How is Chipageddon affecting you?

[KE5FX]

And let's not get into the whole WEEE thing....

[BravoV]

Quote ... "The chip shortage cost the US economy $240 billion last year, and we expect the industry will continue to see challenges until at least 2024 in areas of foundry capacity and tool availability,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said in a Thursday earnings call.

[Howardlong]

I may live to regret saying this, but for the first time in a couple of years I haven't had to go out to brokers to fulfil a BOM.

Yesterday I gritted my teeth with one remaining part which wasn't available from usual distributers, and reluctantly placed an order with serial bait & switch rip off merchants Win-Source.

Then today that part's suddenly appeared on TI inventory. So, when Win-source finally deign to respond to me in a week's time with their usual bullsh!t that the part advertised at $2.50 is now $8, I'll be more than delighted to tell them to go **** themselves.

And, as if by magic:

Dear Howard,
 
Sincerely thanks for your order online.

We are sorry to inform you that the price of the  parts you ordered has to be adjusted due to market fluctuations.

To avoid your supply chain disruptions, the refund request of payment has been submitted. It might take 3-5 business days for the payment to refund but I will get back to you ASAP.
 
Please also kindly confirm the following updated details for your reference if you are interested.
 
Part Number                             Order Pirce   Updated Price   Quantity   Total difference of the Amount
TLV320AIC3204IRHBR                  $2.509             $3.28            400pcs          $308.4

As the risk warning displayed on the order page, under the special circumstances of recent electronic components, we are also troubled by the shortage of components and the chaos of the market.
 
We are very unwilling to increase the price if there is no threat on the markets. Regarding to the price changes, we always try our best to negotiate with our supplier, strive for the lowest price to minimize the procurement costs and ensure the safety and stability of customer supply chains.
 
We would always suggest our customers hold the order first and pay close attention to price changes in the near future, if the components are not urgent for production or circulation.
 
Please allow us to send you an order invoice of the difference amount if you could accept the updates.
Or
Please be patient for the full refund if the price exceeds your purchase budget.
 
Further discussion please feel free to contact me. Thank you.

Best Regards,

[Howardlong]

I may live to regret saying this, but for the first time in a couple of years I haven't had to go out to brokers to fulfil a BOM.

Yesterday I gritted my teeth with one remaining part which wasn't available from usual distributers, and reluctantly placed an order with serial bait & switch rip off merchants Win-Source.

Then today that part's suddenly appeared on TI inventory. So, when Win-source finally deign to respond to me in a week's time with their usual bullsh!t that the part advertised at $2.50 is now $8, I'll be more than delighted to tell them to go **** themselves.

And, as if by magic:

Dear Howard,
 
Sincerely thanks for your order online.

We are sorry to inform you that the price of the  parts you ordered has to be adjusted due to market fluctuations.

To avoid your supply chain disruptions, the refund request of payment has been submitted. It might take 3-5 business days for the payment to refund but I will get back to you ASAP.
 
Please also kindly confirm the following updated details for your reference if you are interested.
 
Part Number                             Order Pirce   Updated Price   Quantity   Total difference of the Amount
TLV320AIC3204IRHBR                  $2.509             $3.28            400pcs          $308.4

As the risk warning displayed on the order page, under the special circumstances of recent electronic components, we are also troubled by the shortage of components and the chaos of the market.
 
We are very unwilling to increase the price if there is no threat on the markets. Regarding to the price changes, we always try our best to negotiate with our supplier, strive for the lowest price to minimize the procurement costs and ensure the safety and stability of customer supply chains.
 
We would always suggest our customers hold the order first and pay close attention to price changes in the near future, if the components are not urgent for production or circulation.
 
Please allow us to send you an order invoice of the difference amount if you could accept the updates.
Or
Please be patient for the full refund if the price exceeds your purchase budget.
 
Further discussion please feel free to contact me. Thank you.

Best Regards,

My response to Win-Source:

Hello xxxxxxxx.

No, I don’t appreciate this nonsense. Every single time Win-source increase the advertised price. I think this must be the sixth time you’ve done this to me.

Cancel the order and immediately refund.

You’re not a trustworthy company to deal with.

Be aware that I document your unethical and fraudulent business practices on eevblog for other engineers to be aware as a result.

Thank you, Howard

Well, here's a weird one. I just received a call from "xxxxxxx" at Win-source.

Over the course of 14 minutes, she tried to convince me that Win-Source was trustworthy and reputable. She came up with some bizarre excuses and nonsense, including that she didn't realise I'd dealt with them before, although I couldn't work out what difference that made.

She finally said she'd honour the advertised price, albeit claiming they'd supposedly be taking a loss, but I declined, and demanded the refund. W@nkers.

[magic]

She came up with some bizarre excuses and nonsense, including that she didn't realise I'd dealt with them before, although I couldn't work out what difference that made.

Well, we know what difference it makes

[T3sl4co1l]

Fascinating. It seems, at least some of them, can be guilted into honoring the price.

...Is it ethical to responsibly employ gaslighting etc. to those who would otherwise gaslight you?

No, not really.  But kinda.

Tim

[IDEngineer]

Is it ethical to responsibly employ gaslighting etc. to those who would otherwise gaslight you?

One way to view it: This vendor was seeking to commit an unethical act. The buyer's actions restored things to neutral. No one was physically harmed and an existing contract (defined as "offer and acceptance") was completed under the original terms agreed to by both parties.

[mawyatt]

With the component situation many have had to resort to AliExpress as a source. We've done so and had the usual long delivery, non-deliveries, broken items, cheap junk, and such. Recently we ordered some edge SMA female connectors for PCB use, the seller shipped male SMA connectors instead. Admit we didn't take a lot of time placing the order (my bad) but did purchase a Female SMA per the description in the listing, however the image shows a male pin SMA not a female.

Anyway, after asking the seller if we could return and get the listed Female SMA and getting nowhere, we turned AliExpress for help. They sided with the seller even tho the listing says Female SMA, so I guess AliExpress and sellers have the option of using the description or the image as an acceptable reference, and both don't have to agree!! We visited the seller's site and they have multiple SMA listings, some with images that agree with description and quite a few that don't!!

Oh well, another lesson learned......pay very close attention to the listing and the image when ordering from AliExpress.

Best,

[Howardlong]

Recently we ordered some edge SMA female connectors for PCB use, the seller shipped male SMA connectors instead. Admit we didn't take a lot of time placing the order (my bad) but did purchase a Female SMA per the description in the listing, however the image shows a male pin SMA not a female.

That's bad luck. I buy 1000s of SMA edge female connectors annually, but usually through eBay not Aliexpress... those prices on Aliexpress are even more crazy cheap than eBay. A problem is that it's usually a bit of a crap shoot as the sellers' items often aren't relisted, so you have to start again checking the gender, PCB width, that they're not reverse-SMA etc. Thankfully at least reverse SMA seems to be less common nowadays than it was a few years ago so you're less likely to make that mistake.

[MT]

Quote: "Electronic actuator failed at a high rate". perhaps its pentagon out buying those washing machines to be able to upgrade the Javelin!?

[Mangozac]

What's really frustrating:
- Ordering PICs from Microchip Direct for $2.50 each (300 qty)
- Deciding that our current stocks weren't going to make it to Microchip's indicated ship date of August so ordering a quantity from Aliexpress at $10 each.
- A few days later we receive a notification from Microchip that the parts have shipped

 

I loathe having to deal with brokers (and simply refuse to deal with the scum at Win-source) but sometimes we just have no alternative.

[Howardlong]

What's really frustrating:
- Ordering PICs from Microchip Direct for $2.50 each (300 qty)
- Deciding that our current stocks weren't going to make it to Microchip's indicated ship date of August so ordering a quantity from Aliexpress at $10 each.
- A few days later we receive a notification from Microchip that the parts have shipped

 

I loathe having to deal with brokers (and simply refuse to deal with the scum at Win-source) but sometimes we just have no alternative.

I've had that several times.

IME indicated ship dates don't mean diddly squat currently, and it works both ways.

Either buying up alternative parts and having to rework, only to have the original parts on order suddenly turn up.

Or alternatively being let down, and having your order unilaterally cancelled by the distributor: this is the worst of the two, because it introduces more uncertainty and delay, and it's much harder to plan around.

Even when I see a predicted date move one way or another, it ain't over until the fat lady sings.

[jrs45]

Email spam from today: "Purchasing on TI.com has never been more convenient"

Boy does this piss me off. 

Guess what, TI:

I don't care how convenient you consider your online store to be, not having parts OR LEADTIMES automatically makes it infinitely inconvenient.

[madires]

AD's marketing is also quite productive the last few weeks. Nobody told the marketing departments to slow down because of the chip shortage. I would be embarrassed to promote products I can't deliver.

 

[IDEngineer]

Email spam from today: "Purchasing on TI.com has never been more convenient"

...where "purchasing" is defined as "giving us your money" but no mention is made about delivering physical products in the other direction.

Remember, "sales" is all about the messaging. Any consideration regarding "mutual benefit" is decidedly old-school thinking.

[SilverSolder]

They know they are unpopular for not being able to deliver the goods.

No worries, as soon as a 2n3904 reaches $50 each, supplies will come back on stream...   and the marketing departments are doing their job keeping us all hanging on until that happens!

[b_force]

Email spam from today: "Purchasing on TI.com has never been more convenient"

Boy does this piss me off. 

Guess what, TI:

I don't care how convenient you consider your online store to be, not having parts OR LEADTIMES automatically makes it infinitely inconvenient.

In general TI's way of doing has pissed me off the last couple of years, it's going down hill VERY rapidly.
Their customer service only seem to care about how quickly and "satisfying" they handle their tickets.
It took me ages to renew some software from them (which is retarded to begin with), after literally texting back and forth for month I gave up.
Literally told them we moved on to their competitor (Analog in this case)

[b_force]

They know they are unpopular for not being able to deliver the goods.

No worries, as soon as a 2n3904 reaches $50 each, supplies will come back on stream...   and the marketing departments are doing their job keeping us all hanging on until that happens!

Well it seems to go that way?
Even some variants of the LM317 aren't available anymore, as well as some jelly bean opamps.

As for how this Chipageddon is affecting me.
We had to cancel and/or postpone 85% of our projects, lost quite some costumers as well as opportunities.
Which was already very low because of covid

[tszaboo]

Email spam from today: "Purchasing on TI.com has never been more convenient"

Boy does this piss me off. 

Guess what, TI:

I don't care how convenient you consider your online store to be, not having parts OR LEADTIMES automatically makes it infinitely inconvenient.

Yeah, I mean whats more convenient than having to write bots to purchase your parts, because they are gone in one day?
And when you write to their support to reserve parts, they just don't reply?
Super convenient.

[aneevuser]

For the first time in my life, I'm looking into AC power control via the classic diac/triac combination, and I had been assuming that these devices are simple enough and sufficiently jelly-bean that there'd be no problem getting hold of them. However, in the UK, the diacs, at least, seem to be pretty thin on the ground at both Farnell and RS, AFAICS.

Am I a victim of Chipageddon, or are these in short supply for some other reason?

[voltsandjolts]

Friends don't let friends use [Dallas, TI]

[jrs45]

Literally told them we moved on to their competitor (Analog in this case)

Analog is just as bad, if not worse, these days.  We ordered parts with promised delivery dates a few months from the order, and they got continually bumped again and again, until they were delayed 2+ years out.  Then they just gave up entirely, with the distributors saying they now have no idea when they'll get the parts.  (DK and Mouser).

Screw them.  At least TI doesn't string me along with fake shipment dates.

[Howardlong]

For the first time in my life, I'm looking into AC power control via the classic diac/triac combination, and I had been assuming that these devices are simple enough and sufficiently jelly-bean that there'd be no problem getting hold of them. However, in the UK, the diacs, at least, seem to be pretty thin on the ground at both Farnell and RS, AFAICS.

Am I a victim of Chipageddon, or are these in short supply for some other reason?

Possibly, the fabs and packaging/assembly at all levels including mature processes are under strain.

There's been some concern that in fixating on sexy sub-40nm processes that have typically commanded the best revenue/wafer, the mature processes have been starved of investment.

[Algoma]

Spent a bit too much time looking for a specific part, finally scratching up a paltry handful from Hong Kong off ebay.. only to find a healthy supply an industrial variant a few days later, listed under a completely different part number scheme, hinted at by some obscure marketing document. 

Anyone know of a site that may offer related parts lookup? Digikey has basic functions but missed reccomending this fully pin-compatible variant. Datasheets often don't list current replacements or variants for an obsoleted part.

[rob77]

For the first time in my life, I'm looking into AC power control via the classic diac/triac combination, and I had been assuming that these devices are simple enough and sufficiently jelly-bean that there'd be no problem getting hold of them. However, in the UK, the diacs, at least, seem to be pretty thin on the ground at both Farnell and RS, AFAICS.

Am I a victim of Chipageddon, or are these in short supply for some other reason?

i would say it's just the fact that diacs are slowly going into oblivion... btw.. tme.eu has tons of them in stock, but only minimelf for smt or do-35 for tht.