Adafruit Industries Reviews 

I used to buy from them since 2015 and they would ship to Cyprus. Years later I wanted to order again and they simply don't provide options to ship to Cyprus.

I was like that sucks and would like to know the reason but when emailed they didn't give me one.

Few months later I tried to use a freight forwarder to order, so that I can perhaps get some useful items i needed for a projects.

They sent me an email for "extra" verification.

I was honest and explained there is no shipping option. here and would like to place an order so i used a freight forwarder.

They not only cancelled my order without even asking, they send me to find resellers that sell there products because they don't do business with freight forwarders.

The support person didn't even bother to check if there was a local distributor where I live. I did check beforehand and there isn't. Also you have to buy from multiple resellers to get the items i needed as no one reseller had all the items i needed. I checked quite a few.

Worst customer experience ever and if i could put 0 zero stars I would.

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.

Don't do business with them. As others have stated it is the worst customer service in the WORLD. On day 5 of trying to resolve an issue. I doubt it'll be resolved. Every "customer service" response has been from a different person.

Worst customer experience you will find anywhere in the WORLD hands down. They will easily sell and overcharge for shipping. Send you defective merchandise and give a run around to simply exchange it. Several emails to support which shows absolutely no support for any issue. They refer you to sign up for a public forum to try and get tech solutions when you simply need to exchange a defective product. When repeatedly trying to get any actually customer care aka support you will be met with short rude responses on how they won't exchange their product. Say you are threatening them when asking if they are not willing to help then do I need to fight the charges as they sent a defective product and kept giving me run around. A question not a threat. Which was insulting to get that passive aggressive rude response. Think they'd have showed some integrity, apologize for their short comings, and sort it. Easy, right? No..they will be short and rude again, refund you, and then, their favorite copy and paste routine it seems, tell you to go elsewhere. Waiting to hear from them for an apology via BBB. This is taking a lot of time but feel needs to be addressed. All have been unnecessary if they ran a legitimate business and simply did what their video on youtube said. Said to email support I did. All this because I ordered a birthday present for someone. So they never got what they wanted for their Birthday then when they personally try and order needed parts for a project completely separate from me they hurt his way of life. He was upset about a site saying he was fraud etc and was getting his heart rate up. Not good btw. I asked what site..he said Adafruit and I cringed. I said good luck. End of it all he sent them an email letting them know how difficult they were being for no reason and didnt understand why he had to explain his personal business. He gave me the transcripts from the correspondence. Was really odd what they were doing to him. He had the same short rude response others get. They voided his order and told him to go to another supplier after all of that.. Lol. What?... Point being. Twice they hurt my partner and caused problems by just them operating the way they do. When he nor I have done nothing to hurt anyone. I simply wanted him to have what I thought have been a great gift that turned into a problem on his birthday. Then you hurt his way of life. He is a good person and does not deserve the stress you put on him especially after your bad business with me. They do not care who they hurt and just go about doing this type of bad behavior to people over and over and over again. These complaints I have found online and collected go back for years now. Dating back to 2016 so far tons and tons of similar reviews pored all over with same issues. Same staff. Same outcome. But it is the consumer, right? Lol.. Obviously not. They just seem to get off on being difficult and abusing consumers. I really can look at it no other way. I implore everyone with these same issues to file a formal complaint with the BBB. It is way past time for Adafruit to quit abusing consumers and address what they are doing. Their image and misleading youtube returns video tell a different story.

Adafruit has always been my one-stop shop for certain tech purchases; however, I found that they fully support "Black Lives Matter", what many see as a violent, divisive and racist organization; not to mention they are self-proclaimed Marxists. Its unfortunate that they can't find one of the many peaceful and inclusive organizations that truly support minority communities by providing positive economic, medical and educational opportunities. I brought this to their attention and stated that I would not purchase from them until they removed their public support for BLM. I never received any reply and have found that they have suspended my login indefinitely. I guess you can add censorship and cancel-culture now. I'm going to spend my money where it truly supports unity and positive support.

Paid for expensive UPS shipping with a quoted date of arrival only to get an email AFTER payment saying they will take 2 business days to put my tiny item in a box! So basically the quoted shipping was a lie and I paid extra for nothing. Ill never shop here again.

UPDATE: Order arrived, late, missing parts and when I contact them they will not send the missing parts. Ill be charging back with my bank.

All you people making negative comments and trying to downgrade Adafruit Industries are you for real?
Havent you read this simple notice by Adafruit? I thought this notice is visible even to the blind!

PLEASE NOTE: Adafruit does not have a retail store, orders cannot be picked up. NO VISITORS ARE PERMITTED. Our factory is not available for visits.

You are not dealing with Adafruit . Rather those technical forums some of whom don't give a damn about your problems. Lady Ada and her team are working vigorously for the open source course.

Adafruit has written hundreds of very useful code for us. I personally feel forever grateful to this wonderful American company. Yes led by a female.

Tons of great tools and products for those in the makers movement, along with a huge effort for making effective guides for people to learn. Always have received my orders quickly, and without any issues.

Flood of negative reviews - Looking at the subtext it's apparent there's a lot of right-wingers upset at the "wokeness" of this retailer.

I've had both good experiences with Adafruit support and shipping, but I wouldn't assume this is the same for everyone. You can buy Adafruit products many places, and with how busy they are understandably you're going to have a different experience than Amazon customer service. Keep up the good work, Adafruit!

By far the worst customer service I've ever encountered. By FAR. They banned me when I inquired why I should pay twice for shipping on the Pi4 that they oversold and had charged me for two days earlier but is now no longer in stock. I can't believe people can do business like this. Do yourself a favor and pay a few dollars more elsewhere and avoid the headache.

Ordered my first project from them. Got it fairly quick, but the shipping was on the expensive side for such a small/lite package, but ok.

Had issues with one of the pads on their custom breadboard. The pad ripped off while trying to remove the CF card piece. It's disappointing to say the least, could have been I used too much heat, but I can't say for sure. I tossed the part out disgusted it broke so easily.

Contacted their support through email. They wanted me to send pics, I told them I tossed the parts already and just wanted to buy THOSE two parts. Their support just thanks me then tells me there is nothing they can do for me because they don't sell individual parts.

Wut?

It's a parts/project company who doesn't sell parts? Are you kidding us?

Stephanie left me with no options, so I told her I would just call my bank for a refund so of course I get a nasty email back telling me I am "threatening them". I replied explaining they are leaving me with $62+ worth of parts that are absolutely worthless and no options since the breadboard is their own brand and only they sell it. It's funny how they are the ones leaving me in a crappy position with no options and i'm not supposed to do anything for recompense? This is like working with a corporation like Apple, not a small "maker/builder" org that should have more nimble capabilities and friendlier assistance.

The excuse given is "The system can't process individual parts for orders". Yeah, that's by design and that's a problem. Fix the problem, don't hide behind it as a pathetic excuse. I expect this from Apple, not a maker/builder org.

Worst parts experience I have had in years. Will never do business with them again.

Slow shipping....rather buy their junk on Amazon...

This is an amazingly racist company that spreads hate.

Their customer service is stuck up, smug and would rather not be bothered by anyone then to do their job. If you email them with issue, they don't actually read your email or even look up your order. they just give you the brush off with a 2 sentence response basically saying go pound salt. Then when you call them out, they refund your order, and tell you never to shop with them. I guess they are such hot stuff they can just blow off customers like this.

The trend you see with them on the net is that if you need support or cusomer service, don't expect much.

Purchased a product from their site. A tracking number was provided a few days later, but it stayed in "pre-shipment" status for over 9 days, meaning that it was never handed over to the USPS. When I initially emailed them, they simply said it was already shipped, even though it still said pre-shipment. I waited a couple days then asked for a refund when nothing had changed. Fortunately, they gave me the refund right away. I don't think I would have ever received that item. I was disappointed because they boast fast shipping times on their website.

It's unfortunate that I can't leave 0 stars. They screwed up the shipping label and it got delivered somewhere else. I took the time and filed with UPS for them and requested that they ship a new one. They said I would have to wait until UPS finished their "investigation". It's a $5 part that I needed now. When I told them I couldn't wait for that time frame and I would just dispute the charge on my credit card if they wouldn't ship out a new one asap, they told me not to threaten them. Wow! What a horrible way of running a company. I have 300 employees and if 1 of them wrote an email like that, they would instantly be fired. AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COST!

Purchased an LCD with SD card. It arrived and I wired it up. The LCD would not turn on. I checked the wiring again and it finally turned on, then began dimming, until it finally went off again. I was not able to get it to work again, even after checking the wiring a third and a fourth time. I'm not a newbie with electronics and I know what I'm doing. When I contacted Adafruit support, they directed me to post about the problem on their forum, which relectantly I did. I want to say that this is a huge hassle. I'm almost positive the part is defective. Having to spend time writing out a small essay and waiting to hear from someone on a forum is very inconvenient and essentially is designed to frustrate anyone from following through on trying to get a refund. I will never purchase from Adafruit again unless they change this policy. I advise anyone who is considering purchasing from this company to think twice, as they do not stand behind their products. It is obvious to me that the part is defective, yet they force customers to go through this ridiculous routine. No thanks.

Update: Adafruit finally refunded my money, but banned me from ever purchasing from them again, all for complaining about their lousy customer service. That has to be the crappiest business plan that I have ever encountered. Do yourself a favor and don't purchase from these people.

Have purchased items from them for years. Recently purchased an OLED display for $39. After the display arrived I wired it up exactly as directed on their web site. The display did display an image but the image was VERY VERY dim. I tried a different library but still way to dim to work with. I contacted "customer support" and informed them of the problem. They directed me toward their forum for assistance. After several days of no response I emailed customer support to inform them of the no response. A support person did post on the site requesting additional information. I provided that the same day. After several more days I did not receive a response on the forum. I again email them informing them that I was not satisfied with the support I'm receiving. I was then banned from their site and could not even track orders I had still in progress. They did refund my purchase of the OLED but then emailed me asking me to seek another vendor. A very good suggestion.

No phone support, no direct email support, never contacted by the same person and a very bad attitude when things go wrong with their defective products. The OLED display was not produced by them but they sell it and wont support it. They act like a bunch of children.

I received a defective product and failed to receive technical support. After about two weeks I emailed support and literally within minutes received refund confirmation. There appears to be a discrepancy in their ability to support certain products, but they make up for this with good overall support concerning sales. My interaction with them was protracted, but otherwise positive. I am willing to relent that COVID is impacting Adafruit's support staff. Despite receiving a defective item, I won't hesitate doing business with them in the future, and you shouldn't either.