Thank you for your answers, I will be interesting to see how this program and future ones develop.
Expanding on Question 1
I mostly print FCS, and often there are some quality issues that make it past inspection and shipped to me or a customer. So I'm worried these issues will still get through with PIA and void the usual reprint or credit. Maybe as part of the added communication when using PIA, clear photos can be taken and shared before shipping the model, or always flag for better inspection
1: Badly calibrated layers
A friend ordered 5 copies of this model at the same time, all packaged very differently (different sources?), and one was clearly below the quality of the others, showing badly aligned layers. Not a problem with the model, but was approved and shipped to the customer. Shapeways reprinted it.
2: Non Uniform Color
Below is a recent mild case from a customer who ordered this cat model. One side the color is more vivid than the other, making it too green and uneven. I had a similar issue in the past where the color slowly turned B&W on one side. My print was approved for a reprint, while my customer was told they had no control over this and was not issued a refund. This seems like an issue with printer maintenance, like a clogged line with the colors or print head. That being said, this issue was not as noticeable as mine that turned black and white. The customer did not receive a print at the same quality with uniform color that I featured in my store and examples shown below next to her print. Color can vary in richness, which is acceptable to an extent, but it should be uniform and not noticeably change across the model. So I was disappointed she did not get a refund.
Again, this is a mild case compared to B&W, but the same non the less
3: Support material removed and fused with model
Here is one example where some support material wasn't removed before fusing with glue. Looking between the two front legs, there's lump of support material fused into the model. It was possible overlooked because it was white on white, but not a problem with the design and would of been bad if over a different color.
On a recent print of the Lemur character, as seen in example 1 above. There was an obvious thin layer of white stuff fused on the tip of the black nose. Luckily it was easy to get to and thin enough to carefully rub and scratch away for a perfect print, but was nerve racking. With this example below, you can't do that
So those are all some kind of problem caused by a printer issue or cleaning issue, but still made it to me or the customer. If I used PIA with any of those, would I have been out of luck? These are just a few examples I had to show off hand, but you are making a risky print that survives the process, you hope it will not have secondary issues like these.