Direct pickup of parts?

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drdunc
 
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Direct pickup of parts?

Post by drdunc »

I frequently travel to a place near Varick St and the Adafruit offices. Is it possible to pickup an order in person?

adafruit
 
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Re: Direct pickup of parts?

Post by adafruit »

Thanks for the note, no - we do not have a retail location and we are not allowed to have customer pick ups in any way as per our building agreement.

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drdunc
 
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Re: Direct pickup of parts?

Post by drdunc »

gotcha. Too bad. Would have been nice to not wait for the USPS or UPS truck for days and days (Seems like I always order on a Friday or Thursday)

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steverobey
 
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Re: Direct pickup of parts?

Post by steverobey »

ALSO..

How cool would it have been to be able to meet the people who are putting all of these strange and wonderful gadgets together? :) I'm disappointed for you drdunc

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clarkj
 
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Re: Direct pickup of parts?

Post by clarkj »

It's not just a problem with Adafruit, unfortunately. At one point I was getting dev-kits from Microchip, and could drive past their fulfillment center by simply adjusting which street I used (no additional driving distance), but they wouldn't do "will call" so had to pay FedEx to generate more CO2 to get my stuff to my home a day later than I would have had it if I could have picked it up. Last summer, Boulder wouldn't be far out of the path on my "road trip", but Sparkfun has a policy that they'll only allow "will calls" if you have a Colorado address. Had I been able to get "will call" at Adafruit, it might have gotten me "over the tipping point" to make a visit to NYC last summer when I was in Connecticut. As it was, I avoided going through NYC. Oh well, we live with it. Thanks for letting me vent!

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steverobey
 
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Re: Direct pickup of parts?

Post by steverobey »

The problem with will-call is pretty simple though other than what has already been mentioned with not having a store-front or otherwise a place where non-employees are allowed to be. There is the matter of setting things aside for will-call customers to come pick up at their convenience. That takes up space and it's taking away from the available stock of parts as well. So, If you will-call something and don't come get it for an entire month, it's been sitting there taking up space and may otherwise have become a back ordered part. There may come a time when you can simply show up at a store front and buy whatever fantastic Adafruit Industries product you want, but that day isn't here yet.

Until the day does come when we can drop by our local DIY/Electrical gadget shop store and pick up the things we need, there are a few other options. A lot of people and upset or displeased with the limited shipping options ordering direct from Adafruit Industries but there are actually distributors all over the place (See link) https://www.adafruit.com/distributors You can also find most Adafruit products on Amazon.com as well as Digikey just to give you a few options off the top. You could become a distributor too. check out that link.

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clarkj
 
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Re: Direct pickup of parts?

Post by clarkj »

One of the ways to deal with the problem of folks that don't pick things up is a policy of only holding "will-call" orders for a limited time, say 72 hours. (I have seen such policies in the past.) You could demand a credit card, and if they "no-showed" charge a "restocking fee".

For many years, I've also been frustrated by Circuit Specialists, as they have both a store-front (actually just a counter these days -- used to be a regular self-serve store) and an on-line. It would be really nice to be able to put together my order on-line, "pull the trigger", and just stop in and pick it up a couple hours later, instead of having to stand there waiting while they run around gathering up my order. (BTW, I was in there yesterday, and they're moving to 819 W. Fairmont Dr. #2, Tempe, AZ 85282 this coming weekend.)

I might note that a lot of companies that take "will-call" orders are catering to commercial customers where they send some low-level employee over to get the stuff that's urgently needed rather than having to send a highly skilled individual just to act essentially as a courier.

Adafruit certainly has a good excuse, but IMHO some other businesses could do a better job.

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mattfelsen
 
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Re: Direct pickup of parts?

Post by mattfelsen »

Good morning! I understand that Adafruit doesn't have a local pickup option. Are there any courier services (with licensed/insured couriers) that would allow for same day delivery in Manhattan? Thanks!

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Direct pickup of parts?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

I'm afraid we don't know of any.

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