"First-timer with Futurlec: Good overall, slow intl. shipping (Hong Kong, opened @customs.) Placed $100 obscure order on Feb 3rd, received on Feb. 25th. All items were present. I'd give them an "A" for availability and price, and a "C" for shipping. (I guess we can't have it all!) :)"

"placed two orders in January. my e-mail is all
returned. nothing shows shipped on their website,
when it does accept my request for order status.
i have ordered in the past with good results. can not find any source to contact them. will never order from them again."

"Placed my order on January 26. It's now been 18 days and I still haven't received anything. No help from customer service, who claims it was shipped out about 5 days later than their website.

I actually had problems placing the order in the first place and dealing with customer service. That should have been a clue, but I ordered anyway.

I will not do business with them again, based on their customer service even if I do receive my order."

"This is my first order with Futurlec, and it will be my last. I ordered some IC chips taht their website showed were in stock. After 3 days I sent an email asking for a tracking number. Three days later, I finally got a reply from Ann in "Customer Service", saying that the part was out of stock, and would not be back in stock for 2 or 3 weeks. This is a week later, and the website still shows that the item is in stock.
If I wanted to wait 2 or 3 weeks to get this item, I would have ordered it from China myself.
In my opinion, Futurlec has some of the absolute worst customer service in the industry. It even took "customer service" 3 days just to reply to my email. I would strongly urge anyone to stay away from Futurlec, and save yourself the headaches, and frustration of dealing with a company that is clueless to the meaning of Customer Service."

"My experience was similar to other posters. Don't expect an Amazon kind of experience (order at 4:00, get a shipping confirmation at 5:30), on your doorstep in a day or 2. Ain't gonna happen.

You have to be patient and take into account the (fantastic) deal you're getting. My SSR boards were literally 5x more every other place (when I could find it) on the 'Net.

I ordered on 11/10, got some in about a week, and the rest about a week after that.

I sent an email in between and it took a day to answer, but they did eventually follow up.

If I need it fast, I have lots of places to choose from here in the states. I'm an electronic hobbyist, and saving that kind of money helps.

My .02, take it for what it's worth.

"

"Tough to get a hold of customer service. Some items are shipped from Malaysia and can take much longer than the 7-10 days, but they don't tell you this."

"I ordered some parts from this company without having heard of them. I am a professional engineer who works from home and needed the parts urgently. After placing the order, I found this website and was horrified to read some of the negative reviews. I immediately sent an email to the company asking that if any of the components were out of stock that they just ship what was in stock straight away, as I needed the parts fast. I was amazed when less than two hours later I got a response saying the order was complete with the exception of one component and they would send that on later. I emailed back asking for a tracking number and was sent that too about a day later. I did pay for the fast shipping and exactly one week after placing the order the parts arrived, all neatly packaged and labelled. Given the parts were coming from Thailand, the shipping was very cheap and the speed of response to my questions was excellent.

I have only used them once and so do not know if their service is this good the majority of the time and that it is just mainly the people who have been let down who feel the need to write reviews (which is understandable). However I thought I should post this to balance out some of the others. Having now read some of the other reviews, I think I would be wary of ordering from them again when under time constraints until they have proved that they can provide this sort of service regularly, however I will definitely try them again for parts required less urgently."

"Great prices and nice selection. This is not a scam, although the shipping is SO SLOW that you'd be tempted to think so.

My order took over 8 weeks to arrive after multiple promises that it was on its way. During that time, I had to order some of the parts from another vendor and e-mailed Futurlec to remove those parts from my pending order and add some new ones.

When the order arrived, *everything* was there -- over 50 different parts and several duplicates of each. Not one thing was missing, which is impressive, given all my changes.

So shipping is very, very slow, but the prices can easily be 1/10th what you'll pay at Digi-Key and the like.

I'll definitely order from them again. But just 3 mos. in advance, this time."

"I find Futurlec to be a wonderful company for the kind of parts ordering that I do.

For example I keep a workshop stocked with common component values, like every E12 resistor value in 1/4 watt and 1 watt, and capacitors similarly.

Every 6 months or so, I inventory my components and place an order from Futurlec. The 1/4 watt resistors are 10 cents for a pack of 10. A PENNY EACH!

The components always come with each value in a little baggie labeled with the value, the order is always correct, and the components are standard commercial quality, just like everywhere else, but MUCH cheaper.

The web site sucks, the ordering page is a joke, you can't change your account information, and the shipping is sloooow. But the prices are great, wonderful, can't be beat, amazing.

If I was building a project and I was hot to make a start, I coudn't bear the wait, and I'd pay 69c for 10 resistors by mail order from a US company, or 89c for five on the high street.

But for replenishing my inventory I don't mind if it takes 3 weeks or 6 weeks, if I can afford to hold stock of components that I just otherwise couldn't afford.

Now I can get an idea and go down to the workshop and prototype it up there and then with parts from my inventory. I've got a couple hundred dollars in small parts at all times. It would be a couple thousand dollars from a US supplier.

Well worth the wait. I have ordered twice a year for 4 years now and never a dissapointment, my stuff always comes (eventually) and I couldn't be more pleased."

"Beware, these guys are total scam artists. I ordered $80 worth of stuff from them and for whatever reason they decided to withhold the order for 3 weeks because supposedly a part was missing. I emailed them and asked them to ship anyways, and they said they did the next day. I wait a month and nothing comes, then I send another email off asking where it is and then they say they made a mistake with the order number and that my package had never shipped. Apparently my order number was A140233 and they got it confused with 140233, which is bull because no ordering system in the world works like that. Then they gave me the same run-around that a part was missing and asking if they should ship anyways. At this point I demanded a refund and am currently waiting for my card to update."

"I ordered after reading about Futurlec on a electronics forum.

I placed an order for $77 worth of parts on 2/3. They shipped on 2/6. Their email stated: "Your order should arrive in 7-10 days."

After 13 days, I emailed asking for an updated ETA. They replied stating, "After checking on this with our post office, this is still in transit and should reach you shortly."

After 26 days, I emailed them asking for a refund. They replied asking that I check with my post office because it will require a signature. I call my post office. They don't have any packages addressed to me.

So I email them again asking for a refund. Their reply: "Here is shipping address which your order was shipped to... (my address)"

At this point, I've demanded that they either deliver my order in a very timely manner or refund my money. At this point it has been 34 days and they are not replying to my emails anymore.

I guess I'll have to do a chargeback."

"I read on a forum that these guys were pretty good. I thought I'd give them a try. This has to be one of the worst companies I've ever dealt with online. I thought I could deal with the 1998 looking website since they're so cheap. They have an incredibly vague ordering process that in no way warns you how long you're going to have to wait before your items ship out. I ordered about 60 dollars worth 2 weeks ago and nothing has even shipped. I might not be that upset if I had been notified or given some kind of an estimate as to when they'll ship. The only thing their website shows is order received. I can understand things being back ordered, but I've never heard of any retailer not even warning you. Also, I'm pretty sure all the items said in stock on their site, so I can't imagine what part of it is back ordered."

"From what I have read, here, and in other places, this company has amazing prices, but shipping is a little slow.

I placed an order on the 14th of December, and got a confirmation a few hours later. I immediately emailed them and asked if anything was back-ordered. They sent back a prompt response telling me that four items were on back-order. The ETA was a few days, so I said I'll wait. One item was a little slow in coming, so I ditched it and shipped the rest of the order last Friday, Jan 9.

I've noticed that most of the people who submit a review here are impatient snobs. They think that just because you pay for fast shipping it means that they'll get the order very quickly. It depends on whether the items are in stock or not. If not, the order will be delayed. People don't know how things work. Patience is key.

So far, I am very satisfied.

Also, all of you who say that you didn't know that they were in Asia, it says very clearly on the website that they have OFFICES in NY, Australia, UK, and Bangkok. True, they don't tell you where your order will be coming from, but it's kind of obvious. Nowhere can you find merchandise that cheap, except for ASIA.

Shut up. Suck it up. Wait a little.
I think the wait is worth the rock bottom prices.

Update:
The USPS guy came today, the 20th of January, but I wasn't home, so he left a notice. I'm going to pick up the package at the post office tomorrow. Will update then.

11 days, not bad!

UPDATE:
Everything was there, it was expertly packed, everything is labeled. The care in shipping is impressive.The postage paid was 805.00 Baht, or about $23. That's way more than the $14 I paid for shipping! The quality of components is pretty good. Every thing that could use a manual came with one. On a CD. Also labeled."

"This is by far the absolute worst company I've ever dealt with in my entire life. I ordered in the middle of November, emailed them a few days later after no information concerning the shipment. They said one of the boards was back ordered so I waited. After three weeks with no response I kindly asked them to cancel my order as they had had their chance and I was no longer interested in doing business. Instead of doing as I requested, they offered to ship the in stock parts and wait for the backorder. WHY DIDN'T THEY DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE? I again waited and after a full month nothing came. To sum it all up, they claim my order was shipped but I haven't received anything for 13 days from said shipment date and I'm not really expecting anything to arrive ever. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS POS COMPANY, THEY NEED TO BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS ASAP."

"I placed an order with this company on November 29, 2008 and received the order confirmation within a few hours. After placing my order I noticed that I had missed a couple of items. I sent them an email asking them to add the 3 items I missed to the order. I received absolutely no response. I emailed them again and asked. Still no response. I sent a third email asking them what the problem was. They finally responded telling me they were waiting on 1 item to which was backordered. Their website stated all of the items were in stock when I originally placed the order. I emailed them again asking them to add the items to the order and still no response.

On December 16, 2008, I received an email from them stating that my order has already been shipped and I should receive it in 7-10 days. I was so upset that I immediately emailed them back telling them that this was my first order and will be my last.

They sent me a tracking number but did not tell me which postal service that tracking number refers to. It certainly isn't a USPS tracking number."