The site never tells you whether they have the item in stock or not. You'll see why in a bit.

I ordered three items from them on June 1: a current shunt, a temperature probe, and some clip leads. They quickly sent out an email saying they'd received my order.

That's all I heard until two weeks later when they sent another email saying that the first two items were going to take 3-4 weeks to arrive, and the clip leads would be in in about 2 weeks. Now, I'd chosen Tequipment.net because they had the lowest prices of any reputable-looking place for the current shunt, and they were the only place that said they had this rare type of temperature probe. The clip leads must be price-controlled by the manufacturer, because they're the same price everywhere, to the penny. But, since I'd have had to pay another shipping charge to get them elsewhere, I replied to say I accepted the delay on all the items.

Several weeks go by.

The shunt and the temp probe eventually show up. I don't recall whether they were on time (if you can call 5-6 weeks past the order date "on time") but what was interesting is that they'd been drop-shipped direct from the manufacturer. There was no doubt about it: the shipping label and the invoice inside the box made that clear. No wonder Tequipment.net had the lowest price: they were just acting as a broker between me and the manufacturer. Not that there's a clear reason why the world needs brokerage services for DMM accessories, but hey....

Meanwhile, I still haven't seen the clip leads. They're two weeks overdue from their revised backorder date, and it's at least a month past the order date. If I'd ordered from a decent place, I'd have had them weeks ago.

More weeks go by. Still no clip leads.

During this time, I sent them two status request emails. No answer to either, despite the fact that this is what they tell you to do on their site. And no, they don't have online order status.

It's now August 14, and I need to order some parts from Mouser. They happen to carry the clip leads, and by this time I'm getting a little impatient. Since email hasn't worked, I call Tequipment.net up and tell them to cancel the balance of the order. I'd kept the order in with them to save shipping, but there's no point now.

I place the Mouser order.

An hour or so later, Tequipment.net calls, and tells me that their records are in error, and they actually already sent the order out. At this point, I did two dumb things. First, I failed to call the guy's bluff and ask for the tracking number. Second, I didn't immedately realize the significance of the customer cervix guy's claim that it went out "two days ago". August 14 was a Monday. So...I'm supposed to believe their shipping department was running on a Saturday? Maybe, but I doubt it. Their office staff takes the weekend off, and they just don't seem that big a company to have a Saturday operation. Could be wrong, but the timing of the call stinks.

Three days after the call, the clip leads finally show up, via a 3-day delivery service. This clinches the Satuday question, for me. It should have arrived a day or two earlier, regardless. But, I can't prove it, because I chose USPS. USPS is good for a lot of things, but reliable tracking and guaranteed delivery times aren't among them. (Tangent knows this, yes!) They sent the package out the day of my attempted cancellation, and then buffaloed me into beliving that they'd sent it out earlier so I wouldn't demand that they refund my money like I asked them to.

I don't think I'd go so far as to say that they cheated me. I was mistreated, for certain. They wasted my time, they frustrated me, and they probably lied to me, too. That's why they're not getting another dime from me. I just don't have time for this.

Epilogue

Now I have two sets of Pomona 6730 Kelvin clips. I'm unwilling to try my luck getting Tequipment.net to take the first set back, and it's not fair to make Mouser take the second set back, either. If you're in the market, see the For Sale forum.

I too had a similar experience with Tequipment.net when I ordered some replacement parts for my Hakko 929's. I received the parts albeit over the course of three different shipments and three months. I must say though, that fortunately, I was only billed for the original shipping, not the actual shipping.

I will not order from them again. And for anyone that reads this--"Caveat Emptor." You have been warned.

Later,

It's easy to see why many mail-order and Internet shopping sites state, "All items in stock" or "order not billed until shipped". There is a way to handle this legitimately. For instance, some might say up front, "this item shipped from a separate warehouse" in cases of specialty stuff. Still, that at least implies a just-in-time inventory agreement. In those cases where I've ordered from reputable dealers, the specialty item arrived before the regular stuff.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up on tequipment. They have some interesting stuff and I considered ordering more than once. Not now.

great. i read this after putting an order in with them yesterday. guess i'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.

Hmmm, interesting. I've bought stuff from them before and have never had a problem... apparently it was in stock. This is the wrong way to run a business for sure, so I guess I will avoid them in the future.

If I wasn't flat broke at the moment, I would take the leads I've been keeping an eye out for some kelvin test leads for a while now, I've been just using 4 basic wire clips for 4wire measurements and it can be a bit of a hassle

well, so far so good. received shipping info and a tracking number and i should have my order tomorrow. if i receive everything without a hitch i'll consider this a one shot deal.

wow, I just got my hakko 936 from hmc today... and to think that I almost ordered from tequipment!

That's pretty sad, Tangent. To screw up an order is one thing... it happens. But to side-step it after the fact, not return your emails, and send out a cancelled portion of the order? Pretty bad.

Regarding the kelvin clips, if I can find proper banana to BNC adapters that will work, I'm interested.
My LCR uses four BNC connectors for an input, and right now I only have the kelvin fixture. Doesn't handle can caps or large power resistors very well.

got my hakko 936 yesterday so no problems there. the extra tip i ordered however is on back-order which i didn't know until i saw the shipping invoice that came with my package. that's annoying but at least the main part of my order came through without a hitch. i think i'll just cancel the back-ordered tip and be done with them.

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It'll be interesting to see if it just shows up anyway... three months from now.

I'd take them off your hands if you'd do me a favor and recommend some good meters to use them with. I have a Fluke 8800AF and Tektronix mainframe DM 501, 502A. None support 4 leads. What would you recommend? (Doesn't have to be old.)

It is very hard to reccomend anything without a budget.
Having said that there is a nice looking (from the pictures) HP 3468A listed on ebay now with a buy it now price of $79.00 which makes it a pretty good deal for that meter.

There are also 10 HP 34401A's listed with a buy now price of US $725.00.
If I was in the market to replace my Fluke 8842 I would be on that one like a cheap suit on a used car dealer.

The 34401A is an awesome piece, isn't it? That's a pretty smoking price, it's usually more like $1100 to $1200.

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If it's testing up in the MHz range, then I'd use the shielded probes it's made for. I did some looking, and saw an LCR meter that can go to 2 GHz! You really really wouldn't want to do any connector hackery at those kind of speeds.

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Yes, Agilent owns the benchtop meter market now as far as I'm concerned. Fluke ceded their position, and I've heard that Keithley's quality leaves something to be desired.

I find it hard to give up capacitance and temperature measurement, though. If you were looking at new meters, I've recently seen the 34410A selling for the same price as the 01. Looks like Agilent wants to discontinue the 01, but is probably encountering resistance because it's such an entrenched standard. The new-style I/O on the 10A is also nice.