PCBWay Reviews 239

A nightmare. The site is not logical, and has caused a major problem when re-ordering. The representive in question is very blunt and not very helpful and is causing delaying by sending wrong files to check. When this was all clarified by email, yet sends back info relating to wrong orders. The atitude seems to be the customer is always wrong!?!
I used this for 17 clients businesses it seems we will have to move them away.

I design and develop custom test equipment for electronics manufacturing.
My orders have been for low volume double sided boards (~8"x8") with a low component count.
That being said, the boards I have received have been high quality, low priced, and delivered within 4-5 days (including shipment to the us).

Pcbway create very high quality pcb, it has good finishing as compare to others

I've been using these guys for prototyping as well as low volume assembly and manufacture for years now, and the consistency and quality have always been spot on. Assembly and panelling of awkward boards (components raised on their legs without spacers, non-standard insertion of pins though the board etc.) wasn't ever a problem, and blank PCBs are always well produced and good quality. Sure, you can get finer resolution silkscreening elsewhere, but you also pay far more at those board houses, and the quality from PCBWay is more than adequate at the price.

Plenty of shipping options too that allow you to avoid expensive couriers if you're not in a hurry, and fast shipping if you are, though the cost reflects the perhaps surprising weight of PCBs in bulk.

Communication is always prompt, and while it can sometimes suffer a little from the language barrier, it's never actually a problem and confirmations are sought from the customer when things aren't 100% clear.

Price quotes for more complex jobs aren't always 100% accurate until they're reviewed and it's time to pay, but you do always have the final figure before you actually make the payment - there are no additional or hidden fees, and the cost changes (which, to be fair, as often go down as they do up) are down to them rearranging the panelling to suit assembly, and to passing on the actual cost of parts from Farnell, Digi-Key or whoever to be assembled directly onto the customer.

The price and turn around on the PCBs is amazing. I've ordered my first set of boards and I had no idea that you could get boards so cheaply and easily.
The quality is completely professional; beats the pants off my homemade boards.
I ordered the DHL shipping and it arrived in the UK about a week after placing the order. I've placed another order now using the cheaper e-packet shipping; not sure how long that will take.

It is clear PCBway offers cash coupons for positive reviews, they are crooks. This is the second time, they screwed up on my order I requested they perform a task they didn't do it and sent me non-functioning boards without traces, and charged me, horrible business practices, please don't trust this company and take your business elsewhere.

Very sharp traces, soldermask and silkscreen. Turnaround and shipping was also very quick. I'm very satisfied.

I have ordered many PCBs from PCBway over the past 3 years, and it has always been a pleasant experience. Their website makes it super easy to upload your design files and view them in the “Gerber viewer” to make sure everything looks correct. Response times are usually very quick too. I’ve used other PCB manufacturers too, and PCBWay has been the most reliable and consistent that I have tried. They also have a large array of capabilities at their disposal, and is one of the few board houses that I have come across that offers PCB edge plating. I recommend PCBWay to all of my friends.

High quality, amazing customer service, fast shipping. PCBWay helped me make a prototype quickly and even helped me promote my project. The pieces arrived fast and were well-packaged and of superb quality. Will definitely do business again, ongoing.

The problem was that their engineer placed the product number over the top of my logo on the board. A simple mistake that ruins the aesthetic and professional look of the PCB. After they stated the engineer didn't check their work the reps solution was for me to take a razor blade to the PCB and scrape it off. No thanks, I will take my production elsewhere.

DHL delivery was pretty impressive on my two orders.

Update: 05/27/2020- PCBWay customer service did reach out to me and agreed the issue should be rectified. They gave me a full refund as in-house credit and said they would address the issue head-on. I find their ability to admit to a mistake and offering to fix very nice. I will continue to use them and would recommend others to do the same as the PCBs I have received are good quality and super fast turnaround time.

I have Experienced the quality of several PCB manufactures companies
But Honestly, all in all, PCBWay Service is found Best in All
Highly Recommended

PCBWAY offers incredible quality and quick turnaround at very low prices.
I have manufactured three PCBs from PCBWAY and I am completely satisfied with their service.

Great service. The best PCB quality you can get at such an amazing price. Recommend it for any electronics project.

They attempt to increase the price for board production wherever they can. They will try to rip you off. Other board houses often provide better service, better quality and some offer free v-scoring or mouse bites on their boards. There are better places than PCBWAY.

After a number of excellent builds, with minimal issues, things seem to have taken a turn for the worse. We have experienced two quality issues with turn-key jobs (boards and parts supplied by PCBWay) in a row, not a good sign.

The first issue was a small surface mount pot had shorts under the component for 7% of the run of 1,000 small boards. While I don't expect perfection, this is way too many failures for a simple job.

The very next job for a different board, we experienced a 15% failure rate of one component type. Since the assembly seemed fine, it's apparent that the components were not up to the quality expected. This board had been built several times previously with no component failures.

Obviously in both cases, it costs time and money to correct the assembly or component flaw or scrap the part. In addition, some boards got out to customers before the flaw was detected.

I'm obviously concerned about these lapses in quality, I really want to continue the good relationship we have with PCBWay, but it's getting harder to justify going back to the well.

I've ordered two sets of boards from them in the last couple of weeks. Nothing fancy, just small double layer prototypes. It was easy to get the quote and upload the Gerbers and drill files. Approved in 15 mins, even though one was late at night in China. The boards were manufactured in under 24 hours. Standard delivery to me in in regional Australia was 5 and 6 days from the time I ordered. The boards were packaged well, clean, excellent quality and exactly as per my specs. They also test out well electrically.

What a joke.
Was trying to place my first order and ran into the review wall.
Up to an hour for an already approved board that was on the shared page...
Well took alot longer than that, so I cancelled my order.
The sales rep (Zoe) didn't even respond to my inquiry.
Went over to JLCPCB, ordered the same excact board.
10 minuttes later it was in production.

I've used PCBWay for years and they have been good enough. One of my penalized designs has different silk screen for tNames due to auto generated panel. PCBWay wanted to DOUBLE the price because they consider difference silk screen (that's the print layer..) makes for a different design, and wanted to charge me as each penalized item as a different design.

I'll be finding a new PCB manufacture today after years being with PCBWay as my goto.

PCBs were solid quality. Silkscreen could be sharper but it certainly meets their specifications without a problem. Pretty much a mirror image of Kicad preview.

I had three full assemblies made and two of the three were perfect, however one board did have a problem with bent pins on an IC. They refunded the cost of a replacement part when I notified them of this. I did not press them too hard since it wasn't too difficult to fix.

Great customer support rep (Angell Yu) who has been very responsive and helpful.

They confirmed the board BOM and costs for assembly before accepting payment and did not add any hidden fees. Same as I would pay from Digikey or Mouser where they got the parts.

They sent back excess parts not used in assembly along with the bags all the parts came in empty or not (I guess to prove their origin). Everything was well packaged and protected.

All in all a positive experience.

I have had multiple failures from this company work. They are simply terrible. I ordered ten 4 layer boards with, 2 Oz copper. I saw di-electric failures between 18mil spacing at 30V DC. I assembled 4 boards out of the 10. I wont be wasting my time or money with this company again.

As a nominal exercise i always flow back information to manufacturers to support fixing their process and maybe a refund, considering they dont even meet IEC standards. So... no good dead goes un-punished...

I took photos and documented three individual failures.i dentified the fire location and took DMM measurements between the failures. In their response ignored the photos and brought up a Gerber and drew arrows around it and tried to tell me the connection was on the Gerber... Company dissident even read my feedback before wasting my time and sending back a response that is simply designed to deflect.

Dont waste your time. Its not worth the savings unless you value your time at 0$/hour.

UPDATE: boards shipped back. two hours of emails exchanges later and they still accept no responsibility. Gave written disposition to energize failed boards between the gerber geometry likely to fail. They have not done the test and bassicly just reply back with another email each time. Never resolves anything. I think the moral of the story here is dont order 4 layer boards here. that or 2Oz copper. Anyways they are about as helpful as an allergy is.