JLCPCB scam

[jeschris]

Hi everyone.

I have been using JLCPCB for some time. I spent thousands of EUR on them prototyping my hobby devices. I know spending thousands for hobby is too much but yea.

Today JLCPCB sent me a strange email.

First of all, Im designing super simple devices(actually its always the same im doing with minor changes to make it better), simple reed switch to be more precise.

Just spoke to them on the chat and they said they cannot provide more information and that I actually have to PAY to take MY parts from the inventory.
Pickup service fee for each kind of component:
Service fee = Component unit price x Quantity x 30%

EDIT: Appart from the Service Fee I have to go in CHINA and they will ship it to the address that I will provide to them in CHINA! They say they cannot ship to me the parts i have ALREADY BOUGHT from them and they are in the inventory!!!!

I violated 0 rules, I don't know whats happening.
All I know is that I have to use an other service provider and that they SCAMMED me

Hi there,

Upon a thorough review by our Risk Control Team, we are sorry to inform you that, your account access will be permanently disabled on December 13th, 2025 due to compliance policy requirements.

Before this date, you may:
1) Complete any existing orders.
2) Pickup components from your parts inventory.
3) Withdraw your remaining account balance (JLC Balance)
4) Back up your historical Gerber Files or any other information.

Please note that after December 13th, 2025, your account will be permanently locked and cannot be reopened.

Best Regards,
The JLCPCB Risk Control Team

[ataradov]

Your name/email is likely got flagged by some export control list. I would assume China has systems similar to the US export compliance requirements.

I was on the support end when the systems is used. I never had to fully deny service to anyone, but a couple people got flagged and I had to wait for the issue to be cleared by compliance people. In that time not only I could not inform the customer of the delay, I could not talk to them at all. It sucks for all sides, but it is a government requirement and there is nothing individual company can do.

I'm sure JLC does not want to abandon paying customers for no reason.

[wraper]

They can refuse to do business with anyone they want for whatever reason. Doing so after they got paid and not refunding 100% of the money paid for undelivered goods is a total bullshit and fraud. If they decided to refuse service while order was in intermediate state of production, sourcing parts, it's their problem, not customer's problem.

[ataradov]

I agree that it is not right, but they may be limited by the law. If the person is on some list, then all transactions are prohibited, including return of the money. This is why they want an address in China for returns. It sucks to be caught in that in the middle of a translation, but I doubt JLC can do anything without violating the law.

If this somehow becomes a bigger issue, then it would be a good argument to look for alternative sources. An argument much better than 200% tariff could ever be.

[jeschris]

I do not see how and why i should be flagged!!

I never orderd big batches..always the minimum of 5 and assemply only 2!

But the key differance..

I was paying for assemply to them.. the last 2 orders i paid for stencil and i did the assemply myself..and suddenly they close my account..

I spent thousands on them because every assemply would cost me with shipping like 150usd.. so 20 tries the last 3-4 years made me spent thousands..

I do not see how someone who is ordering the same thing, a noob who is new in designing and just tries to get his design to work can get flagged by the law or customs..

I only see a customer who stopped paying for assemply to them being punished.

My english arent the best but pay attention to the wording

"Upon a thorough review by our Risk Control Team, we are sorry to inform you that, your account access will be permanently disabled on December 13th, 2025 due to compliance policy requirements."

There is nothing to do with the law or customs. I violated no law..

Their Risk Control Team according to them doesnt like me. for what? I assume for stopping paying assemply to them and getting super cheap PCBs and probably nearly 0 profit to them..

I always paid with my personal credit and debit cards. Never even used my wife's card so it has nothing to do with any risk control..

Be away people and do not lose money like me ... I bought parts in the inventory just to make sure they wont go out of stock and here i am now..

[ataradov]

It does not have to be them. You don't have to do anything bad as far as JLC are concerned. The export control lists are distributed by the government. They would not tell you if you are on that list.

It may be be a mistake or just a name collision with someone that did something bad to get on that list.

Again, I'm just guessing about the lists on the China side, but that would be the case on the US side, 100%. If you get on that list, your life becomes much harder all of a sudden.

[2N3055]

Buddy,

"due to compliance policy requirements."

meaning you got flagged by someone. Not JLCPCB. They conformed to compliance request.

Maybe you got flagged by some agency by mistake, by having name similar to someone.

Banks do this all the time.

And how many "same little simple boards" did you order to spend thousands of USD on them ?
This sounds like low volume production and switches on PCBS can be used for any numbers of things too.
Contact fuses? Or baby toys?

So yeah if some compliance rule was suspected they reacted. Their life is complicated. They are in China and they have to obey USA, EU sanctions, they have to obey China sanctions, and all people and companies on the lists.

[jeschris]

As i said in the last 4 years maybe something like 20 orders in total of 2 assempled boards..
that means 150eur * 20.. means thousands..
i answered that already

[jeschris]

I do not think Chinese customs would care if someone ordered in the last 4 years like 20 boards of similar design(to get it working)...

And i Do not thing its such a big volume.

And I do not think it has to do with them.

And i Do not think 2N3055 interpretation of the wording is correct, sorry buddy.
"due to compliance policy requirements." does not mean i was reported by anyone because i did not do anythingg wrong anyway, but it definetaly doesnt mean this.


Raising awarness here, do NOT trust them, do NOT spend money on buying parts in the inventory..

When I stoped paying for assemply to them and i did it on my side, suddenly they had to suspend my account..

Well im here, they have my name, my address etc why don't they report me to police if i did something so wrong?


Be aware people, cheap is good but they do not make money from building the PCBs but from assemply..if you USE them to get cheap PCBs they will treat you as me and steal your money

[sleemanj]

: Appart from the Service Fee I have to go in CHINA and they will ship it to the address that I will provide to them in CHINA! They say they cannot ship to me the parts i have ALREADY BOUGHT from them and they are in the inventory!!!!

You can use a shipping forwarding agent, items are shipped to the forwarders warehouse in china, and then you pay the forwarder international shipping to get them sent you you,  Superbuy.com is one.

[wraper]

Buddy,

"due to compliance policy requirements."

meaning you got flagged by someone. Not JLCPCB. They conformed to compliance request.

It says nowhere it was a request. "Policy" means it's their own "rules". Anyone can make their own policy.

: Appart from the Service Fee I have to go in CHINA and they will ship it to the address that I will provide to them in CHINA! They say they cannot ship to me the parts i have ALREADY BOUGHT from them and they are in the inventory!!!!

You can use a shipping forwarding agent, items are shipped to the forwarders warehouse in china, and then you pay the forwarder international shipping to get them sent you you,  Superbuy.com is one.

Unless he made a larger order this time, it's likely not worth it. If it was me, I'd rather try hurt them as much as I can on principle and forfeit the parts.

[jeschris]

: Appart from the Service Fee I have to go in CHINA and they will ship it to the address that I will provide to them in CHINA! They say they cannot ship to me the parts i have ALREADY BOUGHT from them and they are in the inventory!!!!

You can use a shipping forwarding agent, items are shipped to the forwarders warehouse in china, and then you pay the forwarder international shipping to get them sent you you,  Superbuy.com is one.

any pay pickup fees on top of it? why should i pay pickup fee minimum 30$ PER item to get the items that i paid for only because their software decided that im a risky customer?
Does this make sense to you?

[jeschris]

Buddy,

"due to compliance policy requirements."

meaning you got flagged by someone. Not JLCPCB. They conformed to compliance request.

It says nowhere it was a request. "Policy" means it's their own "rules". Anyone can make their own policy.

THANK YOU!

Im raising awareness here.

I have ordered in the last 4 years PCBs with assemply etc.. no issues..

Right after i stopped paying assemply and doing it myself by buying a stencil from them then boom account suspended and i lose my parts from the inventory..

Raising awarenes... be carefull people paying for parts to them to keep them in the inventory..

[sleemanj]

Obviously they don't say what the problem is, and we don't know your projects, or any history with JLC/LCSC

JLC isn't going to care if you assemble yourself or use assembly, they probably make more on the stencil, it will be something else, maybe a false-positive, but it is their prerogative.

Here are the general terms, have a read, particularly section IV.

https://jlcpcb.com/help/article/Terms-%26-Conditions

[jeschris]

Unless he made a larger order this time, it's likely not worth it. If it was me, I'd rather try hurt them as much as I can on principle and forfeit the parts.

[jeschris]

Obviously they don't say what the problem is, and we don't know your projects, or any history with JLC/LCSC

JLC isn't going to care if you assemble yourself or use assembly, they probably make more on the stencil, it will be something else, maybe a false-positive, but it is their prerogative.

Here are the general terms, have a read, particularly section IV.

https://jlcpcb.com/help/article/Terms-%26-Conditions

  brother, i know the terms and conditions.
and i wrote 10 times what the project was.

they do NOT make money from stencil..
well actually they do if you do not put DIMENSIONS in the stencil and they send you a huge one and charge you like 25usd for a tiny pcb..
but last time i manually insterted dimensions for stencil to be slightly bigger than my pcb and the cost went down to like 1-2usd..
so maybe they didnt like that?

[2N3055]

Buddy,

"due to compliance policy requirements."

meaning you got flagged by someone. Not JLCPCB. They conformed to compliance request.

It says nowhere it was a request. "Policy" means it's their own "rules". Anyone can make their own policy.

Compliance policy is government policy compliance.
It works this way. You have lists. The onus is on you to comply. Nobody gives request from government specifically, case by case. You are required to comply. Company establishes Compliance department. They check every order for anything that can be problem according to those lists. If you are Chinese company, you try not to cross any lines that might piss of USA and they put your whole company on the list. Also they dare not cross anything mother China proscribes either.

I have some insight into bank AML process and it is same. You have lists (that are now in high single digits of gigabytes) of "entities" that are under surveillance or denial. They have thousands of false positives. Some people on the list have dozens of aliases..

It is a shitshow...

[2N3055]

An if anybody cared to actually read, their policy to deliver leftover parts from storage with them is clearly stated and is exactly what they told him. That part is known beforehand.

[jeschris]

An if anybody cared to actually read, their policy to deliver leftover parts from storage with them is clearly stated and is exactly what they told him. That part is known beforehand.

do you work for them bro?
it would make sense to keep my parts if i was actually violating any rule but guess what, im not!
you got a coupon or what?

[sleemanj]

  brother, i know the terms and conditions.
and i wrote 10 times what the project was.

In none of your posts here have you done so that I can see, you have said that they are small, and numerous, but not what they actually are.

They might be IED firing mechanisms, they might be blinking leds.

[jeschris]

An if anybody cared to actually read, their policy to deliver leftover parts from storage with them is clearly stated and is exactly what they told him. That part is known beforehand.

ok if you know that part beforehand and you are normal hobbyst customer and you buy parts in the inventory and then they suddenly suspend your account you would say oh i knew that before they would steal my money so its ok?

Enjoy your coupon bro. im sure you will get one if you havent got one for posting this nonsense your posting

[cunningfellow]

Do you know anyone else in Greece that uses JLC?  Maybe it is just your address/country.

[ataradov]

it would make sense to keep my parts if i was actually violating any rule but guess what, im not!

You don't have to violate JLC rules. It is a government list. Your email may belong to a company on an entity list, for example. Or you made some Vinnie the Pooh joke, or donated to some organization that China does not like. Or literally your name is the same as some other person on that list.

I've seen how this system works from the US side personally. It is this bad. Information on those lists is extremely messy.

[jeschris]

it would make sense to keep my parts if i was actually violating any rule but guess what, im not!

You don't have to violate JLC rules. It is a government list. Your email may belong to a company on an entity list, for example. Or you made some Vinnie the Pooh joke, or donated to some organization that China does not like. Or literally your name is the same as some other person on that list.

I've seen how this system works from the US side personally. It is this bad. Information on those lists is extremely messy.

But man my name isn't James or John or whatever. its just a strange firstname lastname. cant be on aaaany list.

I think they realised they dont make money out of my last orders anymore especially becauses i manually decreased stencil's size and did not do any assemply to them..

again, be aware and cautious and think 1000 times before paying money on them to keep parts in the inventory.

i do not care if they dont want me for a customer, i can find it 10 ther similar companies, slightly more expensive but better quality.
what i care for is how they just SCAM people

EDIT:

I think some of you guys are missing the point.
NOTHING was violated, im NOT in any list, i used my personal details and personal cards to make orders the last 4 years..

Nothing was wrong, its a post to raise awareness not to cry for them not wanting me as a customer. i dont want them first of all as a service provider.. be aware and cautious giving them money for keeping parts in inventory.

look at the forest, dont look at my finger pointing to the forest

[2N3055]

An if anybody cared to actually read, their policy to deliver leftover parts from storage with them is clearly stated and is exactly what they told him. That part is known beforehand.

ok if you know that part beforehand and you are normal hobbyst customer and you buy parts in the inventory and then they suddenly suspend your account you would say oh i knew that before they would steal my money so its ok?

Enjoy your coupon bro. im sure you will get one if you havent got one for posting this nonsense your posting

What is next insult? I work for Putin?
A generic response of people that don't like what other people tell them. Insult.

Fact that you don't read is your problem.
When I looked into assembly in JLCPCB that was literally first thing I read there.

https://jlcpcb.com/help/article/components-pickup-pricing

For your information I did not like it either. But those are the rules of contract and they are stated on their site in plain sight.
That is separate issue to why you were flagged by Compliance dept.

Which is your problem here. They DID NOT flag you for giggles. Vendors do that stuff very reluctantly. It loks bad and pisses off customers. It is bad for them.
I do not presume you are someone that is rightfully banned. But there might be false positive on some list. There are people here on EEVBLOG that were refused some plain vanilla chips by Mouser stating some export violation.

Your bigger problem now is: if you go to PCBWAY now will they refuse you too..