Techblueprint Arvostelua 3

I don't they ever shipped a single unit, they apparently ship from China but it must be using a 14th century sailboat. They do have a very professional looking website and super friendly email response that seemed aimed at keeping you quiet for about 90-days, the limit for getting refunded on your credit card. DO NOT TRUST THEM.

I also was fooled by this guy, Austin Eckard. Probably not even his real name as everything else is fake.

So, on their website, they advertise an Arduino Start Up Kit for $1. with free shipping. Elsewhere it goes for somewhere between $6 and $8. I was skepticle but it was only a dollar right? They also had some fancy countdown counter stating this price was only good for a couple hours.

So I went to order one, and low and behold, their free shipping was $299! What the heck? So I played with the quantity to see if it ever became free or at least reasonable. It did, at qty 100 or more shipping was free.

Weird, but I actually could use 100 in a free class I was planning to teach to kids at the library. Still, probably bull crap. The whole time they keep flashing messages about who ordered what like every minute in a little window. My desired startup kit is pretty popular it seemed.

Anyhow, I take the chance and order. Eventually I got an order number, tried to track in, kept comming back being processed. Finally I wrote the company and was told that due to a technical error, they were unable to process my order. But that for an additional $1150.00 they could send it.

So they wernt out of stock, they just all of a sudden wanted $12.50 each insted of $1.00 each. I wrote Austin and said cancel my order. Never heard from him again.

Total ripoff, half my fault for falling for it I guess.

I placed an order without looking up any reviews first. I never got an order confirmation, order number, or tracking number. A few days later I get an automatically generated email thanking me for my order and inviting me to email them if I had any questions. Well, I replied with a lot of questions...
TWICE I asked for my order number and order status and received no reply. 1 week later I was able to find a Canadian phone number for them that they don't answer (no surprise). As it turns out, they're in China masquerading as a North American company. I left a voicemail with my contact info. They STILL do not call me. Instead I get an email FROM THE SAME ADRESS I EMAILED TWICE stating that they never received any emails from me and they need me to "reply ASAP" with my order number so they can give me some information about my order. Of course, I never got one but they sure got my money. Don't be fooled by the polished professional looking website. From what I gather this appears to be a small operation in China run by a guy calling himself "Austin Eckman". If I had known I would've ordered from somewhere else. I don't have 6 weeks to wait for parts to start prototyping. I just hope I can get my money back. I don't know if I should file a fraud report or wait... I highly suggest others stay away from Techblueprint.net, especially if you have work deadlines to make something work. Pay a little more money with a reputable company.