"Asked for help (and was getting slightly frustrated, not recieving it from Adafruit staff) on the Adafruit forum....
Which is the ONLY way they will entertain offering help!!!
Like others ... BANNED by them, like a petulant child!!
I was banned from forum for asking for help, on a couple of SEPARATE posts, over a couple of SEPARATE major issues an Arduino board manager board definition version update had caused.
After the forum ban, I posted on Twitter, asking for help, and was blatantly ignored (I saw them post 30 minutes after I asked, for help, promoting themselves, and leaving my help request unanswered)
I followed up that I'd seen the previous post, but I'm still needing assistance.. No help offered, and instantly blocked on Twitter too!!
These guys cannot take minor criticism of their (lack of) customer service, at all, and resort to "head in the sand" / lashing policy.
Don't expect any help from this company, customer service is shocking"
"I've been a customer since 2009, and they used to be a really great company to work with. Lately, however, there are serious problem with their support, and the way they handle Raspberry Pis. I suspect Limor is no longer involved as much in the company, or she just doesn't have an eye on how customer service is behaving towards their customers.
After trying for months to get a Raspberry Pi, I finally was able to order one about two weeks ago. When UPS delivered the envelope, it was torn open in transit and the Pi was missing. Fortunately, the UPS driver noticed this, and I caught it on my doorbell camera. Unfortunately, support would not reship my order, and they forced me to take a refund.
The next day, I lucked out in a huge way. The tracker sites didn't pick up that Pis had come back in stock, and I managed to order another one! Two days later, I find my order had been VOIDED, without even an email to notify me. Two emails to support went unanswered (I noticed when I had the UPS problem that they also ignored some of my emails). The third try got a response from support:
"Thanks for the note. We are sorry for the confusion. Your order was voided in error. If you place a new order once this item goes back into stock we will allow it to process."
It's fine if a company makes mistakes. It's good when they admit they made a mistake. It's unacceptable for them to not correct their own mistakes. There's no reason I should be spending hours of my time attempting to order a Pi, only to have it all wasted by their algorithm erroneously voiding my order or the product lost in shipping, and their customer service not having a better solution than "tough luck, try again next time".
I'm beyond frustrated with Adafruit, and extremely disappointed that a once great company has fallen so far."
"I could write a book!
Essentially the sale support cannot take ANY criticism at all! They claimed - after only 4 days of the order, that PayPal advised them that I didn't received (In Australia) the order, so they voided it. When I emailed them back saying i was prepared to place a new order with the same items but not through PayPal, they BANNED me
It's EITHER that the support staff is MEAN and they don't act in the interest of ADAFRUIT
OR they don't have the IQ to realise that it takes more than 4 days for a shipment from USA to Australia.
I hope this gets to LADY ADA (owner who won prestigious awards) so she looks into the matter and look at the hundreds /thousands of comp[laints about sales support staff handling.
"
"Do not shop with Adafruit. Their customer service is complete trash. I ordered 6 items from them (gifts for my family) and their USPS label maker put their stupid flower logo on my apartment number deeming the package undeliverable. That's fine -- glitches happen, but when I gave them a warning that items were being sent back and asked them to double check their labels, they simply ignored my requests, accused me of providing the wrong address and told me to wait and that they would take care of it. I highlighted the fact that the exact same address had been used successfully for a previous purchase with Adafruit and that there was no way it was incorrect or undeliverable, suggesting that the label was being printed incorrectly.
They not once apologized for wasting my time and after almost TWO DOZEN emails they finally refunded me instead of re-shipping the items and admitting that they made a mistake with their labels (confirmed by my post office worker). They just kept beating the same drum stating that my address was the problem, conveniently ignoring an earlier successful delivery and the fact that it's a legitimate home address with nothing unusual whatsoever.
Guess what -- the items were sold out and I could no longer order them and they ultimately BANNED my account for calling them out. They did this prior to refunding me so I wasn't even able to check my order history. This company may seem organic and wholesome on the front but it's just a facade. In the customer service department, i.e. where the rubber meets the road, they are completely inept."
"These people are ridiculous. If you received a defective product, they try to steer you to the black hole that's supposed to replace customer service rather than make it right. I was about to issue a chargeback when the rep at Amex suggested to simply inform them I don't have internet access and have no way to post. I received a full refund the 24 hours later along with a note to find another vendor - as if I would ever have ordered again. Give it a try - it beats banging your head against their Marxist wall. Absurd company made up of fools."
"Absolutely useless company with a warped customer support model that is a masterclass in obfuscation and designed to frustrate you into oblivion. This company should get the global award for worst company ever. You would be better off dealing with a street vendor in North Korea."
"If you receive a DOA call product, like u did with a simple RPi0W and just wanted a simple exchange, they want you to go through a gauntlet of troubleshooting steps to “prove” I suppose to them that it’s true it defective and not operator error. I don’t have time yi play those games. I know it is defective. I’ve used RPi0’s since 2012 with the original. I’ve used computers since the 1980’s. I spent two decades of my life operating and maintaining secure comms equipment in the military (electronics they couldn’t touch without a clearance). I live a busy life and don’t have time to be spending on their forums playing games. The only reason I’m writing this message here is because they **** me off by banning my account from future sales because I reported them to the BBB. That is how petty they are. They have to “retaliate” for being reported. I wouldn’t buy anything more anyway. Real businesses aren’t that petty.
"
"We sell products compatible to Adafruit products, and we have a statement (email to me) from Adafruit that it would be allowed to call our own products for example "compatible to Neopixel" or "Adafruit Neopixel compatible". Adafruit's Limor Fried is bigmouthing about how great they do for the Open-Hardware and Open-Source community, but on the other hand they keep opening intellectual property infringement claims on Amazon against our products, and have our products removed, risking our reputation and Amazon account health, despite the clear description of our products to be "compatible with Neopixel library for Arduino", for example. The only reason for this acting is, that Adafruit wants to sell their own, big time overpriced products, and fights other sellers of equal hardware. Limor if you don't want that other companies make the same products and say that their products are compatible to your's, then just change the license you use. To take somebody else's product (WS2812B LEDs), and give it your own brand name, and then fight everyone who mentions the compatibility with your product, is effrontery. "
"the f***ing arduino shield i bought was shipped to me broken "
"Paid $22 for 3 Day shipping on a $39 item to get it in 7 Days....
Shop at Arrow.com Carries all the same items as Adajoke Oh and FREE next day shipping"
"I bought three adafruit feather fona boards. One was working as expected, but the other two weren't recognized by my pc (since one was recognized correctly, it can't be a driver issue...). So I wrote a post in their forum (which is the only official kind of support they offer) but got no response. When sending an email, they only point you to the forums and that the will tell their support staff to have a look at my post. But, of course, nothing happened and my next mail was simply ignored. Worst customer experience ever - every shop on aliexpress has better customer support..."
"Bought a Raspberry Pi 3 board, and after two weeks of service, it died. Tried to contact customer service for warranty replacement via phone and email, and was referred to a forum. Sent four forum posts, which were ignored. Finally got a response after I emailed a bunch of times, and was told that since I opened the box, they wouldn't take anything back. They told me that I blew up the board.
These people warranty nothing, and refuse to provide any acceptable customer service. Buy from Amazon. At least they'll take things back that are defective.
"
"Purchased a kit from the to build a pipboy that they had abandoned support for had told nobody.
They continued to sell the parts as a learning kit.
The hardware in the kit no longer worked with the old software.
Getting them to answer a question on the forum was long and tedious and often filled with time consuming tasks so that they did not have to answer the question.
When I complained about it I was given a refund and was told to buy my future hardware somewhere else.
I would have been fine not getting my money back if I had just gotten a simple apology.
They could not even get one of thier own products to work in any vanilla fashion and the got angry at me.
I will never shop there again and will complain endlessly about them in any maker group setting I am in."
"I have a total of 6 Pi 3B & 3B+ Running the same software I bought these on Amazon. I ordered 2 from these idiots and one of them was DOA.
They want you to join their blog for some help. I don't have time for their blog, I wanted the defective Pi 3B+ replaced! You can't talk to a person, all you get is a canned reply from their e-mail! I also wish I had read the ratings of their company! Got me once and never again!
UNLESS YOU WANT TO GET SC____D, DON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM THESE SHEISTERS!"
"I wish I had read all the bad reviews first. Just like so many others, they shipped me DOA product and would not refund. "