DONT BUY FUTURLEC

[hgds]

Hey guys, another horror story about futurlec, YES, it all lstarted on a dark summers evening....just kidding . I ordered some stuff, so they say, were not in stock on this and this, i go ok i will wait, i wait 2 days, they say, we will get them in stock tmrw for sure,and they said that for two weeks, then i complained, when i complained no body replied, but when i asked to add stuff to the order everyone started asking for money! They dont care about the customer at all and you should never under any circumstances order from them, do yourself a favor and go to digikey, better quality, helpful staff and good service!

[westfw]

I didn't have any problems with my order there; you just have to be prepared to wait a LONG time compared to the service we're used to from modern US mail order companies (4-6 weeks rather than less than a week.) I'm not sure I'd order "brand name" parts (like an AVR) from them, but some of their offerings are MUCH cheaper than anywhere else (like they seem to make stripboard PCBs as a side effect of their PCB business, so their stripboards are really cheap...) Of course, I also didn't interact with their customer service, about which I've heard numerous awful things...

[trialex]

Yep I've ordered from them heaps of times, and although not the fastest of all time I think they are good.

You say you wanted to add stuff to you order and then you were suprised they wanted more money?

[woody1189]

took two weeks to get to Pennsylvania, other than that i'd say they're awesome

[hgds]

Yep I've ordered from them heaps of times, and although not the fastest of all time I think they are good.

You say you wanted to add stuff to you order and then you were suprised they wanted more money?

Nope...i was surprised they replied when i asked to add stuff but didnt reply to complaints....what i mean tho is the same as all of you, if you want something in under a month, dont waste yur time here.

[tyggerjai]

Unsurprisingly, they're a lot faster if you live in China

A couple of my recent orders have suffered from the same problem - parts will be out of stock, but they won't tell me about it - I have to wait a week, realise they haven't shipped, email them, and tell them to ship everything except that one part. But then they usually ship within a day.

jai.
.

[Larry]

Greetings all,

I've only ordered from FUTURLEC once or twice, but (apart from the slower-than-desired) shipping, they're OK, esp. on price.

I had one bad part (actually an unreadable CD accompanying a processor board.)
I emailed them (saying that emailing me the contents or just a repl. CD would be fine.
They sent me a whole new kit, with a good CD, so I got a second STM32 processor to play with, gratis.
IMHO, that was pretty good customer service.

My $0.02

Larry

[jdl2001]

I received my first order from Futurlec today.

Order Date: 11 April
Ship Date: 17 April (reported in email and postdate)
Received: 6 May

Order is complete and appears in good shape. I tend to want something when I order it so not sure I would buy from them again but I don't have any complaints.

[kawaquest]

These are not fair assessments of Futurlec. I have had similar or worse tales of agony at the hands of other famous catalog sellers.
I have bought from Futurlec umpteens of times and have found them to be helpful and good to deal with. They have made mistakes but the amends they made were always very satisfying. Once they sent me (a very costly board) by error against my order for a simple AT8951ed2 board. On being informed of the mistake they immidietely sent me a replacement. Turns out it was wrong again. Repeated three times in rapid succession until I had the correct board. And they sent me the CD for the wrong board FOC. I paid no postage and they never asked me to return the wrong boards. Otherwise very fair and their prices are a steal. If you are into AVR, 8951 derivatives or ARM processors, which I am, they have some real mean boards for vey good prices. I use the stuff for making industrial device (my business/bread and butter and use them for a source. great experience.

[skylen]

I have purchased from Futurlec also in the past, and you should expect to wait at least 2-3 weeks to get your items. I didn't know this at first--it should be advertised prominently during checkout that the items are shipped on a slow rowboat from Hong Kong. Nonetheless, they have good prices for some items, so it's a trade-off you need to make.

[drtitus]

I placed an order with Futurlec on the 7th of July, with all my items "In Stock".

After 8 days, there was no update of my order status, so I sent an email and found out my items were not in stock after all. I was told they were to arrive in a week.

After 14 more days, there was still no update. I was told the items are on back order. I had to make another request for an expected delivery time. I was told two more weeks.

After a further 20 days, there was still no update. Yet, for all this time, the items are marked "In Stock".

I requested either a refund or my order, and have had no reply after 9 more days. I have seen neither a refund nor a delivery. Don't bother dealing with these clowns - their website stock indicators are inaccurate and their customer service is shocking. You might get charged a little less than a reputable supplier, but you'll pay for it many times over in missed deadlines and wasted time. It's taken 8 weeks to receive nothing.

DO NOT BUY FROM FUTURLEC.

[buzzdavidson]

Sometime around July of this year I noticed a HUGE increase in the amount of time it takes for merchandise to arrive from ANY vendor in China. Does anyone have insight into this timing? I previously saw consistent delivery times under 12 days to Washington State (US), things seem to be taking 2 to 4 weeks now. All I seem to get out of the vendors is that "post is really slow right now".

Most of the time my orders from these places are not exactly time-critical; they are either new devices that I want to play with or re-stocking consumables. Still, it would be interesting to find out why it is suddenly taking so long.

Regarding futurlec: I've found their devices to be rather clever and quite functional, and their product support to be quite reasonable. They shipped out a RMA product to me without question when a device arrived damaged. YMMV. Note, however, that the long shipping times seems to be something systemic, not specific to a single vendor - singling out futurlec in this case is rather unfair.

[jessica89]

In the past I have suggested Futurlec was a good place to get PICs, other chips and parts you can't find in your local electronics store. Yes, they have great prices, and cheap shipping anywhere, but my last order has been a complete disaster and they now ignore my emails completely.banned online

I ordered six "High Quality P.C.B. Mounting 6.5mm Jack" and four "6.5mm Stereo Plug to 3.5mm Stereo Socket" (among other things). The first package arrived weeks late, and was missing the jacks, although I was charged for them. After emailing, I was told they would send replacements. Weeks later, the replacements came, but only two, not six, and they weren't the "high quality" ones with chrome mounting nut, just the cheap plastic variety. I emailed again, I got a new package which contained four more sockets, still the cheap plastic variety, and one even slightly different, with a gold ring at the end.

After I emailed to complain again, I was completely ignored.

I then discover the stereo adapters, while having a 6.5mm stereo plug, actually have a 3.5mm MONO socket! This was causing me so much grief as I was trying to work out why the line in on my Audigy sound card was only recording mono! Again, my complaints have been ignored completely.

I really wish I could keep using Futurlec, as they really do have cheap parts that I can't get cheaper elsewhere, and every other order I made with them was great, but on principle I won't deal with them ever again.

[liudr]

LOL, to find real cheap parts, check out dipmicro.com
They are in Canada. We all know where the parts originally came from but Canada is at least closer to US buyers.

[Jobe]

Hi,
I have been buying from Futurlec for a long,long time maybe 20 years......In that time I have lived all over the USA, Their shipping is slow,but they offer faster options if YOU will shell out a few more bucks ,The least expensive way is the slowest ,I have got parts between 2 weeks and 6 weeks depends on availability,yep they have held my shipping for a week sometimes to wait on parts ,Did you know they don't get parts any faster then we do? Good side here I have only had a few parts DOA out of hundreds,If you figure how much more parts I have than if order from US, Did you look where the parts are made? Yep ,if you order here in the US it's made in eastern countries and shipped to you from there,if it's not stocked here in the US check out the global inventories.......I can understand your frustrations,but They do what they can,no one is perfect,I returned parts to one of the biggies here and emailed and finally got a call in ,and 3 months later I got a refund.......They recently screwed up one order,"AMP"@ futurlec sent parts and shipped it FREE the next day,I have needed parts and order changes before He came through for me! I will continue to order there,IF you need parts quicker get them from a seller in the USA on Fleabay,or a local supplier but you will pay!!!!! BE HAPPY!

Jobe