"They shipped me the wrong order. After going back and forth, at a snails pace, via email support forms, they acknowledge they got it wrong. They will ship me my order after I return the wrong item. And according to their FAQ it may take 2 weeks for them to process the return.
NO CUSTOMER SERVICE - no phone number - goodbye, SparkFun."
"Sent me wrong product (my order in my account was correct, somebody packed the wrong item) and it is impossible to receive a response from SparkFun "support". No phone number and they don't respond to email or online support form....."
"Avoid them. Get electronics from China. China has better quality products and better customer service and faster shipping even by boat. They won't reply to emails or pick up the phone"
"It takes them days and days to respond to customer email. They deliberately make it very difficult to communicate with them. They say items "will ship out right away" but that is apparently a phrase with no meaning. Don't use or design with their products, you are just opening yourself up to future problems. You can buy some, but not all, of their items from other vendors like digikey and mouser but I would be very very wary.
I am ashamed of these people, they make us all look like losers.
"
"I ordered a Raspberry Pi400 from them back in November. First it showed verification. It ultimately moved on to "Backorder". It has been sitting there for two months. Now they tell me 1-6 weeks for inventory which may not be enough for them to fulfill my order. I found another dealer who had stock and sent it to me in one day. Now, Sparkfun tells me that they can't refund the charge but will only give me a store credit. Reputable companies do not charge for items when they have no inventory. This is now in contest with my credit card company. Depending on how that plays out, I will file complaints with the Colorado Attorney General's Office and the local consumer protection agency having jurisdiction over this company. As a retired Federal Agent, I'm very good at pursuing disreputable companies.
Update: 1/25/21 - I spoke with their customer service manager - Nicole. She was very pleasant and helpful. They couldn't get my virtual credit card number to accept the refund. I ended up having to give her the actual number. The credit has been processed back to my card. The issue seems to be that they are having trouble getting inventory. I still feel that payment in full should not be charged when the item is not available for immediate shipment. "
"I ordered a Chinook-paid over $90. It took from December 6- December 28 to arrive. My son opened it for my grand boys and it was not a Chinook. It was a cheap DRONE that sells for $27.95 @ Walmart. No offer to refund the difference. This is in now way a comparison to a Chinook.
Their resonse-
On Sun, Jan 3, 2021, 8:05 AM sparkfun support wrote:
Dear customer we shipped the improved version 2 of the product that is friendly to the children.
This decision came after a previous review of the original chinook .
Thank you and stay safe.
"
"I have spent around $350 at SparkFun over the past 6 months. With my most recent order, I had issues with the shipping. They will only use FedEx, and FedEx lost my package for 2 days. I needed the items delivered quickly, and tried to contact SparkFun to see if I could buy the same items that were lost somewhere in shipping, and have them delivered using a more reliable shipping carrier, since I was already behind schedule due to the shipping delay. I got no response to my email. When my package arrived, it was missing 4 of the 6 items I ordered. Once again, I tried to contact SparkFun to resolve the issue, as I need the items that I PAID for. Once again, I got no reply. They don't care about their customers, and apparently have zero employees dealing with customer service issues. Hopefully FedEx will cover the cost of the lost/missing items. If not I will have to initiate a chargeback with my bank. DO NOT ORDER FROM SPARKFUN! If you need an item that only the offer, order it somewhere else. Amazon, ebay, Robotshop, or literally any other supplier will at least have better customer service."
"It was OK that they sent me the wrong item. I understand things happen. What was unacceptable was not being able to get any customer service to resolve the issue. No answer to email. No one available for chat. No one available on the phone during business hours on multiple attempts. Although Spark(NOT)fun offers a variety of seemingly unique products, what I realize now is that comparable items can be purchased from other, more respectable vendors. "
"I wish I had known that I would get charged 75% import tax for a $40 item. That was just crazy, I refused it. I got no response from support, and so you should not expect to get any response either. Even ordering in the USA - I have gotten no answer from customer service. If you can find what you want elsewhere, do it."
"They took over a week to "process" my order. Ultimately I received the stuff I ordered in ~ a month. 2 of the 4 items I ordered were defective. When I tried to contact customer service, they were rather argumentative and basically accused me of being an idiot that can't stick a wire into a hole. (yeah OK ... 20 years of experience as an engineer ... I think I know how to do this stuff by now, kid) So I just gave up and made a note to never order from them again.
But the real kicker is I managed to find all the same things I ordered from them on Amazon for 1/3rd the price. AND the Chinese seller managed to get the parts to me FASTER than Sparkfun! Gotta love that! "
"Shipping fees are very expensive and very slow. The product I purchased went on sale for a 20-percent discount within a few days of my purchasing it and the Customer Service rep offered me zero price protection when I asked.
Purchase your equipment from other companies. Sparkfun does nothing to preserve their customers' loyalty."
"No response whatsoever. Left the message and never get anything back.
Worst company to deal with. Would not buy anything from them now on. "
"I feel completely being made a fool by SparkFun! The device prices are quite good but they rip off the buyers with the shipping to Europe costs! I mean, I had a 70 dollars cart, then at the payment section they ask for further 22 (!) dollars for the shipping. At the confirmation process they have no explicit warning for other costs and I decided to go on with the payment. Today the product has been delivered to me, and the courier asked for other 32 (!!!) dollars for import taxes! No words for this unfairness, SparkFun sellers should be more correct with their buyers with a clear explicitation of ALL the costs since the beginning of the online shopping. Go for EBAY or AMAZON !"
"Rude and arrogant users in the official IRC channel.
No answer whatsoever from the customer service."
"Awesome customer service!
So, I decided to buy some Black Friday Sale Arduinos at their blowout prices as a first time customer. The deal I was getting was between 40% to 50% off... which is pretty much awesome for a retail store. Basically, they weren't making much, if any profit on the black Friday items.
I ended up getting the items in my cart, an account made, and onto the order confirmation screen, when the discount price suddenly reverted to full price once again. Thankfully, I caught the nasty surprise in time to halt the process, and sent the staff a note regarding my dilemma.
The next day (mind you, the day AFTER BF, when retail staff is normally swamped with traffic, or stretched to the point of passing out), a CS representative responded to my comment. In the end, they honored the BF pricing retroactively, given the error. Plus, they were nothing but kind and courteous about the issue. I'm now a fan of the store! Plus, the electronics ordered are being put to use within graduate student research in medical imaging technology. So they effectively helped to donate towards a cause that benefits society at large.
Again, I had a terrific first time customer experience because of the SparkFun's CS staff. Not sure why so many people have given it so many bad reviews on here, as they seemed to be nothing but prompt, fair and "on-point" in my communications."