SparkFun Free Day Recap | Hacker News Reader

SparkFun Free Day Recap

sparkfun.com

20 pointsaxiom14 comments

One thing that was particularly annoying, given the expected server troubles, was the use of images inside of links for stepping through the checkout procedure. So even after the page loaded I couldn't see the link until all the images loaded on the page.

Then to verify shipping, a piece of Javascript had to be loaded. The request for this file always timed out. So even when the link to finish checkout showed up I couldn't because the Javascript wasn't there.

In the end, I wasn't able to fill my order and I started wondering if Sparkfun hosts static assets on the same servers as it's shopping cart software.

EDIT: My cart had: Arduino Starter Kit, Arduino Motor Driver Shield, iPod Breakout Connector. It came out to a total of $99.85

The server only went down 3 times? I suppose the giant downtime for three hours while everything ran only counts as one.

I realize it's free, but wouldn't an "Oops! Sorry, we are at capacity" message have been better then just letting requests time out?

I think a "sorry, we screwed up" consolation discount would go a long way in helping smooth over all of the bad sentiment I'm seeing toward sparkfun after todays fiasco. Perhaps something along the lines of "If you were unable to get in on this offer, sign up for our newsletter and get a 20% off coupon code that expires in 2 weeks."

I wonder how anyone got an order through? Nothing would load for me.

Cool giveaway, but I wasn't patient or persistent enough to complete my purchase.

I got through the mayhem, and am pretty excited; haven't done anything with Arduino before, but have a free Lilypad and Bluetooth Mate for it on the way.

Neither me nor the four or five people I know who tried got through. They need to consult with the Macheist people about how to scale.

A lot of people seem to be seriously pissed about this. One comment I've seen on an email list for (very) high-end electronics hobbyists pointed out that Sparkfun just made a few hundred friends and several thousand enemies.

It got them a lot of publicity, but whether it was the kind of good publicity that will result in return visits, I don't know. Especially since many of those valuable first-time visitors never got through to the site at all.

Care to share what list this was? (I noticed a ton of gripes on time-nuts today.)

That's it.

Here in Australia I know people who stayed up until 5am trying to get an order in, but ultimately were booted out in the checkout phase.

These people are dedicated electronic hobbyists, and long term sparkfun customers.

So that's 1000 happy customers, and probably something like 100,000 really pissed off ones.

I, for one, am going to continue giving my money to Adafruit. Sparkfun certainly lost this prospective customer. I wonder what they were saying to themselves when the site began to time out before the sale even started. "But we streamlined everything!" My ass.

It was very frustrating. This was the first time I'd ever heard of sparkfun. I got to the final stage of the order confirmation page when they still had about $72k to give away, so should have been within plenty of time to get the discount--I never made it through.

As soon as their promotion ended, I went ahead and bought the starter kit.... from a different veodor.

It was a free giveaway... I think they got a little more attention than they expected.

100,000 simultaneous people will easily slow down a big big network... :)

I cant see why people are pissed to be honest; it was a bit of fun. Is $100 really that much to get worked up over?

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