… is it lost? Or was there any problem that caused delays (like shipping delays, manufacturing delays, botched panels, …)?
I have ordered many boards from BatchPCB, and I always ask for them to be delivered to Portugal “not tracked not insured” (to keep costs down). I’ve never had a problem so far. The boards are always top quality, and, like many people here, I usually receive more copies than I order.
On March 22nd I placed an order that has not arrived yet (May 19th). The BatchPCB site lists it as “shipped” on April 12th. The panel is 770, and the tracking number (which I don’t know how to use) is LN036175658US.
My biggest problem is that I’m not getting any feedback at all from BatchPCB. I’ve sent them 2 e-mails to support@batchpcb.com (the first one more than a week ago) and I didn’t receive any reply. Is it common for BatchPCB to take a long time to answer e-mails? Do they answer e-mails?? What should I do? Should I just forget about it and the $34 it cost me?
My one experience with customer support was excellent. They replied within hours and helped me with my problem. I had some boards on panel 777 and got them a month ago…not sure what’s up with yours :(.
I got a reply today from BatchPCB. They just said it was shipped on April 12th… one short line of text. Even though they don’t directly answer my questions I assume it has been lost then. It was a first for me, but definitely a show stopper.
I am sorry it sounds like you may have experienced some shipping issues with your order. Batch PCB generally doesn’t have issues like this. Especially since the board did ship out from the SFE HQ on April 13, 2010. Instead of calling it a loss, and forgetting about your items, you might want to give us a call at SFE. We will be happy to try to help you out as much as possible. I have nothing to do with the BatchPCB side of things, but I bet that the person in charge of that whole deal could get you taken care of. Give us a call!
FWIW, I had the same problem. I’m not complaining or anything, but there might be some value in others seeing my experience. I had an order on panel 750 that simply disappeared. I was pretty bummed about it. The BatchPCB folks say it was shipped, and USPS claims to have never received it. It’s one of those things where it’s impossible for me to tell who made the mistake.
To their credit, the BatchPCB people offered to re-panelize my designs, but after 2 months I had already given up and ordered new revisions of my boards from a different fab shop (and received them). It didn’t make sense to have BatchPCB re-build my earlier v0.1 designs.
It’s a shame, because my other two BatchPCB orders were delivered perfectly, and the boards work great. And I’m really appreciative of the newbie-friendly style, since I had never made a PCB before (or even known it was feasible for a hobbyist). If I hadn’t been stung by that one missing order, I’d definitely still be ordering PCBs here. Even now I’ve got 3 designs to print, and I thought I’d use BatchPCB, but the spectre of losing another shipment (along with the resulting 4-6 weeks of lost time) makes me rather go elsewhere.
I would have too, if it were an option. But for Portugal the only options available are:
United States Postal Service
First Class Mail International
Not Tracked, Not Insured 5 - 28 Days $1.24
Federal Express
Economy International service 3 - 5 Days $30.38
Priority International service 2 - 3 Days $30.38
So, as you see, there is no “real option” other than USPS. If I were to consider any of the other delivery methods my typical boards of $20 would end up costing about +$42 (BPCB shipping($2) + BPCB handling($10) + FedEx($30)) which would bring it to the $62 price range. For that price I can get slightly larger boards in 3 to 5 days from other manufacturers here in Europe (with the same features).
Thanks everybody for your comments, I appreciate them!
