Adafruit Industries

Really bad customer support. Stick with Sparkfun or any other electronics retailer.

Placed an order for a Raspberry Pi Zero. Received a DOA unit. Was told to go post in forums so that other customers could troubleshoot my issue… My board is dead, issue resolved. Why do I need to have other customers provide me support for an order I placed privately in a public forum. Is this even legal? If I request an RMA, I should receive an RMA, plain and simple. This joker doing business out of his apartment think that he can just farm out his work to other customers! I am curious as to the legality of such actions. Either way, avoid like the plague and purchase your electronics elsewhere.

Yes Adafruit has makes great products and their website is pretty easy to use. But Customer Service is the worst I’ve ever experienced.
I was contacted after ordering $ 170 worth of items that my order has been flagged. They then asked why there was a difference in my Shipping Address and my Billing Address. I then explained the difference and Adafruit said my order has been cancelled because they don’t ship to hotels. I live in a Residential Hotel where peoples apartments are Hotel Rooms. We have a front desk and mailboxes. They then told me to re order with a direct address. What is more direct than where I live?
After trying to email them about what «Direct Address» means they never responded. I then went to look for a phone number to call but found Adafruit suggests everyone with problems to their fourms. I decided to go to twitter and tweeted at Adafruit. After no response I decided just to order again, but found they blocked my email and labeled it as fraud. It then told me to get in the Fourms and Contact them.
I went back to twitter and then found they blocked my twitter username. At this point I’m confused because I just tried to spend $ 170 on products from you and your treating me like this. Who blocks and bans a customer after they confirm and order.
Not only does Adafruit have horrible customer service, they don’t make sense. I will not be suggesting to any of my friends to order parts through them. If you start an email conversation with a customer don’t leave the customer hanging thinking you’ve solve the issue but you haven’t. You actually started an issue and then made me have to navigate your fourms and reorder just because you have this idea about Hotels. People around the world have different living situations. Not everyone lives in a traditional home or apartment. I have an apartment, just because rooms in the apartment complex can be rented out to tourist does’nt mean I shouldn’t beable to buy products from you.
Whatever you lost a fan a returning customer and a little respect.
Thanks Adafruit you made my experience shopping with you 1 Star.

Have to echo the customer service here. Their departments do not talk to each other so when you email support you are told to now create a login and post on the forums because the team that uses
is too lazy or incapable? or unwilling? to put this is the correct queue for actual support. It is the customer’s job to now create a ticket in the correct forum.
Then the forum support person basically tells you how dumb you are and you should just read the manual again because they are sure that its you and not the fact their display is actually busted, despite your couple hours of troubleshooting, googling and reviewing previous forum posts and manuals before contacting them AND explaining that all to them in your support email to try and speed things up (my mistake).
Once you go round and round with the support forum person and you take lots and lots of pictures and then format them for their sub-​optimal forums, you finally get them to admit its busted.
This is the best part.
It is now the customers job to contact the other support again and then tell that support to come look at this technical support forum post so that they can begin the return process. Because again, the two departments are incapable of sharing information and connecting processes.
I couldn’t do anything but laugh when I read that. I’m going to just hold on to the broke display now to remind me of that support.
So its a crap shoot. On one hand you have really nice electronics but if one arrives DoA GOOOOOOD LUCK with support, its laughable at best.

Adafruit Industries
2:56 PM (49 minutes ago)
to me
Hello Neil,
You chose first class, not priority.
USPS First Class are untrackable. Once it has been sent it’s pretty much outside of our control. There is no way to track packages. They are also not guaranteed services. First class mail can take up to 2 weeks. First class mail us low cost and used at your own risk, it is only permitted for orders under $ 200. Insurance is automatically calculated and added to your order. Lost package claims may be filed between 45 and 90 days after shipment. USPS has experienced many slow downs and delays — here’s an overview of what we’ve seen for some customers.
Thanks,
Adafruit Support, Rebecca
really first class mail is 2Weeks

Adafruit is not only a great resource for parts and electronic supplies, but their web site is one of the most informative anywhere. They not only research many products thoroughly before offering them, but they also design and manufacture their own products which are well thought out and creative. Their shipping is quick and prices are reasonable. In addition to the above, the way they present products along with tutorials and a wealth of information has helped the world of electronics become accessible to many people who may have been intimidated otherwise.

Do not buy their products. We bought 2 OLED board panels from them, and one of two never worked. They shipped the replacement which never worked either. Terrible and completely incompetent tech support. All they asked is is for pictures of how customer connected the board. Never took any effort to investigate why the brand new product does not work.
Avoid, go with reputable company with good support.

Unilocal says 5-​stars = «Woohoo! As good as it gets!». Yep, this is a perfect description of Adafruit. These guys just rock. From awesome selection of goodies to incredible support to lightning fast shipping. I ordered several hundred dollars worth of electronics from both AdaFruit and Amazon on the same day (a Sunday). I already had my Adafruit products in my hand (FOUR BUSINESS DAYS!!!) on the day that Amazon got around to sending me a note that my products had just shipped. These guys ship FAST– and they work weekends ;) !!!
Depending on what you need and how fast you need it, pricing can be a BIT on the high side, but the small premium is worth it for the fast shipping and support that you get.

Edit: 09÷25÷13 — from 4 to 5 stars — great after sale service!
One of my favorite tinker sites to visit. Ask-​an-​Engineer webcast is also a great service to the make community.
Ordered a couple of items and both transactions were well handled and produts performed as expected. Did have an issue with a serial cable for a POV kit and they sent another one free of charge to replace what their tech support expected was a defective usb/​serial cable. Tech support was also very helpful solving a minor issue with a large POV download but we did get it to work.
Wish I had more time to spend on tinkering; especially as the kids get into the age of exploring. Perhaps a 2013 resolution, eh?

I’m not sure why the review from 10/​12/​2011 was negative merely because this is their office, but regardless…
This review is regarding Adafruit’s website:
Adafruit is one amazing company that does what Radio Shack stopped doing many moons ago. Their customer service is responsive and their website is always being updated with new and cool ideas and components.
Not to mention their forums! They have some of the most insightful individuals posting on behalf of the company and they scour the forums for new posts frequently enough that before you know it you have a response to your questions.
Finally, a recent order I placed with them was missing components, and before I had the opportunity to email them they already had an email in my box asking specifically about my order. And to boot, they sent it out the same day WITH an extra present for my troubles.
Only downside is shipping. Shipping is a bear whenever you shop online, especially when you only need a small or minor component that you can’t find locally. Make sure you order all the parts you need, otherwise you may end up paying and extra $ 3 to have a $ 0.25 part sent out.
Keep up the great work Adafruit, you’ve got another loyal customer in me!

I got so excited when this popped up on Unilocal.Unfortunately it is just their office and not open to the public

Open Source Hardware is big right now — just look at products like the Arduino and its derivatives. Adafruit is one of the vanguards of this new movement. On their site, you’ll find tons of interesting projects, from the Mintyboost — a must if you travel with an iPod or other USB-​chargeable gadget — to Arduinos and accessories, to the x0xb0x synth. The latest is the ubersexy Ice Tube clock. All projects come with detailed build and design notes, schematics, and source code, so you can learn tons while building cool stuff.
If you have any issues or just want to participate, check out the forums — lots of interesting technical discussions, and your first line of defense if you have issues building your stuff. Though very rare, if you do get bad parts, rest assured they’ll be replaced quickly.
For my fellow Canucks, shipping via USPS is available and very reasonably priced. Avoid the stupid brokerage fees!

I read about this place on my second favorite website, engadget, and they’ve offer a really cool service. For a decent price, you can get virtually any gadget (laptops, cellphones, iPods, ect.) laser etched with any design in either Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator. Phillip Torrone, an editor at MAKE magazine, etched my girlfriend’s iPod (if you check out their site, it’s the iPod etched with Pearl from Finding Nemo on the back). It took about 20 minutes to get the whole thing done from positioning the image correctly to actually getting it done on the laser etcher. Just being there in the studio and watching how it’s done was an experience in itself. Definitely recommended if you want to do something a little unique for somebody special. Check out the website and email them if you want to make an appointment.