Farnell UK Reviews 1,037

Ordered a connector, took next day delivery which was quite an expensive order.

Courier claimed we were closed - reception is manned all day
next day - same, called UPS, oh maybe he couldn't find you - had a phone number etc didn't even attempt to call. Gave them directions (Big white building on the corner at the junction opposite Aldi. No other large white buildings about.

Anyway another couple of days go by with package delayed showing on the tracking.

Live Chat Agent: 1 - i'll escalate with UPS will be out in 1-2 days - didn't arrive

Live Chat Agent 2 - Ohh you need to give it another 1-2 days - no delivery

Phoned - This agent at least emailed me back - still no delivery, no option of sending out another one without me paying for it first, no option of another courier, UPS can't trust to catch a cold right now let alone deliver a parcel.

So after 2 weeks parcel still not here and only just been given a refund.

While the customer service agents are polite they are of no use getting a resolution to an issue, only 1 out of 3 emailed me back after lots of promises.

I have used them before a while ago and didn't have any issues. Looking at other reviews though it seems customer service has gone out the window if there are any issues at all, you are pretty much on your own.

I will not use this company again, the connector we were looking for is only supplied by them. So we have decided to swap out the connections on all the products to something available elsewhere as we cannot be held to ransom when dealing with Farnell, Our clients are very disappointed in us as we couldn't get the parts in the timescales we said.

This is the biggest issue - their incompetence in getting parts out makes us look bad, and the constant fobbing off it will arrive in 1-2 business days - especially when you paid for next business day delivery is a hard pill to swallow

While the apologies by email its pretty empty apologies with no solutions offered, With that I can't award them any moire than 1 stars

Garbage since Avnet takeover - no UK staff so trying to discuss anything in the slightest bit out of the ordinary is pointless. Been trying to order for two weeks now, but prevented from doing so due to their internal classification of our company as a 'reseller' when we're actually a manufacturer

I can't believe how badly this whole experience went with this supplier.

We received vital consumable filters that were already past their printed expiry date.
When this was queried, the supplier dishonestly claimed that the printed date was the date of manufacture, a claim that is factually incorrect and contrary to 3M's own data sheets.
We provided conclusive proof, including product data and photographic evidence , demonstrating that the goods were expired and unfit for purpose.
Despite providing irrefutable evidence of their mistake, the supplier has failed to replace the expired stock, issue a refund, or provide any communication regarding a plan of action.

We are left with unusable, expired goods, and the supplier has ceased all communication, demonstrating a shocking lack of customer service, accountability and ethics.

Save yourself the headache—avoid this supplier at all costs

Farnell was for a great many years my number one supplier for R&D components, small quantity production, consumables and tools (think business of £100k+ per year in the early noughties, with the company of which I was technical director). All materials were then of well-known trusted brands, supplied quickly and (given the high service level) at reasonable prices. They could be ordered from a catalogue that was superbly presented, and both quick and easy to search - in stark contrast to the dreadful web site today. Orders could even be collected same-day from the Leeds trade counter, which was happily local to my business and staffed by wonderfully helpful people. All this is now gone; it's very sad and frustrating especially when you actively would like to support what was once a trusted and relatively local company. Latest farce: I find myself in urgent need of a tube (couple of dozen) of bog-standard SMD op-amp IC's, and am faced not only with hefty minimum charges (despite being a long-standing account holder) unless I order extra stuff I don't really need, but also find that the branded (Texas Instruments) op-amps are now about four times the normal price. Even RS - traditionally significantly more expensive - sell them far cheaper. If I want them at the usual price I'm now expected, it seems, to buy the in-house "Multicomp" brand which is made who-knows-where and comes with no traceability as far as I can see. Erm - no thanks. Back then to Mouser (who seem to be able to deliver just as quickly these days, despite despatching from Europe into post Brexs**t Britain) or even - yes - RS Components. Why on earth Avnet bought this highly respected, R&D / industry-focused business simply in order to make it another of their CEM-obsessed suppliers I do not know. I hope they do. They seem to be losing customers and goodwill hand over fist.

Has been gradually going downhill for the last few years.
1) unreliable delivery, next day is now an extra cost option.
2) Outsourced customer support could be a lot better. Different staff contradict themselves and make false assurances (re delivery)
3) Admin seems patchy, such as communications they claim to have sent, not arriving.

I've been using them since the 1980's, but honestly if they can't offer a reliable next day service then Mouser and Digikey usually arrive within 3 days, carry a better stock of electronic components and don't apply as many "standard supply multiples" (which often result in waste if you only wanted one piece.
I write with a heavy heart really, as Farrell were my go-to for years.

Their reply is total nonsense really, as what made things worse was total non disclosure of any warehouse issues from customer support. Rather they simply made empty promises that the items would arrive the next day. This simply isn't acceptable from a professional grade supplier. Following their reply if I could give zero stars then I would, but sadly 1 star is the lowest score.

I didn't know it was possible to get to the bottom of the barrel and keep going, but Farnell have managed!

We all used to know the score, Farnell stocked just about everything you needed, and if you ordered it you would receive it the next day with free shipping regardless of whether it was a 50p pack of resistors or an order worth several thousand pounds. You accepted that the cost was higher, but the service was wonderful and you happily paid slightly more for this.

Over the past few years, the complete enshitification of the company has occured, from regularly not delivering when they should to adding minimum order values and additional shipping costs. This was before last weekends screw up which has meant that our order has sat processing for over a week.

This is completely unaceptable, and there is no longer any reason to purchase anything from Farnell, and if at all possible we will not again. They have departed from their sole reason for supplying industrial customers, and I fear the damage has now been done.

Farnell once completed research into customer need, they found customers want the right thing in the right place at the right time. Farnells competitive edge was that they would get you a hard to find part the next day, it would be expensive but it would be there next day.
They now don't deliver next day unless you pay, the item price is still very high but they want you to pay, if you don't pay for the service then you'll be lucky if you get it in 3 days, even if you meet their minimum £40 order level. Parts ordered 2 days ago, still not arrived or expected to arrive within 2 days.

How can Farnell have fallen so far from grace, terrible decisions made to try and save a few pounds zero and I mean zero customer focus. You can order from Digikey or Mouser, spend £33 or more (£40 for farnell) and you will get the item in a similar time frame to farnell, it will most likely be cheaper and you'll get better customer service.

My experience has been items now taking 3 days to arrive, customer service, saying they will come back and then ignoring emails for 3 weeks about specific issues. I've never seen a company decline so far so quickly, hugely frustrating.

I have been begging farnell to fix their login system. The indian call centre staff are not passing on the information that logging in is a problem and Farnell is losing business every day. What incompetence is this?

Details:

I log in on my mobile phone. No problem. I log in on my company desktop and get the error. "If you have an account with us, it has been locked after too many incorrect login attempts."

A password reset works but immediately I get the same error. Farnell are so incompetent. Who throws away long standing relationships so they can save money on their call centres.

I never post reviews but I am honestly at a loss. I placed an order via their website where it took my card details but no payment was taken as they needed to first confirm the order. Upon confirmation, I receive an email with an invoice to EFT the outstanding amount, I do so immediately.

Goods arrive on time, have not yet used them because of all this. I then see on my bank statement that they charged me twice, the EFT and the online payment where they took my card details. I contact them for a refund highlighting the mistake - which could have been an honest error if not for how it has been handled - it takes forever for a response, only for them to say that there is no double charge. I provide my bank statements and further proof that the £70 was charged twice. But I have had no response and have followed up several times since. It has now been 1 month and 3 weeks since the error occurred and over 3 weeks since they last responded.

This is really appalling. It was my first encounter with this company and I cannot believe they cannot refund the amount.

02/10/2025 - I have still had no response from them. They asked for Bank Statements as proof, this was provided a month ago. They said it wasn't enough and they now needed POP. I provided that, and no reply to 3 further emails, over 2 weeks ago. Completely disgraceful.

Already concerned by the consensus of my many colleagues in UK electronics (your CUSTOMERS) that Farnell is losing its' way, and now find Farnell doesn't even accept PayPal any more ??
You are a distributor so your reputation RELIES on getting that right ! starting at the online purchasing experience and ending with fulfilment. But you are FAILING TOO OFTEN and your competitors are doing better. Don't forget that your group shareholders also read reviews !!
Method of payment matters - A LOT. If your competitors (like Mouser) accept PayPal then we and many of our colleagues (your CUSTOMERS) will look elsewhere because it's easier and safer for US. Thank-you for listening.

On 28th July 2025. I attempted to place an order for 72-9245 CABLE TESTER, SATA/ESATA MINI. The Farnell website displayed an error message stating that the payment failed because it was rejected by their system. Believing this order had failed, I immediately placed the order again, and this time their website immediately told me that the payment was successful. The next day (Tuesday) at 09:25am I received two order confirmations, and I was charged for both transactions. I wrote to Farnell explaining my issue, and after a few emails back and forth, the issue was resolved.

This company used to be really good. It is a while since my last order but this latest one is plagued with bad comms and service.I had to discover there was a problem with my account, they did not bother to tell me so order was held up. They now use an answering service based in the Far East, could not understand a word, won't be able to resume business with this lot.

Edit - to be fair they did respond and provide assistance to overcome my issue, it caused a lot of stress and the assistance nearly messed up but it made it

I placed an order on Friday, desperately needed Monday, I know their order reliability is variable even though they state next day delivery, so I ordered a pre-1030 for £15+. I've come in this morning, the last day before my holidays and they haven't dispatched.

One of the worst customer service to deal with. Placed an order on the spanish website, got an order from UK with custom taxes to pay. After a dozen of emails and month after, managed to get my money back. Useless customer customer assistants.

if there are any problems your call will either be diverted to India, or, if you're lucky, to SERBIA. For a british company based in Leeds this is a waste of time and they're pretty powerless to help in the event of any issues. I'll never use them again.

farnell have gone off the chart downwards as far as customer experience goes, after the american takeover. All customer facing staff are outsourced to India. Orders often result in a familiar email 'Im sorry but due to unforseen circumstances your order did not leave us as planned' . Stock control is abysmal. Website is dismally slow and innaccurate. Technical queries, years ago answered competently and with great knowledge, now end up with bland, nondescript answers that quote ambiguous data from the product page that I have already read. A sad end to a company's reputation built from the days when they supplied my 1950's AVO 7 which still boasts the red and gold sticker 'Farnell of Wetherby'.

Been buying from Farnell 30+ years: there has been a catastrophic collapse in basic administrative competence and customer service, which used to be exemplary. Latest instances:
1) Goods listed as in stock, ordered but suddenly not available for months; requested alternative, which was sent: but charged re-reeling fee for an unreelable (loose packed, not taped) article! Credit twice promised per phone but never happened until emailed.
2) Paid in full per bank transfer as usual. Stupid email saying can't allocate without advice - first time in 30 years this was a problem. Maybe there's some discrepancy ? By return requested statement. No response - utter silence.
3) Delivery shortage. Replacements sent - plus invoice for full value of goods they hadn't sent. Awaiting response on that one.
It's all petty annoyances - so far - but they all take time to fix and there's a pattern to it which basically says these people are getting unreliable, try elsewhere first.

Expensive, poor delivery
Order delivered after 6 days.
After 3 days, tried to cancel. No response.
On delivery, A5 envelope was filthy.
An unrealistic 'admin' charge of nearly £10?
Yet 'free delivery' on a £2.78 order?
No, I shan't visit Farnell again.

they emailed me demanding a student email after i had paid and made the order. my project is due soon and i was too busy to check my email, so they simply just cancelled it, telling me id have my money back in a "few days" just absurd. if they needed my student email why didnt they just ask for it on the got dam website ffs. what a waste of time.

I ordered parts worth £8,758.94 from Farnell. However, they sent me 1 extra piece of some items, 8 pieces less some items and 12pcs less some others, and some items were completely missing. I contacted them 6 times via online chat. After the third attempt, they opened a case, and several times they promised to send me an email, but I have yet to receive anything.