Nasty Message on Dirty PCBs home page

[JoeO]

Wow.  It is really nasty.  I will bet that they will say their website was hacked.

NEW ORDERS SHIP AFTER FEB. 16TH! IT IS SPRING FESTIVAL, CHINA IS CLOSED. YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS, IT IS THE BIGGEST COUNTRY AND ECONOMY IN THE WORLD, THEY MAKE ALLZ YOUR STUFFS! WE WILL NOT ANSWER ANY EMAILS ABOUT ORDERS PLACED IN THIS PERIOD! NO EXCEPTIONS, NO EMERGENCIES, NO NOTHING. A BIG NOTHING BURGER. GOT IT?!?!

http://dirtypcbs.com/index.php

[StuUK]

On the basis it's not in chinglish they probably were hacked..... 

[rx8pilot]

Morons.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[StuUK]

Seems to be their overall style.....

[Vgkid]

I laughed while reading that. Read it in a NY accent.

[Stupid Beard]

They put similar messages up every year for the chinese new year. Nothing surprising here. As StuUK said, that's just their overall style.

[trevwhite]

I know them and they are really nice people. It is not meant in a nasty way.

[Simon]

Somebody obviously has a sense of humour.

[HAL-42b]

I like their style   

[Cubdriver]

Some will get their noses out of joint, others will find it amusing.  I'm in the latter camp.   

-Pat

[Fred27]

I agree. That sounds genuine. See their FAQ and you'll find it's similar. Take it in the spirit it was meant. I was very impressed with their boards for the price.

[AlxDroidDev]

Somebody obviously has a sense of humour.

Or absolutely none at all.

[Simon]

Somebody obviously has a sense of humour.

Or absolutely none at all.

True, it is of a dryness and to the point that could be either extreme sarcasm or humour it's really down to how you look at it.

[SL4P]

Ya, it's a Gen Y twit managing the page - that thinks it's cool and professional to talk gangsta!  sigh.

[Simon]

I suppose marketing try to cater for ther audience they think they have.

[sleemanj]

That's just how dirtypcbs roll, it's dirty by name, dirty by nature, no frills, no hand holding, no patting you on the head and saying "there-there it'll be allright".  You want fancy service with bells and whistles there are plenty of others.

Also, the message is entirely factual.  China is closed for the next couple of weeks.  It closes every year.  This is not a new thing.

PS: From what Ian has said recently, at best dirtypcbs breaks even, and between the lines, I think he may be optimistic in that.  I don't know how dangerousprototypes actually makes enough money to operate on a daily basis, it's not from dirtypcbs.

[Macbeth]

From what I can tell, dirtypcbs are really providing the bare minimum service and a price to go with it. Clearly not for production. I like the fact that they explain they are cheap, dirty, sleazy even. Hey, fuck you if you only get 8 or 9 boards instead of 10... It's still 8 or 9 boards for the price of 1 or 2... It's what China sent.

No comebacks, no hand-holding, what do you want from a sleazy backstreet PCB seller? (Do you know what that stuff does to kids? Oh that's PCP, Angel Dust, sorry) 

Upfront marketing of the dodgy service that is on offer for a price. I wouldn't hesitate to use them, considering I would be happy with a few boards for a proto anyway.

It turns out that only a small percentage get the bad service, but forewarned is forearmed.

[KL27x]

The message is clear and succinct enough. No wasting of time for them or you.

I was just in the customer service department of a client and it is hard to believe how much hand holding the average Americans consumer demands. It could seriously require 5 minutes of politely repeating yourself to get a guy to accept a simple fact or instruction. Even if it is good news. Americans apparently consider someone to talk with to be part of the purchase price.

 I think I'll try them out in the future.

[Simon]

Lets face it, it just got us all talking about them, I'd never heared of them before but i have now beucase they put up a sarky message and here we all are. I'm sure that come mid february they will find they have more customers than before.

[VK3DRB]

The English is in a similar style to other parts of their website so it is probably genuine. Clicking on the "Contact" tab shows how unprofessional these clowns are. I would not buy anything from them.

I have never bought PCBs made in red China. I don't trust them. Silver Circuits in Malaysia makes good boards and is reasonably cheap and have a good service level, but being run by the Chinese, they close down during Chinese New Year. Circuit Labs in New Zealand has a quality and a service level that is exemplary. Their turnaround time is fast, VERY fast. And they don't close down during Chinese New Year. EEVBlog did a review on them and since then I have bought all my prototype boards from them and have never been disappointed. They even discovered a serious internal track clearance rule violation that bloody Altium 14's DRC failed to pick up (A bug in Altium).

Two rules of thumb  :

1. You get that you pay for.
2. Quality is long remembered after the price is forgotten.

[sleemanj]

And they don't close down during Chinese New Year

New Zealand effectively closes down during Xmas-New Year for at least 2 weeks.  You can pretty much forget about anything getting done except for retail from the 24th of December right until the 10th or 11th of January.

China the same, just a different time of year.

[Muxr]

It's obviously a joke. I have been using them for prototyping boards. And I have nothing but good things to say about them. I hit a few snags, like when I upgraded my KiCad my gerber settings got a little messed up and they told me exactly what it was in a few hours. They are HK based but I get my boards faster from them than OSHPark. And the price is comparable with the DHL option. They also provide stainless steel stencils.

The quality isn't as good as Oshpark but it's pretty decent despite their name, for what I need at least, and I can also pick a color!

[Richard Crowley]

[Dirty PCB] are HK based but I get my boards faster from them than OSHPark. And the price is comparable with the DHL option.

Interesting, since OHSpark sources their manufacturing from US companies.
OTOH, it probably takes OHSpark longer to fill a standard panel size since Dirty probably has an order of magnitude more customers.

[TerraHertz]

I like it, it's funny.
Added them to my list of PCB makers.

[Royce]

Seeing this thread and knowing the backstory of the service, I wonder if it is really quite a clever message. It both informs customers and filters them. There is a lesson in branding here perhaps.