macjohnmcc 3y ago
  I don't anymore. They were asking for donations about 2 years ago.
phendrenad2 3y ago
Is that real? Do you have a link?
CamperBob2 3y ago
Huh? Mouser has never asked for donations. Are you thinking of OSH Stencils?
- macjohnmcc 3y ago
  No it was Mouser. One of the few places I order electronics parts from. Digikey and Jameco did not.

bsder 3y ago

It swings back and forth. For a while, it seemed like DigiKey was doing some very shady crap with pricing. There were a couple times where I noticed that DigiKey was charging me MORE on certain components upon logging in. I dropped DigiKey like a hot potato for that and was quite vocal about it to the account manager as to why they were not going to get $250K+ of annual orders from us anymore. Mouser got all the business. Sad to hear that Mouser is completely screwing up shipping--looks like it's time to go back to ordering from DigiKey and see if they've quit playing stupid games.