Futurlec?

Thread Starter

Rbeckett

Joined Sep 3, 2010
208
Any body ever dealt with Futurlec in the US? I have an order that I placed last month and it has yet to arrive. I ordered a grocery list of "gee, I might need one of those one day" type of items and the originl reciept was for 38.85, the actual bill on my credit card was 39 and change. Two days later I found an additional charge on my card for Foriegn Currency Transaction, even though there was no mention of location in the internet advertising and the site was in USD without requiring a change or conversion. So, I'm a little irritated, then it takes 4 days to even process my order and send me a notice stating that they had shipped my order and it would arrive in 7-10 days. Well after 10 days elapsed I posted a message to their website asking them to determine where my goods were. They havent had the decency to even reply...So, if you are in the US, or Canada find another supplier, their business practices and mode of operation leave way too much to be desired. I finally found out that they do have an office in the US, they are based in the UK and warehouse in Thailand. None of this was mentioned, and although none of it was a deal breaker a little dommon courtesy of informing the general publlic would have gone a long way toward relieveing this dilema. As it stands, I will not be doing any more business with them in the future and if I had the opportunity to cancell and re-order from a more transparent company I would. Just thought everbody should know, before they get into a time sensitive or price sensative situation and find this out the hard and expensive way. I only hope at this point that I dont get a bunch of out of tolerance old stock from china. An option that seems ultimately possible at this point.
Bob
 
Last edited:

mcgyvr

Joined Oct 15, 2009
5,394
I placed an order with them once for a RTC board and a relay board. I hadn't heard anything for a few weeks so I emailed them, they told me that parts were in production and should ship this week. That week came and went. I emailed again.. They said the parts were pushed back and would be completed this week. This week came and went. Another email to them and they stated that one part was done but the other would be another week. So I cancelled the one and about 2 weeks later got the other part..

As far as I can tell everything comes out of China and sits in a queue there until China is ready. Futurlec is probably just a single guy passing paper to some factory in China.

I only order from Digikey, Newark, Mouser now.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,087

retched

Joined Dec 5, 2009
5,207
Futurlec, when translated to a human language, comes to:

Weeks or months of shipping time, if at all.

You can set your Myan calendar by them..

By the time you are done carving it, the product arrives. ;)

If you notice, they have stock of ICs that have not been produced in 10 years.

That is because the orders placed 10 years ago are still on the shelves, waiting to go out. ;)
 

sceadwian

Joined Jun 1, 2009
499
reteched, that's absolutely false.
I've placed an order with them, only one item on the order didn't ship in a reasonable period of time, they DO give you the run around in e-mail but they will also not bill you for items not sent and you can cancel what isn't shipping anytime.

They're a bulk surplus distributor they WILL NOT ship an item until they can get rid of the entire shipment via the least expensive shipping option available, it's why their stuff is so cheap.

I had much the same experiance as you did, though I was never overcharge for anything, the one item that was perpetually on backorder I got cancled easy enough. Customer service sucks, but again this is a wholesale re distributor, for surplus components. You can't beat their prices IF you can get the product.
 

iONic

Joined Nov 16, 2007
1,662
Any body ever dealt with Futurlec in the US? I have an order that I placed last month and it has yet to arrive. I ordered a grocery list of "gee, I might need one of those one day" type of items and the originl reciept was for 38.85, the actual bill on my credit card was 39 and change. Two days later I found an additional charge on my card for Foriegn Currency Transaction, even though there was no mention of location in the internet advertising and the site was in USD without requiring a change or conversion. So, I'm a little irritated, then it takes 4 days to even process my order and send me a notice stating that they had shipped my order and it would arrive in 7-10 days. Well after 10 days elapsed I posted a message to their website asking them to determine where my goods were. They havent had the decency to even reply...So, if you are in the US, or Canada find another supplier, their business practices and mode of operation leave way too much to be desired. I finally found out that they do have an office in the US, they are based in the UK and warehouse in Thailand. None of this was mentioned, and although none of it was a deal breaker a little dommon courtesy of informing the general publlic would have gone a long way toward relieveing this dilema. As it stands, I will not be doing any more business with them in the future and if I had the opportunity to cancell and re-order from a more transparent company I would. Just thought everbody should know, before they get into a time sensitive or price sensative situation and find this out the hard and expensive way. I only hope at this point that I dont get a bunch of out of tolerance old stock from china. An option that seems ultimately possible at this point.
Bob
I can't confirm, but they sound suspicious! My orders were filled with no problem, though it's been a couple of years since I last ordered.
 

retched

Joined Dec 5, 2009
5,207
reteched, that's absolutely false.
I've placed an order with them, only one item on the order didn't ship in a reasonable period of time, they DO give you the run around in e-mail but they will also not bill you for items not sent and you can cancel what isn't shipping anytime.

They're a bulk surplus distributor they WILL NOT ship an item until they can get rid of the entire shipment via the least expensive shipping option available, it's why their stuff is so cheap.

I had much the same experiance as you did, though I was never overcharge for anything, the one item that was perpetually on backorder I got cancled easy enough. Customer service sucks, but again this is a wholesale re distributor, for surplus components. You can't beat their prices IF you can get the product.
So how can you say that it is absolutely false?

What I think your pessimistic argumentative mind meant to say is that "it is pretty true, but there are reasons."

There is nothing false about stating that their shipments take weeks to months.. On a regular basis.
 

pilko

Joined Dec 8, 2008
213
They have the lowest prices and the longest shipping time of any supplier I deal with.
I have Emailed them in the past and suggested that they are probably losing many customers and that they are getting a bad reputation on electronic forums.
I suggest that you also Email them. (a squeky wheel gets the oil)

pilko
 

Thread Starter

Rbeckett

Joined Sep 3, 2010
208
Thanks for all of the replies. I have squeeked and roared and told them they have a poor reputation but to no avail. I guess it is a lesson learned, fortunately I didnt need any of what I ordered for a project I was currently working on. And rest assured, I wont make that mistake ever again, just wanted to make sure nobody else got suckered in and made the same mistake I did.
Bob
 
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