Don't order from JLCPCB with assembly if you live in america. Sketchy.

[ibanzroks1]

Just to let other PCB enthusiasts know that i'm warning anyone that if you're going to try assembly with JLCPCB. Dont! Just don't! I went through possibly the worst representative experience in my entire life. All I felt the whole time was their greed. I had been discussing what we could do to work out their mistake and their just a greedy company. I have heard alot of other stories after this happened from other people online and they all seem to get the same problems with JLCPCB. That jlcpcb doesn't want to give your money back at all costs. They dodged all my questions I ask them so I felt like I was talking to a robot so I felt like they weren't sympathetic about the issue. They also like to make you feel like you should fix it on your end so they don't have to fix anything. I can't even fix them because moisture was already in the boards.  I will try to attach a link to my discussion with JLCPCB.

Your just asking for your week to be ruined ordering from these guys. They are based in China so be ready for slow responses.

It's not a very long conversation but hearing them say over and over that they wont do whats right gets draining.

If they have a whole collection of datasheets with unclear information and you do assembly for the first time you might get screwed if you buy from them.

Honestly, you might get screwed if any fluke happens because they will blame you for it.

[racemaniac]

I find it impressive you manage to write this entire rant without... just telling us what went wrong...

[Shonky]

Your rant (including the poor spelling and grammar) comes off as somewhat unhinged.

[gjvdheiden]

I find it impressive you manage to write this entire rant without... just telling us what went wrong...

And this is your first post.

[wraper]

Frankly for the price you pay their terms saying that you should be asking for baking moisture sensitive LED parts is understandable. They are assembling the parts in highly automated way with no special attention to each order. You actually get more than you pay for. You say they are greedy, however as I understand it was $70 order including everything and they offered $30 coupon. Normally you would have to pay 5-10x of that just in setup costs.

[Chalcogenide]

Honestly, for ESD or moisture sensitive stuff it is better to use their "standard" assembly, which in my experience has had a better luck and it is really not that expensive. I had few issued with the WS2812E assembled with the "economic" service, while 100% reliability with the standard one.

[langwadt]

Frankly for the price you pay their terms saying that you should be asking for baking moisture sensitive LED parts is understandable. They are assembling the parts in highly automated way with no special attention to each order. You actually get more than you pay for. You say they are greedy, however as I understand it was $70 order including everything and they offered $30 coupon. Normally you would have to pay 5-10x of that just in setup costs.

and that would be after paying 10x just to get the PCBs made

[ibanzroks1]

Due to limits in package (0201), temperature and other certain conditions, this part is only available for Standard PCBA service. Economic PCBA has been chosen. If you want to place this part, please switch to the Standard PCBA.

* Note: The price for Standard and Economic PCBA are different,

The part that I ordered Doesn't let me do the Eco option.

[ibanzroks1]

The price I paid total was actually $109.02.

[ibanzroks1]

I have heard from some sources online that they don't properly store some products.

[AK6DN]

I have heard from some sources online that they don't properly store some products.

Nothing like unfounded heresay to make your case.

OTOH, I have actually had pcb fab (4 layer) and built (SMT assembly) thru JLCPCB 60 pcs of one design and 50 pcs of another.

On the first assembly, only one board failed after testing, was due to lifted pins on an SMT connector. A little bit of solder touchup and its fixed.

On the second assembly, several boards (3) were damaged during separation from the panelization. It was cosmetic only, did not cause any functional issue.
They offered me a discount coupon on a subsequent assembly run, which I accepted. It more than covered the cost of the three impacted boards.

Being in the USA, the only complaint I have is in the shipping options. Either very slow, and cheap, or very costly, and expensive.
For a small build the shipping cost can match or exceed the cost of the pcb plus assembly. So I have learned to be patient and use slow shipping.

Overall I have absolutely no complaints in using JLCPCB and plan to use them again. So far I have spent in excess of US$500 in total pcb fab and assembly costs.

FYI attached is a picture of the latest board I had built thru JLCPCB.

[Smokey]

The price I paid total was actually $109.02.

For some perspective, when I get a new assembly build done at my local professional board house, it's about $1100 just in NRE (regardless of the number of boards I want them to assemble). 

[fourfathom]

And I have had JLCPCB assemble close to ten different board designs for me, two-layer and four-layer, qty from five to fifty, complexity from a few passives to about 100 components including controllers, memory, logic, analog, modules, etc.  So far there has been a 100% success rate, and on the few occasions where I had to deal with a person at JLCPCB (because of an error or oversight on my part) they were helpful and prompt.  I select components from the LCSC catalog, and sometimes have to pre-order a few items that are not in stock.  That's been working well.  Some jobs are "Economic PCBA" and others are "Standard", but even at the more expensive Standard rate it's still an amazing bargain.

I've also had JLCPCB make dozens of different bare boards for me, again with excellent results.

Of course your mileage may vary.

[lutkeveld]

I too had good luck with their services on multiple occasions.
It's a miracle they can offer it so cheap and I find their way of loading in the BoM and checking the 3D result quite nice.
It's a pity that an edge-case like this with moisture sensitive components went bad, but I would just take it as a lesson.
I would personally just take the coupon and move on.

[ibanzroks1]

I have heard from some sources online that they don't properly store some products.

Nothing like unfounded heresay to make your case.

OTOH, I have actually had pcb fab (4 layer) and built (SMT assembly) thru JLCPCB 60 pcs of one design and 50 pcs of another.

On the first assembly, only one board failed after testing, was due to lifted pins on an SMT connector. A little bit of solder touchup and its fixed.

On the second assembly, several boards (3) were damaged during separation from the panelization. It was cosmetic only, did not cause any functional issue.
They offered me a discount coupon on a subsequent assembly run, which I accepted. It more than covered the cost of the three impacted boards.

Being in the USA, the only complaint I have is in the shipping options. Either very slow, and cheap, or very costly, and expensive.
For a small build the shipping cost can match or exceed the cost of the pcb plus assembly. So I have learned to be patient and use slow shipping.

Overall I have absolutely no complaints in using JLCPCB and plan to use them again. So far I have spent in excess of US$500 in total pcb fab and assembly costs.

FYI attached is a picture of the latest board I had built thru JLCPCB.

This is where I found it so...
https://www.reddit.com/r/FastLED/comments/sp2gej/where_can_i_make_custom_pcb_with_ws2812_on/

[AK6DN]

I have heard from some sources online that they don't properly store some products.

Nothing like unfounded heresay to make your case.

OTOH, I have actually had pcb fab (4 layer) and built (SMT assembly) thru JLCPCB 60 pcs of one design and 50 pcs of another.

On the first assembly, only one board failed after testing, was due to lifted pins on an SMT connector. A little bit of solder touchup and its fixed.

On the second assembly, several boards (3) were damaged during separation from the panelization. It was cosmetic only, did not cause any functional issue.
They offered me a discount coupon on a subsequent assembly run, which I accepted. It more than covered the cost of the three impacted boards.

Being in the USA, the only complaint I have is in the shipping options. Either very slow, and cheap, or very costly, and expensive.
For a small build the shipping cost can match or exceed the cost of the pcb plus assembly. So I have learned to be patient and use slow shipping.

Overall I have absolutely no complaints in using JLCPCB and plan to use them again. So far I have spent in excess of US$500 in total pcb fab and assembly costs.

FYI attached is a picture of the latest board I had built thru JLCPCB.

This is where I found it so...
https://www.reddit.com/r/FastLED/comments/sp2gej/where_can_i_make_custom_pcb_with_ws2812_on/

More relevant:  https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2018/11/12/why-production-lines-need-to-be-careful-with-ws2812b-rgb-led-assembly/

Personally, I would not use parts on an assembly at JLCPCB that require special handling. But I tend to be cautious by nature.

[nvmR]

not usually on the go-china bandwagon, but have always had good experience with them.

Provide some value, give a price comparison to a equal manufacturer stateside, and we'll be glad to use.

[boyddotee]

We stopped using them after a few issues with poor communications and the fact that there capabilities as listed on there website are not to be trusted.

They claim things like 3.5mil/3.5mil (track/space) but when we tried ordering several 4mil/4mil coils to experiment with inductive sensing they cancelled the order.

We now just use PCBWay for prototypes, its a little more expensive but worth it.

Personally we wouldn't order from either for productions runs.

Chris.

 

[thm_w]

They claim things like 3.5mil/3.5mil (track/space) but when we tried ordering several 4mil/4mil coils to experiment with inductive sensing they cancelled the order.

Highly unlikely that they've cancelled the order because of that.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufacture/jlcpcb-4-layer-board-trace-width-clearance/

[nimish]

They claim things like 3.5mil/3.5mil (track/space) but when we tried ordering several 4mil/4mil coils to experiment with inductive sensing they cancelled the order.

Highly unlikely that they've cancelled the order because of that.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufacture/jlcpcb-4-layer-board-trace-width-clearance/

They've cancelled parts orders for chips they claim to be able to assemble so I wouldn't put it past them.

[Shay]

It seems like in order to provide cheap assembly, which can be quite an expensive process to setup, they are going for as much automation and volume as possible. So there is not much attention to detail. I can't really blame your side or their side, but I don't understand that argue over 100$. For such a well known company, 100$ copoun shouldn't be something that is worth arguing for.
I'd personally just open a case on PayPal and receive my money, if I felt I deserve it, so no issues here.

[Puteketeke]

We are sorry that at present collecting the boards for reworking is not supported as our factory is in
China and it may cause some custom clearance problems.

ah ah, I recognize JLC here. They gave me this excuse, we can go to prison, if the government (customs) sees it (it was mixing a 4gr plastic 3d  print with a  pcbs order in my case),

[langwadt]

We are sorry that at present collecting the boards for reworking is not supported as our factory is in
China and it may cause some custom clearance problems.

ah ah, I recognize JLC here. They gave me this excuse, we can go to prison, if the government (customs) sees it (it was mixing a 4gr plastic 3d  print with a  pcbs order in my case),

if customs insist that pcbs and other things be declared and shipped separately, what do you suggest they do, ignore it and risk their business?

[chrisb741]

Only bad for america? then send it to a nearby country and forwarded it to america, problem solved.
I've ordered 2 batches from them, so far no problems.

[helius]

if customs insist that pcbs and other things be declared and shipped separately, what do you suggest they do, ignore it and risk their business?

I'm not aware of any country that requires "separation". There is space on customs declarations for multiple articles contained in a package without needing to separate them.