Banzai System is flawed!

[fulltone272]

I successfully placed one order with Banzai. Mistakenly like an idiot I put the wrong block number and I haven't received my order yet ( I may never see it, but that is my fault...not Banzais). Anyway, I have gone round and round trying to place another large order with the corrected address (block number). Unfortunately since Banzais system is flawed, I can no longer place an order with them unless it is wire transfer. WTF....I am a foreign worker based in Singapore. Olaf sent me an email stating I could only do wire transfer! I do understand internet fraud and what not but wth, when you go through verified by visa and all the other bull crap they use to verify...what good is it? Has anyone else had these problems? It's ashame I am paying high europe prices as a U.S. employee, in the land of cheap a$$ labor for components made in the neighboring countries....WTH!

[Dirk_Hendrik]

Do yourself a favour and forget banzai completely. Too many examples, personally as well as from others of real crappy service. No1 is I hate to wait almost a month between confirmation of order recieved and confirmation of order shipped. I was on the verge of making phone calls at that time. No2 was getting 10 wrong pots, habving a refund promised after sending them back... and never seeing something happenng again.


and btw...
You're in Singapore lah!? Go to Sim Lim tower/square (I cannot remember (it's been 9 years since I was there) which one is the shabby (and great) component walhalla (Upstairs/Downstairs, not at main level) and which one the bigger CE warehouse at the other ide of the road). I've been amazed at the timethat my co-workers were jealous that I could make my own (hifi at the time) tubeamps while I was only wondering how to get all those tubeamp targetted junk home without going broke on customs charges.

Brings back good, though weird, memories. Thanks!

[fulltone272]

Thanks for confirming that Dirk! I thought maybe I was being a bit harsh at first. I think I will just go through a couple of different vendors this time.

About Sim Lim (Tower), you are correct they have a copious amount of parts. The only problem is now it seems like every vendor carries the same types/brands no matter which shop you go to. Finding Audio Taper pots is nearly impossible. I have found some shops that carry some of the discontinued IC's though...cool. The irony is even the Specialty Tube Amp/HiFi shops look at me funny when I request Audio Taper Pots....haha.

BTW...I can fully relate to the memories comment.

Thanks!

[IvIark]

You're lucky you've got somewhere to try to find parts at! I live in Manchester and I can't think of anywhere anymore that I could just walk in a look through components. All our electronic companies seem to be business units with a trade counter rather than somewhere you could browse. RS Components is about as close as we get and they're crap.

[Greg]

Banzai is slow, some people have had problems getting their order, etc, and some of the stuff is very pricey...
The other side is that they have a great range.. it's nice to get everything from one source rather than having to chase multiple sources for single items.

About a year ago I received a Banzai package that was missing about half of the order.
When I contacted Olaf, his first reply was that the parts had been picked and marked off as sent.. inferring that I'd received them and was lying.
He did eventually send the missing bits, but it kinda left a bad taste... although I'll probably deal again when I need a bunch of stuff he has.. not always easy to get the parts you need in Australia.
I wish SmallBear would carry a larger range of parts.

[gkoerselman]

I've been using Banzai without too many complaints for the last year. I am living in Germany, so this might make a difference...

[fulltone272]

Maybe the "fanatical support" is for Germans or Germany residents...haha. I will say that dealing with the English Speaking Support guy Rowan was pleasant, but ultimatley Olaf makes the decisions and he is certainly not willing to work out any difficulties. And I doubt he would admit his online system is flawed. Oh well, In the end I just went to mouser and got the majority of what I needed without incident. I guess it is easier to support the corporate suppliers since they actually want our money. Apparently the Mom and Pop shop view this as a hobby only. It's a shame really.

[sergedeep]

I personally haven't had any problems with Banzai (up to now I have placed +/-20 orders with them). I placed my last order on Friday and received everything today (Monday)... can't complain about that!

[zzzapfizz]

I've had many successful dealings with them, but I think it's somewhat
interesting the way they ship static sensitive ICs. In one of these
small parts zip bags whit no anti static protection or chip leg protection.

It took more than 2 weeks to receive the bashed ones with broken legs,
and another two weeks to receive the replacements.

[UZILSD]

I did many deals with banzai, 90% of them went OK.
Occasionally I received wrong resistor/cap's values, no big deal. I only purchase electronics components, but some friends of mine had problems in getting "bigger" things such as guitar parts, effects, cases... such very long (up to 6 month in the worse case ) shipping time. I guess they have a good stock of components, but no stock at all for other things.

[gkoerselman]

I've always been happy with Banzai, but they pissed me off royally the other day by upgrading their system while I had my cart full with about 200 items. Yeah, of course all those items are gone from my cart now, to be entered manually all over again. I've also just noticed that the resistor price reduction is gone. Price use to reduce from EUR 0.08 to 0.07 to 0.05 for larger quantities (i.e. 1 to 5 to 10+).

Does anyone know of any good alternatives to Banzai (in Europe)? I already get half my stuff from Musikding (but I don't really like metal film resistors and these seem to be the only reasonable priced ones they have). I've looked at mouser but find their site and catalog to be enormous and confusing. Also, I assume that I might end up paying extra taxes if it's shipped from the US to Europe.

Thanks!

[devastator]

like other members posted , I always used BANZAI for my orders (and I'm making another ones) and I never had problems with them.

A big order take 2 weeks.

For Europe I don't know any other seller unfortunetaly .

[jt]

For carbon film resistors check www.bitsbox.co.uk
Great prices,fast and cheap shipment.

[Brainbender]

What's happening with the Banzai this month(s)?
Very slow shipping time, slow restocking...

I had many orders this and last year and i was always satisfied with the service, never had any conflict with Rowan or Olaf and shipping was good (usually 1-2 weeks). But for the last order, i had to wait over one month. I ordered more parts on monday, but still didn't recived any report that my order has been shipped...

Beside that, the only real objection i ever had is that they should put some icon is something in stock or not.

[ckyvick]

If your in Singapore why not order from Thailand?
www.futurlec.com/

[sinner]

Banzai? No more... They're always backordered...

[Hides-His-Eyes]

I'm just not interested in paying extra for banzai, especially when shipping ends up so silly high. I use musikding and tayda now.

[ckyvick]

I use musikding

Musikding is freaking awesome, they even ship to hawaii

[Brainbender]

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!
Definitive "Bye, bye!"

Btw. Isn't the Musikding more costly then Banzai?

[moose23]

I've always been happy with Banzai, but they pissed me off royally the other day by upgrading their system while I had my cart full with about 200 items. Yeah, of course all those items are gone from my cart now, to be entered manually all over again. I've also just noticed that the resistor price reduction is gone. Price use to reduce from EUR 0.08 to 0.07 to 0.05 for larger quantities (i.e. 1 to 5 to 10+).

Does anyone know of any good alternatives to Banzai (in Europe)? I already get half my stuff from Musikding (but I don't really like metal film resistors and these seem to be the only reasonable priced ones they have). I've looked at mouser but find their site and catalog to be enormous and confusing. Also, I assume that I might end up paying extra taxes if it's shipped from the US to Europe.

Thanks!

When buying resistors from Banzai I always go with the bulk packages. 100 pieces for €2.14, not the cheapest in the world but a hell of a lot cheaper than buying 5/10 etc.

http://www.banzaimusic.com/Bulk-Packages/