General question about ordering parts for projects

[g1]

My experience is that Mouser covers the shipping charge if something is back ordered. So if you have a bill of materials, just order it all at once (assuming missing parts are back ordered, not obsolete and no longer available), they will send the missing parts to you when they come in at no extra charge.

You have been quite lucky as that is not their policy.
This is what they state:
"If more than one shipment is necessary to complete your order, Mouser will, in most cases, offer a discounted UPS Ground or FedEx Ground rate. At time of checkout, you will be able to choose the backorder shipping method and see any associated costs".
They do have an option to ''hold shipment until all items are in stock" (under 'backorder preferences') to avoid this issue.

[MichaelNuzum]

g1- oh my gosh, you're right!! I just went back and checked my last two orders that had back ordered pieces. One they covered because they said the item was in stock but ended up it wasn't. The other, they did charge me $1.99 for a second package. I stand corrected.

My apologies.

[Chuck H]

Once I had an order where all items were in stock at the time of the order but two were short at the time of shipping. In that instance Mouser did ship the items later at their own expense. In fact they did each item individually a week apart as they came in. This still irked me because I was under a schedule and had (re) selected in stock items for that reason. And IIRC there was a time when I placed an order where I wasn't in a hurry and there was one back ordered item. That shipped later at my expense. So it seems they'll step up if it's their mistake. If it was possible for you to be aware of the situation then you bought it.

I have also used the "wait for all back ordered items" option. It usually works out, but there was one order that still wasn't shipped after five weeks. I called them and they shipped it. Still short the back ordered item. Which read as discontinued on the invoice. So in that particular situation they were holding my order waiting for a product that was never coming.

[mozz]

I like to get all the parts i ordered in 1 shot. I think a few times i got a partial and then a few days later i get a email saying a package is coming. That has always been a fed ex overnight or 1 day delivery with no cost to me. Once I was short 13 resistors out of a hundred, 470 ohm 1/8w, and they sent them fedex overnight.