"I tried to buy a product from their online store, put in my credit card (Visa) and an error came on the screen that said "We are unable to process payment from certain credit card issuers. You must use a different form of payment or contact us." I shouldn't have to use another form of payment, because their website says they accept Visa. There is no phone number to contact Adafruit, so you have to fill out an online form, which is inconvenient and not customer service friendly. After completing the form, I received an email that said, "Thanks for the note. Send us a screenshot." Why would I send them a screenshot? Are they not aware of their own errors that the website displays? Why do I have to help them troubleshoot their website? Why not contact me and say, "I'm very sorry for the trouble you are experiencing buying our products. We would like to contact you via phone so we can better assist you." I sent them a screenshot anyways, and never heard back. They clearly don't want to sell products or stay in business. "

"I recently purchased my second PI3 Development board on April 9th of this year, along with a Case, and a wireless dongle. After receiving the device, I spent 3 days troubleshooting it, before ultimately deciding that the device was a No-Boot DoA defective piece of hardware. So I contacted Adafruit, who after much prodding, a few days later, decided to issue a replacement shipment. HOWEVER, the replacement, showed up in a bubble mailer and a crushed box. I contacted Adafruit again, for an RMA to get a functional replacement. Keeping in mind that I spent a WEEK testing both boards, until 3 AM most nights, in order to see if there was ANY possible way that I may be programming it incorrectly or setting it up in a way that might cause the situation. After buying all new flash cards (Thinking that maybe low-quality flash was the issue), I came to the same conclusion. All 6 of my flash cards work in ANOTHER PI3 that I bought for my company a few weeks earlier. ALL of my equipment tested out 100% But this time, I was not issues an RMA for a replacement device. The People at Adafruit refused to RMA my device, or allow me to ship back the 2 defective devices, and promptly refunded my money. (In Full) However, at the same time, they BANNED me from their support forums... Guaranteeing that I cannot receive support on the OTHER Adafruit products I just purchased. Even though I had violated nothing in their terms of service, was not disruptive to those forums in ANY WAY, and even with the FACT that I still own devices from Adafruit that I may need support for, and that ARE STILL WITHIN the warranty term. Considering that you CANNOT get adafruit support or returns ANY OTHER WAY, its pretty clear that all hope for continuing support and service for the other products I own, was ended without cause. Thus they are false advertising these warranties. As they cancelled mine without ANY REASON OR CAUSE! Simply because I was unlucky enough to get x2 DoA units in a row, and made the proper support requests. This is totally unacceptable, and I do believe its also Illegal. misrepresenting a warranty, or declining service without reasonable cause, under the terms of that warranty, is FALSE ADVERTISING! Warranty says 4 weeks, its been 2. And I have no more support for my products... What did I do to earn this BAN from their support forums? Did I tell the truth too much? Did I expose a production flaw or misstep? Did I get banned simply because of bad luck? Either way, i would now like to return and be refunded for ALL the products I have purchased through adafruit in the past 2 weeks, as this business has shown me nothing but contempt, for nothing more than their shipping me DoA product.... not once.... But TWICE IN A ROW! Then banning me for complaining! That deplorable! Utterly Pathetic Customer Service, and TERRIBLE BUSINESS PRACTICES... Bordering on Criminal. I absolutely DO NOT wish for this business to benefit from their mistreatment of me IN ANY WAY. They DONT deserve to... '"

"Adafruit Industries
1:56 PM (2 hours ago)

to me
Hi Neil,

Thanks for the message. Your first class order shipped from Adafruit today. Tracking number 9400110200882768510099


USPS sometimes provides incomplete or inaccurate updates in their tracking system. This rarely affects the delivery status of the package. Usually a package with inaccurate tracking information will still arrive on time.

First class can take up to 2 weeks to deliver.

We also have a helpful video regarding USPS shipments here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Cp_CGvoxg

Thanks,
Adafruit customer support, Rebecca
Adafruit Industries
2:56 PM (1 hour 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"

"adafruit is an dubious company. after they get your money, they dont care anymore about you.
i payed $1,672.24 for my pakage plus ups shipping and i dont get NOTHING as UPS was unable to ship me the pakage it went back to adafruit. i have proof that they got the pakage back and now they dont want to send it again. im willing to pay the transport again. but they simply ripped me off!

btw. the support is the most worse i ever seen in my live.
after a lot of weeks trying to get help i finally posted a forum entry, hoping to get any help there...
the thread get removed after minutes. after i tryd to post more threads again they simply removed them too and banned my ip.
so if your post is "bad" for the company face they just remove it and ban you! i have proofs for this. i made screenshots and copies of my posts because i already feeled that they will do something like this...

still no response.
still no money back.
still not pakage!

go to sparkfun or simmilar. let you hands away from adafruit!
"

"When a switch in the battery holder I purchased from Adafruit did not work, they did not even respond to my complaint at adafruit.com/support. I even offered to install the new switch my self if they sent me a replacement."

"Items were missing and damaged in the order. They eventually refunded me for the damaged items and promised to resend the missing item, but they never did so, immediately cancelling my order when I attempted to order it myself. They now claim they issued a refund in 2014 for this item, which does not show up in my Paypal transaction history and they refuse to provide evidence the payment was made. If they'd really made the payment they should be more than happy to forward a proof of payment. They insist I must instead open a dispute if I claim they didn't refund the money. I tried to do that, but it was just closed. It now just goes back and forth, and they keep telling me I must open a Paypal dispute, but they've deliberately dragged this out long enough that Paypal aren't interested.

Horrible company and their staff quickly become rude. I regret ever purchasing anything from them."

"Adafruit sells great products that you can't really find anywhere else. Unfortunately, their customer service is terrible.

I had an issue with one of their products and emailed them looking for help. They continually referred me to their forums, where problems take days to be solved by rude customer service techs. They would not help me via email.

I will not do business with them again."

"At first glance, Adafruit keeps a fantastic library of howto's, cool gadgets, video reviews, and accessible hobbyist break out boards. After looking closer, and spending a lot of money, I realized a lot of their products are older and model specific.

I bought a TFT display, for example, that seems incompatible with the newer ARM chip found in the Raspberry Pi 2. (And can't help but mention that the TFT display has older headers meant for a RPi B). A simple footnote would have helped.

They claim to have some products (but don't) . I've found myself searching their website 50 different ways to figure out some guest writer is making claims of imagined products. A USB backpack plus 20x4 display is an example.

Really, they need an editor.

Shipping is expensive and slow. Everything I've gotten from Adafruit to date has come in USPS mailer envelopes and weighed ounces. Cost is about $4-$5 per package. Delivery time is at least a week. Faster service ramps up the dollar amount quickly.

With all that said, Adafruit is pretty decent overall. The have unique beginner friendly boards and projects. But I think they get buried in their own sea of information, which becomes outdated super fast. The fancier the item, the more specific the target, the higher the risk of it not being current (or even viable).

I'll definitely continue shopping here. I just won't buy any more $$$, specific items."

"No customer support for defective parts. Keep in mind they use their forum as their method to get parts return authorization. If you have a problem with one of their products, you must sign up to the forum and try to get a return by spending hours or days discussing why you feel the item is defective. I understand forums for engineering issues or for trading information, but to get a simple return authorization it just seems like a way to put you off until you give up. And I did."

"Fantastic website, with great documentation. Products are excellent, service is fast, prices are great. "

"Ordered some electronic parts from them. Quick shipping and a problem with the order was quickly fixed."

"This is a great place to shop for one's Arduino and electronics supplies. Great selection. They are prompt curtious and HONEST. Let me explain. Among my latest order to these guys was one of the newer SMD Arduino boards. Before I ever received it, they sent me an e-mail to notify me that it was discovered the last batch of SMD Arduino boards had a problem and that a replacement is on its way FREE of Charge! Indeed the new board came winthin a day and they also furnished a self addressed pre-paid envelope to send the defect unit back to them. Not only that, but they are giving me a sizeable discount on my next order to them to make up for my inconvenience. Go with these guys ... you can't go wrong"

"This is one of my favorite on-line vendors. They have good prices on high-quality electronic components and kits. The quality of their tutorials and supporting documentation is very high. Their customer service and support is as good as it gets. I can't say enough good things about Adafruit!!!!!"

"I stumbled across this website while looking for Arduino supplies. The prices were very reasonable, cheaper than most. I received a shipping notification the next day with a tracking number, and everything went smoothly. I would definitely order from them again."