Hi, im thinking about getting some pcbs done from batchpcb because the prices are so good. the only thing that worries me is the shipping time. How long has it taken you to recieve your boards, from the day u pressed “send” to the day it arrived at your door step.
Note: i live in alberta canada.
test.1991:
How long has it taken you to recieve your boards, from the day u pressed “send” to the day it arrived at your door step.Note: i live in alberta canada.
Greetings (No Name Supplied),
Please read the FAQ before you order. The service is low price because it caters to hobbyists on a budget and not in a rush. Go here: http://tinyurl.com/yfxon9
The official delay is 20 calendar days, longer if it spans a public holiday, or if you live outside the USA (and if your country inspects packages at the border).
In the past six months I have used the service eight times, and the delivery times were:
Job - Delay - Month
1 - 18 - July
2 - 15 - July
3 - 15 - Aug
4 - 15 - Aug/Sep
5 - 15 - Oct
6 - 11 - Oct
7 - ? - Nov
8 - ? - Nov
The last two ar in the pipeline as of Nov 8th. As these are for this year’s Holiday lights project I have my fingers crossed. Last year (on a different project) I used a commercial board house in the USA.
Comments Welcome!
Peter
Hmm. The delays dont seem too bad from jobs 2-6, job 1 though seems a bit too long for me to wait (18 days). I was actually expecting a longer wait, maybe 20-25 days, so this news is great to me.
thanks for the reply.
bigglez:
6 - 11 - Oct
bigglez:
7 - ? - Nov8 - ? - Nov
The last two ar in the pipeline as of Nov 8th. As these are for this year’s Holiday lights project I have my fingers crossed.
Hope that turns out good! I can’t wait until I’ve got enough under my belt to start developing PCBs that do more than just get used as development boards.
test.1991:
Note: i live in alberta canada.
I live in Calgary. I have had 3 previous orders, and I have one in the queue. You can expect about 5 to 7 days additional delay due to customs.
I documented the shipping time of my last order here:
eejake52:
test.1991:
Note: i live in alberta canada.I live in Calgary. I have had 3 previous orders, and I have one in the queue. You can expect about 5 to 7 days additional delay due to customs.
I documented the shipping time of my last order here:
Wow. 25 days, huh? I dont think i can manage that long wihtout boards. Maybe ill use yours services when i want a board that isnt as important to me. Thanks though guys.
test.1991:
Wow. 25 days, huh? I dont think i can manage that long without boards.
I hope I didn’t turn you off to BatchPCB; I think they are great.
The case I quoted was probably the worst case, and I caused some of the delay myself because I didn’t understand (then) how the weekly batches works.
My latest order is in the queue and is going quicker. Specifically:
Ordered on 2007-Nov-11 (the day before the cutoff)
Shipped on 2007-Nov-27 (16 days - right on target)
Now we’ll see if Canada customs has a cow with the envelope. I’ll post here when it arrives.
Jake
Oh no, dont worry. you didnt turn me off to batchpcb completely. for the order i needed, even around 18 days wouldve been too long. for projects of my own (audio amps, breakout boards), i will definitly be using batchpcb.
reklipz:
bigglez:
7 - ? - Nov8 - ? - Nov
The last two ar in the pipeline as of Nov 8th. As these are for this year’s Holiday lights project I have my fingers crossed.
Hope that turns out good! I can’t wait until I’ve got enough under my belt to start developing PCBs that do more than just get used as development boards.
Greetings,
Bad news. FedEx fumbled both deliveries, that were scheduled for last Friday (Dec 1).
One item was returned to the local FedEx compound, and I finally got it with the help of a FedEx security guard that let me in after hours (I signed for it).
The second item, which was shipped by SFE on the same day, to the same address, via the same FedEx service, is currently in Connecticut. How it got three thousand miles away is a mystery to me!
I’m working with FedEx to get it back here ASAP.
Has anyone else had poor delivery service from SFE and FedEx in particular?
Comments Welcome!
Begglez…
Were your packages shipped FedEx ground or some form of FedEx express? Even in the US, I continuously get poor service from their ground shipping. When I spend a little more on Express Saver shipping I never have any of the headaches that are associated with their ground service.
It is almost like dealing with 2 different companies. FedEx ground is a hassle to deal with and your packages usually go for a wild ride to some unnecessary stop. FedEx express is fast and efficient and always easy to deal with.
-Bill
Bill,phalanx:
Were your packages shipped FedEx ground or some form of FedEx express? Even in the US, I continuously get poor service from their ground shipping.
Yep, FedEx Ground…
phalanx:
It is almost like dealing with 2 different companies. FedEx ground is a hassle to deal with and your packages usually go for a wild ride to some unnecessary stop. FedEx express is fast and efficient and always easy to deal with.
It more like dealing with three companies: FedEx Ground, FedEx Home, and FedEx for grown ups…
On my visit to the local FedEx compound I wasted twenty minutes in line at FedEx where other customers had pick up notices and I did not. I was told that I should go to FedEx Home “It’s just around the corner”. but that building was locked for the night and by chance I found a bigger FedEx terminal two blocks away. By then it was past seven pm, and I had to wake up the security guy to get on the property. Once inside someone was expecting me (I’d made quite a fuss over the phone) and had my tiny but valuable SFE package on his desk.
Update: The missing SFE package has been promised for delivery tomorrow by FedEx express. I’ll be in San Diego for one or two days, so I hope its there when I get back.
Comments Welcome!
Peter
bigglez:
phalanx:
Were your packages shipped FedEx ground or some form of FedEx express? Even in the US, I continuously get poor service from their ground shipping.Yep, FedEx Ground…
Update: The missing SFE package has been promised for delivery tomorrow by FedEx express. I’ll be in San Diego for one or two days, so I hope its there when I get back.
Greetings,
New update. FedEx has no idea where my package is at this hour (10am Friday 12/08). I phone them everyday and clearly the promise of an upgrade for express (air) delivery, the promise of a delivery two days ago, and the most recent promise of delivery today, Friday, were wrong.
I’m now told the package might be here on 12/13 or 12/14…
BatchPCB sent it out on 11/27, one of two for me, and they make approx. fifty shipments per week. Prashanta at BatchPCB says they have never had a problem with outbound FedEx. As noted earlier the companion board was sent the same day with the same FedEx service, and it got here on the promised date but required my involvement with a visit to the local FedEx terminal for pick up.
Unfortunately, I need both boards to complete my holiday lights project for this year.
The FedEx delivery to me is almost as long as the time it took BatchPCB to fab the board in China…
FedEx now wants to know what’s in the package as they claim it wasn’t upgraded to express (as promised) because it contains a banded substance or chemical.
The moral of this story is to use a different shipper on future orders.
Comments Welcome!
Peter
I’ve used the standard USPS Priority shipping for my parcels and have had no problems yet. My first order was shipped on Monday and arrived on Wednesday, and that was Thanksgiving week. For the most part, unless I need it overnight, or it’s too big to go USPS, or it’s going to Canada, I tend to use USPS Priority. The only exception seems to be TX → Puerto Rico. Regular 1st class takes 4 days, Priority takes about 8…
Some of our other shippers have commented on UPS and FedEx losing packages. They almost never lose things, but when they do, they “lose them real good”. We’ve only had 2 lost packages in the last 4 years. One was found the next day. The most recent one was lost between the local UPS depot and our house at the end of Oct… It’s still MIA…
I’m expecting my current order to arrive at SFE today, so I should have it later this week.
Craig
eejake52:
My latest order is in the queue and is going quicker. Specifically:Ordered on 2006-Nov-11 (the day before the cutoff)
Shipped on 2006-Nov-27 (16 days - right on target)
Now we’ll see if Canada customs has a cow with the envelope. I’ll post here when it arrives.
Jake
Arrived on 2006-Dec-06
Total elapsed time to Calgary was 25 days. Based on the documents in the box, the boards spent a whole week at Canada Customs.
The boards look good. I included a tricky dimension cutout to fit in the Hammond project box I selected. All the holes line up and the cutout was perfect.
So, I’ve got boards, a new skillet, and most of the parts. I’ll be seeing you in the Projects section soon.
Jake
bigglez:
BatchPCB sent it out on 11/27, one of two for me…Unfortunately, I need both boards to complete my holiday lights project for this year.
The moral of this story is to use a different shipper on future orders.
Greetings,
The missing package arrived at 6:38pm today, after spending the entire day on a FedEx truck trolling our zip code. FedEx was powerless to accelerate the delivery, nor make good on the original probelm, although they had several chances - all of which they blew. It left SFE on 11/27/06 got here on 12/11/06, that’s fifteen days for a three day service commitment.
Okay, moving forwards I have the first board almost completely built, and I’m now at the point in the timeline I expected to hit on Saturday (12/02/06). I’m taking tomorrow from my day job to close the gap a little.
BTW, the board looks very good - another BatchPCB home run!
Comments Welcome!
Design submitted and passed DRC: Monday December 18 : day 0
Design panelized: Thursday December 28 (may have been 27th) : day 10
Design shipped: Wednesday January 17 : day 30
Design received: Not yet… : day 36 so far
Edit:
Design received: January 27: day 40
Our fab was really slow over that period - all our internal stuff was delayed too. Not much we could do about it :/.
Cheers,
–David Carne
Our fab was really slow over that period - all our internal stuff was delayed too. Not much we could do about it :/.
It’s only fair that the SFE staff got tripped up by that awful snow storm that hit you around the 20th, but regarding the fab service, on Jan 11 Prashanta said
Your boards are expected to arrive soon. Everything was on schedule,
barring a few days when our offices were shutdown due to weather/blizzards.
which irks me a little in retrospect. Had I known the fabs were slowed I would have upgraded the shipping to make up part of the delay, as this is for a research project :?
Yeah, we were expecting everything to be ok around that time. We were not expecting them to be slow, it just took forever for the shipments to actually get here.
I do just want to remind everyone: The reason that our service is so cheap is because we have very flexible and long leadtimes. The vast majority of our customers recieve boards within the schedules we quote as typical - but in some cases, we don’t get the boards from our fab on time [be it customs, slowness in fabrication - or if the boards didn’t pass QA the first time], and then we can’t ship them out as fast as we’d like to.
–David Carne