The Customer Service Fail

And now we come to the one major issue I had during the entire process.   While their customer service people seem to be quite nice once you get hold of them, it’s getting hold of them that’s the problem.

It started with a phone call; after selecting the appropriate option in the VRU (“sales” I believe), I was transferred to someone’s personal voicemail.  Okay, no big deal; I left a detailed message and figured they’d call me back in short order.

Yeah, not so much.  Three days and another couple of phone calls later (yes, same voicemail box), and I still hadn’t had a response.  This did not inspire confidence.

I finally managed to get hold of someone after almost a week went by, and while the representative I spoke to seemed a bit unsure of her information, she did assert that she believed it wouldn’t be a problem to use tin-lead solder with the lead-free finish.  There was just enough hedge there that I wasn’t certain that she was certain, but I decided it was worth the risk.  Since I had her word on it, I could always ask for a refund if it turned out to be a serious problem.

When it gets right down to it, while I did expect better availability of customer service, I honestly don’t expect to find much better anywhere else.  I’ve read a lot of horror stories about various Chinese board houses that won’t even let you talk to someone by anything other than email.  At least Advanced Circuits has customer service reps!

And she was pretty nice.

The Nail-Biting Begins

Okay.  I’ve fought with EAGLE and won, I’ve sent the resulting Gerbers to FreeDFM and fixed the errors.  I’ve resubmitted and had it come back clean.  I’ve had my questions about lead-free HASL answered, or so I hope.

The only thing left is to submit the job.

Advanced Circuits has a fairly nice system in terms of functionality (though it could use a going over by someone who does UI/UX for a living, but that’s to be expected in this business I’m finding).  Once you register for an account, you can get quotes, submit jobs, and check status, all online.  No muss, no fuss, just make it go.

Well, except that you have to figure out where to submit to get the 33Each deal…

To submit for the deal, go to their home page and click “Special Deals” in the sidebar.  About halfway down the page, you’ll see the $33 Each deal listed, and there’s a link hidden there for “more details.”  Click it.  From there, you can log into your 4pcb.com account and submit your Gerbers as instructed.

All in all, the process was relatively painless (other than a bit of fighting over my login, but I think that was a fluke, and probably Safari’s fault).  Once everything was submitted, all I had to do was wait.  Five days, and my boards should be on their way!

Have I ever mentioned how much I absolutely detest waiting?