Any bad Maplin stories?

This chain of stores was once a half decent "over the counter" supplier of electronic parts. It has now all but done away with this service and the staff are mostly know nothings, probably on minimum wages. They do a nice line in disco gear, if you like that sort of thing! So - what experiences to report?

Sounds like Radio Shack (aka "Rat Shack") here in the States... well, except that Rat Shack was never really decent to begin with. But it has become even less decent over the years!

God, I miss our local Allied, Lafayette and Greylock (local chain) stores. It's a bummer having to do mailorder every time you need parts.

Sorry... didn't mean to hijack your thread. Back to the Maplin discussion!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!

:evil:

nope,

they've always been an impeccable retailer as far as I'm concerned.

:wink:

Oh...you mean Craplin...I'm busy at the 'mo...I'll fill you in later!

:green:

Mark

Any bad Maplin stories? Shouldn't that be "Any good Maplin stories?".

They once sold me a 5v regulator when I asked for a 30A triac... That would've been entertaining if I'd wired it up...

As Mark says, there are too many Craplin stories, you'll have to be more specific, stories from which field of hardware? :shock:

BTW, when I complained to the manager that they sold me a 5v vreg he shouted at me in front of a full store... Way to go! Great PR


not...


Justin

I remember when Craplin wasn't that bad, they catered very well for audio hobbyists. Then the corporate winds of change etc etc, I don't know what their target market is now...people building home computers at the weekend or something.
That said, I have a very tatty copy of their 1999 catalogue under my workbench for quick reference of opamp, transistor and regulator data.

Realistic model railway electronic smoke and steam engine noises kit anyone?

they used to have a radioshack.com store here.. with everything they stocked online.. it was huge. they used to let me go behind the counter and grab what i needed because they would spend an hour looking for stuff they had no idea about. then they closed it.