Shapeways

The product was not able to be used as delivered to me. The screw hole would not accept the designated screw and the hole for the nut similarly was undersized. The designated screw was too short for their product. After enlarging the holes and sourcing a longer screw the head of it ( which was smaller than the designated screw) would not fit in the recess of their product.
Good idea but terrible design/quality control. Unless you're handy and really want this STAY AWAY!

On December 15, I did Order #******* for the manufacture of a watch case consisting of five parts made of brass worth more than $ 300. Already on December 16th, I received an email saying that everything is fine with my order and it is in progress. But on the 18th, they sent me a message saying that they could not do one detail and offered to refund the money. Or redo the part. BUT the fact is that the order loses its meaning if one part is missing. And refinement in the case of one detail requires another. I asked for a refund and to cancel the order, but I was refused, citing internal rules. I asked how do I make an order so that all the parts are printed or nothing. I was told to attach one file with several parts inside. However, it doesn't work! To which they replied that they would look at why it didn't work for them, but the order would not be canceled and the money would not be refunded, but they would send me the order without one (very important) part. In this way, the SW team shifts its problems onto the shoulders of customers. I just threw $200 in the trash. ($100 refund) It's like if you ordered a car, and it came to you without an engine, but the seller honestly returned the money for the engine. Be careful with SW and don't trust like me. If you need to make several parts for one assembly, use another provider. For example, with craftcloud, there is never a problem with canceling if something went wrong. I wish the entire SW team to get the same skam from life as they provide to their clients.

I wish I can give this company half a star or even 0.1 star, but it's an option.

I have been an online business customers for 20+ years. 99.9% of the companies which I have encountered problems would resolve a problem I've had...even when it's an honest mistake such as ordered a wrong part they would gladly replace for the right one, even a custom part or hard to find part.

HOWEVER, not so with this company. I ordered a wrong part and they immediately say no, sorry, we cannot help you with that. Simply please place a new order for the new part again. WTF?

Just don't expect you'll ever get a new part or exchange or anything at all if anything goes wrong with your order!

Bought a lot of miniature pieces through shapeways. After receiving the products, they were heavily pitted and worn away large parts of the products. Customer support was terrible, refused to accept any problem, wouldn't reprint and check items or give refund. Why sell a product if you can't print to adequate standards? Shocking

Can't recommend Shapeways.
I've purchased several items over the years and found items are often under scale or over scale for scale modelers. This is no fault of Shapeways but the developers of which there's no way to monitor there work. Shame there's no way to rate designers so people can judge for themselves if they want to run the risk and to be guided by customers reviews. (I suspect there's a reason for this).
However on my last occasion a print received was clearly incorrect from advertised / pictured description as advertised. I contacted Shapeways who saw the issue and I was advised to use the Shapeways messenger system to contact the developer. They failed to respond. I contacted Shapeways again and they messaged the developer. Again I recived no answer. I sent another Email to Shapeways. They offered me a one-time only refund which I refused plus they wanted the item returned (I suspect at my cost).
I found Shapeways to be generally unhelpful in this matter and seem to have little power of the developers that use there platform. The item is still available to purchase for the next unsuspecting customer and for this reason alone, I would urge extreme caution if you wish to use Shapeways. The item shown and advertised on Shapeways may NOT be the item you receive. Developers are not held to account and don't have to respond to any issues.

Date of experience: 09 March 2023

I ordered a 3D printed stem cap mount for my gravel bike that was supposed to hold my GPS in place. Instead I received a mount that could barely hold my GPS, and the slightest bump on the road would send my GPS flying off my bike. I contacted their support; they told me to contact the designer. So I did. I didn't hear anything from the designer, so I contacted support once again. They told me they would contact the designer themselves, but I still haven't heard a thing.

I received some clear headlight that were to be used in a model with LED lights. One light showed up with a cloudy white mass that would not reflect light correctly. A major manufacturing error. They were extremely difficult in refunding a $12.99 part. It took numerous emails back-and-forth and over proving for them to respond to my refund request.

Order a semi trailer toy for my husband that was suppose to be a decent size and truck was suppose to be blue and trailer silver. I didn't care that it was suppose to be plastic. It arrived on time box seemed to be somewhat small but I figured they put it in two sections in box and you just had to put it together. Nope I opened it and here's a small 4inch plastic thing with no wheels. I paid sixty two dollars for a piece of nothing very mad the little guy is what I got and the blue and silver is what I ordered

I ordered a modification for a leatherman multitool. Less than 12 hours later I went to cancel my order and they refused, saying that it was already being made. The ship date is over a month away and I know for a fact the order hasn't even been confirmed. Pretty terrible customer service. I will never order from them again, so I hope that was worth the 40 bucks I spent.

I sent in a cancellation order immediately after ordering a ring (within minutes, late into the night when I ordered). A day later, the ring was made and I receive a response that it was too late to cancel the order and refund my money as the ring was already in production. After a dozen emails back and forth with several reps and several alternatives offered to make this right, the company's several representatives would do nothing to remedy the situation. Why even offer cancellation of an order on your website if it's not possible to cancel an order even minutes after it was placed? Truly frustrating.

Sold a file of a ship that ended up on Shapeways. I asked to have it removed they refused even when the Mr Garry Stair admitted it was my work. Talking with them just seems like you're nothing they change their policies to whatever they want. So it's all about money to them not honor, respect and doing the right thing. This guy buys a files so called fixes it and steals it. So if you give a file to Shapeways don't be surprised if they steal it. Everyone we contacted Steve below I'll post his response - no surprise! Please stay away from Shapeways they will steal your work, files and not do the right things to fix problems. Originally I asked them to remove the files and they made me run through hoops so I did. Sat there and laughed at me the whole time - I'm posting those emails as well. Who this hurts? My family in this desperate time this project was for them, to feed them and now stolen by Shapeways.

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.

No phone support, email response delayed until they could say too late to change design. Wasted hundreds. Snarky, uncaring, bad quality. Look elsewhere.

Asked to cancel order minutes after I placed it.
Customer service rep. Responded by asking if I was sure I wanted to cancel it. After 5 emails back and forth they had waited so long the order went into production then they refused to cancel it

I bought 2 window shade brackets. They wouldn't hold the shade in place because the length of the clip was too short. The company said it wasn't their fault and that I should address the problem with the designer. They offered no help whatsoever. They just kept telling me it was a design problem.

I bought these parts right from the company website. They are shown as Shade Bracket 304 Louver drape Kirsch Levolor. Anyone purchasing these items would assume that they are going to get a bracket that fits the Kirsch Levolor manufactured shade. They don't. After multiple requests for help I finally realized I was never going to get support and I spent a couple hours on the parts filing down the clips so that the shades would snap into the brackets. The 2 parts cost me $62.10 so I took great care. I needed the parts.

If I'm purchasing a part # 304 Shade Bracket from the company that's what I should receive. Would they sell a 1/4 - 20 bolt that was out of spec?

I would tread lightly before using this company. Don't assume that you are going to receive the part that you think you are buying. And don't expect that you will receive any kind of customer support after the sale.

It pains me to think how much time and money I have wasted on this company. Problems are never solved live. There is no one to call directly about production issues and basically a general lack of consideration for projects that have a degree of complexity. Don't get me started on their packing...

Do not, absolutely do not attempt to print anything unusual with these people. Whats bizarre is that all other print-on-demand services I have used in the past were competent and participatory.

I ordered a small model tank but when it arrived it was way too small. The model maker and the company both refused a refund and suggested I sell the tiny model on eBay...!
Stay well away from these scammers.

The product was much smaller than the website picture would lead you to believe. That and it completely didn't work due to the size and choice of materials.

Customer service was non-existant. Here's their response:

Christel Maurmair (Shapeways)
Nov 15,2022, 09:20 GMT+1

Dear Michael,

Thank you for writing in.

I've found your order *******. This model was printed accurately, based on the designer's model file. In this case, a reprint would lead to the same result.

I'm sorry I am unable to provide a reprint or refund for this product. I recommend reaching out to the designer as they may be able to offer a resolution.

To clarify, we at Shapeways specifically handle the manufacturing and delivery aspect. All products on our marketplace are owned and sold by independent designers. Here is a direct link to this designer's page, where you will see a "Contact the Designer" button. Please note that for this you need to have a Shapeways account.
https://www.shapeways.com/product/QK7MEE3NF/desktop-guitar-pick-holder?key=296ca8fb79b1c9a*******acfa14f1a8b

If you have any trouble getting in touch with the designer, please let me know.

Best,
Christel
Customer Service Representative [EU based]
www.shapeways.com

I was looking for a toy for my nephew and stumbled upon a puzzle.

I've visited the website of these guys to buy it - the main page of the product showed a few screenshots and a quick description which gave the impression of the toy.

So far so good - I've purchased it.

A week later when I received it, it appeared that it's only a part of the whole toy and that I have to purchase the rest which doubled the price and was way beyond of what I'd expect.

So I've contacted them for a refund on the same day.

They've refused saying something like "we won't be able to sell it to anyone else as it's a ‘unique assemble' " (wtf? Really? You are selling the same toy on your website to multinple people!)

But they've changed their mind right after I've opened a dispute on PayPal providing the evidences of the misleading selling page of the toy.

Via PayPal they've asked me to return the purchase to get the refund. But the return shipping price was on me!)

I've sent it back (recording a quick video of me packing it back as it already started to look very suspicious)

It was expected to receive the toy by them within a week. But I waited for a bit longer - 4 weeks since then and a complete silence. No evidence of them processing the case further.

After reaching out to them again directly via email the response was - "we don't provide refunds"

WHAT?

And you know what - it appeared that there was no way for me to do anything on PayPal as it was in the "waiting for the seller to confirm the return" state. And they were trying to take advantage of that: it was clear now that they didn't intend to confirm that at all.

This is so ridiculous.

Now they have the toy and my money.

The only way for me to proceed was to contact my bank directly to report fraud as well as to report these guys to all financial institution for what they do.

Only after sending them this warning they've marked the case on PayPal as resolved and refunded all the money.

At the end I've wasted almost 2 months and the money to send the toy back.

Learned one more time - stick to amazon as you never have to mess with stuff like that there. Or at least read the reviews first to prepare yourself.

JUST STAY AWAY FROM THESE FOLKS!

The picture on the site was completely different from what they sent me. They refused to refund me or remedy the issue.

I've given shapeways the benefit of the doubt over and over. Their plated material is crap, their 14k gold plated material turns fingers green in 4 hours and they tell me thats normal and won't issue a refund. I ordered their green polished plastic and it was so rough and not shiny at all. Not even smooth, it looks like mill wax. Their customer service is pathetic and condescending. I hoped to spend thousamds with them manufacturing my new jewelry line, but I will never work with them again. Absolutely terrible and not worth one cent.

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.

They modified an order without my consent rendering the entire order useless. They refused any portion of a refund so I've filed with Paypal and the better business bureau. This order was over $1600.