Farnell UK Reviews 1,037

You used my post code from 25 years ago. This gave the courier some problems.

Right products, in stock, ordered by 1pm for next day delivery. What a pity that the package was not handed to UPS to deliver it the following day. This has happened 3 times in the last few months and really puts a downer on ordering from Farnell.

Products and fast delivery.

On Farnell website there are many some goods, you can choose any one, pay for it, then will receive many e-mails, various questions... but you will never ever will receive your order as wel as any refund . It’s just that type of business of Farnell with margin of 100%

I already had such an experience :(

For 5 weeks now I have been unable to pay my Farnell account using a perfectly functioning Mastercard (business debit)over the phone. It works fine with Digikey, RS, Rapid etc. Something must be seriously awry with Farnell if a major card company will not allow transactions. Sadly although Farnell has been my first choice for the last decade it will now be at the bottom of the list as a place of last resort. Digikey/Mouser etc have better stock and often ship just as fast as Farnell do now. A real shame that this company is failing as it was once great (and well used during my BBC Engineering days).

One item arrived reasonably quickly , the other didn’t. Phoned a couple of weeks later to be told it will arrive in three weeks time or so. Gave them another month, phoned them to be told it was cancelled! Bit frustrating really.

I've worked as a Purchasing Manager in the Electronics Industry for over 30 years, spending close to £500k worth on components each year on behalf of my employer, and ever since I entered the industry Farnell has been a key supplier, or at least it has until recently.

To say their service has gone downhill is the understatement of the year and putting it far more politely than I'd like to state it. Farnell to me has always been considered the "Harrods of the Electronics world", in that you seem to pay higher than usual distributor prices, but you could count on it being in stock and there the next day.

Well, those days are long gone and nobody at Farnell seem to be taking ownership of it, or even the least bit bothered by it.

Even with Components still at their premium prices and an additional £9.99 handling fee now levied on small orders (one of the largest handling fees in the industry) they still can't get ex-stock stuff out of the door!.

Maybe Farnell should stop of think as to why their customers are placing smaller orders, leading to the introduction of handling charges?.

Maybe, just Maybe that its because they are factoring in as a preferred supplier of fewer and fewer manufacturers these days, Perhaps it could be because nobody trusts them any more for critical orders or their production volumes?. (I certainly don't!). Go and present that thought to your suits in the Boardroom.

The "Sorry your order didn't ship out" emails are becoming frighteningly common now, Farnell is no longer a reliable service, our production lines stopped for days whilst they stumble around, seemingly trying to get their act together.

If your new European warehouse can't cope, then perhaps you should never have closed the UK one? - go figure!.

It's reached the point now where even my worst Grey Market suppliers shine like bright stars in the mire which is Farnell.

I've no doubt it will be global problems that they blame it on, yet several of their competitors out perform them at every turn and in every way and don't seem to be plagued by any of the same problems. Enough said!.

Farnell's one redeeming feature is they carry a wide stock. That aside, they are generally expensive and almost never ship out the same day, even if you meet their self advertised shipping deadline of 1800 (unlike their competitors). But what makes them truly abysmal is their partnership with UPS, the worst of all carriers. Parcels just seem to disappear into the ether, arriving weeks after the promised next day slot or never at all. I expected Farnell to be disappointed by this and make efforts to amend however they have zero interest in addressing this by offering other delivery options or even delivery to a UPS access point. I was told today that Farnell will not ship to a UPS Access Point because of 'security concerns'. So let me get this straight: you trust your courier so little you won't even let them hold the parcel for me whilst I go out of my way to collect it rather than the delivery to my address you purport to offer but never deliver on? Farnell have made it an easy decision whether to continue to patronise their mess of a business or not - no chance!

Don't order from Farnell much these days (used to spend thousands per annum)... Ordered online, parts show in stock... Following day, there's no stock and delivery expected in 5 months. I've already committed repair dates to my customer which I now have to tell them 'Sorry, there's now a long lead time on your parts required".. Why show them in stock and then 24hours later say sorry, they are not in stock after all.?

It also now seems the customer service is based overseas - I had difficulty understanding in both directions and all the rep could say was 'Hmm Hmm' with about 3 seconds delay between us talking. I'll get back to you within two hours they said - Following day I got a reply.

Looking at other reviews on here, I'm not on my own with problems or poor service, and its just getting worse.

Save your money, buy elsewhere. If you buy items based on pictures/description then beware. Bought a 7 pin ISO plug picture showed pins, description said pin material was silver...... guess what, when the items arrive there are no pins (they have to be purchased seperately)!! Sorry but the description forms part of the goods, and what did Farnells say?? Sorry, we will change the website, no sorry we will send the the right parts or anything else. I really wish I had seen the reviews before buying, the current score of 2.3/5 is being overly generous for them!

Have not received my package with basic electric components in 3 months time and they have not even responding to emails neither considering refund. Complete scam.

Do not recommend in any circumstances!

Delay in response by emails and so much delay to ship the orders without giving reasons.

Farnell claim "Order before 6pm, With you next business day" but I placed an order at 9:13 on 23.Nov.2023 and that order did not arrive until the 27th.
I placed another order on 11.Dec.2023 (assuming the previous slow delivery was a one-off) and again this order is showing as not expected to be delivered until the 13th. So if you need something next day then Farnell are not the company to order from anymore, sorry.

I warn you against purchasing from this company.
I bought a Raspberry PI, over 600 pieces in stock. Power supply and case added. The next day there was information about shipping. It turns out that they sent the power supply and the case. Pi disappeared, waiting time for delivery was 2 months.
I haven't been able to cancel my order for 5 days and they don't respond to emails. Ultimately, they sent unnecessary items.

I've stopped ordering from Farnell since the marked increase in emails saying 'Im sorry but due to unforseen circumstances your order did not leave us as scheduled yesterday'. I use RS instead for urgent items and they are somewhat better. The recent (autumn 2023) hike in the small-order threshold for even long-standing accout holders like myself (since the late 80's) is the straw breaking the camel's back. Oh did I mention, they've outsourced their accounts overseas?

Selected product had over 300 in stock, and available for next day delivery.. Nearly 3 weeks later, constant copy/paste email of "Your order has been delayed" and 2 customer service escalations, which went nowhere - I managed to pull the plug and cancel the order. A huge waste of my time, ordered from a competitor the next day and it arrived the following morning.

In short, website is a lie, customer service is woeful and the management of expectation doesn't exist.

Avoid if you can.

Last 2 orders had major issues, when ordering an item it clearly says "available to ship immediately", but after waiting 7 days it hasn't even been processed. Wasted 2 hours just trying to cancel the order. A guy named Bharat Hegde from support told me I had to make a phone call in order to cancel. An international call just to cancel something that I should have gotten days ago?? Absolutely insane

Company is absolutely nuts. Tried to purchase a measuring device, once ordered these folks started to ask for legitimate documents that I'm not related to Russia as goods needs to be exported from UK to EU. Cancelled the order some weeks later as it took so long. Now some months later tried to call customer service agent and asked maybe they got this item in their Belgium warehouse? - The agent started writing all the filling stuff except the info I asked. Asked once again, then he said they can't disclose where the item will be sent from. What a nonsense. Never thought I will write review like this, but this over the roof.

Have dealt with element14/ Farnell for over 10years. Recent orders have been delayed and I am still waiting for an order listed as available for shipment in 5-8days and still listed in purchase history as in transit! Two weeks after purchase.
When trying to get an explanation for the delay in a live chat, I was told to contact customer service!! ??? !!
Has there been changes ownership! Service seems to have gone down the proverbial s$&t pipe!
Maybe time to consider other options. Being only a humble diy audio and electronics enthusiast, I don’t suppose it will be any loss to them.

I ordered a part that Farnell failed to deliver as it is an item they have discontinued yet their website shows a stock of 900!
I was then asked to write a review which I did, however Farnell chose not to host my review claiming it did not meet their website guidelines, presumably because the review was critical,so I wonder why did I bother to write it?