Need encouragement that buying a Shapeoko wasn't a mistake

I got a small 3018 mill off Amazon and spent a month learning to design and cut aluminum pieces for a project I’ve had coming up, an interactive art piece I was receiving a grant for. I decided to upgrade to a Shapeoko 4 since I could return the other mill to Amazon, which I did when I received the Shapeoko. Then I spent the next two days getting more and more frustrated realizing that the Shapeoko had a bad controller board.

  • I received a Shapeoko 4 on Friday with a bad controller board, and the wrong router (I ordered the ER-11 one)
  • I communicated the problem on Sunday, and on Tuesday spoke with a gentleman in support who was very helpful in confirming that I definitely have a bad board and the wrong router, and that both would be sent out the following day
  • I got shipment notification on Wednesday, it only mentioned the router but I didn’t think anything of it
  • I received the package Friday, and it did not include the controller board
  • I contacted Shapeoko on Friday and said I’d pay for rush shipping to get a working board, they let me know that my replacement was shipping that day and would be expedited
  • The current status as of Saturday is ‘label created, not yet received’
  • The shipped item is a Shapeoko 3 controller board

I realize it’s just a series of mistakes, but… is this typical? Did I really just spend $2k on an unusable CNC machine, and then spend a week asking for a critical component that I still haven’t been sent? I read so many positive things about Shapeoko, I’m dumbfounded.

I had to withdraw my project. The money from it was part of how I was paying for a CNC machine, but I don’t have a timeframe on when the machine will be usable. I was having so much fun doing CNC, I had all these idea and projects lined up and now I don’t even want to think about them. Silly, but it’s been kind of heartbreaking.

This experience has tanked two weekends in a row I could use some kind of encouragement that the light at the end of the tunnel won’t be another train.

If you are in a hurry, you can shop Amazon for a 3-axis GRBL controller…

You bought at the same time as a tonne of other people, people always order in September to December bigtime and it puts a huge strain on their team I’m sure (you cant afford to staff what they would need for a rush year round) Same thing happened when I first ordered mine and then it got better fairly quickly.

Edit: I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many new people to the forum and I’m sure that’s just a fraction of those who purchased.

Checked your ticket and it looks as if we have reached an understanding of the state of things at your end and the correct action to take at our end.

Please let us know at support if anything else goes awry and we will do our best to work through this with you.