I needed a quick batch of PCB's before Chinese NY and decided to try PCB Way. I did the online chat with Daphne on Jan 12th and asked if they can make 1,000 boards in time - was told 50/50, but upload the PCB files and they will take a look. Was also told they only approve boards during a 5 hour window, so if I can wait for them to approve and pay right away, they will get them into production and should be able to ship before they leave for the holiday.
The online quote on their site said $153 (not including shipping). I uploaded the files and literally within a minute upload, they were approved and waiting for payment. But in my shopping cart the price was $266 (not including shipping). I asked why the price was so much higher. Was told they will check... suddenly the price in my cart dropped to $233. The answer back was this is the normal price.
Asked why it's over 50% above the online quote price, and was told "because of the technology of the board". This board is 2 layer, 35mm x 23mm, 66 SMD pads in total, two 0.4mm vias, one 4mm hole, 8 mil trace/space. 1.6mm FR-4, TG130/140, white soldermask, black silkscreen on one side, ENIG plated, tented vias (already done in GERBERS), 1oz copper. About as bog standard as you can get for a PCB. Asked what about the board was more complicated than the standard 2 layer quote necessitating the >50% price increase... only answer "the technology of the board. Quotes are estimates, prices are based on board review". Rubbed me the wrong way since it was obvious nobody reviewed the board in the <1 minute it took to approve and I felt they knew I needed them urgently and bumped the price 50%. But I needed them so I paid up. Asked for confirmation they can ship before the holiday.... no reply - chat disconnected.
But, to their credit - they went into production and the site kept me updated on status, and they shipped out on Friday the 20th. They arrived today, January 23rd, within the timeframe they were promised, so thumbs up for production in time and delivery on time.
However...
On the bad side... of all the suppliers I've had make these same boards for me - these are the worst. The registration of the silkscreen is terrible on about 25% of the boards. On another 25% it's great. And on the remaining 50% it's passable but off by a good 10-15 mil. On the worst 25%, there is actually silkscreen on the SMD pads! (see pics)
What is worse than that is the soldermask. On maybe 20% of the boards, the soldermask is pretty much spot on for one side of the PCB. For another 50%, it's off so much that I'd call it really sloppy but usable. Then for another 20%, it's so far off that the soldermask is right on the edge of the copper adjacent to the SMD pad. These boards will hopefully work OK, but I don't like using boards like that. Then for the remaining 10%, the soldermask is so far off that the copper adjacent to the SMD pad is actually exposed. These boards are unusable. I've dealt with this once before a long time ago, and it is an insidious problem.. you get solder bridges under the legs of your chips that you can't even see due to the solder fillet. And you can't really see the bad soldermask registration visually by eye so we need to go through all 1000 boards and pull out the ones that we can't use. I'll pull out any that are iffy too and toss them.
And last, and least I guess, the routed perimeter of the boards is rough and ratty compared to other suppliers I've used. Maybe this is normal but I've never seen that sort of rough jagged edge on routed PCB's before.
I ordered another 1,000 of these PCB's from PCB Joint at the same time - they didn't commit to delivery before the Chinese NY Holiday, but happily they were able to do them - they will be here Wednesday, so hopefully the quality will be better. Someone please look at my pics and let me know - am I overreacting or expecting too much here? Or am I right that this is unacceptable quality on any PCB?