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.