"Charged my card for a 3d printer that was claimed to be in stock and never shipped it. Had to wrangle and demand a credit."

"Where do I start with these guys....

The amount of hidden fees is insane. I wanted roughly $50 in parts, but I have to pay an additional $24 for shipping. I caved and said, hey okay I really need these parts in for monday! $24 is okay! My new total comes to around $75 with UPS Worldwide Express Saver. Okay, fine.

I check my bank statement the next day, and notice they charge me $85.11. Im confused, but wave it off as I am too excited for these parts to come in, and maybe I will get around to emailing them later.

So the monday comes around, (today) and the UPS guy comes waving around some papers, and says I not only need to sign for the package (understandable) but I have to pay an additional $40 to them. I ask him about that, and he says its an import charge. I give him the most confused look, and say I refuse to pay that fee, as I was not made aware of it through Sparkfun or UPS before I made my purchase.

He walks off, and I slam my door. What. The. f#!k?

I then proceed to write an email to Sparkfun, telling them of my situation, and how I was unaware of any if these hidden fees, and how my $24 in shipping for UPS should have covered any sort of hidden fees. I still haven't gotten a reply from them, and hope for one by tomorrow. (That customer service...)

I refuse to use Sparkfun ever again. If you want to be charged for ridiculous shipping and have hidden fees show up at your door? Use Sparkfun, because for me? Sparkfun is really Spark-CRAP.

I have recieved better service from China, Taiwan, and India with no hidden bull$h!t fees. I am extremely unsatisfied, and now hoping I can at least get my $85 back... "

"Abysmal tech support. They asked me to resolder a bluetooth board over and over to make sure it made contact because it wouldn't power on. IT DOESN'T POWER ON. They wanted pictures every step of the way. Ten literal emails later I called them on the phone demanding an RMA (I hate doing this but I need a replacement, this is a grant project on a timeline) and spoke to the same tech who, after I demanded an RMA, got me an RMA. Well, it was put in the system, and I don't know if I'll get it. My suggestion is get on the phone and explicitly demand an RMA right there without any excuses."

"I had made an order in which one particular item (Arduino Leonardo) was placed on backorder. Weeks went by and the item finally came back in stock, and they shipped it - and I received the wrong item.

They accidentally sent an Arduino Starter kit instead of the Leonardo, and on realizing this I emailed them with the details. The customer service rep I spoke with was very friendly... and let me KEEP the starter kit, in addition to priority Fedexing the Leonardo out to me that day!

10/10 for customer service. I would have happily returned the starter kit! Thanks Sparkfun, you guys rock."

"As another reviewer said, "Technical support is extraordinarily lacking." couldn't have said it better!

The sparkfun return policy is to have you contact tech support first, and I did also try customer support who didn't even bother to respond. Tech Support seems to specialize in making you feel like the problem with their product is your fault and dragging their feet on any resolution. I received a part that was not functioning on arrival, although I spent quite some time trouble shooting and testing to make sure the issue was the part not something on my end. After several days back and forth emails explaining the issue, and several more again requesting an RMA for a part that arrived defective, the final response was "Alright, replacement ticket #xxxx has been issued. We will get the part out eventually." that was several days ago, I have not received any shipment notice and they have not replied to subsequent requests for updates. I am not holding my breath for the replacement given the "eventually" comment. Meanwhile I have a $150 pile of useless parts from the rest of the order that rely on this one piece for communication. It looks like I am going to have to submit a chargeback to my credit card company. It is really not worth all of the aggravation.

Although Sparkfun has some unique and specialized pieces of electronics, in the future I will go out of my way to buy my parts elsewhere.. even if the part that I have to get is a Sparkfun part, there are other distributors out there who will surely treat you better than the manufacturer themselves. This was only my second order from Sparkfun and if at all possible, it will be the last. I will happily pay more elsewhere to not have to endure that shoddy treatment again!
"

"Very difficult to deal with if you have a problem with your order. My order was shipped to an old address they had on file. There system doesn't cross check paypal. I contacted them immediately and they told me there was nothing they can do. There customer service is one of the worse on the net. Having to dispute via paypal. "

"Sparkfun has always taken care to ship my electronics components with care. Everything was wrapped in electrostatic damage protecting sheets or bags and always perfectly padded.

I am always anxious to see that bright red box come to my doorstep.

I have noticed that Sparkfun has higher prices than some other stores but they more than make up for it with quality products, a great website, sweet customer service and an amazingly wide and varied assortments of parts suitable for any project.

Sparkfun is always engaging and their website is updated frequently, another hobby parts site I purchased from hadn't updated their site in 4 years. After ordering from them, I started to worry that the business didn't even exist anymore. I received that product two months later in a box, unprotected with no padding or ESD bags, loose in a pile of static generating Styrofoam peanuts."

"Orderd sugru ding and dent but it said it is just past it sell date. Needed the stuff anyway quick to use but it was even past it use date. (Note: Sugru has a limited shelf-life. Each pack is marked with a sell-by and use-by date. These hung around in inventory too long and now they're passed their sell-by date. Honestly, we've found that Sugru is packaged really well and usually retains it's stickiness and malleability for some time after it's technically 'expired'. We're selling this at a reduced price since we can't guarantee its freshness.)
So one out of 12 bags didn t do the job anymore. Support tried to calm me with $10. I will use that to order a new pack but not at spark fun...... to sad"

"Package never scanned into the USPS system and never showed up. I understand that USPS shipments were not insured, but with it not even being scanned into USPS I doubt it left their warehouse. I order online all the time and this is the only time I have ever not received a package."

"I've ordered from SparkFun several times. They have a great selection and lots of detailed info on their products. They also have some good videos on YouTube. It's a great site for the electronics hobbyist."

"This was my first order with Sparkfun and I found the overall experience to be good.

Sparkfun made a minor error on the order they shipped to me and worked to reconcile the error in a manner that made both of us happy.

The positives:
1. Prices are favorable.
2. Order process workflow and search on the site were great.
3. Customer Service is polite and easy to work with.

The less than positives:

A. I wasn't looking for expedited shipping on this order, but was a little surprised that it took 6 days for an order that fits in a USPS "Small Size" Priority box 6 days to arrive. You should use their expedited shipping offer if you are under a time crunch.

Final Outcome:

Customer service worked very hard to satisfy the error with the order and the shipping time. I can say I was truly pleased with the customer service person I spoke too."

"Technical support is extraordinarily lacking. Had a problem with a motor driver board I bought through them and tried talking with them about it. I couldn't even get the guy to understand what was happening with the board when I was trying to use it. At the same time, he seemed to be talking to me like he thought I was a moron. I'm going to school for this, my teacher (who has a PhD in electro-physics) and I both tested the board in the lab at school and found it to be faulty. After going back and forth a few times the tech support just completely stopped talking to me and ignored me. Thank you for the $30 paper weight SparkFun. I will never buy from you again!"

"I placed an order for the first time recently and had a very favorable experience. The prices were great, I was sent a confirmation with tracking, and the order arrived quickly. I really don't have anything negative to say about them."

"Great shop! Cheap, lots of supplies and very fast to send your order. I'll keep it in my favorites in the future"

"Awesome products, easy to use website, fast shipping, extremely responsive technical support... I highly recommend them!"