USPS no longer a shipping option?

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draythomp
 
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Re: USPS no longer a shipping option?

Post by draythomp »

Fault the Chinese and eBay all you want, but today I wanted to buy a single item (all I need to complete a project) and the shipping was 50% higher than the cost of the item. I was perfectly willing to pay, say, 4-5 bucks for an envelope, label and postage, but almost $14.00 for shipping alone ??

For goodness sake, toss the thing in an envelope, stick a pre-printed postage sticker on it and charge the $3.00 it deserves to cost. I ordered it from ebay for less and free shipping. A couple of weeks to wait isn't all that bad.

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languer
 
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Re: USPS no longer a shipping option?

Post by languer »

That's a shame that only one option exists. A co-worker was checking some stuff I recommended and he came back to ask me why would I recommend them if their cheapest shipping option was quite that high. Don't get me wrong, for work stuff we get overnight and/or 2nd day from DigiKey, Mouser, and sometimes Adafruit and/or Sparkfun. But for our personal stuff, or when we are prototyping stuff from "our pocket, we don't normally throw money away just because.

More power to Adafruit if they can keep growing their business with that model, but for now we will have to go with Sparkfun and Pololu. Nothing against the Adafruit products, they are great; but I hope they are getting some good kickback from UPS; because 9+ bucks for standard shipping of small orders is really steep (no matter how you try to spin it).

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draythomp
 
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Re: USPS no longer a shipping option?

Post by draythomp »

Interestingly, I buy small items all the time from DigiKey, they charge me the actual shipping cost, plus a small fraction to cover handling. I paid four and a half bucks for shipping a couple of XBees just a couple of months ago.

But, hey, it's their business, they can do what they want.

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steverobey
 
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Re: USPS no longer a shipping option?

Post by steverobey »

I don't know if any of you realize this or not but literally everything on this website is also sold on Amazon.com, and from what I have seen, at least most of it is fulfilled BY Amazon. Yes, there are various sellers, but you can find all of the same products there, generally a little bit cheaper and at lower shipping cost. All of these items that are fulfilled by Amazon were purchased at some point directly from Adafruit Industries and placed in stock in Amazon's warehouses for faster shipping. By buying from these sellers, you are not taking money away from Adafruit because as I already mentioned, they were bought here in the first place, in bulk and at slightly lower rates. Furthermore, I have seen already on these forums, posts by customers who got shipped something that was damaged or slightly wonky or had an issue and Adafruit support staff in all cases I have seen were more than happy to assist these people with troubleshooting the device and if resolution could not be met, they sent that user an email with the instructions they needed to get a factory direct replacement. This brings me to my last point. When you order from the Adafruit Industries web site, you are effectively ordering factory direct, which can cost more money and as it was put to me by a member of the Adafruit support staff "We can't be everything to everybody all the time" Which means, from their standpoint, having one shipping method removes a whole lot of hassle and overhead for them. Let's be honest here, they really aren't making any money selling you that one small item you so desperately want for your one-off project. This isn't Radio shack. Thank GOD for that.

While I understand everybody's frustrations here, and am not affiliated with this company, I totally understand where they are coming from. Quit complaining about something that isn't going to change, buy on Amazon if you want the best price, lower shipping cost and maybe slightly faster shipping. You might even be within ten miles of an Amazon RDC which could mean that one day a tiny drone will drop that Trinket in your front yard.

Either way, it's still better than buying things from china and waiting a month.

adafruit
 
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Re: USPS no longer a shipping option?

Post by adafruit »

Thank you steverobey :)

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steverobey
 
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Re: USPS no longer a shipping option?

Post by steverobey »

Hey, I'm just trying to put things in perspective.

adafruit
 
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Re: USPS no longer a shipping option?

Post by adafruit »

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!

you can now use digi-key for purchases of adafruit products!
https://www.adafruit.com/blog/2015/01/1 ... -adafruit/

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draythomp
 
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Re: USPS no longer a shipping option?

Post by draythomp »

If you don't complain, and then don't enforce the complaint by buying somewhere else, nothing will change. Complaining about prices is only one way of letting them know they missed a sale or two ... or dozen because of a shipping policy.

adafruit
 
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Re: USPS no longer a shipping option?

Post by adafruit »

"complaining" isn't that helpful, generally speaking :) we work hard to make our products are available in many places that offer local/different shipping options, ebay, amazon and today we announced digikey:
https://www.adafruit.com/blog/2015/01/1 ... -adafruit/

you can also check out:
https://www.adafruit.com/distributors

thanks!
adafruit support

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