I was looking for a supplier of low noise jfets and found some good prices at Futurlec (.com). Never purchased from them but I recall adding their shop to the bookmarks after reading favorable comments about them. However some prices seem a bit too low to be true, so the question is how much are they reliable and if I can purchase without problems. Any good/bad experiences? Thanks!
I haven't dealt with them myself, but was rather put off by the significant number of very negative reports that seem to be floating around out there on the net. Searching on "Futurelec review" is enlightening. Their rating with the New York BBB... not comforting.
Some people seem to swear by them, having gotten just what they ordered. Others swear *at* them, saying that they'd ordered parts which then turned out (after the fact) to be "out of stock" or which showed up very late, if at all. Customer service doesn't appear to be their strong point.
I decided to stick with Mouser and DigiKey and Newark and similar suppliers.
I've bought a few things off them in the past, not so many lately as they haven't been quite cheap enough to be worth it since the USD-AUD exhange rate moved back from its flirt with parity.
I think they always had what they advertised when I ordered, no wait I did get a refund for something out of stock once. It was a bit of a battle to get that out of them, but I think I might have been complaining to the wrong Email address. They refunded my payment in AUD (they had a special Australian site back then, and I'm pretty sure they're an Australian business outsourcing all their operations to Thailand) as the same value in USD, so I actually made a bit of profit on the transaction. :)
Oh, that's right. I was offered a refund, or could wait 6 months until they got in more stock. :)
Components didn't scream fake. I think some ICs came in branded tubes. I wouldn't trust their electrolytic caps though.
From memory, it could take a few weeks for them to post an order. You won't hear anything unless you ask, and ask the right Email address at that. I think there are different people who deal with different stages of the order, they don't talk to each other often - I think you usually want to respond to whichever address sent you the latest Email about the order. None of my orders disappeared into the darkness though.
You might want to nag them to tell you when your order has been posted. They won't tell you anything unless you ask, including that an item has been put on 6 month back order (see above).
If you pay with Paypal, you have the protection of their claims process as well.
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