Farnell UK Reviews 1,037

Normally a very good service (for a price) but occasionally get an email saying the ordered part(s) weren't shipped the day they were supposed to be. Sometimes not a problem but usually the parts are required for the next day so on these occasions, really annoying.

SInce being taken over by the new owners the service has gone from bad to worse. Invoices go missing, parts go missing, the customer support line is staffed by people who are either rude or can't speak english properly. Order despatch deadlines are often missed. On the plus side the website is faster than it used to be but the bar was very low in the first place.

They have an issue with their website. I've reported this around 10 years ago. You'd think they might have fixed this, but no. So I Email them about it and they accuse me of causing the issue. I've given them clear instructions about how to reproduce, happens on all browsers etc. but no they chose to accuse me of causing the problem.
As with the other reviewers, I've also had problems with "next day delivery" that didn't happen "next day". Their website promises that, I don't care how that works. But when you complain they put the blame elsewhere "Sorry, UPS is being slow".

Dreadful service. Do not use if you REALLY require your parts next day.
They held my order to carry out 'internal checks' but pass on zero info to the customer about this so it's too late to place an order elsewhere (RS) for next day delivery. Not further contact from Farnell until you ring up to check why the order isn't progressing.
Utterly useless folk.

I paid a premium to get same day shipping before 6pm, the order wasn't shipped until the next day using UPS who are not good in my area (partly due to hardly coming here because they are not reliable here), should just use royal mail.
Order didn't arrive until 4 days later, by which they weren't needed. I couldn't go through the return process as too busy and so will just shop elsewhere now.

Our company have bought from Farnell for decades, but recently they mixed up an order, taking some payment off PayPal and adding the rest to the credit account. The amounts don't add up for the invoice they keep sending when I query. Without notice they are holding an order which I needed next day. Emails in the past about this issue have not been answered. When I phoned yesterday I was on hold for ages, then hung up on. I just wasted 30min on a chat that got me nowhere. Now issuing a company ban on buying from Farnell. They are not the cheapest, usually CPC have the same parts cheaper and the order size for free delivery keeps going up.

Not happy with them at all.

Customer services couldn't even confirm the account I need to pay to clear the amount they say I owe, so I can get the order that's on hold ASAP.

Ive dealt with farnell for 20 years and found them to be an excellent company. When I've had problems they fixed them. However with my recent order things did not go smoothly. I placed a web order, had a bit of trouble with their payment system(credit card) but eventually succeeded. The order remained on pending status for days. I made several phone calls, web text etc and nobody could tell me the reason for this.The items were in stock and the payment was pending on my bank account. The only contact I got from farnell was an application for a trade account which I dont want. They closed my account and told me to open a new account,which I dont intend to.

With a recent website update, I am now totally unable to make any payments. Unfortunately, there are some items I can only get on Farnell, which means I now have to manually call to make the order. This is basic stuff and has been a problem for nearly two months. Another good business being run into the ground.

One of the worst experience i have encountered from a multi-million pound company. Ordered 2 items, 2nd was really needed but got them just to get the free postage. Only item 1 arrived with a 14 week delivery for the second item even though the website said it had over 1000 available. When questioned this tin the morning they said that the 1st item will get sent today. After 4hour i received an email to tell me that the order had been cancelled with some rubbish that Paypal amount limit exceeded (what a load of rubbish) called them again and was told that if i ordered item 1 again i would have to pay the postage. I told them that item 2 needs to be returned as it's not needed and i'm still waiting for a return label... Absolute shambles.. My free advise if you want a smooth transaction were you know your going to get your items and not be messed about buy from Mouser of digikey.

So I regularly used to buy from Farnell before they became E14, then other suppliers became cheaper.
On Thursday I needed an item of test equipment for the following Monday. Farnell had many in stock and promised a next-day delivery if ordered before 6:30 (this was around lunch time, so plenty of time) being a UK company, I thought this was less risky in terms of time. So, I placed the first order with Farnell in around 5 years.
I ordered the item to be delivered to my home (this is something that I regularly do and the last order on Farnells records was actually the same combination of billing and delivery addresses as this order). They put a stop on the order - without informing me. This meant the order was not shipped that day for a Friday delivery.
On talking to the CS rep on the Friday to find out why my order was still "Pending" and not actually being delivered, I got a whole bunch of conflicting statements about it being with UPS but they hadn't created the label (so he couldn't give me any info on delivery) he insisted that it would be delivered on Sat because UPS work on Sat (which he then backed down on when I asked if Farnell had paid the premium for Sat delivery). It ended up with an email from the CS guy coping in a portion of a note from a different Farnell dept. In the email he stated the delivery had been expedited to a Sat delivery to get it to me in line with the promised delivery when I ordered it.
Turns out that was also a lie. The "expedited" part was actually getting it released from the hold due to the conflicting delivery/billing addresses (which I'll re-iterate had not changed in 5+ years and were chosen from drop-downs). The item was shipped with a Monday delivery date and it was so late on a Friday, there was no way of ordering from someone else for a Sat delivery.
Worst Customer Service ever. If they'd just been truthful about the state of the order and the actual delivery type they were going to use when it was finally released, I could have cancelled the Farnell order and re-ordered from someone else paying for a Sat delivery.
Now I'm left without the instrument I need for a job tomorrow.

Very reluctantly, I used Farnell again for the first time in a long time. In the past, Farnell always angered or disappointed me and they have done it again today.
I wanted something next day, and the next day delivery claim is not true. It took two days to arrive. But worse than this is that (yet again) they didn't send the main item I really wanted. I just got the things I added to the order to get the price up for free delivery. They said I now have to wait several months for the missing item.
Update: The following day Farnell have now found and shipped the missing item so I've upped the review to 3 stars. I'm still annoyed that they claimed they had lots of stock when I ordered, but then said I'd have to wait over 2 months. However, I'm really pleased now that I don't have to order the item elsewhere. It hasn't arrived here yet, but hopefully I'll get it in a few days.

I made 2 orders and both arrived late. 1 arrived 4 days late, the other 1 day later. Both were ordered well before the 6pm cut off date.

I returned an item (unopened) as it arrived too late to be of use to me. I sent the item back on a 24 hour Royal Mail service and was told it would take 2-3 weeks, (yes WEEKS) to get my cash back. These guys used to be good, but in my experience, not any more.

UPDATE. I have now been contacted and told it will be 4-5 days which is much better. Upped to 2 stars.

UPDATE. Refund received after 9 days. Pitiful. What have I learnt from this? Don't use Farnell again.

Farnell charge premium prices for components. That used to be acceptable when you considered that you would have the parts the next day. In recent times service has plummeted, and my most recent order will have taken 4 days to arrive. This level of service in unacceptable, when trying to operate an R&D based company in the UK. I'll switch to RS, Mouser, and even Amazon in future.

Such a shame, these used to be my go-to supplier for components but service over the past few months has been abysmal. Every single order we've placed has been late, they're not despatched until a day or two after ordering, the 18:00 cut-off is a total lie, and customer service just responds with generic copy/paste messages.

I'm always keen to support UK businesses, but when I can order from Digikey or Mouser and receive the items faster, it makes no sense to use Farnell any more.

The promise of order till 18:00, get your parts next day is simply not correct. Took me all in all one week, to get my material. Complaint at the service desk was simply rejected with, we send it out sooner or later, no word of sorry. Seems Farnell is to saturated and doesn't want customers. High prices and poor services have driven out other companies out of the market, before. Let's see...

my shipment is hold, due to other project payment hold reasons

Things were completed in a timely fashion.

I agree that the service level from Farnell has dropped significantly over the past few months. The delivery promise of next day for UK orders placed by 6 p.m. is now history, it does not happen. The only reason we pay Farnell's inflated price is for quick delivery and now we cannot trust that it will happen. More business for their competitors will be the outcome.

Good choice of products. Good quality. Fast delivery but postage is higher than I would like.

Tried to get through to accounts on the phone. Customer service has gone down as prices have gone up. Very poor.