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EK-TM4C129EXL: Ridiculous requirements for ordering an eval board from TI.

Andy Peters
Genius 3945 points
Part Number: EK-TM4C129EXL

I tried to order a new eval board via TI's website, along with one of the booster packs.I paid for the order with a credit card.

The order was bounced -- apparently, TI can't figure out what company I work for. It was a personal order, so I used a personal email address for the order. And TI says that's not good enough.

So, really, WTF. The order was for two eval boards which I paid for. I wasn't asking for production quantities of something, and I wasn't asking for samples of an expensive part. What difference does it make?

  • 0
    TI__Expert 7120 points

    Hi Andy,

    I'm not sue what you mean by the order was bounced.  Did you get an error message you can send to me so I know where you encountered the issue during checkout?  

    Thank you,

    Jaime

  • 0 in reply to Jaime Beringer
    Genius 3945 points

    The checkout process completed successfully.

    Apparently there is some kind of review process after the order is placed. Last night I received an email from TI Customer support with the subject "GTC: Incomplete Information" with the message:

    "Dear customer，

     Your order T00957629 does not leave the full name of the company. Please provide the full name to help you process the order.

     If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us, thank you.

     Regards,

    Snow Cui

    TI Customer Support Center"

    which I thought was a phishing attempt (because of the poor English) but it had the correct order number.

    The support "chat" person told me that since they couldn't figure out the company name (which are basically my initials) or the URL from my email address, the order could not be completed due to "restrictions" -- I wish I saved the chat because the language was in there. (The support case I created was supposed to have the chat transcript attached but it's not there.)

    So I understand that there is some behind-the-scenes thing happening to limit tech support access, including this forum, only to people who provide a valid corporate email address instead of a "free" (presumably gmail and the like) email address. I don't use a free address but I use a domain I've owned for nearly two decades. I can almost understand limiting forum question access to corporate customers; supporting drive-by questions from hobbyists wastes time and money. 

    But that doesn't explain why someone can't simply order an evaluation kit without being given the third degree, especially since none of your competitors have this oddball roadblock to ordering parts and kits.