Very poor service experience with RS Components Germany

[hans]

I would watch out what your wish for :-)

In Netherlands RS completely stopped selling to consumers because of consumer laws. They used to be fine with it if you paid upfront, but since a few years ago they stopped.

My impression though is that they can't be arsed about providing service. It probably cost them too much overhead to deal with consumers and refund policies. When I asked how their policies fits with their DesignSpark hobbyist community, their only statement was that they don't sell to consumers.

Since then I only use Farnell, but also partly because we've got a great NL consumer initiative to place orders at Farnell without any artificial limits.

[madires]

Despite the clear consumer laws in Germany there are always companies trying to circumvent the law by trying to discourage customers (consumers) from claiming their rights, because being lawful would add additional costs to the business. If you don't have a basic understanding of the laws involved you can be ripped off easily without noticing. Therefore we've got organizations for consumer protection which will help you to claim your rights. They also have some additional rights to go after the bad companies.

[Andreas]

... would add additional costs to the business.

Therefore we've got organizations for consumer protection which will help you to claim your rights.

Hello,

you put it on the point. Someone has to pay for the service.

And what do you think will happen?

a) they increase the prices for end customers by 20-30% to compensate for the additional service?
b) they cease the end customer business which sells only single parts instead of complete rails (after development phase).

I fear the later. (see above).

with best regards

Andreas

[Neomys Sapiens]

Service? They have service???
The problem is not limited to sales for private use. They do not help commercial customers either.
They are not even able to provide legally required data about products they sell.
And they won't enquire for you and never call back.
And when you contact the manufacturer,  you are sent back to where you bought it.

Those distributors, no matter whether Digikey, RS or whatever, with the exception of some specialists and the fine company BÜRKLIN, are a really crappy bunch of bandits!

[madires]

It's not just the poor service, they're trying to violate consumer laws and don't adhere to promises they've made in my case. My intention is to warn other forum members about RS' wrongdoing.

[poorchava]

The funniest and worst thing sbout RS Poland in turn is, that they seem to have prepackages minimum wuantities of components, that you buy less than full reel of. Which means that once I've ordered ~120opamps for a small run (luckily - to be assemble dby hand anyway) and every single one of them came in a separate plastic bag. WTF?! everybody else can sell stuff in cut tape, so that you can put is onto a P&P machine.

If i were to assemble that run on a machine, I'd just return that stuff to RS. Or send them the invoice for the extra the assembly house has imposed for delivering components in bulk.

[Cerebus]

The funniest and worst thing sbout RS Poland in turn is, that they seem to have prepackages minimum wuantities of components, that you buy less than full reel of. Which means that once I've ordered ~120opamps for a small run (luckily - to be assemble dby hand anyway) and every single one of them came in a separate plastic bag. WTF?! everybody else can sell stuff in cut tape, so that you can put is onto a P&P machine.

If i were to assemble that run on a machine, I'd just return that stuff to RS. Or send them the invoice for the extra the assembly house has imposed for delivering components in bulk.

If you look at a typical product that could come on cut tape you'll find a button to select between 'standard pack' and 'production pack' - the former are individually packed, the latter are cut tape (or tubes if that's how the manufacturer supplies them). The RS order numbers for the production pack variant have a 'P' suffix and are usually cheaper.

[JPortici]

not sure if they changed the photo or something but...

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/oscilloscope-probes/7296677/

clearly shows an UK plug

[madires]

... but not the German online shop for consumers (see https://www.rsonline-privat.de/Products/ProductDetail/PINTEK-Differential-Tastkopf-DP-25-25MHz-200-1-20-1-50-1-Serie-DP-7296677). It's really strange that they have that picture in the B2B shop and not in the B2C one. If they would have, I wouldn't have complained. And they haven't added it or any other hint as I've suggested to them a month ago. Based on that I have to assume they simply don't care.

[JPortici]

huh, didn't know you had a separate website. i buy from rs-online both as a business and as a private customer

[madires]

Just a quick update. RS have transfered the requested compensation via credit card. Nice to see that they kept their promise.