Keysight products not to be sold to private customers?

[nightfire]

Just had a look for some multimeter specs and noticed that on the website of german reseller Batronix the following text was displayed with their multimeters: "According to the manufacturer Keysight products may not be sold to private customers. Please contact our sales team"

On the welectron site a similar text appeared, that is gone now, but now the multimeters are flagged as "sale"

Anyone that can confirm this or knows whats going on and why?

[graybeard]

There is no restriction on purchasing Keysight products from Newark or Mouser.

[25 CPS]

I've ordered parts and accessories from Keysight directly and bought a couple of meters from different retailers plus Keysight's eBay store.  It might be worth calling Keysight's office in Germany and speaking to them directly.

The only thing I can see a ban on selling Keysight multimeters to individuals doing is creating Fluke customers, and I don't think Keysight wants to send business over to the competition.

[rf-loop]

I've ordered parts and accessories from Keysight directly and bought a couple of meters from different retailers plus Keysight's eBay store.  It might be worth calling Keysight's office in Germany and speaking to them directly.

The only thing I can see a ban on selling Keysight multimeters to individuals doing is creating Fluke customers, and I don't think Keysight wants to send business over to the competition.

It is not only multimeters.  All Keysight products in Batronix same note.

Bit weird after this published just November 2020
https://www.keysight.com/sg/en/about/newsroom/news-releases/2020/1124-nr20127-keysight-expands-european-distribution-channel-.html

[Co6aka]

Some new "consumer protection" law nonsense maybe, that business entities are exempted from?



("The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem." -- Milton Friedman)

[tautech]

I've ordered parts and accessories from Keysight directly and bought a couple of meters from different retailers plus Keysight's eBay store.  It might be worth calling Keysight's office in Germany and speaking to them directly.

The only thing I can see a ban on selling Keysight multimeters to individuals doing is creating Fluke customers, and I don't think Keysight wants to send business over to the competition.

It is not only multimeters.  All Keysight products in Batronix same note.

Bit weird after this published just November 2020
https://www.keysight.com/sg/en/about/newsroom/news-releases/2020/1124-nr20127-keysight-expands-european-distribution-channel-.html

No such  on my neighbors site Triotest over the ditch in Oz.
https://www.triotest.com.au/brands/keysight

[egonotto]

Hello,

because of warranty for private customer are far more extensive?

Best regards
egonotto

[Analog4]

I just bought a Keysight scope with a Credit Card, no issue here. They even offer phone support for technical questions, no company needed.

Keysight has a list of distributors in various countries including Germany: https://www.keysight.com/main/partnerfinder.jspx?N=1+187691+187535&pageMode=PF&cc=DE&lc=ger&tmprop=TM

Datatec does not seem to have an obvious disclaimer: https://www.datatec.de/keysight-dsox1202g

[Stray Electron]

I've ordered parts and accessories from Keysight directly and bought a couple of meters from different retailers plus Keysight's eBay store.  It might be worth calling Keysight's office in Germany and speaking to them directly.

The only thing I can see a ban on selling Keysight multimeters to individuals doing is creating Fluke customers, and I don't think Keysight wants to send business over to the competition.

It is not only multimeters.  All Keysight products in Batronix same note.

Bit weird after this published just November 2020
https://www.keysight.com/sg/en/about/newsroom/news-releases/2020/1124-nr20127-keysight-expands-european-distribution-channel-.html

   That webpage lists the phone number of Keysight's sales representative. Call them up and see what they say about this policy!  While you're at it, ask them how many potential Keysight customers do they estimate that this announcement has driven to their competitors!   

[EEVblog]

Maybe a condition of some wholesale pricing deal perhaps?
But yeah, that's 

[xmo]

Maybe it has to do with a new regulation in Germany?

I used to buy parts from Rohde & Schwarz (USA) but the last time I put in an order, after they took it, they turned around and notified me that their home office will no longer let them sell to individuals.

So, the last instruments I bought were from Keysight, Rigol, and Siglent.  They're all happy to take your money.

[wizard69]

Probably some silly safety regulation like gun control or knife control laws that never impact the criminals anyway.  This seems to be the way in many countries as anything that might be seen as professional needs to be kept out of the hands of commoners.   God forbid; somebody might hurt themselves.   

I actually have not idea what is going on in europe but we have seen how silly some of the regulations coming out of the EU are.   I know that Keysight (whom ever they are today) doesn't have an issue selling to people here.   it would be nice to get an official comment from Keysight so all of this speculation can be put aside.

This seems to be especially strange to come up this year when so many people are working outside the office, often with personally owned tools.  Just poor timing maybe.   Or maybe the local office in Gemany is staffed with people that don't like to work with small fry.   All around strange really.

Maybe it has to do with a new regulation in Germany?

I used to buy parts from Rohde & Schwarz (USA) but the last time I put in an order, after they took it, they turned around and notified me that their home office will no longer let them sell to individuals.

So, the last instruments I bought were from Keysight, Rigol, and Siglent.  They're all happy to take your money.

[nightfire]

Well, I can think of serveral reasons not to sell expensive gear via online shopping/mail order to individuals: Due to german laws, any supplier is required to take back any order without given reason within 14 days. So it is not uncommon that people order expensive stuff like cameras, go to vacation and return the stuff in time- so the seller has lots of hassle doing the return and can sell the gear only for reduced price to the next buyer.
Some shops that do photographic gear list the expensive cameras in their shop, but claim that first-time-buyers need some personal demonstration in the store before buying to protect against this kind of customers.

But this would only explain why gear above some magic mark would be affected, maybe the oscilloscopes and bench DMMs etc.- the handheld DMMs are quite cheap compared to the rest...

Or lots of untrained wannabes create lots of hassle within support, so they try to cut them off...

[Qw3rtzuiop]

Its just one seller who doesnt sell to private customers. And they just became a Keysight distributor. So i wouldnt expect it to be a regulation thing.

[Performa01]

Datatec does not seem to have an obvious disclaimer: https://www.datatec.de/keysight-dsox1202g

They need not have a disclaimer, since they don't sell to private customers in general. See AGB.

[Nominal Animal]

(Don't mind me, I'm here just waiting for someone to drop in and say that because they can buy secondhand Keysight products off eBay just fine, you're all lying.)

[Alex P]

I used to buy parts from Rohde & Schwarz (USA) but the last time I put in an order, after they took it, they turned around and notified me that their home office will no longer let them sell to individuals.

Same here in the Netherlands.

[jpanhalt]

I used to buy parts from Rohde & Schwarz (USA) but the last time I put in an order, after they took it, they turned around and notified me that their home office will no longer let them sell to individuals.

Same here in the Netherlands.

Maybe that is an unintended consequence of consumer protection laws?  The Netherlands and EU seem to be similar to what has been mentioned for Germany.

Source: https://www.consumentenbond.nl/juridisch-advies/koop-op-afstand?icmp=juridischadvies_home_tekstlink_keuzehulpaankoopdeur
This [online vs. in-store purchases] is different when purchasing a product on the internet, by telephone or at the door (colportage). A statutory reflection period of 14 days applies for this.

[tv84]

In portuguese we say something like "pay the righteous for the sinner". And we're probably seeing the consequences of many people abusing that drive by method of experimenting/using things and returning them.

Recent statistics show that, for major online retailers, 25% of returned goods go to the waste bin...

[Saskia]

Datatec does not seem to have an obvious disclaimer: https://www.datatec.de/keysight-dsox1202g

They need not have a disclaimer, since they don't sell to private customers in general. See AGB.

got my stuff from Datatec, however a Keysight manager told them that they needed to sell me a scope.

[MadScientist]

What precisely are you referring to in “ silly EU regulations “ and what has gun control to do with it. The EU doesn’t and has never set firearms policy , that’s a national competence

[MadScientist]

I used to buy parts from Rohde & Schwarz (USA) but the last time I put in an order, after they took it, they turned around and notified me that their home office will no longer let them sell to individuals.

Same here in the Netherlands.

Maybe that is an unintended consequence of consumer protection laws?  The Netherlands and EU seem to be similar to what has been mentioned for Germany.

Source: https://www.consumentenbond.nl/juridisch-advies/koop-op-afstand?icmp=juridischadvies_home_tekstlink_keuzehulpaankoopdeur
This [online vs. in-store purchases] is different when purchasing a product on the internet, by telephone or at the door (colportage). A statutory reflection period of 14 days applies for this.

I suspect this is the reason.

[Saskia]

What precisely are you referring to in “ silly EU regulations “ and what has gun control to do with it. The EU doesn’t and has never set firearms policy , that’s a national competence

no, that's not true anymore. See the latest Firearms directive which has outlawed quite a lot of nice machinery practically overnite over here.

[YetAnotherTechie]

no, that's not true anymore. See the latest Firearms directive which has outlawed quite a lot of nice machinery practically overnite over here.

What part? i just had a quick read and didn't see anything specific to machinery, can you give an example of machinery outlawed?

[rsjsouza]

In portuguese we say something like "pay the righteous for the sinner". And we're probably seeing the consequences of many people abusing that drive by method of experimenting/using things and returning them.

Recent statistics show that, for major online retailers, 25% of returned goods go to the waste bin...

Funny you mention that; in Brasil we always had a hard time purchasing "professional/specialized" equipment, parts, etc from distributors - a lot of them chose not to sell to the end customer as they didn't want to deal with the hassle of returns/warranty/etc. (despite the return policy in Brasil being mostly targeted to manufacturing defects and not "change of heart").

That was not necessarily the case for test gear, but it affected a lot of other products.