it arrived - sort of ...

Discussion in 'My Shapeways Order Arrived' started by 35824_deleted, Apr 11, 2011.

  1. 35824_deleted
    35824_deleted Member
    Some interesting observations about silver "printing".

    The good news: The silver folks try a lot harder than others to get your stuff done and they also (sort of) tell you what's going on.
    The bad news: They may change your model substantially and the result may not be what you want.

    At first, we had this piece printed and as you can see, it failed. At first look, it seemed to have been distorted in the tumbler.
    s1.jpg
    So we submitted a complaint and this was the response from the crew:
    Upon closer inspection, it turned out that at least parts of the model were not printed, but somehow welded or otherwise connected to the thing after the fact. The same for the little necklace-ring on the back (not visible on the foto).

    Then, we had these other two printed. They came out really nice, but the all-important rings at the top are completely missing. No trace that they ever had been there.
    s2.jpg
    Have not yet received their response, but I think they have removed these delicate parts from the model and wanted to later add them manually.

    It seems to me that in this case, they just forgot about it in the end ...
     
  2. 9694_deleted
    9694_deleted Member
    Yeah, that's definitely not right. QA needs to be better than this. I have some of the ops team examining this at the moment.

    Has anyone else had similar issues with silver?

     
  3. 65166_deleted
    65166_deleted Member
    Hey guys, very astute in your hypothesis on what's happening. Polishing can indeed distort things. In fact, we pushed the supplier to purchase a new polisher and media, which should lead to better results. The new media is finer and should also reach into detail better than before.

    As for the top, yes you are correct that our suppliers are welding some parts. Again with the polishing, it is risky to leave small parts hanging off. As you know, silver is a flexible metal, so we are experimenting with different pieces.

    I spoke to our supply chain team about paying extra close attention to QA-ing these parts, since silver is a whole new game for us we are learning a lot and need to pay extra attention.

    Have you contacted customer service about this yet? I think they can take care of refunds, vouchers, or various compensation for you.

    Let me know if you have any more questions!
    Best,
    Nancy
     
  4. vaclavmazany
    vaclavmazany Member
    Hi Nancy,
    can you compare it somehow to the "old" one ?

    https://www.shapeways.com/model/123004/
    Bubbly Ring
    for example, does it mean that even such rings can be polished ?

    Or any other example, of what benefits this can brings.
    Thanx
     
  5. 35824_deleted
    35824_deleted Member
    Customer service had asked to return the two defective pieces, which I did ...
    Today, the parcel with the supposedly repaired models arrived, but ...

    - there was only ONE OF THE TWO pieces in the parcel. The boy is completely missing.

    - the ring which they manually soldered to the top is TOO SMALL. the thing at the end of the band does not go through.

    DSC00175 (Medium).JPG
    DSC00174 (Medium).JPG

    Also, the manual repair left some traces on the very front of the model which more or less destroy the overall appearance.

    Am I asking too much here ?


     
  6. RalphVdB
    RalphVdB Well-Known Member CS Team
    Hi Ulrich,

    my colleague Maartje has already sent you an email about this. The other part will be shipped next Tuesday to you.

    Happy Eastern

    cheers, Ralph
     
  7. 35824_deleted
    35824_deleted Member
    Dear Ralph,

    Please check with Maartje. This is moving into the wrong direction.

    as-designed.jpg
     
  8. pete
    pete Shapeways Employee CEO
    With some regret I will respond here, cause we are clearly not performing as we should and I promise we will step up from here to deliver quality you should expect

    1) if we are shipping separate boxes per order, we have cards to indicate this and inform you! This should have been done in this case. We did this with the best intend - to be faster - but we should have let you know.

    2) if we make statements like "so you made the hole too (spelling error corrected) small then" can be made ONLY if we know this to be true. In your pictures it is easy to see it is not true and the printing was the problem or there is a more intricate issue at hand. In any case this is NOT the right response.

    3) the soldering in the images on the forum post, are WAY below any acceptable standards. This should never have been produced, or shipped to you in this manner.

    We will address these issues and step up our game to deliver true personalized products that will make you happy time and again! You have my word.

    Pete
     
  9. froland
    froland Member
    Hi Everybody,

    this silver print is also broken. The picture shows the silver print compared to a bronze print of the same model. The central structure seems to be bent open. Is this from polishing?

    Does anybody have an idea of what happened here? Can we get it fixed?

    Thanks!

    froland
     

    Attached Files:

  10. 20201_deleted
    20201_deleted Member
    Silver is a soft metal so it could be caused from the barrel finishing (tumbling) process. It is also possible that the wax model suffered some warpage before casting but this seems less likely.

    -G
     
  11. RalphVdB
    RalphVdB Well-Known Member CS Team
    Hi Froland,

    can you please sent an email to service@shapeways.com?
    Then we will have a look at this and offer you a proper solution!

    Cheers, Ralph