JLCPCB scam

[free_electron]

^Even if they cannot export them, and supposedly cannot return the money, service fee ransom to hand them over is total bullshit. It's like, we are screwing you, give us more money to reduce your losses.

Debatable. Depends on how what they charge. A handling fee is not unheard of. 30$ to collect all your parts and put them in a box is not excessive. Unless of course your parts are two reels of resistors worth 3$... then you write that off as a loss.

They don't charge you rent for all the time your parts took up space in their warehouse ... someone has to do the legwork to collect them and wrap them up. they are not a part distributor. their logistics works differently.
If the parts leave their warehouse that means they will not assemble boards with them, so it is a loss for them as well.

There's always two sides in business.

[UnijunctionTransistor]

I have an acquaintance that works as an international freight forwarder at a medium-large US port. He tells me that international commerce is really going to hell, and his personal opinion is that it is going to become worse before things settle down.

I also have a relative who purchases electronics components for a large US corporation. He mentioned that everything, even trivial things like coaxial cables or connectors, have seen their availability severely disrupted.

We are witnessing a World trade Götterdämmerung.
We knew all this was going to happen when Trump decided to go into this trade war.

[Spirit532]

The problem with all of these comments saying it's an export restriction is... no one else is doing it.
You can still go on PCBWay, NextPCB, ALLPCB. All of them still ship fine. None of my accounts there are gone.

It's a nice justification but it'd only be true if everyone else reacted the same way.
Don't give JLC the benefit of the doubt here.

[wraper]

^Even if they cannot export them, and supposedly cannot return the money, service fee ransom to hand them over is total bullshit. It's like, we are screwing you, give us more money to reduce your losses.

Debatable. Depends on how what they charge. A handling fee is not unheard of. 30$ to collect all your parts and put them in a box is not excessive. Unless of course your parts are two reels of resistors worth 3$... then you write that off as a loss.

OP said they ask 30%, not $30. Not to say they are those who made the decision on particular customer. Imposing fees customer did not agree to and with no other means to get a refund or their property is fraud.

[themadhippy]

You can still go on PCBWay, NextPCB, ALLPCB. All of them still ship fine. None of my accounts there are gone.

It's a nice justification but it'd only be true if everyone else reacted the same way.

maybe jlcpcb are being efficient giving  you 2 months warning and it will trickle down through  the other suppliers as the dead line for whatever change has been imposed gets closure

[free_electron]

yeah. 30% is excessive...

As for other companies still doing it : they may have different export licenses , or those may just be bare boards. there could be many factors.

i'm not defending JLCPCB or anyone else here. I'm just saying there is more going on than simply "they shut me down". A company is not going to cut out a customer for whatever.
There is something at play we are not aware of. Most likely an outflow of the current geopolitical / geoeconomical state.

Look at Nexperia. The dutch government ousted the chinese owners and took control of the company. China reaction -> export license revoked. Nothing from nexperia leaves china. They don't care if this inconveniences large companies. They care that it DOES inconvenience LARGE companies that go to their government and start complaining.

JLC is still doing business with many others and is not going to jeopardize their license to export boards and assemblies out of china. They would go bankrupt.
Sometimes there will be colatteral damage and there may be some customers inconvenienced. But the company will survive. They are not in business to please the last person in the world that happens to buy 100 boards from them. they have 100000 other customers.

[jeschris]

yeah. 30% is excessive...

As for other companies still doing it : they may have different export licenses , or those may just be bare boards. there could be many factors.

i'm not defending JLCPCB or anyone else here. I'm just saying there is more going on than simply "they shut me down". A company is not going to cut out a customer for whatever.
There is something at play we are not aware of. Most likely an outflow of the current geopolitical / geoeconomical state.

Look at Nexperia. The dutch government ousted the chinese owners and took control of the company. China reaction -> export license revoked. Nothing from nexperia leaves china. They don't care if this inconveniences large companies. They care that it DOES inconvenience LARGE companies that go to their government and start complaining.

JLC is still doing business with many others and is not going to jeopardize their license to export boards and assemblies out of china. They would go bankrupt.
Sometimes there will be colatteral damage and there may be some customers inconvenienced. But the company will survive. They are not in business to please the last person in the world that happens to buy 100 boards from them. they have 100000 other customers.

This is not a political thing.
China has every right to do whatever they want in their territory.
The companies though have no right to steal peoples money.
Jlcpcb did what they did while other manufacturers were more honest.

So its not China's fault for us losing our money. Its this company's decisions.
There is no Chinese law preventing them from refunding us.

I never said the whole company is a scam.
Me and other people were using them for years with and without complaints BUT at this time they decided to take our money/parts(property) with no explanation.
You want to defend them and keep using them? Do it.
But when shit hits the fun don't say you did not know.

Honesty either from people or companies is way more important than 5usd less in pcb fabrication.
I would prefer to pay more but do it by knowing i pay more instead of paying less and then lose my money.

Thats all from my side.

I raised awareness by telling people what happened to me.

Some accused me for doing illegal stuff, violating law, rules etc.
When more people came up sharing similar stories some of you were saying that they are 0 day posters meaning it was me posting more times

Ive seen in reddit users saying they got the same email minutes or hours before paying for huge orders.

I would not blame China for this. They introduced new rules and laws yes. But they do not block refunds...because jlcpcb said balance can be refunded but not inventory...thats NOT political. That's a choice by this company.

Goodbye every one and good luck

I wish them every single dollar that belonged to me to spend it in doctors.

Ciao

[free_electron]

because jlcpcb said balance can be refunded but not inventory...

Balance refund yes. that is just numbers in a bank.

Inventory . Those are physical goods. They have been purchased and are in their warehouse. they stored them until you needed more boards with these parts.
They are your property. You can get them . They can't ship em to you because they don't have the license for that. (LCSC does, JLCPCB doesn't) but you are free to go pick em up or use a dropshipper or forwarder.

Read the terms and conditions.

[exe]

They have been purchased and are in their warehouse. they stored them until you needed more boards with these parts.

I'm a bit skeptical about this part. They are part of LCSC or whatever. They can just put parts back to the shelf, if they want. So, they have all the possibilities to resolve the problem.

I believe there was even the procedure for LCSC to return parts. However, checking now they say they don't accept returns. Hmm... Did they change that recently?

UP: I'd also assume they don't really keep a big stock of ordered items. It makes more sense to "reserve" them in warehouse. Because imagine how many things people are ordering, and how many left-overs there. I won't be surprised if most popular components they just supply on-demand.

[wraper]

^Yes, LCSC and JLCPCB are basically the same company. They have the same login and you get a shipping discount at LCSC while PCBs are in production at JLCPCB. In the past they combined PCB and component orders but switched to that due to some legal problem with export. They should not have any significant problem returning those components to common LCSC stock, if they were ever separated from it or ever left LCSC warehouse at all.

[free_electron]

That could eb true for commodity snot like resistors and caps. but others... not much so. look at the stock on some parts. a few hundred to a few thousand. Where others are hundreds of thousands.
If you order assembly they pool parts in "Basic" and "extended". Basic parts apparently are always on their assembly line. They are invariably asian brands.

Prebuying such commodity is typically not done. those things are available from many sources. Prebuying is done for parts that only you use and are not in that "standard" catalogue.
Why would you spend 3$ a reel on a bunch of resistors ?

I think that's the OP's problem : he prebought parts that only he uses. so JLCPCB goes : we have no use for them , and we probably won't be able to shift them. they'll just sit in our warehouse, eating up space till the cows come home. So they want them off their hands. Set and end date. If they are not gone by then -> garbage.
Parts also have a shelf life. You can't keep them forever and a day.

whatever it is, i agree it is annoying for the OP but there is little you can do in these situations. Some things are beyond control.

[thm_w]

OP changed their country flag from Greece to Germany for whatever reason.
Agree that 30% is high, they seem to have a resell service and no fee is mentioned: https://jlcpcb.com/help/article/instructions-for-reselling-idle-components

I'm not sure it is related to the rare earth materials. Not selling components containing them is one thing, but closing accounts because of that does not seem justified.

I agree its likely not rare earth, but, it is interesting that OP mentioned using reed switches which do have rare earth magnets in them.
LCSC still selling, which is fairly conclusive: https://www.lcsc.com/category/640.html

[aeg]

Chinese law says you cannot do x-y-z anymore from now on. JLCPCB is a chinese company that has to abide by chinese law.

Yeah, and that's why JLCPCB is going to illegally keep doing x-y-z until December for customers who already have orders in process.

If I had a nickel for every time someone told me "it's illegal" when the truth is "it's against policy" or "I don't want to", I'd have a bunch of nickels.

[thm_w]

Chinese law says you cannot do x-y-z anymore from now on. JLCPCB is a chinese company that has to abide by chinese law.

Yeah, and that's why JLCPCB is going to illegally keep doing x-y-z until December for customers who already have orders in process.

If I had a nickel for every time someone told me "it's illegal" when the truth is "it's against policy" or "I don't want to", I'd have a bunch of nickels.

It matches closely to the grace period given in my link above: "Measure (3) above comes into effect immediately as of October 9, 2025, while Measures (1) and (2) above will have an implementation grace period until December 1, 2025.". Laws may be immediately implemented for security reasons, or they may not to allow companies time to react and not be left holding the bag. Nothing unusual there.

[langwadt]

https://jlcpcb.com/blog/notice-of-limited-account-access-restrictions

[Whales]

closing accounts with a history of risky IP addresses and risky activities

Interesting.  CGNAT means many users will share IPs, not to mention the normal cycling that some ISPs do between customers.

Perhaps they might also try to be region checking IP vs delivery addresses, and assuming that's an indicator of "high risk". 

[Smokey]

They have been purchased and are in their warehouse. they stored them until you needed more boards with these parts.

I'm a bit skeptical about this part. They are part of LCSC or whatever. They can just put parts back to the shelf, if they want. So, they have all the possibilities to resolve the problem.

I believe there was even the procedure for LCSC to return parts. However, checking now they say they don't accept returns. Hmm... Did they change that recently?

UP: I'd also assume they don't really keep a big stock of ordered items. It makes more sense to "reserve" them in warehouse. Because imagine how many things people are ordering, and how many left-overs there. I won't be surprised if most popular components they just supply on-demand.

I've been fighting this recently.  Lcsc and jlcpcb treat their inventory as two separate companies.  It's stupid but they do.  Even a simple transfer is painful and takes many days. 

[squadchannel]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/chinese-owners-kicked-out-of-nexperia/msg6070849/#msg6070849

https://www.nexperia.com/about/news-events/press-releases/update-on-company-developments

October 14, 2025
Nexperia says:

On 4 October 2025, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued an export control notice prohibiting Nexperia China and its subcontractors from exporting specific finished components and sub-assemblies manufactured in China. Nexperia is actively engaging with the Chinese authorities to obtain an exemption from these restrictions and has deployed all available resources to that end. Nexperia is in close dialogue with all relevant national and local government authorities to mitigate the impact of this measure.

was there really a need to ban over the Nexperia issue?

[Spirit532]

That's such a weak non-response to the whole thing. "Risky" - what does that even mean?
If it's IPs, CGNAT covers basically the entire world. So maybe not that.

IPs and order location? Maybe? I've been using a nearby country VPN, but both are reputable.
Payment methods? Used a company credit card with a different name on it. Maybe that? But it matched the company name, and the delivery address...

None of the stuff ordered was spooky in any way, and I've made a good number of orders.

And if it's a "small amount of users", maybe talk to them, ask them questions and clear the accounts that can explain it and verify that they're not "risky"?
I have no problems providing ID and verifying payment methods, delivery addresses and intended applications.

[fbrozovic]

That's such a weak non-response to the whole thing. "Risky" - what does that even mean?

I agree. We're a business and after inquiring about the reason, received the same copy-paste canned response which someone posted here already. By the looks of it, I'm starting to doubt that it's something government-mandated, but rather JLCPCB policy. It wouldn't be such a big issue if they were willing to accept documentation to clear things up, which we would be more than happy to provide.

On Reddit, I've seen a couple posts suspecting that the bans were only handed to accounts which ordered PCBA in the past - has anyone who only ever ordered blank PCBs received the same email? We have our own manufacturing line, so I would say about 95% of our orders were blank PCBs with very occasional small quantities of PCBA...

[nuclearcat]

I'm affected by this as well, and my story might provide some useful context.
1)My purchases were unremarkable - basic ESP32 stuff: temperature and humidity sensors, a few battery monitoring boards for my solar system. All told, fewer than 10 units. These are exactly the kinds of orders that shouldn't raise any red flags. So it is not orders.
2)I started with DHL, but their pricing here is inflated. When I tried to switch address (moved to village), DHL's system refused to accept my address - it kept rejecting the input. So I found an alternative: a shipping forwarder called Aramex ShopandShip. They're half the price, they accept uploaded invoices for customs clearance, and their staff is genuinely professional. It seemed like a solid solution. But forwarders might be red flag for some.
3)My orders were placed using a Lebanese IP. These days, that shouldn't be a red flag - local law enforcement has done solid work against cybercrime here. But I understand how blanket bans happen: some companies conflate Lebanon with Libya, or lazy management sees a small country in a complicated region and just blocks the whole thing. It's reckless, but it happens.

I've sent an appeal to JLCPCB, but if the ban stands, people will hear about my experience. I've been grateful enough to stay quiet about their issues before, but that changes if they don't. I'm not interested in staying silent anymore - I'll be honest about what happened, the real risks of dealing with them, and what others have experienced.
The internet has a way of working: it doesn't take many voices speaking honestly to shift a company's reputation. That's just how it is.

[RoGeorge]

https://jlcpcb.com/blog/notice-of-limited-account-access-restrictions

From that announcement, I understand that it was an automated decision, not a decision made by a human:

"a small number of accounts have been restricted. This adjustment was made to meet stricter compliance requirements and global trade compliance criteria, which involved reviewing and closing accounts with a history of risky IP addresses and risky activities"

WTF is a risky IP address?!  Who decides which address is risky, and on what criteria?

Everybody should start asking for a complete ban of AI as a decision maker.  In USA the AI denies health care, in China the AI denies you PCBs, and who knows what else you'd be denied tomorrow.  And with no responsibility and no explanation.

Why do we pay for governments and bureaucracy and a state of law, if we let ourselves governed by machine decisions, decisions that have no explanation, and no responsibility attached to them, and no way of appeal?!

[ViktorR]

It seems these account suspensions are happening on a large scale. I live in Ecuador and develop circuit boards for home automation. I usually order small batches — around 10 to 20 boards at a time — and everything was fine until yesterday, when I suddenly discovered that my account had been blocked.

There’s absolutely no reason for this — it looks like they’re just shooting in the dark. It’s impossible to get any clear explanation from their support team. This kind of behavior shows a complete lack of respect for customers and seriously damages their reputation.

To make matters worse, my electronic components are now stuck in their warehouse.

[bogdanpatlun]

Guess Slovakia joins the party.
I have been fighting for a week to get my account unbanned - and at least ask what we have done wrong - we were not doing war drones or missiles - and after countless emails I have recieved a response that "ban criteria is confidential, if we revoke it we will notify you"

Have a bit of balance there and components worth a few hundreds and have to agree to their 30% scam rate to ship components. As if sending $0.3 IC is any different shipping $30 IC. Insanse. They dug their own grave.
Guess have to give a chance to our local manufacturer in Kosice and bite the price.

[temperance]

It is just the side effect of a minor trade war. It will be resolved soon. If not, you may soon be heading to the landfill with a shovel to dig up buried washing machines and televisions from a time when the word recycling wasn't invented yet. Nothing to worry about cough cough. And all that waste material had to be recycled anyhow.