Experiences with Futurlec?

[LukeDI]

Hey I was thinking of ordering some parts from Futurlec and I was wondering what kind of experiences people have had with them. 50 cent pots and cheap ICs are hard to pass up.

[choklitlove]

i like them. i have ordered a few times, and i like the products for the most part. depending on what you buy, shipping can take around 1 1/2 weeks. maybe longer, but shipping can also be under a week. they ship from warehouses worldwide, including some place like Afghanistan (can't remember exactly), so it varies. all in all, the prices are well worth it.

[fonik]

i love'em. good prices especially for alpha pots... and i like seeing the faces of my colleagues when the mail arrives from bankok...

[Coriolis]

Yep, they are cheap, and the pots seem to be just fine. Shipping can sometimes take a looooong time, and sometimes they mess up your order a bit, but are nice people to deal with when that happens.

I bought some cheap push-on knobs from them though, that were a bit to variable with regards to tolerances. I've also heard of people getting set-screw knobs with no set screws from them.

But mostly the stuff is very good indeed, and they have stuff like CA3080's and Bourns trimpots for around 1$...

C

[LukeDI]

Well I ordered some pots/knobs and a few ICs, and finally a real breadboard, so fingeres crossed. I think they're US headquarters is in New York and I'm in Boston so I'm hoping that helps my parts get here quickly.

[fonik]

nope, that doesn't help. the last three orders came from thailand, the invoice from australia! i had never to wait more than two weeks though.

cheers and have fun with your breadboard,
matthias

[yusynth]

I did order a bunch of LM394N a few months ago and all went smoothly; I received them two weeks after ordering.
They seem to be quite reliable.

[LukeDI]

[fonik]

it's funny, but challenging futurlec comes up several times - there where threads at the SDIY list as well. maybe it's because the low prices. nobody can believe it. the only issue i know where mixed up ICs one time...
where else do you get alpha pots for 0.50$? (where else do you get PCBmounted alpha pots anyway?) i know there are alpha pots and alpha pots (china & taiwan), maybe they sell alpha pots not alphas...

cheers,
matthias

[sneakthief]

i've had futurlec orders take anywhere between 2 and 4 weeks. i think they're great.

note: many of their common IC prices are inflated compared to what I can pay for locally. they've gotta make a profit somewhere

[State Machine]

My order shipped in about a week. The shipment was from NYC. I got all the parts I ordered including a hand full of LM394 matched transistors. I am in NY, so if your in Boston, I would not expect your order to be too much longer to arrive than mine. It may depend on what you order .... They seem very good thus far from my ordering experience!

Bill

[Wild Zebra]

I almost always buy from futurlec first. Then whatever I can't get I get from mouser. Last time they screwed up my order. Wrong switches. So they sent me replacements and let me keep the others. SWEET. Usually 2 to 3 weeks shipping.

[ultra]

yes futurlec's shipping takes forever. if you have a problem (e.g. accidentally hit enter before properly filling in your e-mail address and can't check your order status), it takes about three e-mails (the third being some kind of threat) to get a response. and no your order did not come from new york, that's just a drop box and there are actually other businesses listed at that address. they're an australian company and that's where the parts come from.

there's no u.s. warehouse, the customer service is non-existent, and orders take a long time to ship. however, the prices are so good that it's worth dealing with a little b.s.

[para]

i get everything i can from them and then the odd stuff they don't carry i from random other places. lately i've been paying extra to get it faster and its worked with smaller orders, its about 5 days, but that last big order is still not here and its been about 3 weeks i think. so paying extra for faster shipping doesn't always work.


i wish they would get their shit together or show what parts are not in stock at the nearest warehouse (most of my stuff comes from china which should only take about 7 days max) so we have some sort of an idea of the time frames. it can't be that hard, they don't have that big of a stock.


but yes i've been happy with just about everything i get from them. except the cheap all metal 1/4" jack which are complete sh!t. the nuts don't even thread on, the teeth just lightly touch each other like estranged lovers. the ABS's are cool though



steven

[etaoin]

[para]

in the states i've never been charged extra duties or taxes but i do a lot international shipping every month and wonder what its like for other countries. i always setup my shipments as gifts and set the value low so if they do get charged its not much. am i off the mark here?


back on topic

[etaoin]

[CJ Miller]

I just got my first order from Futurelec! Took about four weeks to get here to Connecticut. Got a few parts to finally finish my Midibox cores, LF398 s&h amps... and best of all - a nice little stack of LM394 matched transistor pairs! The 394s are what made it for me, like $2 or so each compared to more than $7 ea from Digikey, which is the only other place I've seen them lately. My SN voice boards are shaping up nicely!

Futurelec's selection is not the most well rounded, but they do offer some great deals. Next order I'm going to get some more ICs and perfboard.

[State Machine]

[fonik]

[ultra]

i put in an order on 2/9 and it doesn't say it's shipped yet. i think this is the last time i'll order from futurlec. you can't care about your customers too much if you wait that long to ship an order and don't reply to e-mails. allelectronics.com should replace most of futurlec for me.

[para]

its not like that at all. its actually an international company that deals with other warehouses to get stuff from various other countries. i think it starts in Australia? so anyway if the main warehouse doesn't have something in stock they just wait for it (i really wish they would just show current stock on the website so you knew). and thats what takes so long, and why smaller, less exotic orders go through faster.

i just did another medium sized order and paid for faster shipping, the middle one? , and they shipped it fed-ex and sent me a tracking # which is a new thing. so it will only take like 4-5 business days so i'm happy. you just really need to decide what to get ahead of time and plan for that 4 week gap or you will be let down every time.


with bigger orders the amount of money you save is worth the time it takes.

50 cent pots are the only way to go!

[krisp14u]

I got my order through on friday from futurlec
ordered on the 30/1/07
i think for the money its saved me its well worth the wait
also the British tax man let this 1 through

Paul