SparkFun will be closed on Tuesday, November 5th to support our team in being able to go out and vote! Orders placed after 2 pm MT Monday, November 4th will ship on Wednesday, November 6th. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Operating hours: Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM MST (UTC -7)
Technical Questions: If you were looking to initiate a return for a potentially defective product we ask that you consider reading our troubleshooting resource below. If you are still not having any luck, all of our technical assistance is monitored through SparkFun Forums. Consider creating a user account on the forums and creating a topic.
All of our technical support is handled via our forums.
Technical Support moderators will be moderating the forums Monday through Friday from 9AM to 5PM Mountain time.
We are excited to assist you on our forums and we will begin working on new topics within 3 estimated business days after the topic has been approved.
Getting your order placed is fast and easy. Just follow these steps:
That's it! We'll take it from there.
Placing your order through our website is the most efficient way to get your stuff. If you are unable to use the website, please email us for additional assistance.
We offer Net30 terms to approved customers. We do not offer any other terms. To apply, download and complete the Net 30 Request Form and email it to exemptions@sparkfun.com.
**Please be aware that it can take up to 2 business days for Net 30 terms requests to be reviewed. You will be contacted via email if any additional information is needed and confirmation of your approval or denial of terms. **
For approved Net30 customers: SparkFun offers two Purchase Order processing options, and customers are able to switch between the two. Our Same-Day Shipping guarantee does not apply to Purchase Orders. If you are not approved for terms when your PO is received the processing time provided below does not apply until you are approved.
Fast Track Processing:
Traditional Track Processing:
Submit your Purchase Order document (and your SparkFun Order Number if applicable):
Please make sure that a contact name and email or phone number is listed on the Purchase Order.
There are no minimum orders! If you are willing to fork over shipping costs, we will gladly send you a $0.15 diode.
Once you place your order, it will pass through a series of statuses during fulfillment.
New Order - This indicates we've received your order.
Picking - Your order has been printed, and we're in the process of pulling your parts from the shelves. No changes to your order are possible once it is in this status or further.
Packing - All stock has been pulled for your order. It is now waiting to be packed up. No changes to your order are possible once it is in this status or further.
Shipped - Your order has been completely packaged and moved to the shipping dock. It's ready to go! You should receive an email that your stuff is on the way to you (with a tracking number if your shipping method is tracked). Note: Please keep in mind that once your order is in the "Shipped" status we cannot make any changes to it.
Exception - This indicates your order needs human interaction before it can be released for shipment. This is often the case with lithium batteries, export control issues, and orders you have requested be paused for changes. Orders in Exception status usually get cleared quickly. We will contact you if we need additional information.
PayPal Waiting For Payment - Either we're waiting for your PayPal echeck to clear (it takes a few days), or we've sent you a payment request (watch your email for a notification from PayPal.) Either way, once PayPal confirms payment, we'll release your order for shipment.
Partner Processing / Partner Submitted - Your order has been sent to our third party fulfillment center. When your order is in one of these statuses you can no longer make changes to this order.
Other - There are a few other order statuses, but they don't apply to the vast majority of orders. If you have any questions, please email us and we'll explain the state of your order.
Need change something about your order or just want it canceled? Pause your order until we can fix it for you. Please note: Guest accounts can not pause their order. To pause your order:
We'll take it from there. You can ask us to change the items on your order, update an address or payment method, or just cancel it. Customer Support will get back to you by email within one business day regarding your request.
If you ask us to add items but don't mention payment, we will just submit the charge to the original card/account.
Only orders that are still in New Order can be paused. If your order has already moved to a different status, you won't be able to pause it. If you pause your order, it will no longer necessarily qualify for our Same-Day Shipping guarantee.
Pre-orders are items that have never been in stock, but will be soon. There are different reasons for items being pre-ordered. Sometimes we like to gauge public interest in specific products before we order from our suppliers. In other instances we would like to know how many items we should build in-house before releasing a SparkFun Original product. Pre-ordering is beneficial for guaranteeing your place in the order queue, and stock will be set aside for you.
Please note: Once you have completed the checkout process with a pre-ordered item you will be charged immediately and your item will ship as soon as it is in stock. Since pre-ordered will ship at a later date they will require separate shipping charges from in-stock items within the same order.
Not all products can be backordered when they go out of stock. If an out of stock item can be backordered it will clearly display a "Backorder" button, otherwise it cannot be backordered by any means.
There are two types of backorders: Intentional and Accidental.
This is when you, the customer, add an out-of-stock item to your cart by clicking the "Backorder" button. We do not charge for intentionally backordered items until they are ready for shipment.
If your cart contains only backordered items, there will be no charge submitted at checkout. When everything is in stock and the order is ready to be shipped, a charge will be submitted via the payment method you selected at checkout.
If you have some in-stock and some backordered items, you will see a checkbox on the shopping cart page that says "Ship Complete Order". If you check this box, no charge will be submitted at checkout, and we will hold all in-stock items for you while we wait for the backordered ones to arrive. Once all your items are in stock, the full charge will be submitted and the order shipped.
If you do not check this box, we will charge for all in-stock items and the initial shipping/handling upon submission of the order. Once your backordered items are available, we will charge for the products, and a second shipping/handling fee if applicable. You will receive notification of 2 separate orders: one for the in-stock items and one for the backordered items.
Please Note: If you choose to have in-stock items ship now and backordered items later, a shipping charge may apply to each shipment.
This is when our website indicated that there was stock available for your order, but we were actually out. D'oh!
We work very hard to keep our stock numbers accurate. This type of backorder is rare, but there are a variety of issues that can lead to inaccuracies. We apologize for any inconvenience. We will ship all in-stock items right away, with the backordered items shipping as soon as they are available. They will ship via the same shipping method you selected during checkout. You will not be charged additional shipping. A second order number will be generated to accommodate the accidentally backordered items.
Gift Certificates are sent from Gifter to Giftee by email. We do not send out a physical certificate. In order to send a Gift Certificate that you have purchased, please follow the "Send Gift Certificate" link from the My Account screen.
Read more about gift certificates as well as purchase them here.
We ship in-stock orders as soon as possible. This is often the day you placed it or the day after, but there are many situations where it will take longer. Please see the Same-Day Shipping section for details.
You will be sent at least 2 emails for each order you place:
We offer 4 shipping options to allow you to decide when you get your stuff. Days listed are from when the order ships. See our same-day shipping section for more detail.
FedEx does not normally deliver on Saturday, but may for an additional charge. See our Saturday Delivery information for details.
We don’t normally offer USPS or UPS shipping options, but you may see them in the following cases:
FedEx and UPS do not deliver to PO Boxes. If your shipping address is a PO Box, please check the "This address is a P.O. Box" option when entering your address. You will then have the option to select a USPS option.
All US orders are shipped “Signature Not Required” by default; however, the shipping company may decide to require a signature depending on the value or destination. If you want your order to require a signature for delivery, please contact Customer Support. If a “Signature Not Required” package is left at the door but isn’t there when you get home, neither SparkFun nor the shipping company can be held responsible.
FedEx and UPS do not normally deliver on Saturday, but can for an additional charge of $15. If you would like your package to ship on a Friday for delivery Saturday, please follow these steps:
You’ll receive an email with your tracking information as usual. Delivery is usually made by noon on Saturdays.
If your package is en route to an incorrect address, we can contact FedEx or UPS to update the delivery address (USPS does not offer this service). The base fee is $10 for FedEx and $11 for UPS. There may be additional charges depending on how far away the new delivery address is from the old one. Please call Customer Support as soon as you are aware the package needs rerouting.
This service also applies to packages needing to be stopped and returned to us.
Please Note: Package Rerouting and returning is done at the discretion of the shipper. If the package is too close to the delivery address, it may be delivered before the reroute/return instructions are received. We will make the request, but cannot guarantee that it will be honored.
Want to bill shipping charges to your FedEx or UPS account? Add your shipping account to your customer profile. Once your shipping account has been added, please send an email over to our support team at support@sparkfun.com with a copy of a recent invoice from FedEx or UPS showing the account number. Once your account has been verified by our customer support team, you will be able to select the account during checkout. Individual shipping accounts are not available for use for any drop ship products. There will be a $2 processing and handling fee charged to orders using individual shipping accounts to cover the cost of shipping materials.
Please note: Your contracted rates may vary greatly from ours. The shipping estimate you see at checkout has no relation to what you will eventually be billed. Please do not enter your FedEx or UPS account number unless you are absolutely certain you want to ship on your own account instead of ours.
We ship to your country! (Unless you live in a country that is embargoed by the US government currently Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Russia and specific regions of Ukraine {Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk}) We still can’t ship to Cuba normally, but that is theoretically changing sooner than later. Everywhere else is groovy.
Most international shipments will incur additional fees in the form of duties and taxes. These fees are your responsibility, and are related to the country with which you are importing. These charges are in addition to the shipping cost, and are not able to be estimated/calculated by SparkFun. See Duties and Taxes below for details.
For all international shipments, we charge a $2 handling fee plus the shipping estimate from the carrier.
For shipping addresses outside the US, we offer 7 options:
Please Note - First Class Mail International packages are NOT insured. In the case a package is lost or damaged in transit, SparkFun is not responsible for replacing the order.
All duties and taxes for international shipments are the responsibility of the customer. SparkFun is not responsible for any extra charges once the original package has been shipped.
If the customer refuses to pay these extra charges, the return shipping and any additional fees will be taken out of the cost of the order with any remaining funds being refunded to the customer. In the event that the extra charges exceed the value of the order, we may charge those amounts to the credit card originally used for the order.
As mentioned above, we are not able ship anything to any address in the countries of Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Russia and specific regions of Ukraine {Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk}. Beyond that, we also sell some items that are known as “dual-use items”. These are products designed for civilian use, but that could be used for devious purposes in the wrong hands. The rules vary by item, but we’ll be in direct contact with you if we need further information. Please read our Export Compliance page for general information, and contact Customer Support if you have further questions regarding an item and/or its destination.
International shipments’ signature requirements vary by carrier and destination. If you have questions regarding your particular shipment, contact Customer Support.
Want to bill shipping charges to your FedEx or UPS account? Add your shipping account to your customer profile. Once verified by our customer support team, you will be able to select the account during checkout.
Please note: Your contracted rates may vary greatly from ours. The shipping estimate you see at checkout has no relation to what you will eventually be billed. Please do not enter your FedEx or UPS account number unless you are absolutely certain you want to ship on your own account instead of ours.
SparkFun guarantees to ship your order the same day you place it IF and ONLY IF your order meets ALL the following criteria:
If your order does meet all the listed requirements, we guarantee shipment of your package that day. If it doesn't meet them all, we may still get it out the same day, but no promises.
Time - The timestamp on your order must be before 2PM Mountain Time to qualify. An order placed at 1:59:59PM counts, 2:00:00PM does not. Orders placed at 2PM and later will be considered to qualify for the next business day. The time used is the timestamp on your order, which will be displayed once your order is placed.
Shipping Method - Most of our available shipping methods qualify. Within the US, all options except SmartPost (the 3-11 day option) qualify. For international customers, all options except Economy qualify. Options that do not qualify will be processed within 1-3 business days of placement.
Business Days - Business Days are traditionally defined as the weekdays of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Excluded are the weekend days of Saturday and Sunday, as well as any Holidays. You can see a list of the weekdays SparkFun will be closed for Holidays here. Additionally, SparkFun may be unexpectedly closed for inclement weather, off-site company events, zombie apocalypse, etc. In the event of such closure, SparkFun will post notice of closure on the front page of our website as soon as possible. If SparkFun does need to close unexpectedly, that day will not be considered a Business Day, even if the zombies have gotten into our server room and we are unable to update the site to tell you about it.
In-Stock - Your order must contain only in-stock items to qualify for same-day shipping. If we don't have it, we can't ship it to you. There is the potential that your order will contain an Accidentally Backordered Item. In this case, we can only guarantee the ship date on all remaining items in your order, and ship the Accidentally Backordered Item(s) as soon as possible. Please see our Backorder Policy for more details.
Paid in full - Only orders paid in full at the time of placement qualify. This limits payment methods to Credit Card and most PayPal transactions. Orders paid with a PayPal "echeck" do not qualify. Orders paid entirely with a Gift Certificate do qualify. All other payment methods do not qualify for same-day shipping. At this time, we do not guarantee same-day shipping for Net30 orders.
Exception - While rare, there is the chance that your order will go to an Exception status, instead of the normal New Order status. You will be notified upon placing your order if your order is an Exception. Most orders that do go to Exception, and otherwise qualify, will be cleared quickly and shipped within the same-day time frame. Because some will require additional information from the customer, though, we cannot guarantee it. You can see our Order Status Information section for more details.
Order Value - In order to ensure the quality of very large orders, we need to exclude orders valued at $1,200 and up from this guarantee. Your order will be processed within 1-3 business days after any order verification, and/or modification has been completed and payment has been received.
Distributors - Distributor orders don't qualify. Sorry folks. Your order will be processed within 1-3 business days after any order verification, and/or modification has been completed and payment has been received.
Does not require modification - Your order must be valid to ship as you placed it. If any changes are required to your order before it is able to be shipped, it is disqualified from the same-day shipping guarantee. These changes may be intentional, such as you needing to add an item or correct a shipping address, or unintentional, such as providing an invalid FedEx account number or an address deemed undeliverable by your selected shipper.
Batteries - Lithium Ion and Lithium Metal are considered dangerous goods and take additional packing and paperwork in order to ship.
If your order qualified but didn't ship same day: We work hard to meet our guarantee, but sometimes, reality won't allow it. If you feel your order falls under this category, please contact us!
Q: How fast is the Free Shipping option?
A: The Free Shipping option will use a “3-11 Business Days” ground-type shipment method.
Q: What products are excluded from free shipping?
A: Products or orders that are excluded include, but are not limited to: heavy items, items with big shipping dimensions, multiple box shipments, items with special shipping requirements, items that requires special handling in transit. You will see the alert below on the product page for the items that disqualify free shipping individually. Please keep in mind that while an individual item may not automatically disqualify free shipping, large quantities of items or combinations of items can result in a shipment large enough to disqualify the order from free shipping.
Q: How do I tell if my shipments qualify for free shipping?
A: When you are ready to check out and proceed to your Shopping Cart you will see the shipments separated out by fullfillment centers. Fullfillment centers with over $100 in qualifying items will qualify for free shipping. The option for Free Shipping will also be reflected in the shipping options during checkout.
Q: How can I tell if my order will require to be shipped in multiple boxes, or is overweight?
A: If you are purchasing a large quantity of an item, a high volume of different items or larger items we may need to ship your order in multiple boxes. This could also mean your order will be overweight and disqualify it from free shipping. We are happy to take a look and let you know for sure by contacting us for confirmation.
Local Customers: As of August 19, 2024 local pickup is back on!
Local Pickups will be available throughout the day at our front desk, Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm. Your order will be ready for pickup depending on when you place your order. If your order is placed by 10 am, it will be ready by noon. If your order is placed by noon, it will be ready by 2 pm. And, if your order is placed after 2 pm, it will be ready the following business day by 10 am. Once your order hits Ready for Pickup status, you will receive an email and can swing by to pick up your goodies.
If you have any questions about your order or your order status, give us a call and we'll do our best to answer your questions.
Packages can be returned to us for many reasons. Depending on the reason for return, there may be additional charges applied to your order. Please read below for more information.
Packages can be returned to us for missing or incorrect address information. Please take a moment to check and make sure your address book is up to date. There is also an order review page where you can double check this information. If the carrier you select charges us to return the package, we will either a) deduct that from your refund if you want to cancel or b) if you choose to re-ship the package it will be added to the cost of the re-shipment fee.
Packages can be returned to us if they are refused at customs for any reason. Sometimes we choose to get these packages back. If there are any customs fees and shipping charges to return your order, this will be deducted from the refund (if you want to cancel the order) or added to the re-shipment fee if you want to re-ship the order. Please see our Shipping Policy for additional information regarding international orders
Please note that if your package is marked to be returned to SparkFun, it could take longer than expected to receive as these packages are not marked as a priority from the shipping company. Sometimes it can take a couple of weeks before we get them back!
We will only hold a returned package for one week before we restock and refund (if applicable). If you are wondering where your order is, please also check your spam filter as we may be trying to get a hold of you!
If you think your package is going to be returned to us, please send us an email to support@sparkfun.com so we can note your order and wait for its return.
You may pay by any of the following methods. United States funds only. We do not accept C.O.D. orders.
We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.
If you select PayPal during checkout, you will be redirected to that website, then back to ours to complete your order.
Use this option to get your order in the system now and handle payment later. It's also useful if you need a quote to get a purchase approved. Place the order with this option and use the resulting invoice as the quote. Then the order is sitting right here waiting for you once payment is available.
If you no longer need the order as placed, please contact cservice@sparkfun.com so we can cancel it.
This option is not available for guest checkout.
Send your check or money order to:
SparkFun Electronics
6333 Dry Creek Parkway
Niwot, CO 80503
This payment option is for established Net30 customers, and can only be used for tracked/insured shipping methods or local pickup. Not established for Net30? Check out our Purchase Orders section.
This is a direct transfer from your bank to ours. Necessary information will be included with your Order Confirmation email. This option is not available for guest checkout.
**In order to make sure we provide the most accurate pricing information possible we have removed the ability for our website to convert to any other currency other than USD as of January 20, 2017. Any pricing and invoices will only display USD. **
All orders placed with applicable state sales tax on the total dollar amount of your order will be charged tax unless you possess a certificate for a valid exempt or resale status that has been submitted and accepted by Sparkfun.
To submit your documents please provide a sparkfun.com account number and a PDF copy of your tax exempt certificate to set up the exemption with the third party software we use for our exempt customers. Please make sure it's a clear copy that shows the institution's name and the tax exemption ID or FEIN.to exemptions@sparkfun.com.
SparkFun orders will have sales tax charged in states/territories that collect sales tax, unless you possess a certificate for a valid exempt or resale status.
If you have tax-exempt status or a resale certificate, please reach out to exemptions@sparkfun.com with your SparkFun account number and we will start the process to get you tax-exemption on your orders.
If an order is placed on an account that has not gone through our tax-exempt process sales tax will be charged to the order if such taxes are required.
We strive to provide accurate descriptions and high quality merchandise. If you have any problems with your order, please let us know as soon as possible! We will do everything in our power to make it right. Please see our Return Policy for more information.
SparkFun will be closed for regular business the following days in 2024. No orders will ship these days, but you can still place an order through the website as usual.
Need assistance from a live human? All of our Support and Sales teams are available via email, and through our webforms. Please use the webform above for Sales or Support, or if you need Technical Assistance please contact them through the live forums with any queries you may have.
The SparkFun community is known for its creativity, experimentation, curiosity, and openness - we are extremely proud of this. As a company, we are committed to providing a friendly, safe, and welcoming environment to all individuals who interact with our website, our digital spaces, and employees; in turn, we expect everyone to treat one another with respect and courtesy. The following code of conduct applies to all those who interact on the SparkFun web site, digital spaces, and/or with the SparkFunion team:
Violating this Code of Conduct will not be tolerated. If someone is deemed to be acting in an unacceptable manner,* staff may take any action they deem appropriate, including refusal of business, removal of comments, or blocking of accounts - without warning, as warranted.
We value all those who interact with us in any form - please contact us immediately if you witness or directly experience unacceptable behavior.
*Unacceptable behaviors include but are not limited to: offensive comments, insults, jokes or ridicule; gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behavior in spaces where they are nor other unappropriately aggressive behaviors; threats of violence or deliberate intimidation; creating additional online accounts in order to harass another person or circumvent a ban; harassment of any form.