Sorry guys, this is going to be a rant story. But I feel that I should share my most recent experience around here to spare you the hussle in the future.
I placed an order with Futurlec in mid February consisting of 3 log slide pots, 9x 50kB slide pots and 4 slide pot knobs. All of them were listed as 'in stock' and were way cheaper than any other source I could find, so I though I'll give it a go. I had ordered with them before - LDRs for the doppelgänger - without any problems. So, time goes by and nothing happens. I contact them a month later to ask about my order and I got a quick repsonse that "only" 2 items (out of 3!!) were not in stock and they had problems to aquire them (50kB and knobs). They proposed I choose something else for the same $.
I responded rather harsh as the items were (and still are!) listed as in stock. I specifically designed a part in eagle to fit those sliders and designed a pcb around those, so going with a stereo slider would be a major hassle. I told them, I was happy to wait as long as I get my parts.
2 days later, I get another email saying my items have been shipped. I was surprised, but happy. I received the order today to find that they shipped stereo sliders instead of the mono 50kB and no knobs. On the invoice it said 'changed' and 'canceled' as remarks for sliders and knobs. They didn't ask me if I was ok with it. The stereo pots have a very different pinout, I will probably still manage to use them with some extra wiring. I'll probably have a look at the layout again to see if I have space to change to stereo sliders to avoid any open wiring on the pcb...
I guess they just assumed that stereo sliders will be fine and as they are more expensive as the mono version they cancelled my knobs as well...
Needless to say, I'll never order with them again. I wrote them another angry email just to let them know. I won't go through the trouble sending the wrong parts back and waiting for the correct ones. I would most likely never get refunded for the shipping and I don't wanna wait another 6 month...
/rant over
ugh. sound terrible. And seems to be consistent with them. I only ever used them to get the ldrs for my doppleganger. took 43 days from ordering to receive in the US. Besides the shipping time, accuracy is off. I ordered 4 and got 32 of them! I wouldn't use them again, even for unique parts.
That is so unfortunate. Especially when it concerns you designing a PCB around a specific part footprint... is there any other vendor which has the intended part you need? Who is the OEM manufacturer of these (mono) sliders?
I always wondered about this company
That's good to know but sorry to hear it
I think I must be one of the few people that seem to have good experiences with them each time, helps to know how to deal with them though as they will hold orders for parts without telling you (waiting doesn't really bother me though), although i've never had a particularly special part to order from them that could get substituted with the wrong thing.
Their e-mail contact once you e-mail them is surprisingly decent, i've had to do it several times as that's the only way they process paypal payments, which is a bit annoying.
I think the biggest problem I had with them was their false advertising on their site about inventory. Why would ANY order be "held up" when EVERY part is in stock according to their site? I realize that the speed of business sometimes does not allow for immediate updates however, this is not the 1st, 2nd, or even 20th time I have heard of this problem.
Last time I was asked about Futurlec, I told the other party that they are merely a middle-man with limited on-hand supply and false advertising. They may have SOME stock of what they advertise but they DEFINITELY work as a part sourcing agent for the majority. They lure you in with the In Stock description, then once they have your order/money they place an order for the parts... NOT pull them from stock!
I learned my lesson long ago when I waited 3 months for an order :-\ Never again!
I ordered from them once a few years ago and it took 3 months and a little bit was wrong as I recall. Nothing major. But I decided then no way am I waiting that long for pedal parts in the year 2013 at the time. Insane.
That turtle carrying your parts across the alps was moving pretty fast compared to how long it takes him to swim the Atlantic for people stateside, it seems!
The first line in the "about us" section on Futurlec.com reads funny. Who uses the term "stockist"? It's the correct term, but just not ever used. When I read stuff like that, in my head it reads, "we are sanded operational chip, mildly delicious installations".
Run away, run away!
Mouser
Smallbear
PPP
My "Holy Trinity" :)
I have tried a couple other places and got burned one way or the other so I exclusively use the above for all things pedals. I guess I understand ordering from these overseas discount places if mass-quantity is needed and a penny on the dollar matters but (fortunately) I am not there in my "pedal career".
Quote from: rullywowr on April 08, 2015, 07:55:11 AM
That is so unfortunate. Especially when it concerns you designing a PCB around a specific part footprint... is there any other vendor which has the intended part you need? Who is the OEM manufacturer of these (mono) sliders?
it's a slide pot from Alpha, 30mm travel length. Banzai carries them, but at 2.57€ vs. 0.45 $ I thought I'd give it a shot. Learned my lesson.
Quote from: midwayfair on April 08, 2015, 09:09:12 AM
That turtle carrying your parts across the alps was moving pretty fast compared to how long it takes him to swim the Atlantic for people stateside, it seems!
it took approx. 3 weeks to get here from the day I got the shipping notification
Quote from: pryde on April 08, 2015, 09:11:58 AM
I have tried a couple other places and got burned one way or the other so I exclusively use the above for all things pedals. I guess I understand ordering from these overseas discount places if mass-quantity is needed and a penny on the dollar matters but (fortunately) I am not there in my "pedal career".
Good point, I mainly use them for cheap breadboarding stock ups as their resistors & breadboards are much better than taydas, I quite like the solder they sell too. Other than that I probably usually just order mylar caps, a handful of standard opamps & CMOS and maybe the odd part they carry that others don't. Usually not urgent stuff but I think for the most part everything has arrived for me in the 14-21 day time slot, ignoring the 3 or 4 day delay of paypal e-mail and out of stock parts processing (last time that happened I think I just said give me extra of some other part i'd ordered and keep the change).
It's true the stock system is more of a "we can or can't get this part" (some stuff that has been obsolete for years is still listed but just says "out of stock") but that doesn't bother me much.
So my orders may differ from people who have had more issues, i'm happy to continue using them but understand they're far from ideal, but, while tayda may offer good service at the same price point, i'd much rather take bad service and a decent quality part.
Futurlec is also on my "never again" list. They seem to list everything, but have nothing in stock. They get your money and then go shopping, which takes forever. If you pay by credit card, like I did, they will try to string you along long enough (more than 1 billing cycle) so that it is difficult to get your credit card company to help you, particularly if you already paid the bill and the credit card company has already paid them. The charges hit my card the day the order was placed, not when it was shipped (like a reputable dealer would do). Of course, I guess they have to charge immediately because they never ship the stuff... Big hassle to get my money back, even after they agreed that they couldn't find any of the parts I ordered - took a couple of months of "no worries, we'll refund you tomorrow".
I noticed the OP was buying slide pots. Those seem unreasonably difficult to find. You can find some singles for way too much on ebay, or you have to buy a couple hundred (probably a case) to get the ones you want from a distributor. Even Mouser doesn't stock very many. Does anyone have a good source that stocks a variety of them at reasonable cost? And don't even get me started on trying to find knobs for them! Luckily, there are now the cool ones with LEDs that don't need knobs.
My story wasn't as bad as yours but I had the same issue with their site indicating items in stock but in actuality they were not. My order took over a month to receive. I won't order through them unless I absolutely have to.
My experience is that if even one thing in your order is out of stock, they won't ship any time soon. For every single order I've placed, I've had to email them a day or two later. Then they'll tell me what they don't have and ask if I want to cancel that part of the order and ship immediately.
The one time I had issues with my order and needed things replaced, they seemed kind of passive aggressive and there were things missing from the replacement shipment, probably deliberately.
Quote from: BillyBoy on April 08, 2015, 12:08:43 PM
Futurlec is also on my "never again" list. They seem to list everything, but have nothing in stock. They get your money and then go shopping, which takes forever. If you pay by credit card, like I did, they will try to string you along long enough (more than 1 billing cycle) so that it is difficult to get your credit card company to help you, particularly if you already paid the bill and the credit card company has already paid them. The charges hit my card the day the order was placed, not when it was shipped (like a reputable dealer would do). Of course, I guess they have to charge immediately because they never ship the stuff... Big hassle to get my money back, even after they agreed that they couldn't find any of the parts I ordered - took a couple of months of "no worries, we'll refund you tomorrow".
I noticed the OP was buying slide pots. Those seem unreasonably difficult to find. You can find some singles for way too much on ebay, or you have to buy a couple hundred (probably a case) to get the ones you want from a distributor. Even Mouser doesn't stock very many. Does anyone have a good source that stocks a variety of them at reasonable cost? And don't even get me started on trying to find knobs for them! Luckily, there are now the cool ones with LEDs that don't need knobs.
I actually didn't know that the are only a middle-man kind of company. I thought they actually have in stock what they advertise as 'in stock'.
For your slider pot question: I agree, they are hard to find, which is one of the reasons I went with futurlec. Banzaimusic.com has quite a few, but they are 2.5€ per piece (there you have the other reason ::)). RS electronics only has a very limited and sometimes very expensive selection. Mouser has a lot of different ones. I actually designed the pcb around the LED ones you mentioned only to find that mouser has them in their catalogue, but does not carry all of them in stock. I can see why, as there are various travel length and LED colours combined with resistance and taper. Of course the ones I wanted were not available unless I order 350 pieces.
This reminds me, I placed an order with them several months back, I need to follow up;)
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I bet most of the "bad vendor" stories start with someone thinking they have found a source of hard-to-find parts. And most of the rest is simply "found it cheaper". Those have certainly been the causes of some of mine (shared in another thread). I'm pretty careful with online purchases, but still get sucked in sometimes when I want to believe I've found something a little too good to be true.
I guess with everything being controlled by touchscreens, there's not much demand for slide pots these days. And the guys that need lots of them (to make eqs or whatever), can afford to buy a few 1000 at a time and even get custom manufacturing runs.
I guess that's the nature of having a vintage analog addiction - just gotta live with it though, 'cause there's no treating it. I tried a digital 12-step program and fell off the wagon the next time I heard an analog delay. Now I'm just an analog junkie, taking it day by day... :^)
Quote from: BillyBoy on April 08, 2015, 02:29:50 PM
I guess that's the nature of having a vintage analog addiction - just gotta live with it though, 'cause there's no treating it. I tried a digital 12-step program and fell off the wagon the next time I heard an analog delay. Now I'm just an analog junkie, taking it day by day... :^)
Ha, that made me laugh.
I actually tried programming for the first time on Monday. Took me 1.5 hours to get from nothing to flashing LEDs with my raspberry. Small steps...
Similar experience when I ordered LDR's for the doppleganger. 2 months and nothing. CC company refunded the charge to me and then an email arrives from Futurlec asking for my mailing address. They showed up 3 weeks later with no stamp, no customs stamp. Just a plain brown envelope with no return address and double what I ordered. An oddball experience for sure.
Spent pretty much my whole life doing software, nearly 40 years' worth of it anyway. Blinking lights on Day One is a pretty good accomplishment! It's a lot like building circuitry though - some days everything works right the first try and some days the lights just won't blink no matter what you try :^)
Quote from: pryde on April 08, 2015, 09:11:58 AM
Mouser
Smallbear
PPP
My "Holy Trinity" :)
I have tried a couple other places and got burned one way or the other so I exclusively use the above for all things pedals. I guess I understand ordering from these overseas discount places if mass-quantity is needed and a penny on the dollar matters but (fortunately) I am not there in my "pedal career".
I'll add Digikey in there only because they have the lowest price on the 1590X.
I've ordered a few other things from Digikey and have not had any problems with them.
I've ordered once from Futurelec.
It took something like 6 weeks for delivery.
While I got all the parts I ordered, I was not pleased.
I'm never ordering from them again.
Allied and Newark are also useful in a pinch.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The only time I've worked with Futurlec parts is for a set of Doppelganger LDRs, and I got those from Lace (who, in turn, was the one who actually dealt with FL.)
I really can't see any reason for any business dealings with them, based on this thread. I'd rather give my money for the rare stuff like this to Steve from Smallbear, who is a genuine good... uh, chap.
Quote from: Govmnt_Lacky on April 08, 2015, 08:38:07 AM
They may have SOME stock of what they advertise but they DEFINITELY work as a part sourcing agent for the majority. They lure you in with the In
I agree. They are hit and miss all of the time with their stock.
Back before the time of Tayda, futurlec was one of the only 'cheap' suppliers. Man those days were a nightmare. I remember one particular order, my last order with them actually. I had been waiting 2 months. I emailed them "wheres my parts". "oh...the transistor is on backorder, will send out soon". So they held up a $100 worth of parts for a 10c transistor, I thought from the email they were saying they had posted it...But...Another 2 months past still no order. I emailed them again "we are waiting on the transistor, should be in stock in a couple of months...". Seriously...I responded: "Just cancel the freaking transistor and send the rest..." Total time from placing the order was 5-6 months. That's a pretty crappy way of running a business...I received no emails, no updates the entire time until I asked them for information.
"Don't order from futurlec, because your parts arrive way in the future. " -peteytwofinger