Hello,

COVID19 has been tough and the only remote electronic supplier that has helped me during this is Futurlec, but they do not sell blank presensitized PCBs.

I almost bought for the third time from Kinsten.co but this time the guy that was running the business stated that he is no longer in business and would now accept only western union or paypal for payment. (no longer credit card).

So now I ended up buying some from RS Components Americas because I am in Canada. While the order itself went through quickly, the tracking for it is difficult to do because on the american version of the site, there is no tracking interface where as on the home UK site there is. Neither the UK site itself nor the person who I contacted on the UK site were able to help me in terms of tracking because I ordered through the america site.

It has been 4 days since the start of the order, and I'm uncertain if/when it will arrive. I did select to have the order shipped with DHL and I haven't received a DHL waybill number so I have no way of tracking it.

Has anyone else shopped with RS Components before? and what are your thoughts about them? Because for me, if in 27 days, I get no word or product from them, then I'm gonna make a refund happen in my favor.

 

Check Sayal in Burlington. They sell presensitized copper clad boards.

 

I am too familiar with sayal. But their prices keep going up and with the stock I need, they would be sold out too quickly.

Here's an example of how much I save online. a 8x12 inch board (which is sayal's largest in stock). Kinsten's price: about $10 after conversion from US dollars. Sayal's price: about $37 with taxes.

One order I did through kinsten was about 49 circuit boards, mostly 6 inch by 6 inch and some were 8x12 inch and I added developer chemicals to the order. They came as dry salt (sodium silicate) which works much better than MG chemicals "developer".

All in all, that huge order came to $275 CDN with shipping included. Had I bought the same contents at Sayal, I would have paid at least $800 CDN if not more. and that excludes the price of several trips to the store.

Don't get me wrong tho. I do hit sayal sometimes when I am in desperate need of a couple of components.

 

I use RS all the time, next day service, but then I am in the UK. Sorry to hear that it's not working for you.

So far my experience of overseas ordering at this time has been surprisingly positive. PCBs from jlcpcb in China pretty much as normal on time and quality.

 

accept only western union or paypal for payment. (no longer credit card).

You can use any credit card with PayPal.

 

But then the way the kinsten.co seller did it, he gave me his paypal email address. When I want to order with my credit card, I want to be able to pay knowing that later I can put a chargeback if the product never comes through (so that I wouldn't throw tons of money out the window). By sending money to an email address via paypal, I think both my credit card issuer and paypal will treat it as a cash transfer and I'd be dinged with higher interest.

I just hope someone gives me good news on the RS side. The people in UK answer quickly but still I got no word from RS america.

 

Does your PayPal account offer PayPal credit? I have that and it works just like a credit card, governed by same rules. I use it extensively for larger stuff, especially as they often have "4 or 12 mo interest free over £100" offers.

 

Ok it looks like RS is communicating with me. Funny thing is they send me a bunch of PDF documents as separate emails related to my order but I have yet to see a DHL waybill number.

 

Any help?
https://www.amazon.ca/MG-Chemicals-Positive-Presensitized-1-Ounce/dp/B008OAFQ8E

 

The last time I bought an MG Chemicals board was from Sayal Electronics in Burlington (which someone in this thread did recommend). The problem with that purchase was as soon as I cut open the foil packaging and take out the board, it looked like the presensitized layer had NO peel on it. I was so upset to the point where I talked to the people at MG Chemicals directly. Luckily I did get the two remaining boards from them directly with the peel on for free.

I do have some faith with RS because my order at time of writing is currently with the DHL couriers in Canada and the UK company that makes the boards (forex?) I ordered stated all their boards come with a protective layer I peel off which is what I need.