Banzai System is flawed!

Looking for a particular component or hardware part and you just cannot find it? Got comoonents surplus and want to get rid of it? Post it all here... No sales of working pedals, put these in the 'Seen for sale' section please.
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Brainbender
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Post by Brainbender »

Brainbender wrote:Btw. Isn't the Musikding more costly then Banzai? :scratch:
to quote myself... :lol:

YES, they are! :secret:

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Post by sinner »

Brainbender wrote:
sinner wrote:Banzai? No more... They're always backordered...
From what store do you order now? Musikding, Tyda as Hides-His-Eyes or somewhere else?
I'm also thinking about switching to some other store. If i'll have to wait another whole month for my last order I'll definitely do that! [smilie=rlp_smilie_312.gif]
Definitive "Bye, bye!" [smilie=thefinger.gif]

Btw. Isn't the Musikding more costly then Banzai? :scratch:
Pedalenclosure.com and... ebay :D I'm into old fuzztones currently, allan bradley, mustard, and tropi caps are the things I'm after newdays. Sometimes I do shopping at pedalpartsplus, and SBE (matched trannies). I can say only good things about CJ @ caps and such. I have a local guy in my city who run amptone.pl I like to chat with him as well :)

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Hides-His-Eyes
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Post by Hides-His-Eyes »

Brainbender wrote: Btw. Isn't the Musikding more costly then Banzai? :scratch:
Yes for passives etc., but i get those stupidly cheap from tayda. MD is just for guitar-specific stuff.
Testing, testing, won too fwee

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Brainbender
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Post by Brainbender »

Thanks, guys!
I didn't noticed how cheaply i can get passives from Tayda!!! :shock:

Thanks! :hug:

btw. check this store! you can order powercoated enclosures.
http://www.mammothelectronics.com/

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Post by modman »

Isn't it great to have a forum where you can discuss experiences with suppliers on an independent website? :mrgreen:
Some years ago Banai was ok, but I got the impression the grew very rapidly over a short time.

sorry
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Post by ckyvick »

Brainbender wrote:Btw. Isn't the Musikding more costly then Banzai? :scratch:
I bought a tremolo kit and thats all the experience ive had, as far as prices it was fair since it cost less shipped than a lune kit would have been.
Brainbender wrote:btw. check this store! you can order powercoated enclosures.
http://www.mammothelectronics.com/
I like ppp for my powdercoated boxen, their site might be a bit harder to use but they have a better selection of finishes :thumbsup
http://pedalpartsplus.com/
I still have to place an order with mammoth, just wish some of their drilling templates would allow for batteries.

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Post by Masuto »

I have bought a few times from Banzai. Last time was in december (now it is March!). I ordered some pots and stuff.. They told me my order was being sent incomplete, and as soon as they would receive the pots missing from my order they would send them to me.
After months spent waiting for supposedly sent backordered pots, never got anything from them, and lots of emails, i realised they were taking the mickey, aka talking bull.
I never failed to receive a packet since, late 2000, i started buying online. NEVER ONCE. Still, they go on about how the backordered items shoukd get to me in a week, etc. Bullshit.
I can only give you a tip: STAY AWAY FROM BANZAI. THEY ARE LIARS.

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Post by Masuto »

Heres the rundown of emails i got from banzai about items i paid for but never received:

Jan, 3, 2014:
Dear Xxx,
Your order was partially shipped. 4x #34284. Alpha 16-LNG-LS-100k lin
1x #34445. Alpha 24-PC-STR-1M lin are backordered and will follow in a separate shipment (free of costs). We will notify you as soon as the items are back in stock and ship them immediately.
Tracking number: Deutsche Post RG885580035DE 06-01-14
Order id: #132
Order date: 28.12.2013 23:52

Jan, 17:
Dear Xxx, 
Your order has been completed and shipped successfully. 
Customer and order notes:
4x #34284. Alpha 16-LNG-LS-100k lin
1x #34445. Alpha 24-PC-STR-1M lin are backordered and will follow in a separate shipment (free of costs).
***The backorder was shipped on 17-01-14

Feb, 14, after filing a complaint for unreceived items:
Hi Xxx,
my apologies for the postal delay. I contacted Deutsche post and requested to search for the delayed shipment. They will be contacting the Italian postal service to deliver the shipment to you. 
They have explained to us that at the moment the main sorting office in Milan is experiencing huge logistic problems and as a result shipments are not being prepared for regional delivery for approximately 14 working days!
You have my sympathy for this frustrating situation.
thank you for your business.
R H
Banzai Music Gmbh

Feb, 25, after telling them to stop using the all too abused lie about the italian postal service being slow, not delivering, and facing it that their customer service is a joke, and just asking them to send the stuff instead of just pretending they did:
Dear Xxx,
I cannot confirm your assumption that the backorder has not been shipped. I also cannot confirm your statement that our customer service is a joke. All your emails have been fully answered in a friendly and timely fashion. I totally understand your frustration with the postal service though. Postal delivery times to Italy have been through the roof in the past months (we were told that this was due to strikes). We have started offering and using alternative shipping methods (DOD/Bartolini, DHL, UPS) and would be happy to change the delivery method on your future orders if requested.
If the delivery time for the backorder shipment is about the same as for the main shipment then I would expect the backorder to arrive the next week.
thank you for your business
E Z

Feb 25 (same day as above!!):
Dear Xxx,
Your order has shipped via Deutsche Post. It will be delivered by Poste Italiane next week. Online tracking is not available for this shipment. If it is lost then we will re-send it, no problem. 
thank you for your business
E Z

March 10, after telling them nothing was received:
Hi Xxx,
We have reshipped your backorder to you.
***backorder reshipped Deutsche Post RG071211422DE 11.03.14
Tracking will begin from tomorrow.

Yeah, right. As of today: nothing was delivered.
STOP USING BANZAI. THEY ARE LIARS.

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Intripped
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Post by Intripped »

I've ordered many times from banzai and never had a problem with them. Even when i received some defective items, or missing parts (it happens, it's totally understandable) after contacting them via mail the issue has been always solved in a reasonable time.

With the last order that I placed on January I experienced a big delay with the delivery, but this was due to the Italian postal service (yes I'm Italian too) . The shipment was trackable so I could verify that it took 6 days to arrive in Italy from Berlin, and 3 weeks more for the parcel to be delivered to me.

So it's sad but true what they say about the Italian postal service and the issues that they're going through these days.

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Post by Dirk_Hendrik »

I've ordered from Banzai on a few occasions. Let's say the experience was'nt that great. Stuff arrived but it took long, errors were made and communication through email was a long process.
Sorry. Plain out of planes.

http://www.dirk-hendrik.com

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Post by lolbou »

Never had problems with Banzi in the past. My last two orders were backordered though, with a nearly one month delay.

Items missing were pots, though I'm pretty sure these were listed "In Stock" when I ordered.

I'll let them know about it, though their site mentions that "Offers are valid as long as stocks last. We do not accept liability for typographical errors or inaccurate information of any kind."... They can't be wrong in any way then!

If this is a recurring issue, I would not recommend it for customer repair purpose (the delay is way too long!). Luckily enough, these last two orders were for my own stuff, and I did manage the delay (although the gutted Marshall DRP-1 on my bench was annoying to see).

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Post by Jarno »

Same here, I had some switches in my order which were in stock when I ordered, I make a point of checking since I don't want to deal with backorders (recipe for disaster IMHO).
Well, it's been a month and a half now, had to remind them of my order myself. And after e-mailing them it took 4 days for them to open a ticket in their system, total PITA. We have plenty of those cumbersome systems at work, especially in the IT department it seems, I hate having to jump through hoops, let alone for some components I ordered for a hobby project.
We'll see, it appears the switches will be in stock again by the end of next week.
They do have a handle on the situation, and I can imagine ordering from a bunch of chinese supplier can sometimes be very hard to manage. An important way to handle it is to have accurate stock levels, and make sure you have enough stock. They have offered a number of options (store credit, replacement parts etc.), I'll make use of them if the parts will not be shipped in a couple of weeks.
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Post by Gabe_ »

Got various experiences with them, it was ok for a while, but the latest one is the most upsetting. I previously bought from them J201 that where REAL. I decided to get a few more (about 60 J201). First they sent me a bag of J201 that were actually fake and re-branded BJTs. The second batch they sent me seemed to be ok: at least JFETs with the same pinouts. It took me a few weeks before realizing that they where slightly of specs (like 30% more than J201's spec max) and thus likely fakes. These fake J201 have less gain and are all labelled "bk43"...

As far as I'm concerned, the only way I see now to insure to have real J201s is to source SST201s from RS. Cheaper, safer, but unfortunately smaller and less convenient to solder... (I was lucky to accidentally made my PCBs so that both J201 and SST201 could fit on them!)

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Post by Dirk_Hendrik »

I really have a lot of trouble believing in relabelled SMT fet's. Considering the excellent quality control at Banzai I could imagine very well some strip of BJT's ended up in the 201 drawer. When measuring "off spec" one must wonder which spec. Realioze FET's are way more often uses as switches than as amplifiers and most likely these will do fine. All 'n all they may very well not perform optimal in your application, but the "fake" conspiracies on these extremely common parts starts to raise my eyebrows more and more.

Especially when one says J201 (which seems to be a Fairchild part) and happens to buy a Vishay spinoff from that FET.

ref to this thread as well:
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=24756&hilit=fakes
Sorry. Plain out of planes.

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Post by roseblood11 »

I only use banzai for the stuff that I can't order elsewhere... uk-electronic.de is always cheaper and much faster - and Uwe knows what he's doing...

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Post by Jarno »

To those looking to order at Banzai, they are moving and so have (not announced upfront obviously) delays in shipping stuff.
I ordered something just over a week ago, and decided to check on the progress (ordered something from Reichelt at the SAME time, and that has arrived 5 days ago!), and was dismayed to find that it was "assigned" to someone to pick the stuff in the warehouse, it didn't even ship after a week.
After contacting customer service, they said that they are moving the warehouse and expect to ship it by the end of this week.
No notification of it anywhere, stuff like this should be plastered across the home page. Annoying, should have just ordered the v2164's at CabinTech........
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Post by ilcaccillo »

I can confirm also that backorders in Banzai are forgotten by the company, I always have to email them remembering to send the items.
Really unprofessional

Also I always have to check and re-check the order when I receive it because 80% of the time there is something wrong.
Something missing, or wrong values of parts, or wrong quantities (normally less than order).

Then I have to go again to the email and tell them what they got wrong. This happens 80% of the times, I advise everyone to count all the items and check the values of parts when the banzai order arrives, you will see that it's not right.

Farnell and Mouser have a much better service, and ultra fast shipping, I preffer to order from those suppliers, but for some specific guitar electronics related stuff it's easier to search in Banzai. I really like the website and the product range , thats why I still order from them.

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Post by snk »

It's the second time in two months that i have to wait more than 3 weeks to get any news from them.
If i didn't e-mailed them to get any kind of information about my order, i'm not even sure they would have shipped my order.
That's VERY unprofesional to say the least.
All the parts and components i ordered were all labelled "in stock", so i don't know 1-why it took so long, 2-why they didn't give any kind of information,3-why did i have to remind them that i had placed an order 20 days ago and that it still didn't shipped :(

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