Pololu Black Friday Sale 2010 (starting Thursday, 11/25)

[bens]

Happy Thanksgiving to SoR from Pololu!

I'm pleased to announce that this year we're having another "Black Friday Sale"!  It will be similar to last year's sale, only with huge discounts on a wider assortment of products, including our 3pi robot, robot controllers, servo controllers, motor controllers, sensors, and more.  Save big on parts for your next robot!

Our Black Friday Sale page lists all of the products that will be for sale and goes over the details of the sale.  Like last year, there are coupon codes you can enter to save up to 60% on select Pololu products from Thursday, November 25 through Monday, November 29.

Once again, we will be offering the 3pi robot as a "door-buster": the first 50 customers to use our 3pi door-buster coupon will get our popular programmable robot for half-price.

These coupons become active at 12:00 AM PST (8:00 AM GMT) on Thursday, November 25.  To use these coupons, you must make your purchase directly from our web site (www.pololu.com). You can enter the coupons at the bottom of the shopping cart page. Make sure to click the "update cart" button after each coupon you enter.

Once again, happy Thanksgiving, and may your holidays be full of joy and robots!

- Ben

[madsci1016]

One word: Awesome.

Bens, Pololu has been my favorite robot store. Good prices, better in-house engineered products (though some of the 3rd party stuff is questionable) and great customer service (see last link). You even got some free advertising (not from me even) at a conference I was at about federally funded children's science outreach programs.

The $20 AVR programmer is the best thing ever (I have two) , and I have strongly recommended it to people around here many times.

These deals are awesome, and are the perfect excuse to buy a 3pi Robot to play with; and I plan to bring it to the local Junior Museum I work with that is interested in starting robotics and science programs for kids. Though I don't think my girlfriend will appreciate it very much. 

Keep up the good work!

[bens]

Thank you for the kind words!  It makes us very happy to hear such positive feedback from customers.

I'm very sorry about your experience with our motor, but I want you to know that such an experience is not the norm, and quality is extremely important to us.  We've been sellling our metal gearmotors for several years now, with some customers even using them in industrial applications, and have not had any significant issues with the quality beyond the very rare unit that doesn't behave quite like the rest.  There certainly are higher quality motors available, but we feel the metal gearmotors we currently carry offer a good combination of price and performance for our customers (they're definitely a step up from the inexpensive, toy-like Tamiya gearboxes we sell, which are already good enough for many of our customers).  In general, one of our goals is to make robotics and electronics more approachable and more affordable, thereby helping make it possible for hobbyists and students to do some really cool stuff!

I hope you are able to get one of the door-buster $50 3pis (I have no idea what kind of response this sale will get)!  If not, at least the $75 3pi robot coupon will be available for the entire duration of the sale.

Oh, and if you have any other feedback or suggestions for us, we'd love to hear it.

- Ben

[madsci1016]

Ben,

for those staying up late for the doorbuster, how will we know when it's 12 o'clock on your server? Will the coupon not be accepted till the clock strikes 12, then suddenly work?

[bens]

That's exactly how it will work.  You can try it out yourself by building your cart right now and entering the coupons you want to use (the coupons will be saved, so you won't have to enter them again later).  While the coupons are inactive, you'll see an (ugly) warning box at the top of the cart saying something like:

The coupon BF10DOORBUSTER will not be valid until 25 Nov 2010.

And the price of the items in your cart will be the standard price.  As soon as the coupons take effect (at 12 AM PST on Thursday), that orange-framed warning box will disappear and the prices of the affected items in your cart will be clearly discounted:

#975 Pololu 3pi Robot (discounted $50.00 with coupon BF10DOORBUSTER)

The price you see in your cart is the price you'll pay when you check out, so make sure you don't check out until the coupons are discounting your items!

- Ben

[Ro-Bot-X]

Too bad you did not had coupons for geared metal motors...

[madsci1016]

That's exactly how it will work.  You can try it out yourself by building your cart right now and entering the coupons you want to use

Done. Although It's over $200 before discounts. Don't tell my girlfriend.

Thanks, Bill

[bens]

Your secret is safe with me!