Futurlec - Bad Customer Service

[chatenever]

I ordered banana plugs, and when they arrived, it was apparent that they are factory mistakes ... there is NO WAY to separate the conductor from the insulator for attachment of a wire. Multiple emails to Futurlec have gone unanswered. I'd call them but they don't have a phone number. I guess that should have been my first clue not to buy from them. You can bet that I won't be buying from them again!

[spzzzzkt]

I've had bad experiences with the Australian wing of Futurlec in the past. The "local" offices are simply order processing points for a Thai warehouse. I had ordered stepper motors on the basis of the specs listed on their site and recieved a completely different make and model. It took some very nasty emails threatening to report them Office of Fair Trading for false advertising to get a response out of them. I note that they still advertise the "unobtainable" stepper motor on their site. Definitely a company of last resort.

[The Peasant]

I ordered a bunch of CA3280 from them, they sent me CA3080 instead. It took a couple of months and many emails to sort that out, they even expected me to send back the wrong parts on my dime. Needless to say, I never sent them back. I have also heard many horror stories from others buying from them.

Definitely a company of last resort

Agreed.

Take care,
Doug

[renfrow]

I'm sorry you all had rotten experiences with them, as I just received my first order from them, everything was present and accounted for, and was as described. I was very pleased with my order.

Tom.

[spzzzzkt]

I've placed 3 orders with them: the first went fine, the other two had incorrect components - the steppers mentioned above and in another 1 incorrect mosfet in a bag of 20 (the odd one out looked completely different in size etc). So it seems they don't always mess up, but it's odds on that they will.

[melt01]

I have also placed 3 orders with them and they have gotten worse with every one. They have made mistakes on all three orders and have left stuff out, but on the first couple of orders it wasn't that bad and what they left out was only worth a couple cents so not worth the time. I have recommended them to people in the past but only because of their really low prices. I tell people if you have any trouble with your order you are screwwwwwwed and if I find someone with a better price I will drop them like a dirty &!ut. They usually will just subsitute something close to what you ordered if the item you ordered is out of stock, without asking you of course. I think they have managed to train a bunch of chimpanzees as their employees and maybe the poor stressed out overworked chimps don't know the difference between S-M-D, S-O-I-C, D-I-P, and 1-2-3. If you have trouble getting them to answer an email, I've found that if they don't answer, I can send them 10 copies of the same email and that gets their attention. If anybody knows of a cheaper place to get electronics parts, please post it, so we can move on with our lives.

[Stuey]

Originally posted by spzzzzkt
I've had bad experiences with the Australian wing of Futurlec in the past. The "local" offices are simply order processing points for a Thai warehouse. I had ordered stepper motors on the basis of the specs listed on their site and recieved a completely different make and model. It took some very nasty emails threatening to report them Office of Fair Trading for false advertising to get a response out of them. I note that they still advertise the "unobtainable" stepper motor on their site. Definitely a company of last resort.

Hi spzzzzkt, FYI. I've recently had good dealings with Wagner Electronics in NSW. Although their website is a bit old fashioned and they don't do online orders, they are very well stocked with components (particularly things like transistors) and you can easily speak to a real person! I needed a particular gain grade of fairly rare transistor this week, and the guy actually went out to the stores and grabbed one, and read off the part no. suffix to confirm my requirements. Prompt supply, too.

Individual catalogue pages can be downloaded.

They only have a fax or phone order system, but still...

http://www.wagner.net.au/Welcome.htm

Cheers

Stuey

[rkc7]

If you order resistors, check the values with a meter, pay no attention to the value on the bag!

Ok, now that I have that out of the way, I'm mixed on my opinion. On the one hand, I like them because they're cheap, on the other, they've had a bad reputation for sending me the wrong stuff, plus it usually takes a couple weeks to get the stuff on the East Coast of the US.

I ordered some NE5532 opamps, they sent me NE5534 (more expensive, but not what I wanted), emailed them about it and they sent the right ones no return of the others.

I also have ordered numerous resistor values and have received the wrong values multiple times. Each time the BAG was marked for the value I needed, but the resistors were a factor off (ie, I ordered 22k, but got 2.2k).

Anytime I had a problem, I emailed them and got a response. I could tell their english wasn't great, but I got the point across and they attempted to fix it.

Although, the last time I ordered they messed up a number of things and I was in a hurry to finish my project so I told them I would appreciate if they could send the correct stuff via a faster method. So, without any response, they went ahead and sent it Next Day FedEx but also included a bill for the $26 shipping! I never asked them to ship next day nor approved having to pay anything more for a mistake they made, so I didn't bother sending any payment.

[Apex Jr]

I'm reading these posts and wondering who is in charge
of this companys PR... Many emails and no answer, wrong
parts and problems.
I can understand problems and as being a one man operation
I too have made some mistakes but on the whole, an
example I put the wrong label on the USPS box and the
packing slip was correct, they both called and said they
would send the right stuff to the right person, I also have
forgot to put in parts too. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR NOT
RESPONDING TO EMAILS... We make mistakes but if you
don't acknowledge it it makes it worse.
My word and customer service will either make or break
you. For those of you who have had problems I understand
but would it have made it better if they would have responded
and told you what was up...
OH... Sorry I forgot... The extra $26.00 added for shipping next
day for there mistake was uncalled for, USPS Priority Mail
is what I would have done and Have done....

Steve @ Apex Jr.

[DSP_Geek]

Originally posted by Apex Jr
I can understand problems and as being a one man operation
I too have made some mistakes

My order came in with no mistakes, by the way. If anyone's looking for UcD heatsinks, ApexJr has some gold items which fit 180s and 400s perfectly.