Yet another reason to avoid PartMiner

[larwe]

I stopped using PartMiner years ago, when they closed down all free
access to datasheets.

Today I received an email from PartMiner which says, in essence, "our
core business model is unprofitable, so we are now professional
spamwhores. Your contact details are being sold to anyone we can find
who will pay us a nickel":

If you would like to receive business or career related offers
from PartMiner Information Systems, you do not have to respond
to this e-mail. You can easily unsubscribe each time you receive
an e-mail from us if you don't find the information worthwhile. To
unsubscribe now, please scroll to the bottom of this e-mail for
instructions.

This "vendor" should be boycotted.

 

[Didi]

This "vendor" should be boycotted.

Well, are any of the kind any good anyway?
Those I have encountered mining for hard to find parts either
want me to pay them to tell me where to try to buy (if someone
pays them it won't be me...) or cheat the search engines
so you locate them while searching for just about any part,
while having really very little if anything of what they list.

If you have had some good experience with some of them,
please advise.

My only successfull experience was 5-6 years ago with Magnitude
Electronics
( www.magnitude-electronics.com ), they listed a SCSI chip which I
could
not find and really delivered (small quantity, they had large stock),
somewhat pricy,
perhaps a bit more than somewhat, I don't remember, but I got the
chips.

Dimiter

 

[Bob Parker]

I stopped using PartMiner years ago, when they closed down all free
access to datasheets.

Today I received an email from PartMiner which says, in essence, "our
core business model is unprofitable, so we are now professional
spamwhores. Your contact details are being sold to anyone we can find
who will pay us a nickel":


This "vendor" should be boycotted.

After their low bait-'n-switch trick a year or two ago when they
stopped making data available for free, I made a mental note not to
ever consider them if I was looking for a rare component.

Earlier this year, I tried to find a source of Allegro UGN3235K
hall effect sensors. I contacted dozens of companies, many of whom had
it listed as "available" on their websites. A few answered my e-mails,
most didn't. Not one of them was able to supply this part. It's
probably the same with most other obselete components. Big promises
but no results.

If anyone's looking for UGN3235K devices, you can replace them
with a pair of Infineon TLE4906L chips facing each other.


Bob

 

[James Sweet]

Well, are any of the kind any good anyway?
Those I have encountered mining for hard to find parts either
want me to pay them to tell me where to try to buy (if someone
pays them it won't be me...) or cheat the search engines
so you locate them while searching for just about any part,
while having really very little if anything of what they list.

If you have had some good experience with some of them,
please advise.

My only successfull experience was 5-6 years ago with Magnitude
Electronics
( www.magnitude-electronics.com ), they listed a SCSI chip which I
could
not find and really delivered (small quantity, they had large stock),
somewhat pricy,
perhaps a bit more than somewhat, I don't remember, but I got the
chips.

Dimiter

I got so tired of the Partminer links coming up that I used Customize
Google to block all hits.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

After their low bait-'n-switch trick a year or two ago

Believe it or not, it was almost 5 years ago (late 2001).

when they
stopped making data available for free, I made a mental note not to
ever consider them if I was looking for a rare component.

Earlier this year, I tried to find a source of Allegro UGN3235K
hall effect sensors. I contacted dozens of companies, many of whom had
it listed as "available" on their websites. A few answered my e-mails,
most didn't. Not one of them was able to supply this part. It's
probably the same with most other obselete components. Big promises
but no results.

If anyone's looking for UGN3235K devices, you can replace them
with a pair of Infineon TLE4906L chips facing each other.


Bob

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Bob Parker]

Believe it or not, it was almost 5 years ago (late 2001).


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

Wow, where does the time go? Thanks for getting me more or less back
into sync.

Cheers
Bob

 

[Aly]

I stopped using PartMiner years ago, when they closed down all free
access to datasheets.

Today I received an email from PartMiner which says, in essence, "our
core business model is unprofitable, so we are now professional
spamwhores. Your contact details are being sold to anyone we can find
who will pay us a nickel":


This "vendor" should be boycotted.

I agree with this. I outright refuse to use suppliers that expect ME to pay
for their advertising material. Maplin is one them, wanting £5 for a
catalogue. RS are so stingy with their catalogues it's unheard of, you'd
think they'd be giving them away on every street corner when you see their
prices. After LOADS of arguing I lost interest, they sent them eventually
by UPS/TNT? to a rural country location taking 3-weeks of further cock-ups,
such that I had absolutely no faith in anything I ever ordered getting to
me. The catalogues went in the bin.

Buy our products *AND* buy our sales merchandise. Use *OUR* delivery
service that *WE* have a cut price contract with, even if it'll never get to
you because the drivers are too lazy to even bother.

This methodology wouldn't work at my local Indian Restaurant I'm sure.

 

[Lostgallifreyan]

I agree with this. I outright refuse to use suppliers that expect ME
to pay for their advertising material. Maplin is one them, wanting £5
for a catalogue. RS are so stingy with their catalogues it's unheard
of, you'd think they'd be giving them away on every street corner when
you see their prices. After LOADS of arguing I lost interest, they
sent them eventually by UPS/TNT? to a rural country location taking
3-weeks of further cock-ups, such that I had absolutely no faith in
anything I ever ordered getting to me. The catalogues went in the
bin.

Buy our products *AND* buy our sales merchandise. Use *OUR* delivery
service that *WE* have a cut price contract with, even if it'll never
get to you because the drivers are too lazy to even bother.

This methodology wouldn't work at my local Indian Restaurant I'm sure.

RS stingy? Overpriced in many things, yes, but not stingy. Those paper
catalogs cost so much that it's amazing they can give them away at all. If
you paid actual cost for them, you'd pay £70 per set. You can always get
the DC ones. Also, you can use their site and you can set up any handle you
like on their site to get access to PDF's for free, with no need to have an
account with them. If you think that's stingy, you have forgotten the
meaning of generosity.

And no, I don't work for them, nor get any benefit other than what I
described, same as you can have.

Maplin's catalog is less than impressive now, but if they'd start putting
those tech notes back like they used to add to it, it would be worth the
money for those alone.

 

[Lostgallifreyan]

Actually I wonder about the "£70 per set" figure for RS catalogs. It's what
I was told once, and I think it might have been the whole-year figure,
three releases per year. The costs rise per set the fewer they make, and
they're trying to use CD's to save costs.

 

[Aly]

Actually I wonder about the "£70 per set" figure for RS catalogs. It's what
I was told once, and I think it might have been the whole-year figure,
three releases per year. The costs rise per set the fewer they make, and
they're trying to use CD's to save costs.

I know where you're coming from. My issue was more that RS insist on using
a courier, and from the onset with RS it was just one big hassle.

But as for Maplin. They've become an overgrown toy store. What I do have
here are the catalogues from 1988 thru 1992 and they're still useful, hence
Being able to look up every 7400 device at a glance, and every
transistor package is just brilliant. It was like a total of about 20-pages
so I don't buy into their excuse today that they're too complicated to list.
Too complicated for them today maybe....

 

[Paul Carpenter]

On Saturday, in article
<[email protected]>

I agree with this. I outright refuse to use suppliers that expect ME to pay
for their advertising material. Maplin is one them, wanting ?5 for a
catalogue. RS are so stingy with their catalogues it's unheard of, you'd
think they'd be giving them away on every street corner when you see their
prices. After LOADS of arguing I lost interest, they sent them eventually
by UPS/TNT? to a rural country location taking 3-weeks of further cock-ups,
such that I had absolutely no faith in anything I ever ordered getting to
me. The catalogues went in the bin.

BTDTGT in a large town!

Buy our products *AND* buy our sales merchandise. Use *OUR* delivery
service that *WE* have a cut price contract with, even if it'll never get to
you because the drivers are too lazy to even bother.

This methodology wouldn't work at my local Indian Restaurant I'm sure.

The ones I hate that have crap web programming, that wrongly identify
browsers and even worse claim a new browser is too old but they support
ancient microscrotum only.

I then also speak to technical people as if they are using web browsers

Supplier- "We cannot do[/support]...."

Me:- "I think I know the cause of the problem, can you tell
me the make and model of your telephone?"

Supllier - "Uh... model is ...."

Me:- "Sorry the problem is we only support telephone
conversations using a Binatone R3000, please get one of
these phones and contact us again.

Have a nice day"

I you think I am bitter and twisted, you must of course be mistaken
or judging me by your own standards :-^ :-^ :-^







Again for the humour impaired

^
^
^
^
:-^

 

[ian field]

I know where you're coming from. My issue was more that RS insist on
using
a courier, and from the onset with RS it was just one big hassle.

But as for Maplin. They've become an overgrown toy store. What I do have
here are the catalogues from 1988 thru 1992 and they're still useful,
hence
Being able to look up every 7400 device at a glance, and every
transistor package is just brilliant. It was like a total of about
20-pages
so I don't buy into their excuse today that they're too complicated to
list.
Too complicated for them today maybe....

Is that the Maplin cats you have back issues? I'm trying to find the
original manufacturers (Hung Chang) model number of the MF100 multifunction
counter so I can search it online, if you have a cat that list that
instrument the info might be on the page - it is for the currently stocked
MF1000 counter/function generator.

 

[Lostgallifreyan]

But as for Maplin. They've become an overgrown toy store. What I do
have here are the catalogues from 1988 thru 1992 and they're still
useful, hence
Being able to look up every 7400 device at a glance, and every
transistor package is just brilliant. It was like a total of about
20-pages so I don't buy into their excuse today that they're too
complicated to list. Too complicated for them today maybe....

That pegged Maplin neatly. It's a stupid move. Tandy failed in the high
street in the UK because of it, and Maplin succeeded so well that Tandy
mostly went back to the US where they operate more like Maplin did here. So
why Maplin now start to do what made Tandy fail I do not know. It's painful
to watch, so most of the time I don't watch.

Your point about RS and couriers I also recognise, I wish they'd reduce
costs by using the standard mail. The kind of logic that says that to get a
decent service you must use an expensive private courier is wasteful, and
the neglect reduces the quality of the main service, making a self-
fulfilling prophecy. Same logic that's currently making a crisis in
UK dentistry. That scandal is making street long queues now, it's too big
to hide, as will be the pollution of lots of tiny vans doing what a single
train used to do.

 

[Aly]

Is that the Maplin cats you have back issues? I'm trying to find the
original manufacturers (Hung Chang) model number of the MF100 multifunction
counter so I can search it online, if you have a cat that list that
instrument the info might be on the page - it is for the currently stocked
MF1000 counter/function generator.

Give me until mid next week. I will check for you when I'm back home.
Actually mail me if you really want it done

 

[Aly]

"Paul Carpenter" <[email protected]>

Hi Paul



That kind of sounds like my conversation with PayPal at the moment. They
did a system upgrade about a month ago which messed up the reporting of some
Verified accounts to eBay. This is slowly trickling back onto the forums.

PayPal say it's eBay. eBay say it's PayPal. Well, through my own
determination (and access to multiple accounts) it's definitely PayPal.
I've now told them to stuff it (in polite terms) and STILL they keep on
bloody contacting me. I've finally resorted to totally blowing my top
earlier, and STILL they thank me for telling their useless staff to F-off!

I do have limits. It's usually about a month before I go crackers!

 

[Aly]

That pegged Maplin neatly. It's a stupid move. Tandy failed in the high
street in the UK because of it, and Maplin succeeded so well that Tandy
mostly went back to the US where they operate more like Maplin did here. So
why Maplin now start to do what made Tandy fail I do not know. It's painful
to watch, so most of the time I don't watch.

Your point about RS and couriers I also recognise, I wish they'd reduce
costs by using the standard mail. The kind of logic that says that to get a
decent service you must use an expensive private courier is wasteful, and
the neglect reduces the quality of the main service, making a self-
fulfilling prophecy. Same logic that's currently making a crisis in
UK dentistry. That scandal is making street long queues now, it's too big
to hide, as will be the pollution of lots of tiny vans doing what a single
train used to do.

Totally acknowledged.

Maplin. Well. I don't go there unless I'm in deep *stuff*.

RS. Yes, why they can't use RM I have no idea. But I'm not paying £30 for
a little edge connector anyway (in my thread on the sci.electronics groups).

As for dentistry, you can't even get one if you're willing to give them REAL
money now. :-( Look, reaaaaal money, lotsza money. Nope, they'd rather
treat 7-bus loads of smelly whining children a day. (yes, I hate kids. And
I hate companies. Is there a link?)

 

[Tim Auton]

But as for Maplin. They've become an overgrown toy store. What I do have
here are the catalogues from 1988 thru 1992 and they're still useful, hence
Being able to look up every 7400 device at a glance, and every
transistor package is just brilliant. It was like a total of about 20-pages
so I don't buy into their excuse today that they're too complicated to list.
Too complicated for them today maybe....

I've got the "Spring/Summer 2006" Maplin catalogue. I'd never bother to
buy it, but the sales bod said there were vouchers in there which would
save me more than the catalogue cost on what I was buying anyway (which
they did) so it cost me about minus one pound. They have the 7400
series, 4000 series and transistor packages in there again (with a note
saying it's a result of feedback).

I completely agree about their change in direction though. It's awful. I
just don't know what they are trying to be - they're now crap for
components, crap for consumer electronics, crap for toys and crap for
computers. Their sole redeeming feature is that you can check stock at
your local store on-line so you can be disappointed without having to
leave the house

I've pretty much given up on Maplin for anything but "I need a 50k
trimpot to finish this off and I want it this afternoon" type
'emergencies'. Rapid and Farnell are my current favourites. Rapid's
catalogue (which I was sent gratis, without asking) is good.


Tim

 

[ian field]

Give me until mid next week. I will check for you when I'm back home.
Actually mail me if you really want it done

Real email = dl0504DOTfieldATntlworldDOTcom

Many thanks.

 

[ian field]

Totally acknowledged.

Maplin. Well. I don't go there unless I'm in deep *stuff*.

RS. Yes, why they can't use RM I have no idea. But I'm not paying £30
for
a little edge connector anyway (in my thread on the sci.electronics
groups).

As for dentistry, you can't even get one if you're willing to give them
REAL
money now. :-( Look, reaaaaal money, lotsza money. Nope, they'd rather
treat 7-bus loads of smelly whining children a day. (yes, I hate kids.
And
I hate companies. Is there a link?)

RS told me "no minimum order" and no P&P unless requested express delivery -
maybe they've changed their terms since you last looked?

 

[Aly]

RS told me "no minimum order" and no P&P unless requested express delivery -
maybe they've changed their terms since you last looked?

The problem with RS is if you're not in a major city or town. Courier
delivery drivers simply don't even bother to deliver the packages, they just
say 'attempted-delivery' when clearly they haven't. 3-weeks it took to
deliver the catalogues in the end, before someone eventually rang to say
they were in the village.

Even if you give couriers your telephone number, they just don't bother.
This is the gripe with RS, in that their delivery method is fine if you're
in big easy to find business premesis.