Robo,
I totally understand how you feel. I have gone through a lot of frustration over how expensive the cost of printing is at shapeways, and that we now we have to pay for shipping too.
So, I looked into Ponoko (more expensive printing or the same depending on material, and charges more for shipping)
So then I looked at I.Materialize (WAY more expensive printing even when I wanted to order 50 of the same item which did bring the price down per unit, but nothing close to SW's price, and more expensive shipping)
So then I looked into numerous other smaller companies (some times as much as 10 times more expensive to print, and usually charged more for shipping)
So, then I cam back to SW and am happy that the current price adjustments is all they did. They are SOOOOO much cheaper than any other option I could find that I am accepting it as a blessing that they even exist.
Anyone upset about the price increase, I beg you, please upload your objects to SW competitors, and you will quickly find that SW is the cheapest, and often by a lot.
After that, I feel like complaining about the price here is kind of like complaining to Mc Donalds that you want them to lower their dollar menu.
I highly doubt SW is making much if any profit on the shipping when you look at the price to ship plus paying people to package it and the cost of the box and packing materials.
Most if not all of the companies I spoke with won't check the object for mistakes right away. Some will print it and when it fails, charge you anyway. They expect the person uploading the print to be responsible for that. I always check in the program, "Netfab Studio" to make sure my wall thickness is right, and that the object is water tight. I have never had an object fail to print after that.
SW may be a bit ahead of its time. They are bringing an incredibly expensive tech to the masses. Most companies doing this only expect to be dealing with engineers and companies prototyping objects before they spend millions going into full production.
Lincoln