betty c.

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.