Yes - they are good and much cheaper than Maplin's, although to be fair they don't have high street shops you can walk into and inspect the goods. That's why they can be so much cheaper.

Another good online supplier I've used is JPR Electronics - http://www.jprelec.co.uk/

 

QUOTE (RFS @ 9 Jun 2010, 14:41) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Yes - they are good and much cheaper than Maplin's, although to be fair they don't have high street shops you can walk into and inspect the goods. That's why they can be so much cheaper.

They do have a trade counter and showroom in Colchester, which is nearer than my nearest branch of Maplin

 

If you can't get what you need from rapid then try Farnell

They have stuff others don't and although an item might be slightly more expensive (peenies extra) they don't charge post and delivery is next day.

Ordered 5.15pm Monday. Email sent at 8.15pm to say they had despatched the items. Arrived Tuesday at 1pm by UPS.

Angie

 

QUOTE (alanb @ 9 Jun 2010, 15:35) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Whilst looking for some products to build a new control box for my layout, I came across ********

Just don't try sending broken stuff back..... it'll cost you.

I had a wallwart that I had to return due to it packing up. With most companies you send it back and they send you a new one - not these people. They need you to buy a new one and then issue a credit note for the cost of the replacement (not the post and packing or vat) which means you are then obliged to obtain more stuff from them, which you may or may not want.

When you order your kit to use up the credit there is no way you can convey on the order form that you have a credit note, have to pay again and are reliant upon their system picking up on your credit note facility. In my case this didn't happen so I ended up having more stuff (which I didn't want) and still had an outstanding credit note. A furious phone call to HQ asked me to repeat the 'order against credit' scenario which I refused to do as I didn't want yet more unwanted kit.

I eventually got it sorted out but when you add together the cost of all the time, phone calls, postage/packing, vat etc etc, that I (not them) had to pay, I'd have been better off just chucking the wallwart in the bin.

What should have been a simple customer relations/replacement under warranty situation turned into an absolute nightmare - talk about penny pinching, I couldn't believe it (as Victor Meldrew would say).

Mike

 

Hi

I purchase most of that gear relays dpdt switchs LEDs etc from DCC Concepts. On the LED side alone they would have at least twice as many different styles of LEDs than most of the suppliers listed, with better prototypical light and the nano range comes pre wired.

They also do a host of other electrical products aimed directly at the modeler.

Cheers

Martin