In February 2008, I had a particularly bad experience with Jaycar while attempting to purchase a few resistors for a valve amplifier kitset I was building.

At the time, I wrote "[I] will most certainly never spend money in a Jaycar store again ... unless I'm in need of some Pythonesque light entertainment :-)".

Fast forward to October 2009, and I found myself in need of a 3.5mm -> 2.5mm adaptor. The only store nearby that stocked one was (wait for it ...) Jaycar. So I dropped by to purchase the adaptor, and was informed of a $10 minimum on credit card purchases. So I bought a Crystal Radio kitset as well.

After constructing the kit (an interesting exercise because the kit didn't contain a means of fixing the coil to the PCB, and the ceramic capacitors had leads trimmed to a few millimetres long) I decided I'd mount it in an enclosure. Hunting through my component box I found an old 60pF -> 160pF tuning capacitor, and thought to myself "I wonder if I could replace the trimcap on the PCB with this?" Unfortunately, the instructions which came with the kit didn't specify the range of the trimcap.

Momentarily forgetting the monkey-screeching I'd received in lieu of customer service the last time I contacted Jaycar, I fired their kitset team an email, asking for the specs of the trimcap. Two days later I'd received no reply, so I also posted a question on their kitset forum. Again, no answer.

By day three I was getting a little peeved that no-one had answered such a simple question. So I called their head office and was put through to their Techstore (with not a hint of an apology for the delay, of course). There, I spoke to a chap by the name of N. Bland who asked me to forward the email I'd sent to the kit team, and promised me that someone would call or email me back that day.

I left a polite but firm complaint on their head-office voicemail, explaining the situation and asking someone to call me back.

A few hours later, I received an email from the Jaycar kit team, saying that "I have asked the supplier of this kit for the requested info and am waiting for his reply." I'm surprised that they don't have the basic specifications of their kit components on hand, but hopeful that they'll be able to provide the information eventually.

Next time, I'll stick to my guns and not shop at a place I already know to have ridiculously poor customer service.

Update 5th November 2009: It's been ten days since my original enquiry, & I've received no data or even an ETA from Jaycar. I sent them another email, asking for an ETA, and expressing my surprise that they'd sell a kitset without having a component list for it. I quickly received a reply, stating:

The supplier has provided the values for the fixed value capacitors but not the variable one.
We have gone back to the supplier and have asked again. Once I have the answer, I will update.

Update 6th November 2009: Today I received the news that the upper limit of the trimcap is 120pF; I'm still waiting on the lower limit.

Update 13th November 2009: It's been 18 days since I first contacted Jaycar, and I've still not received complete information on that damned trimcap. I sent them another followup, and will post an updated here if I receive anything. Interestingly, the person who responded to my enquiry hails from Electus Distribution, who I'm guessing supplied the kit to Jaycar in the first place.

Update 16th November 2009: I received a reply today; apparently the supplier doesn't know either, and he has gone to ask his supplier. I wouldn't have thought it possible to build and sell a kitset without knowing the values of the components in it; turns out I was wrong.

We have asked the supplier several times for the information.
He has now advised that he will request the lower value information from his component supplier.
As I have said before, we will advise when we have the details.

Update 20th November 2009: I finally received the full specification of the trimcap (no hint of an apology for the delay of course, but I didn't expect one):

We have now received an update from the supplier, advising that the range for VC1 is 8.5pF-120pF.