Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

Register Log in
  • Congratulations KootK on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Buying semiconductors from Hong Kong warehouses? 1

Status
Not open for further replies.
MonostableMultivibra

MonostableMultivibra

Electrical
Sep 1, 2010
4
One of the products we manufacture uses an obsolete DSP chip. I Googled to find if anyone had any and -- lo! -- a dozen or more companies in Hong Kong said they have stock! I selected one and the rep said they accept only bank wire transfers for payment. Rather than send $5000 for all the chips I needed I sent $500 for a smaller quantity, figuring if they send the first batch I'll order the rest. Guess what? The rep found they actually didn't have the chips in stock. She said she'd return my money but a month later no refund has appeared in my bank account.

I ordered from a second Hong Kong warehouse. This time I just sent $180 for 100 chips. Three weeks later, no chips have arrived and the rep won't respond to my e-mails.

Are these Hong Kong semiconductor dealers all scam artists? Is there a way to buy from them without getting ripped off? I'm thinking that I should ask them to send me 1 chip free, and if the chip arrives I'll order 100, and those arrive I'll order 1000. Or should I look for one that takes credit card payments?
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Sort by date Sort by votes
Ouch.

If you haven't already done so, check with the legitimate 'trailing edge' companies (such as Rochester Electronics, there are others) to see if they happen to have bought the New Old Stock, tooling and IP rights.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Many of the grey market brokers will say they have a chip available, and then when you buy they will go through their network of contacts to see if they can actually find it.

Additionally, counterfit components have become such a massive problem that if you buy a component on the grey market there is no telling what you're really getting. I've recently even seen components that had the original numbers/data sanded off, and they were stamped with conterfit logo, date code, and part number. Internally they were not the correct chip - just the correct package. By the time you've figured that out, you're stuck.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Spitting on the sidewalk is a serious offence in HK.
I wonder if cheating a foreigner carries any penalty at all?

I wouldn't make any direct accusations, but perhaps a letter to the trade ministry asking if they might stop by and inquire about the health of your non-vendors would precipitate an inquiry.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I only can support Comcokids statment on counterfeit products. With the current bottleneck in the supply-chain all these companies selling counterfeit products -or just shipping nothing after payment- will have more chances to fool customers.

So, ensure that you receive manufacturers PCN and PWDs from you supplier on time to do a proper liftime buy. In a situation where demand is high, many semiconductor suppliers are going to clean up their portofolio and get rid of products running only in low quantities.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I used SeekIC.com to find these suppliers. They have a complaints page. I filed a complaint, and the company returned my $560. SeekIC.com also has an escrow service, I'll try that next time.

I also e-mailed the company's bank, but they said they couldn't do anything, and gave me the Hong Kong police e-mail address.

The lesson I learned is not to send a bank wire transfer. Legitimate companies accept credit cards.

Today I e-mailed several other companies that said they have this IC. I told them to send me one IC free and then I'll buy 1000 (or use the escrow service). We'll see whether any send me an IC (and I'll test if it works before paying for 1000).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Plenty of legitimate Asian companies use wire transfer exclusively (I've worked with them), but I'm always leery about sending large amounts of cash that way as you really don't have much recourse. When it's a new company I will do as you figured out... a small test purchase, followed by a larger one.

Dan - Owner
Footwell%20Animation%20Tiny.gif
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I am not involved with purchasing, thank goodness.

But as an engineer that has to use some of the garbage we end up with, sub standard or counterfeit parts of unknown provinence are now becoming a very serious problem.

I could tell you about batches of counterfeit triacs that test fine at low voltage, but break down and self destruct at anything over 70v to 90v. These were rated for 600v.

Then there were hundreds of opto isolators, none of which worked at all. Thinking about this recently, I am sure they were just solid plastic with the legs molded in. At the time I never thought to cut one open and look for myself.

And that is even if the parts paid for are actually delivered.

It always pays to buy from a reputable agent of the original manufacturer, not from some post office box, or web site in Asia.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I e-mailed 7 Chinese companies that offered to sell me the parts I want, if I send a bank wire transfer. I counteroffered to use SeekIC's escrow service, or they could send me one IC free (shipping paid on my UPS account) and I'll then buy 1000 ICs. Two of the seven companies refused, the others never responded to my counteroffer. All of these companies are scams.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Mono-Mul, Thanks for the info before the rest of us get burned. Sorry we are learning from your misfortune.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hmmm...

Mainland manufacturers make 'a few' (understatement of the week) electronic products themselves. Finished products, that actually work, some quite well. I wonder how THEY sort out the wheat from the chaff?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If you are a big Multinational Corporation manufacturing widgets, you go over to China and personally inspect the entire supply chain for your IC's. You then order regularly and in bulk and both you and your Chinese supplier will do well.

You don't buy off the internet just because they are the cheapest price.

Only last week we purchased a single tube of one time programmable (OTP) eproms from an Asian source. When they arrived they all already contained some program and were therefore totally useless.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Not useless to everyone. If it maps into program code, and you can blow binary 1s into the first few locations and produce a jump to a blank location, then some of the OTP is still usable.

Does any processor interpret 0xFFh as a NOP?
That would be useful...



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I do design, purchasing, the whole enchilada at my company... I selected an Infineon smart power switch (BTS5231) to use in one product figuring I'd save a few parts over a discrete approach and, hey, it's probably a favorite of automotive OEMs so it should be in good supply. Wrong. It went into extreme backorder status a few months later leaving me to contemplate a board redesign or the dread Chinese brokers... I chose the latter, despite the horror stores I've been hearing for years. I figured, it's better to be out a few hundred bucks on bum parts than it is to go through a board redesign for nothing.

Fortunately, in this instance my story ended well. I got the chips in a decent amount of time and so far every single one of them has worked fine. I wasn't holding my breath, though.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The happy outcome: I went to HoBid.com and received a dozen responses from IC suppliers. I selected Electro-Comp Services ( in Florida. I paid $1800 with a credit card. They ordered from a Chinese supplier they trusted. They sent me photos of the top, bottom, and X-ray of the inside of the chips (this showed the Yamaha name on the die). I accepted the photos and a few days later 195 chips arrived. I tested five and all are good.

I lost $250 with the Hong Kong scammers on SeekIC.com. An expensive lesson but it could have been worse.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

J
  • Question
EHV/UHV GIS Expansion from Existing One
Replies
1
Views
2K
Jpascp
J
Imumahdi
  • Question
Feeding A Single-Phase Transformer from two different phases 2
Replies
5
Views
4K
waross
waross
Grizlyadams
  • Locked
  • Question
VFD to up from 50 to 60Hz 3
2
Replies
29
Views
1K
Grizlyadams
Grizlyadams
Designer_82
  • Locked
  • Question
Changing service from 1 phase to 3 phase
Replies
12
Views
2K
waross
waross
SA07
  • Locked
  • Question
Supplying 2 applications at 2 different pressures from one borehole pump
Replies
2
Views
325
SA07
SA07

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top Bottom