Reviews

This profile includes reviews for Newark, an Avnet Company's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

close

Find a Location

Newark, an Avnet Company has 2 locations, listed below.

*This company may be headquartered in or have additional locations in another country. Please click on the country abbreviation in the search box below to change to a different country location.

BBB accredited

Near

Country

USUnited States

Please enter a valid location.

Filter

• 

  Newark, an Avnet Company

  300 S Riverside Plaza # 2200 Chicago, IL 60606

• 

  Newark, an Avnet Company

  PO Box 94151 Palatine, IL 60094-4151

Review Details

• Review fromBrian B

  Date: 08/17/2022

  1 star

  Brian B

  Date: 08/17/2022

  I have placed many orders with this company, all of them seemingly have a different problem. If I place an order that doesn't hit their "Free Shipping" minimum, but use their $9.99 flat rate shipping, they always seem to be fulfilled and sometimes even delivered within the same week. Not terrible. However, for many of my orders, I do go over this threshold and this is where the problems begin.1) I will receive an email at some random point in the future saying that they can not process a line item because it "has sale restrictions and cannot be sold to you at this time." I've had this happen a week or so later when I reordered a part that I already ordered in the past... Crazy!2) I will be told that certain items I ordered have minimums I did not meet, yet their site displays no minimum ordering information for those parts. They are always "red star", special price items too. Usually, its their Multicomp pro line of products.3) They will advertise as having stock of items that they do not actually have in stock at all.4) They will claim ship dates all over the place, changing constantly.5) Every time they revise a quote, they actually generate a new quote which places another hold on your credit card.6) Their site does not accurate reflect ordering information specific to any given user's ********** Their customer service does not fully read and understand email collaboration; you ask them to cancel an older quote after a new quote was generated and paid for, they may just as well cancel the new order and leave the older, problematic quote. It's happened and it makes zero sense at all!8) They funnel the customer service for ********************** and Newark to the same call centers. While technically, it's not a terrible plan, they have a terrible time communicating with one another and staying on task.There are more frequently occurring problems I have experienced with this company, but I don't have enough characters to put them in this text box.

  Brian B

  Date: 08/17/2022

  I would like to add some additional information and I sincerely hope that Newark does read this review, as well as this comment, despite its length. I haven't written this review as a form of "retaliation for poor customer service, as many people have. It's quite common, usually unwanted by the recipient, and not always very constructive. I don't believe the problems that I have mentioned in this review are a result of lacking customer service skills directly. Let me be clear, there are problems with this companies customer service operations. That is only a symptom of a much larger problem. The real issues extend above and beyond that one department.At the end of the day, it is up to management and any other leadership to construct the business and all operations therein in such a way that any given customer can have a simple and potentially convenient purchasing experience. It is fundamentally imperative for any public facing business that all of its respective customers may complete their transactions with a sense of approval of the process in order for the business to retain that customer. In other words, you do not, under any circumstances, want a customer to walk away from a transaction feeling alienated, or even discouraged from shopping there again. After all, what business would survive if it can not retain its customers?The one thing I have seen from these reviews, and even considered myself, is whether or not to shop at Newark/element14 again. It is obvious after having read many of the reviews on both the BBB site and especially TrustPilot, that these problems have existed for some time. Theyve existed since before COVID-19. That pandemic gave many business a very easy out for their own problems, among all of the other issues that surfaces during that roughly two year period (starting near the end of CY19). That said, were not long past that, but the world is moving on, and it is time for businesses to do the same. Those that havent found a way to change and furthermore improve, have suffered the consequencesinto insolvency. Why do we feel this way? Why do we struggle to imagine a continued business relationship with Newark? Well, what has Newark done to resolve any of these issues? I can certainly call their toll-free number and get someone on the phone relatively quickly. However, the quality of that call is equally important. That individuals sole role is to assist the customer. They are the face of the business during that conversation. However, in my experience, after having placed many calls with Newarks customer service team, I left walking away thinking the representative couldnt give a hoot about my issue, or even my business. What a shame! It seemed like they were more concerned with meeting metrics and getting my off the line as soon as possible than assisting me. This is kind of an catch-22 considering Ive been told that the best way to place many orders with them is to do it over the phone since their Newark website does not always reflect actual quantities of products, minimums, etc Otherwise, the language and communication skills were otherwise not bad at all. I understand that Im talking to someone on the other side of the globe and theres nothing wrong with that. I have many of my own colleagues in ***** and *****. It can be an excellent source for labor and to conduct business in general. The problem here isnt necessarily the employees.It is painfully obvious after having completed any call with this company that they hold their customer service teams to a set of metrics. However, it is also clear that these metrics arent designed to induce high call quality, rather, they are designed to inspire quick call times and fast resolutions. I can understand the desire to do this. The more calls that any given rep can complete, the fewer reps that are required, and hold times may be reduced, among others. However, there must be a balance between efficiency and call quality. Management needs to implement policy and training that would allow reps the opportunity to deliver great customer service. Let me be clear, it is not that the customer service reps at ********************** are unwilling to deliver great customer service, though there may be some issues with some employees, I think the larger issue is that they are not afforded that opportunity by leadership. Its a very common occurrence, unfortunately. Furthermore, there is also the ordering experience in question. In 2022, it has become quite standard to expect to be able to place an order for almost anything, especially if it is a standard, stocked product, via a website. Consumers and business alike have changed in that they want their products as fast as possible, within normal reasoning. COVID-19 certainly taught all in the industry that, given the supply-chain crisis the world is still incurring today. While any order, especially one that is of considerable size in regard to line item count, and even individual item quantities, there is not really an acceptable excuse to have a poor working website. Newark is a technology company, as is its owner, Avnet. It is certainly unacceptable that any customer couldnt reasonably trust the information available as far as item availability and purchasing requirements on Newarks own website. If a user is signed into their account and viewing a product that shows in stock, then they should be able to purchase that product. If there are limitations or special manufacturer requirements to purchase any given product, it should either be locked, or hidden from view. If it is locked so that the customer may not purchase it, explain that and allow them to contact sales to achieve a resolution if they qualify. At least this process makes the issue understandable and gives the customer a way to work though it. However, allowing the customer to place the order, placing a hold on their credit card, and then advising them that they could not complete the order at all due to a problem with a line item is going to be a frustrating experience for any customer. Especially when you tell that customer that they will need to generate an entirely new quote whether online or over the phone that will also place an additional hold on their credit card. Ive had this happen myself and that was very frustrating. It felt like an entirely waste of time. Website efficiency can actually help to generate revenue by reducing the companies dependency on other departments to resolve problems down the line. In addition, dont advertise a product as having zero minimums and a special red star price, only to tell that customer after the fact that you could complete the order processing because the minimums werent met. This information must be easily readable on the website. What is so challenging to understand about this though is that there ARE many items that do clearly show that there are minimums. Sometimes the order quantity must start at ************************************************ certain multiples, and others it may be sold by the reel, etc This is commonplace and understandable. It should extend to all line items that have any such requirement. To put this plainly, please ensure your online store accurately reflects the ordering requirements of all posted products. The last improvement that I would suggest is regarding the credit card holds. This practice is also commonplace, that is placing a credit card hold on the customers payment method to ensure that the card is valid, and that funds are available. However, this should only be done once the oder (quote) has been determined that it meets any applicable manufacturer requirements and regulations. This way, if there is a problem and a new quote must be generated with alternates and other corrections, the customer isnt seeing multiple, unnecessary holds on their account. While this may not be a problem for small dollar orders, credit card companies may freeze a card due to potential fraud if this occurs too much with larger order values. This would of course slow down the order significantly. Not to mention, no one wants holds worth $21,000 for an order that costs $7,000 because of the way that it was reprocessed. Again, to be clear, Newark would still collect the payment information for the order at the time the online order is submitted. However, there are two relatively simple ways Newark could change this process to achieve the same processing requirements while improving customer service.1. After the order and payment information is collected and submitted, run an initial authorization for account validity, thereby requiring no charge at all. After the order has been determined that it can be fullfilled, but before available inventory has been allocated to the order, run the order payment method to complete payment, or even generate the hold at this time. Then immediately tie available inventory to the order and generate a confirmation code for the order which is sent to the customer.With this process, the customer has the advantage of not actually being charged for the order until Newark actually processes the order. Newark has very clearly indicated to me over the phone on multiple occasions that an order placed on the web is not immediately process, and inventory is not immediately tied to the order until each line item is verified (unlike competitors DigiKey and Mouser). If Newark isnt willing to tie inventory to the order at the time the online order (quote) is submitted, then a full Credit Card hold is unnecessary a this time. A hold should only be created after processing. Period.2. Implement system changes that can automate more efficiently online ordering processing. It is clear that there is a strong disconnect between the inventory displayed on Newarks website and the inventory that is in-stock in their warehouse. If Newark could properly tie these two systems together, in cooperation with their parent company Avnet, and sister company element14, they could automatically run the payment verification, initial order processing and confirmation, inventory to order assignment, and warehouse packing submission within a **** minute period. This is the most modern method and is becoming more widely adopted and common place. With this fulfillment strategy, the customer knows that once their card is charged, the order is processed, and is either backordered, or waiting on the warehouse to pack and ship the products. Its very efficient.While any of these steps would certainly require a significant investment in time to implement successfully, they are steps that Newark could take toward achieving a far-superior customer experience than what they deliver today. I do believe that Newark could be a great company once again but it will take some work to get there. The real question is, does management care enough to do anything about it?

  Newark, an Avnet Company

  Date: 08/19/2022

  Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback to us. I've shared your feedback with our Customer Experience team for review. It will take some time to review everything you have highlighted and will be one of the first tasks for our recently appointed Customer Experience Manager for North America. She has been with Newark for a number of years but will be transitioning into this role next month.

• Review fromAustin M

  Date: 07/28/2022

  1 star
  There a variety of reasons not to use this company. Most infuriating of all is the utter lack of communication. I regret all the wasted hours Ive spent dealing with them. Find anywhere else to do business.