refund?

Archive BatchPCB
1

Hi there,

First of all i understand that batchPCB is a hobby service, and thus i take into account this when i say my following statements.

I’m unsatisfied with the batchpcb service on the account that i ordered over a month ago, it took 2 weeks to panelise my board (not 4 days as the site says) and now 2 weeks later it is still panelised, and has not been mailed out.

I’m sorry guys, but i emailed you and got no response either, so unless someone else from sparkfun will look into my matter i will be making a paypal dispute claim, because although like i said i am taking into account the fact that this is a small-run hobby service, the current service provided by batchpcb is unacceptable for even most hobbyists…

2

ps i realise it’s chinese new year so pcb fab houses will be closed, however my board should have been sent inbound to sparkfun weeks ago after panelisation… the board should be on postal route to me by now…

3

I am very hesitant to do business with BatchPCB after hearing how long it takes from numerous customers. I do not believe I could wait 2+ months for a PCB design to complete. If it’s something I really need in a hurry (like a month or so), then I’d probably opt to go somewhere else and pay big bucks. The theory of this project is just such a good idea too that it sucks it just has to take months to complete.

4

i would recommend against it unless sparkfun decides to change it’s attitude and make it a profit-based business so people get decent service…

dont get me wrong, if the site said 2 months to panelize, i probably still wouldve ordered. but, it says 4 days onto a panel.

Also quite strange, as soon as i posted that forum post threatening to refund my order, my pcb status quickly went from panelized (not even on route to sparkfun) to “order shipped” on route to me, in under 24hrs or so…

coincidence? i think not…

PS olimex does a double sided silkscreened board, 160mm x 100mm for 30 euro, quick turnaround, ROHS… free panel + depanelization…

5

Hey,

What can happen is that the status gets “stuck”, aka; it means that everything has been happening, it just hasn’t been updated. Probably somebody saw your post, looked into your case + ‘un-stuck’ it.

Cheers,

–David Carne

6

Hi seravitae,

We can’t find your order based on the info in your post. Do you have an order ID we can look up?

If your order was on panel 152 or panel 153, both have now mailed. They are a bit behind schedule, but nothing terrible. Even the oldest order was ordered on January 11 which makes 22 business days, and that board was shipped out last week. Panel 153 shipped yesterday, the oldest order was placed on January 16th which would be exactly 19 business days.

Panels are progressing normally in within two weeks (when there’s not the chinese new year).

-Nathan

7

Nathan - Can you verify if order #4620 (placed on Jan 17th) went out with yesterday’s shipments? I didn’t see a panel number in my order info (I am not sure if it is 153, but from the dates you mention it looks like it might be). Is there a way to get the panel number off the web site, and if I have it, is there a way to get the status of that panel.

Thanks

8

Nathan,

Also, if you get a chance, could you take a look at my order. Order #4649, created Jan. 21, 2008. The status still says panelized but I just wanted to check to see if they finished and shipped it out before Chinese New Year.

-Thanks for the help

9

Hi guys,

Unfortunately I am not the BatchPCB person. I can’t look up orders. Please email support@batchpcb.com and include your order number in the subject so it doesn’t get caught by our spam filters.

-Nathan

10

Unfortunately, I received an email this morning that my order placed on 1/17 (4 weeks ago yesterday) was put on hold because of some questions about the drill file.

I am very confused about the support BatchPCB service. I sent status inquiry emails to the following addresses on the dates given below but got no response.

support@batchpcb.com 1/28

nathan@sparkfun.com (this was the sender of BatchPCB purchase confirmation email) 1/31

I posted to this forum a few days ago with comments directed to Nathan because he had answered an earlier post pertaining to some BatchPCB jobs. Ironically, despite the fact that he had just posted about BatchPCB jobs, and the fact that his email address was on the BatchPCB purchase confirmation, he states that he is not involved with supporting BatchPCB and suggests I send yet another email to the support@batchpcb.com address that no one responds to.

I don’t understand who the real BatchPCB support people are or how customers are supposed to contact them. And what is Nathan’s role? If he is not involved in BatchPCB support, I don’t understand why is he reading and replying to the BatchPCB support forum instead of an actual BatchPCB support person.

Disappointed so far, but hopeful these issues can be resolved.

11

rms:
I don’t understand who the real BatchPCB support people are or how customers are supposed to contact them. And what is Nathan’s role? If he is not involved in BatchPCB support, I don’t understand why is he reading and replying to the BatchPCB support forum instead of an actual BatchPCB support person.

Disappointed so far, but hopeful these issues can be resolved.

Yesterday was my 19th day of waiting and still no boards. I read this in the FAQs “worst case is about 19 days” My order status is still set as Panelized; my order number is 4689.

I have emailed support 3 times now without a response.

What is the deal with this place?

12

19 days is turnaround to shipment time, not to arrive on doorstep.

I’ll poke my contacts again.

Cheers,

–David Carne

13

Let me explain,

I, Nathan, oversee SparkFun and BatchPCB. SparkFun is huge and is getting huger (yes, grammar). BatchPCB continues to be a painful thorn as it can’t get big enough to deserve the attention that you guys need. We run it only as a service for customers who need very cheap PCB service. We don’t make enough money at offering this service to justify the pain most days, but there are a growing group of die-hard supporters that guilt us into keeping the thing running.

If you are in any way upset with our service, we are happy to immediately cancel your order and refund any transaction. Please just say the word.

Sallie runs customer service. Brennan handles the site admin. I’m going to duck out of this as I’m pretty much a lame duck.

The problem at the forefront is the drill files. Customers are submitting completely wrong and ill formatted drill files. We cannot open the design, we cannot line up drill file, and so orders get delayed.

We’ll try to fix the DRC bot to scan drill files. I’ll get Sallie and Brennan onto the forum to help with postings since I can’t keep up.

Thanks, David, for the heads up!

-Nathan

14

sparky:
Let me explain,

I, Nathan, oversee SparkFun and BatchPCB. SparkFun is huge and is getting huger (yes, grammar). BatchPCB continues to be a painful thorn as it can’t get big enough to deserve the attention that you guys need. We run it only as a service for customers who need very cheap PCB service. We don’t make enough money at offering this service to justify the pain most days, but there are a growing group of die-hard supporters that guilt us into keeping the thing running.

If you are in any way upset with our service, we are happy to immediately cancel your order and refund any transaction. Please just say the word.

Sallie runs customer service. Brennan handles the site admin. I’m going to duck out of this as I’m pretty much a lame duck.

The problem at the forefront is the drill files. Customers are submitting completely wrong and ill formatted drill files. We cannot open the design, we cannot line up drill file, and so orders get delayed.

We’ll try to fix the DRC bot to scan drill files. I’ll get Sallie and Brennan onto the forum to help with postings since I can’t keep up.

Thanks, David, for the heads up!

-Nathan

Nathan,

I’m going to be the doubled edge sword here and probably get some nasty remarks from both sides.

It seems to me, that the situation is not as simple as BatchPCB providing poor customer support.

I was starting worry, because I have ordered a few times from them, but it hasn’t been lately.

It also seems that lately, BatchPCB, is getting customers submitting designs, customers haven’t checked thoroughly. I try to check my designs every way I can think of. (Always a good practice)

Now for the other edge.

I’m frustrated that David C. is still not with Spark Fun (Batch PCB). He was a vital asset to the ever going support of the system. David actually seemed to go above and beyond the call of duty to help the customers understand what was going on. He will be missed behind the BatchPCB scene’s.

(It should be noted that the previous paragraph has been edited. David and I have communicated privately and he explained the situation. I was incorrect about my previous inclinations about the situation.)

I’m not bitching, but stating the obvious facts here.

I will admit, if I knew of a way to take over the PCB service, I gladly would. But after talking with David, (other items discussed) I’m not sure I’m in the correct location for that.

I would really hate to see the service go away. I like being able to purchase a single board at such good prices. But on the other hand, when there is a problem, customers need to be informed.

I know I made the issue simpler for each side. But it is what it is.

I welcome anyone from BatchPCB to contact me directly, off list to discuss the possibility, if it is a consideration.

James L

15

I think what would help most is if there was better communication about order status. I realize that sometimes things don’t get updated even though the order is going through the states it should, but if that’s happening more often than not…

I think you’ll find that people are a lot more forgiving if you keep them in the loop. Something as simple as going from “Waiting panelization” to “panelized” to “at boardhouse” to “received by BatchPCB” to “shipped” shouldn’t take too much extra work on BatchPCB’s part and would go a long way. It could be compressed even further to something like “On panel 53” and then update panel status as a whole.

You could have status messages for board problems along with canned responses about how to fix common errors. If drills don’t line up then cancel the board, point the customer to common ways to fix it in their software (tutorials?) and let them re-order. Make a policy for things like this and stick to it. You might loose a few customers, but there are also many people on the boards who are more than willing to help people just starting out.

It would also help if BatchPCB was more upfront with turnaround times. If a panel gets dropped by the boardhouse then tell us. Don’t wait for people to get annoyed and ask where it is. Overall it’s more work to answer each individual question about where a panel is than tell everyone at the same time.

Overall, better communication with customers is essential. It shouldn’t be that much more work to let everyone know how the order is going. If a customer knows their board has a problem as soon as BatchPCB does then there’s a better chance of them getting it fixed in time to go on the same panel it would’ve gone on if there wasn’t a problem.

16

propellanttech - I’m no longer @ sparkfun out of my own choice. I wanted to return back home to my native land; and telecommuting is not really an option ;).

Cheers,

–David Carne

17

Based on the email Sallie sent me, it appears the problem is that inches/ 2.3 format is required by the panelization tool for the drill file to read in correctly. To be fair, that might be stated somewhere on the web site and may have been an oversight on my part. Unfortunately, my CAD tool will only do inches/2.4 or millimeters/4.2. So I am going to try to resubmit the job by manually editing the inches/2.4 file and dropping the last digit.

This is my first job so I am learning as I go, and I am still interested in trying the service. Just disappointed that this wasn’t uncovered sooner and that my status inquiries failed. Adding a DRC for the drill file would be nice, but I would give higher priority to having someone respond to the support@batchpcb.com email and trying to keep the order status on the web page updated. If the turnaround time is a little longer, that is probably OK as long as I know that something is actually happening.

18

sparky:
The problem at the forefront is the drill files. Customers are submitting completely wrong and ill formatted drill files. We cannot open the design, we cannot line up drill file, and so orders get delayed.

We’ll try to fix the DRC bot to scan drill files. I’ll get Sallie and Brennan onto the forum to help with postings since I can’t keep up.

Thanks, David, for the heads up!

-Nathan

What about customers that have read the tutorials and have checked their drill files with a gerber viewer like I did? If this service is going to take more than the published 19 day worst case then just let us know. Not returning customers emails or not updating the status on the order tracking tabs is unacceptable. A little communication goes a long ways in settling the nerves of an upset customer.

p.s. I am still waiting for someone to update me when I might see my order. :roll:

19

In my case the software which the web site uses to generate the .PNG image of the top of side of the board (with traces, solder mask, silkscreen and holes) did not have a problem reading my drill file. The holes and artworks were all sized and aligned correctly. Apparently only the panelization tool had a problem with it. From what I could see, things appeared to be OK. I have already submitted a new job using the 2.3IN format. I am optimistic things will go better this time. It also sounds like Nathan is going to work on some of the issues. Thanks Nathan. :smiley:

20

I have some information on Order 4689. Your order is on Panel 155. It is one of the panels that will be effected by Chinese New Year. Gold Phoenix was closed for just over a week and was not producing boards. Although your panel was given to them before the holiday, the boards were not finished. As soon as I received a tracking number for the panel, I will update the database. SparkFun is also waiting on all of their boards - the delays stink on both sides.

I’m sorry for the delay, I will let you know as soon as possible.

Thanks,

Sallie