"I have an order after they deducted the money, they sent email says the they don't ship to freight forwarders and therefor they cancel the order and voided payment.
for about 8 days the money is not returned to my account until time of post.
no shipping policy is found on there site, waste of time, money and effort.
"

"Seems like they trick people by making inaccurate items descriptions:

For instance, I've purchased the item that has:

1. "Adafruit Mini Lipo w/Mini-B USB Jack..." title that implies that item does the battery.
2. They add a FIRST image on the item with the battery.
3. Adds a small note at the bottom of the page that the item does not contain a battery.
4. Profit.

Who would think that the "Adafruit Mini Lipo w/Mini-B USB Jack..." item will not contain a battery? Tried to return it immediately but customer service does not want to help. Don't waste your time and money as you never know what they actually sell you."

"I order a lot of electronic parts for me and a local group that I run. I used to order some of the parts from Adafruit but I've had too many problems with them. I had a few boards that were DOA and now something was shipped to the wrong address (apparently updating it in account -> addresses is not the right place?!). I sent screenshots of the address that I updated months ago and they don't seem to care.

Customer service is pretty rude and I would avoid them if you can. Some better recommendations are Sparkfun and Amazon. I order boards almost every week and I've never had problems with either of them."

"I've not had the quality or support issues so many here complain about.

I've been using Adafruit products for years. Their products have always been of higher quality than almost all other open source hardware I've purchased. I've not run into quality or return issues, so I can not speak much to that. I can say I've received everything I've ever ordered in a timely manner (probably close to 25 different orders over the past 5 years).

Blaming delivery issues on Adafruit is seriously misplacing the blame if they succeeded getting it in the hands of whatever delivery service you have selected. In the case of First Class mail, you are taking a small risk with the lack of delivery tracking (none). If a package doesn't show up using First Class mail, the issue with USPS not Adafruit.

As far as low quality or defective products, I've never run into that myself. In my experience, they design and build reliable and high quality products. Most of the products they develop are supported by good tutorials and software libraries. Most of the items they sell are for building devices and as such are not a finished product like an mp3 player, cell phone, or other personal electronic device. You need to invest time and have some knowledge of how to do what you want to do. Adafruit does a pretty good job at supporting that process.

I've not had to return any items in all this time, so I can not comment on this issue. I think Adafruit does a very nice job of supporting open source development and I am grateful for their work."

"Adafruit is a terrible company. They buy surplus electronics that have serious bugs and most are products that never made it to market because they were useless by the OEM. When you find out they don't work reliably, Adafruit's fall back position is that the products are for learning only. I hate the company, they are thieves! "

"HDMI port did not work on arrival. Repeated requests for a replacement or refund receive the same canned message to visit the forum. 100 percent loss on my purchase. Will never do business with Adafruit again."

"This is a scam, payed 50 damn bucks to have a mega sensor to measure moisture and then you realize that the cheap chinese corosion sensors are better than this. Don't know why you sell something without trying it your self. It just ruins the Adafruit brand, for what? For nothing! Change the damn descritpion of the product when at least when 10 customer tell you to do it. How many more should get traped by this sensor? Now I cant afford my self another sensor coz I gave my budget to this one.....

P.S. The sensor says it measure soil moisture but actually it just a cased air moisture/temperature sensor, when you put it in soil it reads 100% humidity, just when dried (plant dead) it reads 94% humdity

Thanks"

"Their customer service they provide, if you can even call it that, is unhelpful at best and generally asinine. They point the finger at you, the consumer, rather than accepting that sometimes the junk they purchase from China is just junk."

"Made a order with them on the 2/3/2017 and had it shipped via usps. Had been tracking it alway across the pond to the uk and had a email saying it was delivered whilst I was at work. So when I got home checked my mailbox and outside my flat nothing to be seen. No note saying it had left with someone else in the building or returned to the delivery office. On contracting adafruit there answer was contact you local carriers and the uk Royal Mail and you should have gone for a premium delivery with usps or ups. My answer was no my contract is with you no one else and I have paid you and you have not delivered. The answer from was here's your money back and don't comeback. "

"Hi,

I have made one purchase from AdaFruit and had no problems. For my first purchase I created a shopping list and compared Adafruit with others and decided on AdaFruit. My shopping list for my next purchase is ready. The prices are competitive with other places I have checked.

I appreciate all the effort they but in to create their tutorials. I have had good experiences when I ask technical questions.

Regards,
Bill"

"Product didn't work as advertised. When I posted a question on their forum the "Technical Support Specialist" was rude, closed the post and basically told me to take a hike. If you are developing a product for your company do not rely on Adafruit."

"Item was delivered back to them due to customs fees not being paid as I never recieved it after getting in touch with adafeuit now they will not respond to me and have also blocked my account indefinitely so they have got my money and my goods thanks adafruit you scumbags and making a claim to usps can only be made by the seller I'm screwed for choice and PayPal did not help me one bit either "

"So many problem with their company, staff, and how they handle problems. After over a week of emailing back and forth, they still refuse to include items mentioned very clearly in their description. What good is buying a board without the included power supply?
This is called a bait and switch, they get you to buy it, then after you receive it, you have to spend more money for a power supply that cost almost as much as the board you just bought, which is illegal.
They get very rude and refuse to help, they claim it is not included despite it being clearly mentioned in the description, yet nowhere on any of their sales, descriptions, cart, or checkout process does it say it is NOT included, which by US legal definition means it MUST be included. Instead they want me to just return the "unopened item" for a refund.


Shop elsewhere, find another Pi seller."

"Terrible, rude, and inexcusably unprofessional customer support is just the beginning

Moderators banning upset customers from the forums is asinine, at best.
Deleting the threads involved in customer support issues is simply unprofessional.
Customers are upset because of your responses to their issues, not because of the issues themselves.

Yes, customers will happily "find another supplier" when they realize your customer service is so far below the bar that it's actually melting in the earth's core."

"My Pi zero came cracked on arrival. I tried to look for a phone number, as a prefer a direct form of communication is much better than over email or forums in their case (more on that later).

After looking for a number I found their office number, it simply says to email them of go to the forum for support. Nothing else. The phone number is no purpose. So I used the contact form about shipping and filled out my info, and they said I would get a reply back soon. Fast forward 2 weeks and nothing happened.

Google Trusted Stores then contacted me asking if my order was all right. Obviously I said no and they asked what I'd like to happen next. I chose new item replacement. Google said they would get back to me in 2 days.

Two days pass and Google responds back. Here's what Adafruit said:

"Customer claims he emailed us, we do not see any contacts or emails from: [MYEMAIL1]@gmail.com, [MYEMAIL2]@ymail.com or "Dominic [LASTNAME]" we've refunded the $5 the cost of the product and please purchase future products from another vendor - Thank you."

Now the funny thing is, I sent an form regarding this. And while a refund was issued, I would like a replacement Pi. also, not to mention them recommending me to buy from ANOTHER VENDOR. They know their service **** and wont admit it.

My final word is Adafruit Service **** and shouldn't be bought from. I used to like them, however after reading reviews and experiencing service firsthand, that has changed. Thanks, Adafruit."