Wilba Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 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.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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRE Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 wow.Well.. they do have GREAT development boards. Although software support is supremely lacking. For instance, a couple years ago, they put out a 68hc11 dev board. Really fantastic piece of hardware. They support it with a dos only loader. WTF?! when I say DOS only, I mean, the software has no means of getting control of the serial port from a command window. Seriously.. what is that crap?! Im not going to build a dos or win 98 machine just for this one board. After calling them a few times, they have absolutely NO recomendations for an alternate loader. End result is I havn't done much with this board yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilba Posted June 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 You can work around the DOS limitiation in Windows by removing the protection on the COM ports... I had to do this to get IC-Prog working under XP. What I used was called TOTALIO... google found this: http://www.satellite-calculations.com/Satellite/dvb2000/how_to_install_totalio.htmFuturlec handled my PCB order quite well, and even threw in extras which I didn't pay for (i.e. the extras left over when they did multiple copies on one bigger board). I think I am more annoyed that I HAVE to stop using them, as I really did like the range and price and now need to shop around more. Bugger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluke Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 This is the problem with ordering from supplies outside of your country, they can just ignore you and there's nothing you do about it. Being in New Zealand, i have less options for suppliers than you do. Suppliers in USA or Europe seem to have good prices, but hugely expensive shipping costs. Futurlec do have reasonable shipping costs, so i was planning on ordering from them. Do you know of anywhere that has good prices and cheap shipping? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hydre Posted July 21, 2008 Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 heyI bought from futurlec about one month and a half a bunch of knobs pots, and switches for my midibox for about 100$. The only problem is that they've taken the money and I still haven't received anything. I live in france but I don't think their shipping takes that long. Has this happened to anybody else before? Has anybody from france already ordered from futurlec? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ultra Posted July 21, 2008 Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 i've had them take at least a month for parts orders.i simply don't buy from them any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilba Posted July 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 Try emailing them, and as soon as they stop replying, start a credit card transaction "charge back"... you can do that through your bank, you basically say you paid for something that never arrived and they don't reply to emails. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amp1ron Posted July 22, 2008 Report Share Posted July 22, 2008 I've had luck emailing amp@futurlec.com and asking for help. They've held up orders of mine for more than a month while they waited for one part to come in. The prices are great, I always get my stuff eventually, but they're the slowest shippping company I've ever dealt with other than MOTM/synthtech.com.When I order from them I buy lots and expect it to be about a month before I get my stuff. I've received orders from them in only a couple of weeks, but I think that's the exception, not the rule.If you ask amp@futurlec.com what the delay is I bet they'll tell you what's going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asafnetzer Posted July 22, 2008 Report Share Posted July 22, 2008 I had some troubles with futurlec, not as much as you Jason but I know the frustration of waiting for an email which would never arrive.I still order from them most of my parts as living in Israel is not so good for the sdiy guys, no parts stores except one and all the other online stores I've dealt with before have prices that I couldn't afford and don't get me talking about the shipping cost from mouser / digikey :oI normally don't compromise on service given but have to, just to keep the building going.I've learn the hard way what parts to keep on ordering from futurlec and what parts to look elsewhere.Asaf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBunsen Posted July 22, 2008 Report Share Posted July 22, 2008 A friend has just had a difficult time with them too - parts left out of the box, had to ring up and hassle them for them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flo Posted July 22, 2008 Report Share Posted July 22, 2008 On the positive side, albeit a small one: I have ordered only once from them until now, for around 100 euro's on various small parts which I received after 3.5 weeks in perfect order. I did email them several times just for communication's sake: - Before ordering. - After ordering. - After payment was done. - After recieving an email that the order was shipped to me. - After receiving the order. Perhaps that kept things going... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilmenator Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 I bought from them twice - once shipping to Germany, once to Norway. No additional emails from my side, not a single problem with them. The last order was around May this year (shopping for verrry cheap LED bars for my stribe).Best regards, ilmenator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DenDer Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 Never had any problems with them. They are the cheapest and have a wide range of pics etc. So i'm suprised to read all this negative info about them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryd_one Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 I think the point here is; if things go smoothly as they should, then everything is fine...but if they screw up, futurlec are known for handling it poorly.It should be noted that this is a two-year-old thread that was resurrected. Things change... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilmenator Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 It should be noted that this is a two-year-old thread that was resurrected. Things change...Now that's a good remark, stryd - I had not noticed this before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sneakthief Posted July 25, 2008 Report Share Posted July 25, 2008 other than also experiencing the 3.5mm-6.5mm "mono" problem (for which they quickly refunded my money), i've ordered from them 8 times with no problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilba Posted July 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2008 I'm the one that started this thread for a reason - to warn other people that if things go wrong, they can just ignore your emails completely and you're left with no other option than to reverse the charge on your credit card. It's not that hard to ship the right parts to customers, and if they make a mistake, surely they should take that little extra care to get the order right.Yeah, and I'm a vindictive, spiteful, vengeful bastard. They screwed me over, and now I'll spread the bad word about them. But hey, I'm not the only one.http://www.resellerratings.com/store/FuturlecBTW I didn't even mention before, the quality of their stuff is crap too. The stereo sockets I did use are all tarnished now. Genuine Neutrik sockets with quality plating would have been worth the extra few dollars. Do you want that sort of problem with your MIDIbox? Solder joints going all dry, causing intermittent faults, all because you wanted to save a few bucks on shipping? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBunsen Posted July 25, 2008 Report Share Posted July 25, 2008 It should be noted that this is a two-year-old thread that was resurrected. Things change...Though my friend's order was stuffed up two weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diablojoy Posted August 1, 2008 Report Share Posted August 1, 2008 i have bought from futurlec exactly once before they were very fast and very cheap i will use them again until i find somewhere better. there is always somewhere better. just finding them is the hard part Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asafnetzer Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 Looks like Karma punched me on the head, Just got a package from futurlec, they gave me a wrong resistor value (second time, same value) and a part is missing, small problems I know, lets see if they'll reply to my mail this time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kartoshka Posted August 4, 2008 Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 same story here, ordered parts were left out of the box. From my pov, not worth messing, and i gave up on it. At the end ordered from another place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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