Amazon Experience
SavageCircuits
Posts: 264
Does anyone here buy accessories (boards, shields, etc.) from Amazon for your electronics and microcontroller experiences? If so, I am wondering if my experience is unique, in that every PCB I buy comes in a simple anti-static silver bag, which Amazon then puts in a padded envelope, ensuring that when it arrives, it is damaged.
This Arduino VC1053 Shield was no exception. When I opened the padded envelope, this is what I saw.
Pins were bent on both headers.
And the PCB was scratched.
On displays I have had the panel be cracked or scratched.
Comments
I've encountered that a couple times. My guess is that someone at Amazon determined it's cheaper to send products without protection than to deal with returns. There is return location just down the street from me and I am not shy about using it -- just did yesterday because an 8x8 matrix I bought did not match the specs on the product page. That said, returning something doesn't get your time back.
Not only that, but when I receive a board damaged, I can do a return and they will ship a replacement out before even getting the damaged board back, but inherently, the replacement seems to arrive in the same condition. Just frustrating.
This sort of stuff is usually sold by 3rd party vendors on amazon's store, so they're responsible for packaging. If they're sending something with pins, they really should stick them in a piece of foam.
OTOH, Amazon does about zero policing on their 3rd party vendors.
The Amazon boards I buy come with the pins in a bag and you have to solder them on yourself. One thing I like about Amazon is the returns are easy. When you buy take a picture of the promised delivery date, if its not delivered by the date, ask for a credit.
Thanks for the feedback. Some of the boards I get are protected. For example, genuine Arduino boards come in their own box. A few of the kits do come with the headers separate. Most shields do have them attached, and a GSM shield I picked up had not only the headers bent on the bottom, but the sockets on the top and the SIM card holder was smashed. They sent me out a replacement, but it was damaged too. So I still don't have that product until I can find it cheap from another vendor. Foam helps sometimes, but I have received things with the pins bent inside the foam, making it very difficult to get the foam off the pins.
Still, it is interesting to hear other experiences. I appreciate that.
Quickly googled Arduino VC1053 Shield Amazon and it said $11.43
I would much rather pay $5 shipping for this and take a risk (or solder it my self) than pay $15 shipping for proper packaging. Shipping is getting out of control
When you're prototyping a design, especially for a job, you don't always have the luxury of time. That's especially true since you can no longer count on free 2-day shipping as a Prime member anymore.
If your not getting your prime on the promised delivery date ask for compensation
Sometimes I will see a message that says, "Order this item within the next xxx amount of time and get it the next day, or by 'some date'. Then after placing the order, I will eventually get an email that confirms my order and usually has a later delivery date. It will often tell me things are late. Again, this is why I ask around, to see if it is just me. It seems like during COVID, that's when things got bad for shipping here.
One thing I no longer do is review anything I buy from there as 9 out of 10 reviews are rejected after pending for sometimes weeks, usually telling me that I was reviewing the seller and not the item, which isn't true. For example, I have shown photos in a review of how the item came and the review, subsequently rejected. So I gave up, which is ironic, since I use reviews to evaluate much of what I buy.
I did manage to get the pins straightened out and installed this on an Arduino UNO R3, though I have to wait until I get home to test it.
I had a chat with Amazon about these fake delivery promise dates and they offered a 1 month credit for the prime membership
Squeaky wheel gets the grease
I'll have to try that! Thanks.
Hello!
Good idea. Just be very careful of the message bot that greets the user, it has a really bad sense of humor. It also cheats at solitaire.
Mascot watches.
I have had pretty good luck with Amazon. I will say that I try as much as possible to use sold and fulfilled by amazon rather than a third party that sells through Amazon. No arguments about refunds and taking forever and other cheezy sh t that goes along with the stuff sold by XYZ through Amazon. Creality is a great example of this. Lots of horror stories, but I got my E3 Neo Max from Amazon, no delays or other issues such as those in online tales of woe. And Kohls is only a couple miles down the road so returns are easy. Plus Kohls gives a decent coupon for discoutns and I have made out that way as well. Still prefer brick and mortar when possible. That's why going to training in Cleveland or Danvers is so economically dangerous.... there are Micro Centers there. (Not as bad as it used to be, they are getting more like the run of the mill Fry's when it was running out of steam)
Another angle: I returned an item and got the early refund once I printed the return label. Weeks later I got the notice that my refund had been reversed because they had not received the item. Luckily I had the UPS tracking receipt, and proof of delivery, but who to call? I found from a reddit post that I needed to send an email with the documentation to jeff@amazon.com and cc to ec@amazon.com. That got my refund back the next day. It turned out that UPS had delivered the package to the wrong return center. I also learned that it is important to have the tracking information. I saw many complaints that turning things in at Whole Foods or Kohls does not work so well because they do not have a reliable receipt/tracking system in place.
Amazon has stepped up big time on my account, with comps. and delivery. You just note the promise delivery date when buying and if it gets delayed, start a chat regarding the delay and they will resolve it.