Disappointing first time customer experience

I'll start off by pointing out that I think Shapeways is offering an amazing service, and as someone that has been manufacturing my own inventions, and selling products online for over 6 years, I know not to judge all experiences based on just one.

Today I received my first ever order from Shapeways.

Skipping past the fact that it took almost 50% longer than the "normal" expected time, here are some of the issues I am not happy with.

There is powder coating the object that I will have to clean before I would use it. There is also some kind of clear plastic material (support material I assume) still on the object that I am not sure how to remove without breaking the object. It can be seen in this photo.




I am really hoping to use shapeways to sell my products direct to customers, and I can not do that if the objects will arrive to my customers in this condition.

I wanted to try out the Shapeways offer to get a piece on a necklace, and the piece was sent without the necklace. So of course, that is also a concern.

Another other issue is that I ordered an object in stainless steel, and it has not arrived, nor have I heard anything about it.

I e-mailed shapeways when they told me my package was shipping, and was told that I would be getting both in the same package, yet that is not the case. So, at this moment, I have no idea if my steel object has been made, or is on the way. I placed the order August 30th.

Despite all of this, I am not giving up on Shapeways, as there are too many things I want to make using 3D printing, and I still feel they are are the best place to use for it.

I just really don't like that it will probably be another month or more before I can see more results. If I don't have the steel object here, I can't make decisions I wanted to make about the next object I am working on.

Here are some pictures of the object that came in:

i don't think it's the right way around your using now,,
posting it on the forum.

I think you'd better first contact the customer service before posting your experience on the forum!

CS always helps you the right way believe me!


edit: my first model had a problem too! caused by the printer,, but shapeways made me a new one after i sended an email to there customer service!
now, a lot of packages further,, no problems anymore!

Hi Novaking,

sorry to hear that! I'll ask Customer Service to handle this for you, and to provide you with more accurate information.

Cheers,

Bart

Hi Novaking,

I just sent you an personal E-mail.

Cheers!
Maartje
Shapeways Customer service

Maartje sent me an e-mail, and we are working it out.

It seems to me that Shapeways cares very much about taking care of their customers when something goes wrong.

told ya

wish shapeways customer service is applied in everywhere!
still got some issues with vodafone... if it was a shapeways cs,, the problem would have been solved allready

A few months ago, they re-printed and re-shipped some stuff that had printed badly to me without my even having to request it..

Now THAT is CS!

I feel that SW took care of the mix-ups in a VERY satisfactory way, and consider the matter completely closed.

Also, I finally got my metal piece, and LOVE it! I will post pix and video soon in a new thread.

Yep, CS is gr8! But...

After receiving over 20 SW boxes with various materials, my experience is that only the metal pieces are durable and suitable for items with personal or day-to-day use. Plus, the metal process gives good and predictable results and as such its items are fine for direct customer shipment.

I tried to ignore the warning message on the bottom of the materials page for a long time, but it's true; the (plastic) items are for decorative purposes only.

I got back using clay and cardboard as my main prototyping tools.

-Ivo

Shapeways Customer Support is the nicest , most helpful i have ever encountered on the web.



About durability, i have to agree with ibec, i do hope shapeways will introduce some new high-res, durable ABS plastic material/s.

The current "plastics" are for decorative purposes only which in fact could backfire on future orders - (saw a comment on that from a customer on my "Kitchen Stand for iPad" page)

Btw, anyone can shade some light on why the gray robust FDM process at shapeways produces an un esthetically surface stepping while on other websites you can see FDM machines that produce quite smooth surfaces and also with a variety of colors or am i wrong ?

There used to be a chemical smoothing process for that ABS plastic which is no longer offered. too bad.