hi :-)
i recently lost few bucks on a bad online tools store and maybe you folks can give me good or bad experiences with those :
sureelectronics.net
http://http://www.sureelectronics.net/
?
iteadstudio.com
http://http://iteadstudio.com/store/
?
futurlec.com
http://http://www.futurlec.com/
?
seeedstudio.com
http://http://seeedstudio.com
;O) seeed is great, they have fun stuff from a dangerousPrototypes place, i gonna again order some next week !
thanks :-)
I purchase from all of them so these are mine experiences
sureelectronics.
- ordered ~6 packages
- 1 package came without one item (the last one, they said they donno how they missed it and promissed to send the part. The part is supposed to be sent with the last shipment I made but I'm still waiting for it as it takes ~3-5weeks for stuff to come here from PRC)
- 1 item (some switching PSU) did not work, I decided to void warante and fix it myself (the problem was bad solder join in the EMI filter), I repaired the PSU and sent them email with pictures, they apologized for the inconvenience and promised to send me a gift with next shipment (might come with that shipment I'm waiting now)
- everything else (over 1000$ in parts) came perfect
- communication with them was easy and they were nice
iteadstudio
- ordered one pack of PCB's and one package with parts
- they also have forum and are reading and participating there
- still waiting for parts and for pcb's but they contacted me about my address (something was not clear), the communication with them was very easy, I am waiting for the package but I don't think there will be problems
futurlec
- ordered ~10 packages from them
- never had any problems, everything came as expected, never had a reason to communicate with them
seeedstudio
- ordered ~10 packages
- had a problem with some wireles modules (they did not work), contacted them, they tried to help me get them to work but I did not really listen (read everything carefully) and was unable to make them work, they, after a single day of me not making them work were ready to refund me money or send replacement parts (without me even sending them the faulty ones), then I decided to go "Step by step" and found the step one "they receiver and sender must be at minimum 2m distance to work" :D so the problem was they were on the same table, when I moved the sender to other end of the room everything worked :D
So, all web shops you mentioned - I only have positive experience with all of them. And what is very important you can communicate with them, it is very important because I had very bad experience with some other PRC shops where I was unable to communicate with them at all as they were using google translate to communicate - noone in the company actually knew a word of any foreign language ... these guys do speak english, maybe not perfectly but, mine english ain't that good either .. important thing is you can communicate :D
btw, none of those sites have proper "status of the order" ... they all have some sort of attempts for you to figure out what the status of the shipment is and some even offer some rudimentary tracking system but it all mostly ends up as "wait until it arrives" :) ... also most of them require paypal (/me hates paypal) and some are adding ccard payment too (like seeed for e.g.)
sureelectronics.net
- 10+ orders. No problems. One item was DOA, they quickly sent a replacement, no hassles.
futurlec.com
- 1 order for multiples of one item. Fast. No problem, but see below.
futurlec.com.au (the same place as futurlec.com, but $A pricing)
- 10+ orders. Generally slow to very slow, eg:
Order Date: 2011-01-26
Shipping Date: 2011-03-05
Arrival Date : 2011-04-01
These were orders for 30-50 different items. Invariably the order is held up because 1 or 2 items are out of stock (their in stock indication is fantasy as one in stock item was a new Microchip PIC that Microchip itself had not yet started shipping). No communication unless you hassle them and ask for the out of stock items to be deleted from the order. Often considerably cheaper than elsewhere for many items (always check eBay first though).
seeedstudio.com
- 10+ orders. Orders shipped via Singapore take 4-5 weeks compared with Hong Kong (2 weeks). No serious complaints - one item [not a DP product] was faulty, but they wanted it returned before replacing which would have cost more than twice the price of the item ($5) so I just wrote it off.
mdfly.com
- 1 order for multiples of one item. Fast. No problems.
geeetech.com
- 2 orders. First order contained some faulty items which were refunded with no hassles. Second order was lost in transit and was refunded in full. Beware their RJ45 magjack (identical to SparkFun's) is designed to be used in Ethernet Switches and Routers where the pinout is swapped relative to an end device (i.e. TX+/- appear on RJ45 pins 3 and 6 while RX+/- appear on pins 1 and 2, respectively).
thanks all for your feedback! all noobs like me will surely appreciate alot :o)
just an update, today I got the shipment from sureelectronics that was to have the "gift" in it and the gift is in the package, marked as gift :) ... I like the gift, it is not some cheap thingy, it is one nice 20x2 display :) with back light and everything :) ...
[quote author="arhi"]just an update, today I got the shipment from sureelectronics that was to have the "gift" in it and the gift is in the package, marked as gift :) ... I like the gift, it is not some cheap thingy, it is one nice 20x2 display :) with back light and everything :) ...[/quote]
Still waiting for 2 gifts from them :) I recently got a mail that they shipped something (with telling exactly what), but there was no tracking number in the mail as usual.
i spend all my money and place orders at all places ... (not really all money and places :o) )... now i'm just waiting ... waiting each days for the mailman !!!
hey :o)
few weeks ago i ordered parts from those places
sureelectronics.net
iteadstudio.com
good services, i got my parts in good shape and at a fair price.
http://www.satistronics.com (http://www.satistronics.com)
the online inventory was not up to date so it seems you can order parts even if they are sold out...
i had to changed my parts choices and at the end the deal wasnt has good has suppose, but still a fair buy...
seeedstudio.com
seeed is great, they have fun stuff from a dangerousPrototypes designer!
got few things always good !
i also reorder last week ... another BusPirate, 2 BP is surely better than one :o)
but big problem this week, it is jammed somewhere, Canadian Post Services are on strike !
darn !
major +++ of seeed over all others is that seeed allows payment methods other then paypal. I personally try to avoid paypal as much as I can.