I placed an order early last week and the status of my order has been
Preparing [PayPal IPN]
since I placed it. I have tried to contact them through email and am not getting any responses. Is Batch PCB closed for the holidays or something? Does anyone know what this status means?
Thanks
Shawn
I also placed an order on Dec 12th, and the status has been “Waiting Panelization” ever since.
Is this service still live?
Well…based on the time of year…it is possible to have your board delayed.
Remember the Batch PCB service is based on order numbers. Christmas and New Years is a dead time for board orders.
I’m sure they are just trying to get enough orders to finish the panels.
If they were planning on stopping the service, there would have been a notification here on the forums, and it would have been impossible to order.
James L
I’ve had some orders still showing “Waiting Panalization” when the boards arrived. That said, my order has never been outside the stated timeline. I suspect that Mr. Sparkfun doesn’t make a priority of updating the on-line orders, but does do an exceptional job of getting things in the mail. Watch the mail–not the website, my bet is it’ll get there on time.
ms_10011101:
I’ve had some orders still showing “Waiting Panalization” when the boards arrived. That said, my order has never been outside the stated timeline. I suspect that Mr. Sparkfun doesn’t make a priority of updating the on-line orders, but does do an exceptional job of getting things in the mail. Watch the mail–not the website, my bet is it’ll get there on time.
Good to know - I am getting anxious! 
Really though, even if it took 2 months, it would be worth it. 4pcb was almost 10x the cost.
pieter3d:
Really though, even if it took 2 months, it would be worth it. 4pcb was almost 10x the cost.
To answer questions asked above: this service is alive, and functioning well. I got an email notification Wednesday ( 1/2/08 ) saying that I was being shipped boards from an order I placed on December 16. Well, to be fair it was 23:41 CST on a Sunday I can’t complain about that turnaround time.
Now I need to go buy a hot plate!
Glen Overby
Yay I got my order too. Board looks great, and it works!
pieter3d:
Yay I got my order too. Board looks great, and it works!
Another happy satisfied customer.
I know it really sucks when your waiting and anxious.
James L
overby:
I got an email notification Wednesday ( 1/2/08 ) saying that I was being shipped boards from an order I placed on December 16.
Interesting. I’m still waiting for an update about my order placed Dec 13, 2007 , which appears not to have been shipped yet. The status is still Panelized.
Unfortunately my first email to support has so far been unanswered.
mctylr:
overby:
I got an email notification Wednesday ( 1/2/08 ) saying that I was being shipped boards from an order I placed on December 16.Interesting. I’m still waiting for an update about my order placed Dec 13, 2007 , which appears not to have been shipped yet. The status is still Panelized.
Unfortunately my first email to support has so far been unanswered.
You’re not the only one… I imagine they will show up at some point.
mctylr:
Unfortunately my first email to support has so far been unanswered.
If someone from BatchPCB / SparkFun are trying to reach me, please CC mctylr |at| gmail.com as I have not seen any messages from you.
hooziewhatsit:
You’re not the only one… I imagine they will show up at some point.
While I hope they do show up soon, considering they to have already billed me in mid-December, not meeting the advertised* timeframe with no updates is not an acceptable business practice.
Given that it has been more than 25 days since January 3rd (note: I submitted my order and was billed 13th of December) I feel that something is wrong.
BTW, Lunar New Year 2008 starts Feb. 7, 2008.](OSH Park ~)
Hey Mctylr,
Sorry for the delay. The BatchPCB person is out sick today. We hope to be back at full force tomorrow. I’ll pass along your email address.
-Nathan
sparky:
Hey Mctylr,Sorry for the delay. The BatchPCB person is out sick today. We hope to be back at full force tomorrow. I’ll pass along your email address.
-Nathan
Thank you for giving me a response, I appreciate it. At least I know everyone didn’t skip the country to retire with the $20 from my order.
-Michael
sparky:
Sorry for the delay. The BatchPCB person is out sick today. We hope to be back at full force tomorrow. I’ll pass along your email address.-Nathan
Nathan,
I am trying to find out if the problems with my drill file were resolved. I have sent few emails, but never got any response. I don’t mind waiting, but I would really appreciate any info if I have to start fixing drill file.
Thanks,
Mike
preparing [paypal ipn] is an OScommerce shopping cart status…
it means it hasnt gotten the data back from paypal yet to verify the order and change it to “processing” or whatever…
once it does that it will update the order to whatever they set it to…
could be processing or processing [paypal ipn completed]
etc…
My order shipped today (Feb 12, 2008).
It was placed on Jan 19, 2008.
Here is the details from the BatchPCB site for anyone that is interested.
01/19/2008 Waiting Panelization
02/12/2008 Invoice Printed Order Invoice Printed
02/12/2008 Label Printed N/A
02/12/2008 Shipped Shipping Confirmation Email Sent
20 some odd days not including shipping, plus I ordered on a Saturday, and I think my order got delayed a week for panelization or something. This is fine with me of course, because I allowed a month for arrival, and it’s awfully close to Chinese new year, so that may have miffed things a bit as well.
Either way, yet another satisfied customer (assuming the boards are ok!).
-Nate
I am sorry for the lack of updates on the database. Sometime there is a delay of about a day, and lately I have been remiss at updating them period. We are looking at redesigning the website and are going to add more statuses so that it is more clear what is happening with your boards and where they are in the process.
Glad to see people are receiving good looking boards.
Thanks,
Sallie
Sallie,
I have ordered from BatchPCB twice now. The first boards I received look fine, but I goofed on hole sizes by neglecting to consider solder buildup during processing. All of a sudden, my textbook-sized hole for 18AWG wires won’t let the wires through the board because in the real world wire is tinned and the board is tinned - oops, my bad!
Anyway, I placed a second order with you on Jan 21, and it was shipped on Feb 12. It was not so smart of me to place the order to coincide with Chinese New Year (oops!). The delivery time frame is an acceptable trade-off to be considered for the boards provided, but from the user standpoint, the order went from being listed as “processing” to “panelization” to “shipped”, but very little info is provided to indicate what each term refers to in the process, and what the expected delay might be.
My request for improvements to an updated user interface would be for an explanation of those terms to be placed on the same page that displays the data - I don’t mind waiting a little while for the boards to arrive, because I recognize the value in the service you provide, but I felt like I was completely in the dark with respect to what was happening with my order.
Greetings Sallie,
I think I speak for most BatchPCB users when I saySallieSparkFun:
We are looking at redesigning the website and are going to add more statuses so that it is more clear what is happening with your boards and where they are in the process.
that we’re more interested in the outcome (delivery
of final PCBs to us) than the process steps.
What would go a long way to smoothing the BatchPCB
experience is a daily update on all active orders that
indicate forecast shipping date (from Colorado) and
whether there has been any slippage or exceptions
(such as unreadable submitted data, or delays in China
due to local holidays or factory errors).
Even a simple number or letter scheme would suffice.
If the nineteen day expectation represents (say) five
actions with BatchPCB, why not mark the orders
as “1” through "5"so that individuals can see where their
project is today? Obviously, any project that isn’t
moving is going to generate an email to BatchPCB from
the customer, so keeping us informed will reduce your
email inbox.
Comments Welcome!