Dear Shapies,  Joris asked me to write a monthly blogpost about our Customer Service work, so here it is!  

It has been quite an interesting few weeks for Shapeways Customer Service Team. Due to the ash clouds in Iceland  we had some delays. Sorry about that, but to be  fair, this is the first time we have had to deal with  natural disasters ;)  I am glad that Shapeways has members who bear with us and are so patient!  We also introduced a few new materials the last month: Alumide and Milky White Matte Glass . We anticipated a lot of Customer Service questions about this, but in the end this did not occur. This can either mean that our website is clear enough,  or that you guys are so kind not to bother us ;-)  Regarding the questions we get about any problems with the 3D viewer in different browsers, I want to let you know that our developers are working hard on this to get this fixed.  We also started to email customers pro actively, just to let them know if any of their orders might have some delay. If you haven't received an email, your order is still on schedule.  We are constantly working on ways to improve our service, just to give you guys the best possible Shapeways experience. If you have any advice for us, or just want to share things, please contact us at  Service[at]Shapeways[dot]com  Since our last blogpost, the Customer Service has a few more members of the customer service team. Maartje & Tyce Welcome! 

Maartje:  Hi there!  I’m Maartje, born in Eindhoven 1979, I live together with my husband Leon (he is a Police officer) in Borkel & Schaft (that’s at the end of the Netherlands, near the Belgian border). I have been working at  the Shapeways Customer Service since September 2009. Before I came to Shapeways I used to work for Strukton Rail Eindhoven in the Safety Division of the Dutch Railways.  When I started out at Shapeways I was amazed to see that you can print out your own drawings, I couldn’t just sit and watch so I’m very pleased that my own Money Pig came alive (special thanks to  DotSan) in February 2010.  In my private time I’m always around horses, my hobby is to photograph them, I have my own website to show it to the rest of the world.  I like my job at Shapeways, it’s a nice personal team with a great community. Every day I have the opportunity to see the most beautiful creations that I could never imagine before, where is this 3D printing  revolution going to end………?  Talk to you later by E-mail! Cheers Maartje  

Tyce:  Hi community, nice to meet you!  Let me introduce myself. I'm Tyce van Alphen-Wintermans (a whole mouth full and I kept it short this time . Last year I hit the magic number of 30 years and I'm married to my lovable hubby Rob. Together we have a fluffy cat named Freggle who rules our house and furniture.  Besides my work at Shapeways I still study and in the spare time I have left, I really enjoy theater, a good book, music and movies.  Before Shapeways I worked as "Data and production Manager Assistent" at a big Semiconductor company. Sounds fancy but it mend in general that I took care of  internal communication and that everybody worked  according to procedures. Now I have the big challenge to communicate with you guys ;)  Within our wonderful Customer Service, I am the newby of the team as I've only worked here for a few months. I've never had so much fun in a job as I do now because we get the possibility to solve the issues that you have. The biggest challenge, for me personally, is to come up with ideas to make things easier and more understandable for everyone.  So that's me and now you know who you are talking to at service@shapeways.com!  Greets,  Tyce 

Ralph  I guess you guys already know me by now, but just for the few out there:   I started out at Shapeways in April 2008. I got my bachelor of Science degree a couple of years ago, and I've been working in the IT-business for several years now.  When I got the opportunity to work for this internet start-up, I didn't even hesitate for a second. To me this is a dream come true. I mean, come on, we're printing the future!  So, what's my role in the Shapeways team? For those who have encountered non manifold, bad edges problems, questions about delivery or shipping status, you've already emailed back and forth with me. I'm the  Service Customer Manager. Previously I was the Shapeways Webmaster but I've changed so that i can help you with any issues you can have.  Because we are still growing rapidly as a start-up, and therefore receive more and more orders from around the globe (thanks for that!!), we are in need of excellent customer service. I hope to  make you as happy as can be, and this is my job. Our main goal: 100% satisfied customers .  For the rest, I'm enjoying life, I'm a huge soccer fan (VVV Venlo) and I like spending time with my friends, and watching movies.   Well that is it for now! Hope you got a bit of an insight of our Customer Service Team!  Cheers, Ralph