Allpcb - global free shipping!

[asmi]

Free shipping activities extended to the global customer!
http://www.allpcb.com/news_detail/38-Freeshippingactivitiesextendedtothegloblcustomer.html

I'm not affiliated with them in any way - just seen the ad and thought others may find it useful.

[mrpackethead]

Yeah, its awesome. Just the fine print is that its 'free' up to 1kg on DHL to *most* countrys..    And if its more than 1kg, they are discounting the shipping by $24 per shipment.

This means you can get 10 100x100mm 2 layer pcbs, for USD$5 delivered in about a week.     Thats great value.
 

[kalel]

Does DHL charge any extra processing fees (something you have to pay when the item arrives) or is it all covered by the free postage?

[mikeselectricstuff]

Yeah, its awesome. Just the fine print is that its 'free' up to 1kg on DHL to *most* countrys..    And if its more than 1kg, they are discounting the shipping by $24 per shipment.

This means you can get 10 100x100mm 2 layer pcbs, for USD$5 delivered in about a week.     Thats great value.

And totally unsustainable...

[ataradov]

Depending on the country, does DHL charge any extra processing fees (something you have to pay when the item arrives) or is it all covered by the free postage?

DHL does not charge anything extra, but you may have to pay import duties, depending on your country.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Depending on the country, does DHL charge any extra processing fees (something you have to pay when the item arrives) or is it all covered by the free postage?

The only time couriers charge extra is where they have to process and collect customs charges - shouldn't be an issue on a $5 order, assuming it's declared correctly  (and the importer's country believes it)

[kalel]

Depending on the country, does DHL charge any extra processing fees (something you have to pay when the item arrives) or is it all covered by the free postage?

DHL does not charge anything extra, but you may have to pay import duties, depending on your country.

I mean something like customs handling and processing charges imposed by DHL services, not customs. For $5 of value, there is likely zero customs duty in most places.

[ataradov]

And totally unsustainable...

I don't get it either. I assumed they are reasonably well known, that they don't have to do stunts like this.

[mrpackethead]

And totally unsustainable...

I don't get it either. I assumed they are reasonably well known, that they don't have to do stunts like this.

Just because you think you got screwed over for about $3, when in fact you sent manufacturing files that were not to rule, and then complained about it, and they fixed things up and you only paid $5 anyway,   you think you have some kind of god given mission to go out to destroy these peoples repuations.

You've contributed NOTHING useful, to this thread.  Why so much anger?

[ataradov]

You've contributed NOTHING useful, to this thread.  Why so much anger?

What are you talking about? I'm acknowledging that they are well known and don't need to give discounts like this (clearly just giving away money).

I don't want to destroy them, I really don't care one way or the other.

PS: If you are talking about the other thread, then SAPM is bad, regardless. An I will continue to report spammers as such, that is true.

[mrpackethead]

You migth be suprized at how competitive freight is gettign out of china.  I'm a reletively small freight user out of china to the US, ( spend about 5000 a month or so ), and a 1kg parcel would cost me about $9 .     Look at the freight costs your paying on Aliexpress, its pennys! 

DHL has pretty amazing logistics in china, and if you can consolodate all your freight that is goign to one country ( say the US ) you'll get some amazingly sharp pricing.    Just like the PCB companys, the freight companys are working on super thin margins.

Dont' kick a gift horse in the mouth..   I'm sure you dont' complain at the supermarket when they put somethign you want to buy on special for a week?

[mrpackethead]

You've contributed NOTHING useful, to this thread.  Why so much anger?

What are you talking about? I'm acknowledging that they are well known and don't need to give discounts like this (clearly just giving away money).

I don't want to destroy them, I really don't care one way or the other.

PS: If you are talking about the other thread, then SAPM is bad, regardless. An I will continue to report spammers as such, that is true.

I'm talkiing about yoru consistent desire to want to trash talk them, simply bcause you had a bad experience, which was because you did'tn send gerbers that matched the design rules for the board you ordered.      Get over it!   

[ataradov]

Dont' kick a gift horse in the mouth..

I don't. I did place a number of orders to take advantage of this offer. Whether they lose money on this or not - it is up to them.

I don't trash talk them specifically, just pointing out better alternatives for some cases. I really have nothing against them, or for them.

Again, my only real problem with them is recent clumsy attempt at spam. If Erin were to create a post and state that AllPcb has free shipping, I'd be thankful. They felt the need to create fake accounts for this.

And yes, in that spam thread, I did trash talk them, because it is a good way to combat spam - just express the negative opinions next to spammers message. This way people coming from the search engines (spammers hope), get something spammers did not want. The same reason that thread was not deleted in a first place. I really do hope that spam damages their reputation.

And just to be perfectly clear - in other contexts, I would absolutely recommend them.

[phil from seattle]

I agree with the unsustainable comments. Clearly they have some arrangement with DHL but even in China, $5 won't go that far. I'm sure it is an attempt to get people to switch to them. The assumption is that customers don't like to switch vendors. Their hope is they can keep those customers that switched to take advantage of the cheap deal. This sort of thing is a common promotion.

[asmi]

I agree with the unsustainable comments. Clearly they have some arrangement with DHL but even in China, $5 won't go that far. I'm sure it is an attempt to get people to switch to them. The assumption is that customers don't like to switch vendors. Their hope is they can keep those customers that switched to take advantage of the cheap deal. This sort of thing is a common promotion.

Or maybe they just looked through their orders history and found out that $5 orders are just a tiny fraction of overall volume, so their estimation is that there will be enough big orders that they will bankroll these $5 ones? Or they suspect that people will now order more PCBs using the money that they save on not paying for shipping?
Whatever their motivation is, this is great for us customers. I used to "pool" my PCB orders such that I would order several boards at once to offset the cost of shipping, looks like I won't have to do that anymore. Even though I rarely order $5 boards now, as most of my orders are 4-layer boards, so I guess I'm the one helping to bankroll this special offer. But as long as I get what I want at the price I find acceptable, what they do with the money I pay them is none of my business.

[ataradov]

Or maybe they just looked through their orders history and found out that $5 orders are just a tiny fraction of overall volume, so their estimation is that there will be enough big orders that they will bankroll these $5 ones?

Paying $30 for shipping on a $500 order is not a big deal, I doubt shipping stopped anyone from placing a high volume order. $30 on a $5 order is a huge deal.

Or they suspect that people will now order more PCBs using the money that they save on not paying for shipping?

But they are not getting the same profit on those orders.

Whatever their motivation is, this is great for us customers. I used to "pool" my PCB orders such that I would order several boards at once to offset the cost of shipping, looks like I won't have to do that anymore.

That's a 1 month deal.

[asmi]

Paying $30 for shipping on a $500 order is not a big deal, I doubt shipping stopped anyone from placing a high volume order. $30 on a $5 order is a huge deal.

I have never heard of anybody ordering 1000's of boards in new fab as the very first order. This is not the way it works. You order prototypes, you test them and only after they are confirmed to work - you place an order for production run. So big orders are always preceded by small ones, not the other way around. And the more advanced your PCB is the more fab-dependant you become. So I see why they are doing this.

But they are not getting the same profit on those orders.

If they make $2 of profit on a single $5 boards order - that means if you order 6 boards (as shipping was ~25$), they will make $12 of profit. This might as well cover what DHL charges them for shipping (someone on this forum said that it costs about $9 per shipping order if your volume is high enough). Like someone above said, I suspect that they cut some kind of deal with DHL on that one.

That's a 1 month deal.

I didn't find any mention of that in the news item. It used to be in the previous ad where it was for US&Canada only. So I guess we will see. But even if it is one month only - still great deal for customers! You just can't possibly spin this any other way 

[ataradov]

I didn't find any mention of that in the news item.

That's interesting. I can't find any references to this now, but I distinctly remember reading this in some of their spam. It was clean up everywhere by now, of course.

If this is indeed a permanent change, then it is great. This would be a new standard for low cost prototyping.

EDIT: I guess 1 month promotion was implied by "Thanksgiving Day" for US and Canada. But you are right, it is not directly mentioned anywhere in the news.

[mrpackethead]

but I distinctly remember reading this in some of their spam.

Is it spam, if its of interest to you?  mmm.  For someone who hates allpcb you take an awful lot of notice of whats going on.

[ataradov]

but I distinctly remember reading this in some of their spam.

Is it spam, if its of interest to you?  mmm.  For someone who hates allpcb you take an awful lot of notice of whats going on.

Stop putting words into my mouth. I don't hate AllPcb, I hate all spammers universally.

They don't mark spam as such, so I kind of have no choice, but to read.

[mrpackethead]

but I distinctly remember reading this in some of their spam.

Is it spam, if its of interest to you?  mmm.  For someone who hates allpcb you take an awful lot of notice of whats going on.

Stop putting words into my mouth. I don't hate AllPcb, I hate all spammers universally.

They don't mark spam as such, so I kind of have no choice, but to read.

Can't put any words into your mouth, because too many words are falling out by themselves.  :-)

[sleemanj]

It's worth noting that only really green solder mask is silly priced with allpcb - unless you are in a hurry in which case free DHL would make a difference regardless.

For example, a typical 5x5cm 10pc Green is $5, make it red and it's $23.39, doesn't matter if you choose HK Post or DHL, price is the same.

DirtyPCBs for red would be 13.95 for a ~10 board protopack if you can tolerate using HK Post instead of DHL.   Even if you wanted exactly 10 boards rather than "about" 10 (+/- 1 in my experience) then it's still a little cheaper at Dirty if you use HK Post.

So I expect this is another factor in their equation, people come for silly cheap green and actually order red or something maybe later not realising the price isn't so silly on those and just assuming it's going to be the same everywhere.

To be honest, seeing such cheap prices gives me the social heebie jeebies, like walking through K-Mart clothes section and seeing "Made in Bangaldesh" labels on $3 shirts.

[Mr. Scram]

It's worth noting that only really green solder mask is silly priced with allpcb - unless you are in a hurry in which case free DHL would make a difference regardless.

For example, a typical 5x5cm 10pc Green is $5, make it red and it's $23.39, doesn't matter if you choose HK Post or DHL, price is the same.

DirtyPCBs for red would be 13.95 for a ~10 board protopack if you can tolerate using HK Post instead of DHL.   Even if you wanted exactly 10 boards rather than "about" 10 (+/- 1 in my experience) then it's still a little cheaper at Dirty if you use HK Post.

So I expect this is another factor in their equation, people come for silly cheap green and actually order red or something maybe later not realising the price isn't so silly on those and just assuming it's going to be the same everywhere.

To be honest, seeing such cheap prices gives me the social heebie jeebies, like walking through K-Mart clothes section and seeing "Made in Bangaldesh" labels on $3 shirts.

The problem always is that you don't know whether a middle man is eating up the difference when you pay more. I would gladly pay a buck or two on top of every shirt if I knew it would go straight to the lowest tier workers. They would live in ridiculous wealth if that happened for every shirt they make. However, I know that any money paid will never reach the people most needing it.

Sadly, brands that make a point of paying workers fairly are stupidly expensive compared to the cheap clothes. I need to eat too.

[asmi]

For example, a typical 5x5cm 10pc Green is $5, make it red and it's $23.39, doesn't matter if you choose HK Post or DHL, price is the same.

DirtyPCBs for red would be 13.95 for a ~10 board protopack if you can tolerate using HK Post instead of DHL.   Even if you wanted exactly 10 boards rather than "about" 10 (+/- 1 in my experience) then it's still a little cheaper at Dirty if you use HK Post.

It's not fair to compare DHL shipping and HK Post, as at least for me in Canada that means the difference between surely receiving the shipment in 3 business days, and maybe receiving it in 2 weeks. So there is no contest.
Allpcb never sent me less boards than I've ordered - infact in most cases I ended up getting more than I ordered.
As for color - it's at the very bottom of the list of my concerns as it's just a prototype. But if we do a fair comparison, even at $23 the boards will be cheaper than anywhere else due to free shipping.

[mrpackethead]

Color is of concern to me.    We use Green boards only for prototypes now.    THis means that we never accidently send a prototype board out of the building!
   
I now use lots of $5 2 layer pcbs, just for testing small circuit segments, if i'm not sure if how they will funciton.