Wrong components placed during SMD assembly - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: gambistics
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 20, 2021, 09:25:23 am
content: I'm a hobbyist and recently designed a custom LED display board. With reasonable cheap PCB assembly at JLCPCB, I designed with that in mind and put a sizable number of SMD LEDs on the board. My excitement had a bit of an anti-climax because when the boards arrived, the overall quality seemed quite good (to my beginner's eyes), however, instead of placing white LEDs, they placed red LEDs of unknown type on the board. This is obviously not what I wanted, red LEDs have both visually and electronically different characteristics, so I filed a quality complaint.I wonder now what would be a reasonable compensation for such a kind of error?Obviously, you get what you (not) pay for by using the cheapest manufacturing option. JLCPCB has a number of caveats in their terms for SMT assembly (https://support.jlcpcb.com/article/108-terms-and-conditions-of-jlcpcb-smt-service). One being that sometimes they don't place components that you have ordered. In that case, you won't have to pay for the components that haven't been placed. That's unfortunate but something that you could accept for the price.Placing the wrong components, however, seems like a different issue. Fixing the boards is not economically viable, replacing 50 LEDs per board is technically possible but not really efficient.They already acknowledged the error on their part (caused by what they said is mislabeled components from a supplier). The support is trying to apply the rule of missing components, so that only the (insignificant) cost of the wrongly-placed components would be refunded. They started offering more than that on goodwill but still only about 25% of the total cost as coupons.I understand that I have to calculate with some rate of defects in manufacturing in any case but this seems like a different kind of error.Any advice what is customary in these kinds of situations? Or should I just take whatever they offer and file it under "Lesson learned"?Thanks in advance,Johannes

author: mon2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2021, 10:21:27 am
content: What?? Totally unacceptable. They HAVE to rebuild your PCBs and PCBAs again and do so to your requirements. They claim to be the largest PCB shop in China well, then they should prove it. Complain to your manager at the factory. I think we work with Celia and she is great. It is garbage for them to offer you coupons for what??? More garbage they will produce?? And have Stevie Wonder running the AOI?? The fault is clearly theirs.

author: Rat_Patrol
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2021, 09:46:27 pm
content: Quote from: mon2 on October 20, 2021, 10:21:27 amYup. they can make them properly for you, nothing less will do other than a full refund.

author: JLCPCB Official
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2021, 07:43:09 am
content: Quote from: gambistics on October 20, 2021, 09:25:23 amDear sir, please provide your order number and the part number to me? We are going to check until the problem is properly resolved. You can send me your order detail by private message here or email to rebecca@jlcpcb.com. Thanks for your patience.

author: Nusa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2021, 04:09:19 pm
content: Congrats, you are now a squeaky wheel, prepare to be greased. Don't expect it to work every time, however.

author: gambistics
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 22, 2021, 09:14:39 am
content: Thanks everyone, let's see how it will play out.