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General suggestions or questions about the SparkFun Electronics website
By Dre
#89507
I got to the last checkout page uncountable times but lost connection, and even lost connection during the paypal stage. Fortunately, the last time I tried it went through. And the item I bought will definitely be used in a hobby projekt. It was too expensive for me to buy before, but now when I got a $100 refund I can start the project. Thank you SparkFun!
By Regex
#89513
sirscott71 wrote:For what it is worth - it really is a great site, particularly for breakout boards (without peer really). Their interface and website is great and they ship/deliver quickly. They just got in over their head today. Wait till the server stops smoking and have a look around.
I don't doubt that it's a great site (I have looked at literally every piece of merchandise) but I still can't shake the feeling of entropy.
By brusmith
#89516
brusmith wrote:
master_of_robots wrote:
brusmith wrote: For all we know this is in someones basement!!
Obviously, you haven't seen the posts on their headquarters. Nice building!
Thanks MOR I will have to look at that picture.
Maybe they should have stayed in the basement and put more money in servers?
By sirscott71
#89517
lostangel556 wrote:
sirscott71 wrote:
phalanx wrote: No, the people who use this forum in a constructive manner don't want to be bothered by the complaints from people who didn't get through.

-Bill
Hey don't get me wrong - I'm not bitter at all and am going forward with my purchase anyways (minus one item). I just think it is silly to lock a thread becasuse some people are being childish. If they were disturbing other threads, then absolutely...but this *is* a thread about free day and their complaints, while frivilous, are still relevant to the thread. Anyone in marketting will tell you that there is no bad information from a customer... which isn't the same thing as saying the customer is always right.
Yeah but there is such an thing as constructive comments.
e.g. unable to load web page for X mins now.

While i think that it shouldnt be locked under the premise that it is about free day, there are an awful lot of comments in here now that are more at poking the blame at sparkfun for lack of redundancy which i thought was one of the points of doing this day in the first place.
Maybe im wrong but ill leave it in the able hands of the admins to decide if it gets out of hand.
I think it would be better to delete any posts that are actually offensive (e.g. Master of whatever's ascii art). There *is* a valid learning point for sparkfun here - that some segment of the population will be extremely irrate if they think they are going to get free stuff and don't. I would think they would want to know this in case they want to do a similar event in the future.
By avio
#89518
I really don't care either way about getting in on free day. I'm going to
buy the stuff anyway. I hope these comments are taken as constructive
criticism and not mindless bashing.

I've got to say this is the most poorly thought out scam ever. Sparkfun
is going to have 1000 happy campers and 10 times that many that are
going to be pissed that they missed out. A fair fight is one thing but as it
was it was a waste of time and lame. I suspect the fallout will be worse
than the positives for Sparkfun and we will see a lot more bashing than
on this thread.

I would also urge you Sparkfun to take your lumps. If you try to delete
the negative comments it will make it that much worse. Customers have
a right to expect the website to work and a right to be angry after a
debacle like this. If you don't see that then maybe you should rethink
your position.

Still all in all a cool thing to do Sparkfun... but jeez, get it right next
time... assuming you survive the angry bashing.

Now... lets back to embedded stuff.
By smedoz
#89519
esm wrote:
smedoz wrote:i doubt that the majority of people that got through are not going to use the products but repost them.
I fully intend to use both the soldering station and Arduino kit I put together to entertaining use, if it makes you feel any better. :)
Actually it does. It really would be cool to see how many people are going to use the stuff they were purchasing. I had a cart full of stuff, but didnt get to checkout. I still want to get the stuff, but probably will wait some time again. Frankly, the site is great, and the stuff i've bought in the past is really cool, but definitly a little pissed today.

thanks dude, have fun.
By johngineer
#89521
esm wrote:
smedoz wrote:i doubt that the majority of people that got through are not going to use the products but repost them.
I fully intend to use both the soldering station and Arduino kit I put together to entertaining use, if it makes you feel any better. :)
It's important to note, however, that people who got the stuff just to re-sell it aren't likely to be hanging around the forum. Those people are long gone.
By master_of_robots
#89527
I mean this with all sincerity and honesty:

SparkFun is one of the best electronics/hobbyist websites I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!

There, I said it.
By brusmith
#89528
avio wrote:I really don't care either way about getting in on free day. I'm going to
buy the stuff anyway. I hope these comments are taken as constructive
criticism and not mindless bashing.

I've got to say this is the most poorly thought out scam ever. Sparkfun
is going to have 1000 happy campers and 10 times that many that are
going to be pissed that they missed out. A fair fight is one thing but as it
was it was a waste of time and lame. I suspect the fallout will be worse
than the positives for Sparkfun and we will see a lot more bashing than
on this thread.

I would also urge you Sparkfun to take your lumps. If you try to delete
the negative comments it will make it that much worse. Customers have
a right to expect the website to work and a right to be angry after a
debacle like this. If you don't see that then maybe you should rethink
your position.

Still all in all a cool thing to do Sparkfun... but jeez, get it right next
time... assuming you survive the angry bashing.

Now... lets back to embedded stuff.
I second that!!
By sirscott71
#89530
how about a *constructive* discussion on what would have made this *better* or how it could be done differently in future?

starting..... now...

-----

If the goal was to target begginer hobbyists:
-have only certain items eligbile such as arduinos, certain dev boards, soldering irons, etc...

If the goal was to reward loyal customers:
-send (individual) coupon codes to the the contact emails from pervious purchases
-or at checkout, only have the free day discount apply to those with accounts pre-dating the free day announcement.

If the goal was expanding the customer base
-as someone else mentioned, offer a deep discount (i.e. 50% or more off first $100). I'd be curious to see what the median order value was... were most people just ordering exactly $100 worth of stuff (i.e. all free except S&H)?

thoughts?
By master_of_robots
#89532
sirscott71 wrote:how about a *constructive* discussion on what would have made this *better* or how it could be done differently in future?

starting..... now...

-----

If the goal was to target begginer hobbyists:
-have only certain items eligbile such as arduinos, certain dev boards, soldering irons, etc...

If the goal was to reward loyal customers:
-send (individual) coupon codes to the the contact emails from pervious purchases
-or at checkout, only have the free day discount apply to those with accounts pre-dating the free day announcement.

If the goal was expanding the customer base
-as someone else mentioned, offer a deep discount (i.e. 50% or more off first $100). I'd be curious to see what the median order value was... were most people just ordering exactly $100 worth of stuff (i.e. all free except S&H)?

thoughts?
Yes
By thebra
#89533
sirscott71 wrote:how about a *constructive* discussion on what would have made this *better* or how it could be done differently in future?

starting..... now...

-----

If the goal was to target begginer hobbyists:
-have only certain items eligbile such as arduinos, certain dev boards, soldering irons, etc...

If the goal was to reward loyal customers:
-send (individual) coupon codes to the the contact emails from pervious purchases
-or at checkout, only have the free day discount apply to those with accounts pre-dating the free day announcement.

If the goal was expanding the customer base
-as someone else mentioned, offer a deep discount (i.e. 50% or more off first $100). I'd be curious to see what the median order value was... were most people just ordering exactly $100 worth of stuff (i.e. all free except S&H)?

thoughts?
But that would require more thought than just throwing up a blog post and crossing your fingers.

//less angry but still angry
By jswilson64
#89536
Yes, I'm a n00b as far as ordering from Spark Fun. I had hoped to get about $120 worth of stuff for a project I'd like to tinker with, but never spent the money because it's more of an academic exercise than something that would be useful in any real-world sense.

I'm not upset that I didn't get the discount. But I am disappointed that I didn't even get a chance to get the discount because Spark Fun seriously underestimated the traffic they'd get. I always knew the odds were long, but I expected the site to work better than it did. I've got a few good deals on woot.com before, by getting the order placed quickly. And I've missed out on some deals there, but only because I was a bit slow on the draw, er, click - not because the server crashed halfway through my order (as SparkFun apparently did multiple times).
By johngineer
#89538
avio wrote: I would also urge you Sparkfun to take your lumps. If you try to delete
the negative comments it will make it that much worse. Customers have
a right to expect the website to work and a right to be angry after a
debacle like this. If you don't see that then maybe you should rethink
your position.
With regards to the mini-controversy about "locking" the thread or deleting comments... I don't think they were talking about censoring ideas. They were reacting to some of the very childish and otherwise obscene posts made by a few individuals in very poor taste.

There are plenty of ways to express displeasure, frustration, and anger without resorting to ASCII depictions of the male reproductive organ (personally I thought it was hilarious, though I understand why it was removed).
By brusmith
#89542
johngineer wrote:
avio wrote: I would also urge you Sparkfun to take your lumps. If you try to delete
the negative comments it will make it that much worse. Customers have
a right to expect the website to work and a right to be angry after a
debacle like this. If you don't see that then maybe you should rethink
your position.
With regards to the mini-controversy about "locking" the thread or deleting comments... I don't think they were talking about censoring ideas. They were reacting to some of the very childish and otherwise obscene posts made by a few individuals in very poor taste.

There are plenty of ways to express displeasure, frustration, and anger without resorting to ASCII depictions of the male reproductive organ (personally I thought it was hilarious, though I understand why it was removed).
Oh to be 13 again!
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