Disappointment

Have been thinking about whether I wanted to write this post or not. I am not wanting to spread false rumours, but want to share with you the fact, and what happened in my experience. Now, I have been buying items from the Internet for over 10 years, I have generally had very good service from all the various vendors. In particular, I have had great experiences from online DIY suppliers such as (in no particular order); Welborne Labs, Bottlehead, Maple Tree Audio, DIY Hifi Supply, Sowter, K and K Audio, Chipamps, eBay, Hifi Collective, Tube Depot, Audio Tubes, Tango Tubes, Angela, Beezar, Front Panel Express, Digikey, Mouser, Allied Electrical and Farnell (now Element 14). Partsconnexion would've been a part of that list, until my last order.

This particular order included most of the upgrade parts for the Elekit, which included the 3k3 Tantalum resistors. For whatever reason, after I selected this correctly in the online shopping cart, they did not transpose that correct to their invoice. Instead, they put in 4k3. And with them, they send you the invoice to confirm first before they take payment and ship. I opted for the UPS option, which for a bunch of resistors and a pot, cost around US$60. Well, the time between when they sent me the invoice, and the shipping confirmation, was around one hour, and it occurred in Australia time, around 4am in the morning. Not much time for someone to respond.

So, to my surprise when I opened the package, I did not find my 3k3, but instead found the 4k3. I emailed them immediately, along with the web invoice email confirmation that I got first. They were very quick and nice to respond. Long story short, after a few emails, they were happy to send me the replacement resistors, but only after I have sent them back and they received it. Also, they were silent on the shipping method they would use.

To me, that is where they lost me. Firstly, it was their mistake, and secondly, why should I send back something before I got what I paid for? Well, I have encountered this scenario with a few other suppliers mentioned above, and in ALL instances, they were willingly to ship the correct goods first. Not after.

Well, that is my rant for the week. Take from it what you will. I am not warning anyone to stay away from Partsconnexion, but just sharing my experience. They do have an excellent range of components and are very well priced. But what about the service?