FAQ

Does Electronic Craftsmen offer Free Samples?

While we’re happy to collaborate with you to create an exceptional prototype, unfortunately, we can't provide free samples of custom parts simply because of the engineering time and cost of materials involved (see Prototyping process, below). We do however offer no-cost samples of our standard Slim Line parts (provided that you cover shipping costs).

 

How do we coordinate Shipping?

Electronic Craftsmen is happy to use your choice of carrier and are pleased to provide shipping support wherever needed. We have experienced logistics personnel who can advise you on Customs, NAFTA / USMCA paperwork and international air transport. We work with most major carriers, and when necessary for large shipments, we have relationships with International Logistics providers (e.g. Kintetsu World Express (KWE), DHL or UPS).  Our standard delivery term is Ex Works (EXW).

 

Shipping within Canada

In order to simplify shipping your parts to you in Canada, we need:

• The Contact Name of the person responsible for your shipping activities
• Your Correct Ship-To Address (if different from your Billing Address)
• Your Preferred Courier and Freight Account Number
• For large shipments (on skids), do you have a shipping dock?

Shipping to the U.S. (including duties and tariffs)

In order to simplify shipping your parts to you in the U.S., we need:

• Your Federal Tax ID number (for customs purposes)

• Your Customs Broker

If you need us to provide shipping of your parts to your location in the U.S., we can prepay and add freight to your invoice.  In such cases, we will obtain a quotation from our carrier and broker for your approval and include the additional costs for duty, tariffs and brokerage as follows:

• A flat charge of CDN$56 for paper processing fees (Brokerage)
• 0.3464% of the total value of the goods shipped or CDN$26, whichever is higher (Brokerage)
• Most of our custom parts are manufactured in Canada and are duty free.  However, for parts manufactured in China or for parts that are Non-NAFTA / USMCA (typically prototypes),  6.6% of the total value of the goods shipped (U.S. Duty).
• U.S. Tariffs for parts manufactured in China and shipped to the U.S:   As of January 2019, the rate of 25% of the total value of the goods applies.

 

When shipping outside Canada and the U.S., we will work with you at the onset to find suitable shipping arrangements to ensure that your parts get to your destination in a timely and cost-effective manner.

For some additional tips on the topic of Shipping, check out our fun blog: The Joy of Shipping – Tips from our 60 years of experience

 

What Payment Options does Electronic Craftsmen offer?

We offer multiple easy ways for you to pay for parts, depending on your circumstances.

• VISA and MasterCard (sorry, no American Express) – easy and fast. Please fill out this form or call us at 800-565-9118.
• Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) – for Canadian customers.
• Automated Clearing House Network (ACH) - for our US customers.
• Wire Transfer – Swift Code for US customers, IBAN for Europe.
• Net 30-Day Terms (from date of invoice) based on Credit Approval – we will need your trade references for this option.

Contact your friendly Sales or Customer Service Rep to help you decide which option works best for you.

 

How does Electronic Craftsmen give you a Quote for a new part?

We encourage the use of our custom, Online Quote Form that will help you identify and communicate your requirements quickly and precisely. Depending on your needs, we'll respond with either a "Ballpark" estimate (a day or two) or a Firm Quotation (typically within a week)...

 

A qualified "Ballpark" estimate (often requested for bid purposes) is based on a similar design from our vast database of custom products.  We can often turn pricing around within a day or so although this generally does not include lead-time for delivery or any "minimum-buys" for material. 

 

For a Firm Quote, one of our engineers must perform calculations (often including multiple iterations) to satisfy your physical and electrical requirements. Following this, the designer will draft-up a physical layout, detailed assembly & labour instructions, and a Bill of Material (including drawings for custom materials) for costing purposes. From here, Operations will verify manufacturability and Purchasing will material costing and lead-time from our network of trusted suppliers. Once these steps are completed, your friendly sales representative will issue a formal quotation including part pricing, NRE fees & tooling or other charges (as applicable) and lead-time to the best of our knowledge.

 

What is an "NRE"?

A Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) charge is a one-time fee for additional costs incurred for prototyping a new product. This fee is to capture costs for development time spent as follows:

Design. Preparation of manufacturing documents including shop-floor drawings, BOM’s, labour routings and sub-assembly drawings for custom materials.
Set-up.  Manufacturing Engineering assists the Shop Floor to set-up equipment and tooling for the manufacture of a new part (and resolve any difficulties encountered).
Build.  Additional labour (and material) needed by Production to understand how to build the new product
Evaluation:  Prototype conformance verification and testing by Design Engineering and Quality Assurance.

 

What is Electronic Craftsmen's Prototyping process?

Once a quote is accepted, we'll flow the project through all key departments, prior to production, to ensure success. We'll begin by reviewing the design, preparing formal manufacturing instructions, ordering materials and scheduling production. Once materials are received, our skilled manufacturing team will build the part with guidance from both design and manufacturing engineering. Following completion of the build, Quality Assurance does thorough first-article review and the Designer prepares an evaluation report that verifies that the prototype satisfies both your requirements and our internal manufacturing instructions.

 

How does Electronic Craftsmen ensure Quality?

Our highly trained quality control staff will inspect and test all parts at various stages throughout and following production. Prototypes are subjected to additional scrutiny by both the designer and a skilled quality assurance specialist against your specifications. Once satisfied that the prototype meets your requirements and our stringent internal standards, we'll ship the part according to your specified methods. No prototype or custom part leaves our facility without a detailed Certificate of Compliance.

 

"Blanket" Orders for Parts.

We’re happy to be able to support you with better pricing for larger orders to be released over time.  In order to make this happen, however, we need a few considerations in return…

 

• Term.  We are happy to accept blanket orders scheduled out to a maximum period of 8 months.  This is because typically, we buy custom raw materials up-front (to cost-reduce) and hold them for the duration of the order;  as you can understand, holding too much inventory has an impact on our cash-flow.  
• Agreements to Hold "Safety Stock" Quantities.   We are happy to hold your agreed-upon quantities of safety-stock of finished parts for a maximum period of up to 10 weeks.  After this time, however, we must ship and invoice the parts to you.  Please note that after a release from you, we need a reasonable period of about 4 weeks to replenish new finished parts.
• Holding Inventory of Finished Parts.  Other than safety-stock agreements noted above, there are occasions where you might want us to hold onto inventory of finished parts beyond the scheduled ship-date.  In such cases, we can warehouse your parts at a holding fee of 1.5% per month, calculated on a daily basis from original ship-date until the parts ship, for a maximum period of up to 3 months after which time, we must ship and invoice the parts to you.
• Holding Raw Material.  In order to get price-breaks on raw material, we do our best to schedule-out deliveries from our vendors whenever possible. However, we can only hold inventory of material for your parts for a maximum period of 4 months.  After this period, we'll be happy to hold your material in our warehouse but we must invoice you for it.

 

Slim Line LED Transformers.  We do have a few reasonable conditions for these parts...

Stock.  We do our best to maintain stock of these popular parts but this is not always possible.  It may be 4 weeks or more before we have new stock if you release without prior notice.

Returns for Credit (Slim Line Parts only): Unused parts requested to be returned for credit are subject to a 25% restocking fee (i.e. you will receive 75% credit for returned parts). You are responsible for shipping costs.  In order to prevent shipping damage, we must insist that all returned parts must be packed for delivery in the same way that they were shipped from Electronic Craftsmen or in a similar manner that will protect the parts from damage during shipping.  Parts returned with physical damage due to inadequate packing or shipping methods may not receive any credit.  Note that all Custom Parts are Non-Cancellable AND Non-Returnable ( because they cannot be re-sold to anyone else).

 

We stand behind our products: Read the Slim Line 5-Year Warranty.