"I made a 50$ order 29 Oct. 07, has received confirmation of 30 Oct., and receive my order 13 Nov. 07. This was not very fast (15 days), but I chose the cheapest delivery. All parts was carefully packed. I had no problems with the purchase order, receiving, quality. Several pictures, of my order, will be available at http://costless.h.com.ua/index_files/my_order.jpg"

"Over all, I have had a good experience with this store. I have placed perhaps 20 orders. I ran into the occasional problem, but after contacting the store, those problems have so far been resolved to my satisfaction.

One problem is that stock levels aren't always accurately reflected on the web site. It seems that they only set a product to show that it is not in stock a while after they run out. I generally contact the store via e-mail after placing an order and ask them whether anything will hold the order up. Because I place repeat orders, I usually get them to send anything which is out of stock with a subsequent order. Items on back-order are actually sent pretty quickly - usually within 1-2 weeks - but I'm impatient so I get them to send what they have and then follow up with the rest later.

Most queries get a response within about 24 hours. So far they have been very helpful. I was overcharged once, it took them a while but they refunded me the money when I pointed it out. They respond to stock inquiries, requests to change my order, etc. in a prompt and courteous manner and I am happy with the way that they are willing to change or combine orders after I place them. If you place an order and something is out of stock, they will happily cancel or substitute those items and you can re-order them later.

I live in Australia and delivery has been pretty good. If I pay for express shipping and they ship by Wednesday it generally arrives that week. The regular post takes about 10 days. Everything arrives well packed. They occasionally forget to include something or include a wrong item; if I let them know, they resend me the correct part. I have also had a couple of parts DOA, they resent those as well.

As for the products they sell - the range is reasonable, the prices are generally good, and the quality is mostly decent. Some of the non-electronic parts, such as DC power plugs are cheaply made and might break if you're rough with them, but that's reflected in a low purchase price. I've actually gotten fairly nice DC power plugs from them too, they probably have multiple suppliers. Semiconductor parts are fine, although I have had a couple DOA ICs (which were replaced as stated). Resistors are fine and do seem to be basically within tolerances. Ceramic capacitors are good, electrolytic seem OK, although they're not the best brand and they don't sell low ESR so I tend to buy large values/critical power filter capacitors elsewhere. I like their IC experimenter boards, although they're not quite as well laid out as some I have used, but they are good for a lot of purposes.

Delivery to Australia is fine, the parts come from Bangkok, Thailand. I don't know about delivery to other countries. I wish shipping charges were better designed. If you want to order $101 worth of stuff, they charge twice as much shipping as for $99. Therefore I normally either try to fit the order into the nearest price bracket, or place multiple orders. Still, shipping charges are not overpriced I feel.

While most prices are excellent, a few items are overpriced, such as Tantalum capacitors. I can get them at a local store cheaper, although the ones I bought from Futurlec seem decent quality. Shop around, but most items they sell will be hard to beat.

Volume discounts are OK. Most items are a bit cheaper in quantities of 25+. I guess discounts aren't huge because the prices start out low. This makes the store great for buying a few pieces of each part to try out, or to keep in case you need them.

If you are a hobbyist I recommend trying the store out. Place a small order with a sampling of parts, since the shipping is cheap it's worth doing. Then if you are happy with what you receive you can order more.

I will continue to purchase from this store, the prices are hard to beat and the service is good. I wish they had a bigger range and more up-to-date stock information on their site. If in doubt, e-mail them and ask.


Update, Dec 30 2007:

I have now received 34 orders from Futurlec, am currently waiting for 2 and am about to place another. I think their service is getting better. However, I must re-iterate, while you should look at the stock indication on their site, if it says it is in stock that is not a guarantee that it is. If you are worried about an order being delayed due to items out of stock, e-mail them when you place the order quoting the order number and ask if anything is out of stock and will hold up your order. If there are items out of stock, you can ask for them to be canceled, or shipped separately. I have had many orders which were shipped within 1-2 days, and others which were held up by out of stock items which were listed as in stock on their site. Generally I ask them to ship what is in stock, and send back-order items with my next order. I always seem to need something that I don't have, so this isn't usually a problem for me. Just be aware of this and don't expect to receive your order the next day (although I have occasionally received it within a few days of placing the order, even with the cheapest shipping option). I think the service is getting better and I still recommend this store if you are willing to wait up to a couple of weeks to get your parts.
"

"I received my complete order today after 3 weeks. I was leery first after reading all the bad reviews on this company, but other than lengthy shipping I have no complaints. They charged my credit card right after the purchase on their website, but no sign of fraud.

Their prices are great and I will probably use them again."

"Update: Fedex showed up my door this morning with the package from Futurec even though they
had refunded my money. The order was placed on Oct 5 and recieved on Oct 12. Not many American companies and compete with this kind of service and speed. I sent an email to ****@**** and asked him to rebill for the parts they delivered. I intend to place future orders because they treated me well by answering my emails, refunding my money and sending the package so quickly. I believe the package was sent before the refund was processed but in any case I did not see any of the problems mentioned by the other reviewers and intend to do business with this Company.

I placed an order with this Company because of their great prices. The web site seems to indicate they are located in the United States.
Imagine my surprise when I read the reviews on Resellerratings.com and found out that they ship from Taiwan or somewhere other than the United States. After a series of emails with ****@****, I requested a refund which I received in about three days.
The company was courteous and professional in their emails and responded quickly. I believe that they can be a viable company to deal with if you have the time to wait for long delivery times. They should indicate that they ship from overseas on their website, other than that, I have no complaints. My situation was handled well. Now that I know that they are overseas, I will use them for parts that I am no in a hurry to receive. They do have some great prices.
Thanks to all on this site who took the time to write the comments for this Company, I learned a great deal. I do not believe they are ripoff artists, I do believe they should let everyone know where they are actually located and provide a phone number for support."

"I placed an order with Futurlec on the September 15. After a few days of not receiving any confirmation email, I decided to email Futurlec support to check my order. My email resulted in a delivery failure (mail box full) and i was a little concerned. I then came across this site which certainly did nothing to alleviate my concerns.

In the end, my order arrived on the 3rd of October and was complete. All parts were well packaged and appear to be of high quality.

My only real issue was the total lack of communication but overall my experiance was good."

"After reading some of the other reviews, I was quite concerned about this store. Fortunately, my experience was much more positive than that of other recent reviewers.

Most distressing were the allegations of credit card fraud. I have checked my account several times since making my purchase and so far there are NO fraudulent charges of any kind.

Shipping was slower than most places I shop, but not terrible. Order was placed 9/1, shipped 9/7 and was received 9/14. The order was shipped direct from Thailand, not from a US address. My only real complaint about delivery is the delay between when the order was placed and the ship date. As others have mentioned, there are no indications of stock levels on the website.

Everything I ordered arrived, and all was in good condition. Given the rock bottom prices this site offers, I will probably use them again -- just not for anything I'm in a particular hurry to receive."

"WOW - what negative vibes around this vendor!

I ordered Aug 7 and received the items on Aug 31. I find Futurlec to be similar to Far East hobby vendors I've dealt with thru E-bay, excellent prices - slow delivery.

Their website gives no evidence of what is actually in stock, nor can you trace a shipment. But this is typical of these vendors.

If you are a professional with a decent budget and a schedule to meet, use Digikey etc. and pay 2x or more. But a hobby guy like me with limited funds can live with the inconvenience. A high-end microcontroller "stamp" board for $19, a simple but useful digital multimeter for $7 are prices that cannot be argued about. Their prototyping boards were better than RadioShack's at less than half the price.

If you order from them do what I did. Place your order, keep it small ("

"I ordered from this website because it was cheaper than other sources. I thought it was a very good website with an easy-to-use site and a wide selection of parts at low prices. Then I read some of the reviews here, and I thought I had just made a big mistake. It actually wasn't too bad. I sent an email asking about a credit card charge, and I got a good explanation within 12 hours. I had recieved an email on the 22nd, 4 days later, stating that the order had been shipped. So far, my experience with Futurlec has been pretty good.

Now my order has arrived. The packaging was excellent and the parts come neatly organized. Futurlec is not the fastest, but if you're looking for medium-high quality electronics at great prices, I recommend Futurlec."

"My most recent experience is similar to the other reviewers. An order placed on June 6 2007 did not arrive. Emails were initially answered ("we will resend") but ignored quickly. I had my credit card number changed after reading the other reviews and disputed the charge.
Around July 25 I asked them again about the status and Futurlec replied that the replacement order was shipped the day before. I'll believe it when I see it! But this time they were telling the truth, not fiction. Today, August 13, I received the order which was shipped on July 24. Over two months for an order is too long and there are parts missing (I asked the credit card company to give them their money anyway).
All this is really too bad since I have ordered at least 7 times before from Futurlec with little or no problems; missing or wrong parts, which they corrected, but always delivery as promised.
Futurlec normally has a system where they mass ship the packages from Thailand to San Diego, where it is mailed using the US Postal service. From their cryptic emails I gather there was a customs problem (I assume with a mass shipment).
All this is really a shame since better communications from their side would have prevented so much anger and frustration. Just emailing a message they think the customer wants to hear doesn't help at all. I need the truth and I will be understanding because they are so cheap!
I hope to do business with them again though the credit card issue is a major concern.
"

"I have worst experience with WWW.FUTURLEC.COM
THESE PEOPLES ARE THE GROUP OF FRAUD MOTHER FUCCKERSSSS..
DONT PLACE ANY ORDER WITH WWW.FUTURLEC.COM
******************************************
FUTURELEC ORDER # A102900
EMAIL. ****@****

I placed the order for more then US$ 1000 coz their rates were the lowest .. When after 3 days no signs of order confirmation , I send an email to their order dept and next day they sent me email and asked to send the Credit Card Details by Fax including CVC ( security Code ) :(:(:(:( ,,

From: ****@**** Address Book Add
To: ****@****
Subject: RE: Order Status !! A102900
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 09:40:12 +0700
*************************************
Dear Imran
Can you send us a copy of your card details together with the security code?
You will be advised once this is successful.

Fax No (International): 66-712-1658

Best Regards
Amp
*************************************
I tried 3 days to that fax number then their sent fax number responded .. Again silence , now I sent complain by email & also via fax but no any response ..

Dated: 18 August '2007

Received an email from WWW.FUTURLEC.COM MR. AMP ,, dated 7 Aug. 2007 ,
*************************************
From: ****@**** Add to Address BookAdd
To: ****@****
Subject: RE: Order Status !! A102900
Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2007 11:47:16 +0700

Dear Imran

We can only accept payment by bank transfer.
Best Regards
Amp
*************************************
Now These MOTHER FUCKERS ASS HOLES asking for Bank transfer ,but when I checked from my Credit Card Issuer , I Surprised , coz my card was already charges for the sume of US$ 1007/=

Now I have sent so many complains by fax and email but no reply ,, :(:(

A REAL MOTHER FUCCKKERSSS

Dated: 18 Sep ' 2007 .
*********************

No any signs of order confirmations. I have contacted Australian Police department about these scam peoples .. the Australian Police site is http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/ and http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/694011#h2_11
hopefully they are able to do some thing ...

Any body facing same problem with WWW.FUTURLEC.COM can contact me on my email for co-operation . email ****@**** (please mentions WWW.FUTURLEC.COM in subject)

thanks

imran"

"Placed the order on March 28, 2007...waited a couple of weeks and still hadn't received the order so emailed Futurlec. Received a prompt response stating they had shipped on 06/12, but would resend my order. Wrote again on 06/26, still hadn't received the order, sent another email to the company on 07/02 and same response within 24 hours - they would resend the order. Waited another week and called the credit card company today and told them about the disputed charge, but they also had some news for me. I was told my card had been compromised and it was immediately cancelled. Futurlec appears to be a bunch of crooks."

"THESE GUYS COMMIT CREDIT CARD FRAUD!! STAY AWAY!!

I placed an order with them because they had the cheapest prices on some components I needed for a design project I was working on at school. At first they looked legit, with a USA address in NY, and clean looking website. I ordered my stuff from them at the end of May. I even paid the ridiculous price for their "expedited" shipping option thinking I was going to get my stuff faster...

NOPE! They took forever to ship my stuff out. After placing the order, I got no emails for a good two weeks. I sent them numerous emails asking when my stuff was going to be shipped with no reply. I finally received a reply on June 5th (a good two weeks after placing the order) saying my order was shipped and they gave me a USPS tracking number, only the tracking number was useless because it was an international number and I couldn't track it online. I sent them a reply back asking why it is taking so long when I paid for "expedited" shipping and I never got a response to that question. From that point on, I was not getting any replies from them regarding my order until it finally arrived on June 19th, almost two weeks after they told me it was shipped out. To top it off, the package was shipped from Thailand, not New York!

A week after receiving my stuff, I get voicemail from my credit card company informing me that they have reason to believe that someone has stolen my credit card info. They told me they froze the account and asked me to call them back. I called my credit card company and had to go through a fraud procedure and identify the recent charges as fraudulent. It appears that the day before, someone tried to charge my card for $300 worth of Apple iTunes and another $400 from some weird Asian company I did not recognize. I identified the charges as fraudulent and my credit card account was closed out. Now mind you, I put the Futurlec order on one of my credit cards that had not been used for quite a while and had $0 balance, so it definitely was Futurlec that tried to get away with fraud. Also, there is at least one other account of attempted credit card fraud by Futurlec by another reviewer on here.

If you are even thinking about ordering from these guys, DON'T! They're a scam."

"Ordered $250 worth of stuff on the 26/5/07 Order confirmed. Emailed on 6/7/07 asking where im my order. Replied sorry missing one part which would arrive next week and would they send it without the missing part. I replied 10/7/07.... wait until it arrives and ship then. No reply. Emailed again on 17/7/07....where is my order...send what ever you have I need it now. Emailed me in 18/7/07...sorry part has arrived order will ship out today. All this time my status remained 'Entered'. Emailed again on the 21/7/07... why is the order status unchanged. No reply... Emailed me today 26/7/07... Order has already been shipped with EMS tracking No... will recieve in 7-10 days. Tracking No returns no info and the Order Status page of the Futurlec site tells me that my email address is incorrect. Emailed them back to fix this as my email address is certainly not incorrect. The whole thing feels bogus
I live in Ireland, I wonder is there any correlation between buyers locations and order importance.
Lah De Dah.....
"

"UPDATED: I finally got refund for my order. It was a horrible experience I never want to have. I spent lots of time to contact them. I really hate them. NEVER BUY FROM THEM. If you had received any order by chance without any problem. it would have been very fortunate.

very very dissatisfied,

I placed an order June 4, 2007. After two weeks, they did not ship my order and so I contacted via email (they do not provide any telephone number). They said one of parts I ordered was on back order and they will ship in a few days. It was a lie. When I emailed them again, they said it was still on back order and they needed more time. They lied to me again. I have tried to contact them several times since I got the last email from them on June 21, 2007.....no response up to now. I emailed today to request for cancelling and refunding my order. I am curious of what reaction they will take.

I recommend you NOT TO BUY from FUTURLEC, a lying company. You can check the ratings others wrote. I shoud have read those ratings before I bought from them.
Again, VERY VERY HORRIBLE~

I WILL NEVER BUY FROM THEM FOREVER.
"

"I emailed Customer Service prior to ordering to inquire about chip package and inventory, and got a response ~12 hours later. I placed the order that day with expedited shipping, 5/28, and it shipped 5/29 from Thailand. I received the order on 5/31. No complaints here."