| Author | Messages | |
Bill4373
1st Class Member
Michigan
Foreman
Posts:114
Send Message
 | | 07/31/2008 8:10 PM |
| | I needed 6 aaa battery boxes and 6 on-off switches. I ordered them from Allied Electronics, Ft Worth, Tx. The boxes cost $5.58 and the switches cost $4.14. They listed $5.00 as a handling charge. I thought OK, not bad. THEN I get the bill. On top of the $5.00 handing charge, a shipping charge of $13.16. Not bad $18.16 for $9.72 worth of merchandise. I emailed them Monday and no answer as of 10PM Thursday night. Needless to say, my last order from them. | |
Gather, friends, while we enquire, into trains propelled by fire.... | |
| Torby
1st Class Member
North Chicago 'burbs.
Engineer
Posts:1666
Send Message
| | 08/01/2008 6:19 AM |
| | Wow! They overnight them to you? | |
 "If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with Fact. Of course anyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about."-- C. S. Lewis | |
| Bill4373
1st Class Member
Michigan
Foreman
Posts:114
Send Message
| | 08/01/2008 7:07 AM |
| | No, UPS ground | |
Gather, friends, while we enquire, into trains propelled by fire.... | |
| Spule 4
2nd Class Member
Foreman
Posts:482
Send Message
| | 08/01/2008 8:43 AM |
| | I would not e-mail, I would call and go up the ladder. | |
Garrett
"She'd been in Belgium, she told me...Studying the pyramids. It took her years to find out that there were no pyramids in Belgium." | |
| Del Tapparo
1st Class Member
Fort Collins, Colorado
Foreman
Posts:208
Send Message
| | 08/01/2008 8:23 PM |
| | Many electronics distributors charge a handling fee for orders under $25. Just their way of telling you they don't want your business. They sure don't get mine. I always use Mouser. No minimum orders. Shipping is actual cost. They get more business from me that way. And I still usually order 10 more things than I actually need just to lower the impact of the shipping charges. | |
G-Scale Graphics
Custom Vinyl Lettering & Simple Low Cost Battery Power
www.GScaleGraphics.net | |
| jebouck
Spokane Valley Wa
Brakeman
Posts:55
Send Message
| | 08/03/2008 12:48 PM |
| http://www.allelectronics.com/
This is who I use.
None of that minimum or hidden charges. Fast service. | | | |
| toddalin
Foreman
Posts:406
Send Message
| | 08/03/2008 1:39 PM |
| Posted By jebouck on 08/03/2008 12:48 PM
http://www.allelectronics.com/
This is who I use.
None of that minimum or hidden charges. Fast service.
I use these guys quite extensively also. There IS a $7.00 Handling/Shipping charge on each order, regardless of the size. But, their prices are so low, even with the 7.00 fee, only other internet surplus can touch their prices. But all the Internet surplus outlets have different stock to choose from.
I figure that for the $7.00 fee, I can't afford the gas to drive over to the nearest electronic place that may even have what I want/need.
Two other good ones are Electronic Goldmine (actually even better than AllElectronics for selection).
http://www.goldmine-elec.com/
And Brigar Electronics.
http://brigarelectronics.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=BE
| | | |
| Les
1st Class Member
Florissant, Missouri
Foreman
Posts:225
Send Message
| | 08/03/2008 8:24 PM |
| Posted By Bill4373 on 07/31/2008 8:10 PM
I needed 6 aaa battery boxes and 6 on-off switches. I ordered them from Allied Electronics, Ft Worth, Tx. The boxes cost $5.58 and the switches cost $4.14. They listed $5.00 as a handling charge. I thought OK, not bad. THEN I get the bill. On top of the $5.00 handing charge, a shipping charge of $13.16. Not bad $18.16 for $9.72 worth of merchandise. I emailed them Monday and no answer as of 10PM Thursday night. Needless to say, my last order from them.
Well, now that you're smarter (though sadder) it is a good practice to inquire from a seller what service he uses. If the USPO is shameless, UPS is obscene, in their rates. Larger business use them because they get 'free' insurance. Also, UPS handles big bulk, whereas the USPO doesn't.
Before doing any buying with shipping involved, ask for the total cost, INCLUDING shipping. Quite often you can buy locally, cheaper or as cheaply.
Strangely enough, many people don't count 'shipping' as a cost.
Les | | | |
| JRT3
Passenger
Posts:7
Send Message
| | 08/04/2008 6:23 AM |
| Allied Electronics was an electronics jobber out of Chicago many moons ago. There was Lafayette Radio in NY - I road the bus from Bayside, LI to their Jamaica store to buy my 2N107 & 2N170 transistors for my first homebrew radio beyond a crystal set. Sinatra was singing to candidate JFK in a shopping center parking lot when I got off the bus. Later that day, I went back to a large drug store at that center with a friend - for a $.98 50' hank of bell wire for his Lionel layout. I wish I had known - it was $.49 at Lafayette - and $.30 carfare. Boston's Radio Shack acquired Allied - even had their 'industrial catalog' available in their stores. Lafayette Electronics ultimately had a few retail resellers - there was one here in Birmingham for a while. The days of $6 orders - with s/h<$1 are long gone. Now, we drive across town for a $2 part - alone - expending $10 in gas. That handling charge & high shipping don't seem so bad in light of the local transportation costs.
Yeah, big decision coming up... should I go to my shooting range across town, the 63 mi roundtrip running me $12-$13 for gas, or sit on the back deck and holler 'bang' every once in a while? Figure in $10-$20 worth of ammo, my reloads at that, and working 'on the railroad' will be cheaper. Plus... it's going up to 97 F today out there - nice in my basement. Maybe I'll find a mail order source for a box of 1500 curves I can finance... Yeah, I remember 'the good old days'... and these days will soon look even better... just wait another year!
I can't fault the jobbers from discouraging small orders. I also hate paying so much for shipping - but they have higher costs, too. I see both sides, admittedly better when I am not placing an order. Ah, I miss the Radio Shack stores with their once proud assortments of electronic parts, etc... but, they went the way of the corner drug store with it's tube tester and vacuum tube assortments... and, I guess, the old 'General Store', with it's blackpowder and percussion caps, if you are really old...
Nostalgia - I hit sixty last week!
John | | | |
| Bill4373
1st Class Member
Michigan
Foreman
Posts:114
Send Message
| | 08/06/2008 10:06 AM |
| So, you want to talk the good ole times and low prices. In June, 1961, I was driving though Tulsa, Oklahoma. They had a "gas war" going on. I bought 12 gallons of Phillips 66 regular gas, g ave the guy ONE DOLLAR and received a nickle in change....eat your heart out!!!! | |
Gather, friends, while we enquire, into trains propelled by fire.... | |
| Semper Vaporo
1st Class Member
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Engineer
Posts:1228
Send Message
| | 08/06/2008 10:15 AM |
| | Ya beat me! I got gas for 10cents per gallon once at a gas-war. Unfortunately, Dad had filled the tank a day or two before and all I could get in was 3 gallons! | |
 C. T. McCullough
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
SA #37469
| |
|
| | You are not authorized to post a reply. |
|
| |
ActiveForums 3.7 |
|