Shapeways

I placed an order with Shapeways over a month ago. Apparently the order was completed, but it is now lost somewhere between UPS and the post office and no one at Shapeways cares to help. UPS says they sent the package on to the post office and the post office says the cannot help without a post office tracking number. When someone from Shapeways does respond to my emails, they pass me around to different people like I'm an easy date. One bulls#$t excuse after another... even sending me shipping information to a city I don't live in. Beware... once they have your money and there is an issue, you're screwed and on your own.

After 3 years of ordering parts from shapeways for my business, they sent one of my orders with defect parts.
Another 10 frustrating days of emailing customer service without shapeways taking responsibility about this case, left me with very unhappy clients of mine that I needed to compensate. Including one poor guy, who ordered a wedding ring and needed to rush and find a replacement just before his wedding.
I am now checking for a substitute provider.

I've been using shapeways for about 4 years. I design and sell 3d printed jewelry. I have items printed in SLS nylon, steel/bronze, as well as cast metal items in silver and brass. In general, the quality has been great, although I've had to request a reprint on rare occasions. They were always willing to do the reprint.

Like any business, they've had pricing changes over the years, and like everyone else, I don't like the increases. However, there have been a few price decreases that work in my favor.

My biggest gripe is that they switched from using regular USPS for the standard shipping to the Mail Innovations setup, which starts out as UPS and ends up as USPS. This takes at least a day longer for me on the west coast, but even worse is that there have been at least two occasions where the package shows as dropped off to USPS by UPS but USPS denies all knowledge of the package, so I lose a shipment. I can get everything made and shipped again, but it's time consuming, and I'm sure shapeways does not like doing that either. Lately, I find myself making large enough orders to justify using UPS 2-day. (I wish they hadn't raised the price so much on UPS 2-day).

I will mention that although shapeways quotes fairly long non-expedited production times, they have shipped fairly quickly all this year, although things may slow down once the holiday season gets rolling. I wish they could provide a real-time production time estimate for an order.

I've been using shapeways for about 4ish years now and lover the variety of material options. This lets me launch products that can't be made with conventional cnc manufacturing, and to not have the dreaded MOQ.

Only downside of them is the prices, understandably these things cost to make but being in another country (Australia) the dollar difference is a killer already. So price increases means I've had to stop making certain products, as I now have to price myself out of the market.

Another thing is small imperfections in the manufacturing, they are normally quick to help getting you a fixed version, but is annoying that they let it leave in the first place.

Overall happy with them, and would suggest it to any small business.

Overall, I am satisfied with the service Shapeways delivers, but I miss the old material listing where all selections are listed with green/red light for if you could choose that particular material.
The website does not work in my normal browser Pale Moon but I have to use the Opera browser to select the material on the models I want to buy.

The customer service has always been professional to me and helped with the problems I have had or concerns.

A small detail I have missed for a long time is that the model/product title/name is not on the bags that the model/product comes in, and that the image on the label is out of very poor quality.

I use Shapeways to unique models for model railway and here it is perfect, but it costs more today than when I started using Shapeways, so I think of once extra before a model comes out on my shop.

I try to refrain from writing negative reviews but the customer service was terrible. I realized I made a mistake in my order and submitted a cancellation request immediately after placing the order. They ignored it and began printing 24 hours later. When I contacted them to ask why it printed, they said that they saw the order first. Since it was already in the printing process, I asked if they could change the shipping terms to basic, that was the original mistake I made. They said they could but would not refund me the difference. I asked for a supervisor or a manager and was contacted by Lefteri, a senior customer service representative. Everyone in this process was beyond useless. I don't know why they have a customer service team at all. Decent printing though

If you wish to print in well established materials then Shapeways website is fast and efficient. Want to print in one of their newer materials? Good luck!
You first have to register' for the material you want. You can't place an order in the normal way (they don't tell you this), instead you must engage in correspondence with an administrator who, seemingly, is unaware you can't place an order through their website. I've failed so far to get an order placed and i'm ready to give up!