New(ish) Digi-Reel Policy... Be Careful!!!!!........

[Smokey]

PSA Punch Line:  Digikey will split up digi-reel items into multiple reels unless you explicitly tell them not to!

(Yes, I know, I should not need to be buying digi-reels.  It was sort of an emergency.)

I placed an order with a bunch of digi-reels.  Just in case anyone does not know what that is, it's essentially a cut tape quantity that digikey then puts back on a reel for a $7 per line item charge so it can be used by a pick and place machine feeder.  None of the quantities were more than a single reel would handle (because I obviously would have just bought a full reel then).

What I received was this.. 7 of the line items, instead of coming on one reel, came on multiple reels.  One of the line items came on three (3!) separate reels.  This is the best one.   One of the reels had two (2!) components on it.

These are not $5000 FPGAs.  They are $1 ICs.

I called Digikey customer service and they told me this...
...It was supposed to happen like that!?!?.. Since they started shipping from their "new warehouse" about a year ago, the policy is to ship digi-reels with whatever quantities they have on hand unless you specifically tell them the digi-reels need to be one continuous reel.
The kicker.. you need to have them put the "one continuous reel" requirement "on your file".  So you have to call them up and have them make that note manually.  There is no option at order time. 

This is so colossally stupid for so many reasons.
1) What the hell am I supposed to do with a reel with two parts on it?  My CM is going to be pissed if they need to swap reels 3 times.
 That totally defeats the purpose of digi-reels.
2) What the hell is the $7 service fee for if they will, by policy, voluntarily re-reel multiple cut tapes per item just for the hell of it at no extra charge?
3) They obviously know this is a problem since they have a way to tell them not to do it, but they make you jump through a bunch of hoops to select that option.

I asked that they accept return of these items at no charge and next day ship me continuous reels replacements, again at no charge.  They didn't push back at all so that makes me think I'm not the first person to think this is unacceptable.

WTF Digikey?

[thm_w]

Odd, and doesn't match what they say on their website: https://www.digikey.com/en/videos/d/digi-key-electronics/what-is-a-digi-reel

A Digi-Reel® is a custom set of uninterrupted belt section on reel made by a manufacturer's roller. At the beginning and at the end, 18-inch pieces of bench are mounted so that the pinion holes are aligned, allowing for direct and flawless feeding into automated board-mounting equipment. Thereafter, the entire tape is rewound onto a plastic reel in accordance with the industry standards of the Electronics Industries Alliance (EIA). There is no minimum order quantity, so whether you need a single component or a thousand components; we can provide the appropriate digi-reel.

[Smokey]

.. yes, the entire tape was rewound onto a plastic reel. 
.. But unfortunately if the first thing they grab is a cut tape that is shorter than you ordered then they re-reel that one, and then grab another and re-reel that one on another reel... and if that one plus the first one is shorter than you ordered then they grab another and re-reel that one on another reel.

[law]

Hey,
I've ran into this and it is pretty annoying.
I just contacted Digikey via the online chat to see if they would add a note to my account about the "one continuous reel" requirement.
They would not:
> With our new system we can only put one strip on per reel so digireels do come in different size reels as these parts are cut tape so it is just taken from the bin in whatever quantities we have. You would need to either order cut tape in a continuous strip but it would not come on a reel or order the full tape and reel.
...
> Sorry we only have continuous strip for cut tape not continuous reel on a digireel

They went on to explain:
> We use to put up to 3 strips on a reel and we got alot of negative feed back so it is not easy to please everyone but we just did this so people would not get more than 1 date code on each reel
>  They do try to only make 1 digireel to save time on making digi reels but it is not always possible so we can ship our orders to get them out daily
So it looks like this is an alternative to a previous system that they had bad times with.

For me it looks like it's a get what I am given sort of affair. Probably because I'm not spending enough cash money there....

[Smokey]

saga continues...

They not only split my line item into multiple reels, they shipped those reels in multiple shipments.... So I had to wait to return ship the order for the other box to arrive...

.. That box contained.. a reel with one (1!) part on it.   

So. Stupid.

[TheSteve]

They did this to me with a recent Digireel of CPU's I ordered. Wasn't the end of the world as it was only one extra swap on the PnP but still I was not impressed.
It is better than the time they wound my Digireel backwards so I had to re-reel it onto another spool to mount.

[bostonman]

Sorry, I'm slightly confused over this.

My understanding is that (as an example) I order fifty SMT 0805 resistors, they take a reel, unroll fifty, cut it, and that's it. If I order a reel, then I get the entire 5000 (?).

I only understood "cut tape" this entire time to be as stated above and a "reel" as an entire count (I believe 5000 is a typical reel).

I'm uncertain exactly what is taking place now.

On another note, I've never run into this because I buy parts for my own needs, but believe if I have a board house make a small quantity of PCBs (let's say ten), and each one has one resistor on it, I can't send the board house just ten because they need extra to feed the pick and place machine; I don't know what the amount is needed but believe this is what I heard at an old job.