Microcontroller ... which one ??

I am not much help with that. One thing I know. is BECARFULL buying from Digi Key

I am in australia and they charged me $87US($120AUD) for a Digi Key card board Box. the parts where around $30US.

I have gotten things from the US in the post for shit loads cheaper airfare than that. Digi key did end up giving me half the shipping cost back, after trying to rip me off. so in the end I still paid $45US for a card board box. legal scammers. Basically they sell card board boxes and throw in a few electronic components. But that might only be if you live in an other country. maybe they have a mentality of 'screw people in other countries besides the USA'

anyway....be carefull

Hi, I'm from the US and I've ordered many things from Digikey and have never had a problem. Maybe that is an exception, but what exactly do you mean they "charged you for the box." Are you saying that Digikey charged $87 for shipping, or "shipping and handling", or "handling," or "Excise tax," what?

I can't imagine shipping a parcel from the US to Australia would cost more than $25- unless you ordered a 500-pound item? Where exactly is the error?

That said, I have heard of some exporting issues with Digikey. Thanks to our wonderful leadership and legal system, every package that enters or exits the US is subject to extreme scrutiny. I heard where someone in Canada was ordering some parts to make hobby kits and Digikey wrote them a legal letter asking 20 questions about the exact nature of the hobby kits. Digi-key would not ship until they recieved a valid, legal response. We can argue about the intent, or if anyone actually follows another country's laws. But the problem might not be Digikey's fault per se, they could have simply been following the current export laws.

Some would say, with all the terrorist activity, that the US might be taking a defensive posture towards other nations. I wouldn't say that's so personally. I have always considered Australia a beautiful and friendly place. So I doubt you or Australia is being singled out specifically.

So if anything, join with the rest of the world in badmouthing the US, and understand that unless Digi-key made a gross error, they were probably following yet another stupid law.

-M

specidications

Actually Digi Key threw the questions at me also at first.......that wasnt much, just following procedure.

the items weighed no more that 9 ounces...but they charged me for 2lbs which they say is the reason for the extra expense. Of course no body would actually like paying so much for a cardboard box.. I know I have gotten things much heavier and much less expensive in shipping. My original post said 'be carefull' thats all. ... The parts I bought cost around $37.00 us and the box cost $87.00 anyone with half a brain would know to at least double check with the customer first to see if they understand that that is what they will be charged for shipping. At least have some sort of customer relations. anyway...like I said....be carefull to the original poster. If they live in US, probably no problem

Still, like you say it would be very bad business practice to "hide" any extra fees like this, if that's really what happened. I'm not sure why Digi-key or any other company would charge such an outlandish amount unless it was just some kind of weird error or misunderstanding. If it happened to me, I'd write the company and ask them to explain the charges in detail. (Postal mail is considered "official correspondence" in the US.) It's not like Digi-key has the lowest prices anyways, they should have free shipping. I just ordered some one-off parts from Hong Kong and the shipping and handling was $12 - why on earth would it cost 4x that for an Australian?

Better luck next time, mate.

-M

My experience with some freight companies is that they don't weigh things, they just guess the weight. This weight just happens to be significantly higher than the real weight. Another trick is that they round up the weight to the nearest kg, or add a kg to the weight. If they do this on each parcel they can make a lot of extra money. The moral of the story is be careful of which freight company they use.

My experience with computer parts is that if you want something sent by post with no delivery deadline it's about AUS$15. But if you want something ASAP by say DHL that's around AUS$60. My experience is that unless it's a genuine emergency, don't bother getting it by an express service. You spend 4 times as much and save 2-3 days on delivery time. Not usually worth the cost.

Sig: I have a brain the size of a planet. It's not much good to me, however. It's on a different planet.