[sdiy] Where do I go to have PCBs made?

[Brett Maddaford]

I think most people are aware from previous discussions of some of the
issues with the way they deliver and communicate.
I was kinda interested in experiences with PCB fab though, more along the
lines of quality etc

-----Original Message-----
From: dj hohum [mailto:djhohum at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, 3 August 2007 12:23 
To: Paul Perry
Cc: Brett Maddaford; synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Where do I go to have PCBs made?

My experience with futurlec was less than satisfying. They do not ship
partial orders and do not backorder stuff. So if they don't have what
you ordered you wait while they find it. That's all well and good,
but, they don't tell you what's in stock and what isn't.

When I asked them to either cancel the part they were still waiting
on, jacks fyi, which I had already purchased elsewhere, and refund the
difference, oh my, you could feel the resistance across the pond. When
I told them to substitute some knobs only if they were in stock and
refund the difference if they were not, they waited several days to
respond. Then they claimed the knobs would be in the next day and that
they would ship. They claimed to have shipped my order without the
knobs but did not refund the difference. About two weeks later I
called my credit card company to get deadlines to refuse the charge
and to find out if I could refute a portion of the charge.

A few days later the first batch of parts show up. I again inquired
about the knobs/refund. A few days later I got a response that the
knobs had shipped.

So, they lie about shipping dates to avoid refunding money. They don't
like to refund money and they are LOUSY communicators.

I would still buy stuff from them though, they did eventually ship
everything and it did require a signature which is more than I can say
for some companies. But I would only go to them for stuff that was a
super deal and that I didn't need right away.

While I did like the pots I got from them, I'm basically not happy
with the size of any of the pots I currently have and plan to switch
to tiny plastic encased pc mount parts for most of my work. The knobs
suck and I wouldn't buy them again at any price. Ok, I'd buy thousands
of them for 1/10th of a cent each so I could ebay them, but I wouldn't
buy them to use.


On 8/2/07, Paul Perry <pfperry at melbpc.org.au> wrote:
> I havn't used them myself, but guys at the stompbox diy board have, both
for
> buying components (remarkably cheap) and for making boards.
>
> The only problem with futurelec (who are no relation to Future
Electronics)
> is that they can take a while to get stuff done.
> On no occasion have they failed to deliver boards or parts; but sometimes
it
> is fast turnaround, sometimes it isn't.
>
> If you don't mind (possibly) waiting, I'm sure futurelec will be OK.
>
> To get an idea of the performance of a company, searching google groups is
a
> good idea, - bearing in mind, that 100
> % of unhappy customers complain, and only 1 in a thousand happy customers
> post.
>
> Paul perry Melbourne Australia
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> >Has anyone ever used futurlecs PCB manufacturing?
> >The cost doesn't seem to bad
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Synth-diy mailing list
> Synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>


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