I have purchased same boards...Tried a lot but unable to get any type of response from module....i am using MAX232 based circuit to connect it with my PC. Please let me know if there is any solution.
So the ESP-12E's worked for me. I have ESP-12F's on backorder now. I scrapped all the ESP-12's for now. But get the staging version of the ESP8266 Arduino plugin. It has lots more control over upload. Also follow the circuit designs on there to the letter. They work.
Cheers Oliver