Ever get someone elses parts?

Ever get someone else parts and miss some of yours?

I did today, I assume they have my missing parts. I have 6 parts missing and 6 weird parts in TWO orders. this has been a print I have done before, so not sure what went wrong. But i had two models and both had the same weird 6 missing and same 6 pieces of unknown origins.

If these parts are supposed to be yours please let me know and do you have mine?



I have sent an email with this picture, but man I ordered these in time to have these guys for my clients for xmas, now I will have to apologize and loose money and possible clients....

I love and hate shapeways.... I hope soon shapeways you will not be a double edged sword. So much for having a "handling" fee......

Yes, it happens sometimes. It could also be that some kind of (new) processing changed the mesh that was sent to the printer; too much coincidence that the same error happened in different batches.

Plently of options to avoid the missing/mixed parts problem: sprues, cages, loops. For just 1cm3 of extra cost you get 1000mm of 1*1mm "safety rope", and in some cases no cleaning of the surface will be needed, just cut the cage or slide the part out of the loop.

If you are doing this as business (even of the artisan on free time type), you should know that the way is to have stock if you think you can sell if regularly, and never promise customers anything that is out of your control. That the process is advanced technology, that the machines are also used for rapid prototyping, that SW is cheaper than other places or that a courier delivers the parts are unrelated details; for all that matters from customer side, the things are slowly hand made, on demand, expensive, error prone and shipped via snails (animals must pass quarantine at customs). ^_^

It happened to me once. I got a part that was very similar to a part I made, but was different and was from someone else.

Hi Silverbeam

Having multiple loose parts in a single file makes it incredibly difficult for the sorting process.
As Stannum mentioned, putting them in a cage or similar will guarantee no parts are mixed up or lost.
As for the handling fee, it looks as though your file has over 20 parts, the handling fee is not currently set up to cover this.

This is something we will be addressing in the near future.

Customer service will handle this until then.

I hope your replacement parts get to you in time.

There have been 3 different orders for 1/144 aircraft that I know of where the wrong aircraft have been sent.

They look similar to the untrained eye, and some look very similar.

All have happened in the last month, before then there was no problem.

Example: (Not my order)
Packing list says
3x Fokker DR.1, 3x Fokker D.VII one-piece, and 2x Sopwith Camel.

Contents were:
3x Fokker DR.1, 2x Fokker D.VII one-piece, and 3x Sopwith Camel.

Example (not my order, and replacement already sent by excellent customer service)
It's this kind of custimer service that ensures good word-of-mouth advertising, and repeat custom.

My own order:
Packing list was huge, but contained:
1 x Roland D.VIb, 3 x Fokker D.II

Contents were (huge list omitted)
1 x Aviatik D1, 3 x Sopwith Dolphin
instead.

I've re-ordered the missing ones in the new order yesterday. I was going to order 2 Dolphins anyway, so am not too badly out of pocket. $20 on a $450 order.

My main worry is that this may be a systemic problem that will affect future orders.