Spot on Lew! I’ve had the same experiences. In the end the only upside for me was finding a sculptor who was candid about working “away from Shapeways” and going 100% on their own and developing their own clientele.
😉

One thing I didn't touch on was Shapeways' customer service. They seemed to have the "I'm always right and you are always wrong" attitude. I had to trash my last (expensive) order with them.

Also, their search engine was horrible. I used specific search criteria but got too many results that had nothing to do with my input. I made recommendations to them about using a boolean type search engine but they thought what they had was sufficient.

Can't keep a business running long with their attitude.

Lew

I would add the following:
Parts were often broken in packaging and or shipping.
Getting replacement parts or credit was near impossible.

Many of the designers were left with money owed to them. I feel sure that they are reluctant to return. many have found alternative manufacturers for their products.
Too bad because it was a great concept that feel to greed.

Yeah, I got an email from them too. Shapeways has been a good (but expensive) way to have parts printed. They might find it a little harder this time around for several reasons:
- Expensive to have parts made.
- Most of the business is in New York City (not a business friendly place).
- New development in printers (especially FDM) - much faster, better quality output, price, etc.
- New developments in varieties of materials - strength, flexibility, etc.

I can't believe they deleted their marketplace. Many of thousands of sellers/designers and they are all gone. I did not make much money off the sales of my products but then I kept my profit margin low, about 10%. I can tell that many others have profit margins of 100% and much more based on material volume.

I do hope they make it work because many people do not have the capability to design or make critical parts and companies like this give them at least a path to get their part.

Lew
Somewhere in Florida.