JLCPCB EuroPacket going downhill? -- 2023 update, things got better - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 18, 2021, 09:50:33 am
content: I have had my JLCPCB orders shipped via their "Europacket" option multiple times, and found it quite attractive. They bundle your order with those from other European customers and ship a big box via fast airfreight to their import agent in Germany. The importer takes care of customs processing for the whole lot, then splits up the contents of the box and remails them to the individual customers via regular local mail or DHL.This has worked well for me: You prepay the net import duties to JLCPCB upon order and avoid DHL's extortion fee for customs handling, and you get relatively fast shipment at a reasonable cost.But lately, all my EuroPacket orders have taken longer than expected. Two of them were sitting at the European import agent (Patac GmbH, Weixing Wu) for days before being remailed. The current one sits in customs since Tuesday, with the DHL tracking status saying "A DHL representative shall attempt to contact importer or shipper...", so it seems the import agent is unresponsive. I only found that out by contacting JLCPCB, by the way, because their online tracking for the first leg of the journey is broken.Have others experienced the same, or is it just a streak of bad luck for me?

author: DIYGUY Chris
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 18, 2021, 11:57:01 pm
content: About the business growth, I totally agree, the shipping and turnaround delay increases lately but the most important things is no matter how busy they are it should be a good quality delivered by the end of the end. We all know that massive production decrease product quality, I tried some local suppliers and I got my boards delivered faster by JLC than the local manufacturersunfortunately that's a fact.Well I don't think that this is a big deal if they make a delay of one or two days because them delivered quality and them prices worth it especially with the current world situation caused by the pandemic.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 19, 2021, 05:39:25 am
content: Quote from: DIYGUY Chris on April 18, 2021, 11:57:01 pmI agree that JLCPCB still offers a good balance of cost, quality and production time. It is just a pity when, after manufacturing and shipping the boards pretty quickly, they lose a week on the last leg of the shipping process.Your posting history shows a keen interest in all things JLCPCB (and not much else). Are you a DIYGuy or a JLCGuy?

author: DIYGUY Chris
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 19, 2021, 10:11:13 pm
content: Not a DIYGUY not nothing.. I'm an electrical engineer working in automotive industry(we develop harnesses for German manufacturers) just a bit like a friend to JLC because they made it easy for a guy like me to transform my stupid imagination and experiments into something useful in life.I'm not defending them, not even defending any other manufacturer, about my posts just watching what's going on about JLC on social media and intervene when necessary.I'm not giving excuses for what I wrote, after all your thoughts belongs to you..You can consider that I didn't even posted in this thread

author: BreakingOhmsLaw
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2021, 07:14:53 am
content: Yes, I've noticed a big increase in delivery times.I blame the ominous "Patac GmbH" that now seems to be handling the shipping in Germany. I got 4 DHL announcements from Patac for a single order, about two weeks before i got another announcement - this time from sender JLC.Total delivery time has risen from two weeks (with assembly) to about a month (bare PCB).Before this order, the sender was a always a "Mr.Wu".Whatever Mr.Wu did differently from Patac GmbH , he did it a lot faster!

author: phil from seattle
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2021, 03:06:17 pm
content: I sure hope they don't change the US version of that. Maybe that's what Mr Wu is doing now. I get bare PCBs in around a week via DHL. What is strange, recently the price went down to around $15 for delivery - total with delivery was under $20. Impressively cheap and fast.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2021, 03:53:49 pm
content: Quote from: BreakingOhmsLaw on May 03, 2021, 07:14:53 amI don't think JLCPCB have changed their agent -- Weixing Wu is the managing director of Patac GmbH, and has been since 2016. But Mr. Wu or his employees can't seem to keep up with the (increased?) volume of packages reliably.

author: Gerhard_dk4xp
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2021, 04:05:11 pm
content: Mine came within the promised 10 working days.Gerhard

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2021, 04:19:14 pm
content: To the UK I see shipping times of around 14 days... and I checked past orders.... it's about the same as it has been for a while.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2023, 09:26:50 pm
content: Time for a quick update maybe. JLCPCB have made changes to their Europacket process, including some clear improvements -- but it is not perfect.Tracking on the JLCPCB website now covers both, the initial bulk shipment to their European distribution center and the re-shipment from there to individual customers.The European distribution center has moved from its former location in Germany to Eindhoven, Netherlands. That adds a day or two before the bulk shipment from China gets there, since it now goes through Germany, Belgium, then Netherlands. But the new reshipper seems to have a better handle on things: They already create shipping labels for the individual parcels (including registering them with DHL) while the bulk shipment is still in transit. And normally they seem to be pretty prompt with the re-packing and shipping too, better than Mr. Wu before.Nevertheless, the shipment I am currently waiting for has been delivered to the Eindhoven center on Monday, and they have been sitting on it through Tuesday and Wednesday now. Hope to see it handed over to DHL tomorrow...What is your recent experience with JLCPCB, and specifically their Europacket shipping?

author: artag
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2023, 10:05:21 pm
content: Quote from: NivagSwerdna on May 03, 2021, 04:19:14 pmDo they use this system for the UK, though ? Shipping from EU would likely add further cost and delay.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2023, 10:41:56 pm
content: QuoteDont worry about the delay,royal snail will add plenty of that.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2023, 03:31:57 am
content: Never heard of this option, is this a germany only thing? (though we usually need stuff pronto so ship with the DDP option)

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2023, 05:18:39 am
content: Quote from: JPortici on October 19, 2023, 03:31:57 amLooks like they offer Europacket to most (all?) of continental Europe. I just checked for Italy as the destination, and Europacket is on the list of options.It is a cost-effective option if you don't need your boards very quickly. And there are no hidden costs (DHL fees...), since you pre-pay the import duties to JLC and they take care of the formalities when importing the bulk shipment.Quote from: artag on October 18, 2023, 10:05:21 pmNo, the Europacket service is not offered to the UK.

author: Solder_Junkie
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2023, 05:55:01 pm
content: “Do they use this system for the UK”No, not for their cheapest delivery option.I have a set of boards shipped a few days ago by their “Global Standard Direct Line” option, They fly from Hong Kong to London and then put the packages into the hands of Royal Mail on 48 hour delivery.Previous orders take typically 14 days from uploading the zip file to the postie handing the package over.

author: Simon1234
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2023, 03:03:50 pm
content: You can use also "Global Standard Direct Line" instead of "Europacket" to Germany. It's also DDP, a bit cheaper and officaly is the tranist time a few days more.But so far I haven't noticed any difference in the shipping time between the two options.For 3D/CNC orders, only Global Standard Direct Line is available.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2023, 03:33:48 pm
content: Unfortunately, this is still not available for PCBAs. I've just checked shipping the same board assembled is 6 times more expensive, while it fits into the same box, and no practical difference in weight. And you need to pay taxes and import duty also on the shipping. And to add insult to injury, paypal will exchange your EUR to USD with about 1 to 1 exchange rate, because why not.These are unnecessary costs that could be improved.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2023, 03:53:47 pm
content: Quote from: tszaboo on November 07, 2023, 03:33:48 pmYou mean, Europacket is not available for assembled boards? That's strange, I have ordered populated PCBs several times from JLCPCB, always via Europacket (to Germany). Tax and duties prepaid, as always.Yes, forcing the customer to pay in USD (via Paypal) is very annoying, especially since JLCPCB lets you switch prices their own website to EUR. But then you end up paying more in EUR, due to Paypal's outrageous exchange rates.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2023, 04:19:17 pm
content: Quote from: ebastler on November 07, 2023, 03:53:47 pmThis is what I have offered as shipping methods for a PCBA re-order.The total is about 25% more expensive than it should be with a few changes on their side. Honestly I kinda think they charge way more for shipping than they should and profit from that, at least for anything other than a 100x100 2 layer board.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2023, 04:37:41 pm
content: Hmm, I just went through the re-order steps also, and indeed get neither Europacket nor Global Standard Direct as shipping options. The online support agent wrote that they have discontinued it for PCBAs a while ago, but could not explain why.Pity... Maybe some import declaration hurdles were added which make it impractical to include assembled PCBs as part of a bulk shipment?

author: jfiresto
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2023, 05:42:04 pm
content: Quote from: ebastler on November 07, 2023, 03:53:47 pmIt is easy to overlook but you can tick a box that will bill the credit card in the original currency – and let your bank do the conversion from $ to EUR.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2023, 05:55:20 pm
content: Quote from: jfiresto on November 07, 2023, 05:42:04 pmThat used to be the case for the ~20 years I've been using paypal, but I don't find that option anymore. Probably it also has to do with the bank I'm at and the joke of a debit card they are giving. It's not even embossed, embarrassing really.

author: ceteras
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 27, 2023, 08:01:04 pm
content: I have a package from JLCPCB, shipped with EuroPacket, and it has a strange route on JLCPCB's tracking.These are the cities it went through, in chronological order:ZHUJIANG DELTA AREA-CHNHONG KONG-HKGLEIPZIG-DEUBRUSSELS-BELLEIPZIG-DEUBRUSSELS-BELAMSTERDAM-NLDBRUSSELS-BELEINDHOVEN-NLDThis is the shipment tracking on JLCPCB website (I had to rearrange it, as it wasn't chronologically sorted).2023-11-27 15:44:00 Processed for clearance at EINDHOVEN-NLD2023-11-27 15:44:00 Clearance Event2023-11-27 09:55:00 Arrived at DHL Sort Facility EINDHOVEN-NLD2023-11-27 05:19:20 Customs clearance status updated. Note ...2023-11-27 02:57:00 Shipment has departed from a DHL facility BRUSSELS-BEL2023-11-24 21:15:00 Processed at BRUSSELS-BEL2023-11-24 11:23:00 Clearance Event2023-11-24 11:23:00 Processed for clearance at AMSTERDAM-NLD2023-11-24 08:04:00 Arrived at DHL Sort Facility AMSTERDAM-NLD2023-11-24 06:14:00 Processed for clearance at BRUSSELS-BEL2023-11-24 06:13:00 Clearance Event2023-11-24 05:31:00 Arrived at DHL Sort Facility BRUSSELS-BEL2023-11-24 05:03:15 Customs clearance status updated. Note ...2023-11-24 04:48:00 Shipment has departed from a DHL facility BRUSSELS-BEL2023-11-24 03:42:00 Shipment has departed from a DHL facility LEIPZIG-DEU2023-11-24 03:22:00 Processed at BRUSSELS-BEL2023-11-24 00:23:00 Processed at LEIPZIG-DEU2023-11-23 22:16:00 Arrived at DHL Sort Facility LEIPZIG-DEU2023-11-23 10:16:00 Shipment has departed from a DHL facility HONG KONG-HKG2023-11-23 09:30:00 Shipment is on hold2023-11-23 07:55:00 Processed at HONG KONG-HKG2023-11-22 21:36:00 Shipment has departed from a DHL facility HONG KONG-HKG2023-11-22 17:22:00 Scheduled to depart on the next planned movement2023-11-22 17:16:00 Shipment is on hold2023-11-22 16:37:00 Processed at HONG KONG-HKG2023-11-22 06:23:00 Processed at HONG KONG-HKG2023-11-21 23:46:00 Arrived at DHL Sort Facility HONG KONG-HKG2023-11-21 20:20:00 Shipment has departed from a DHL facility ZHUJIANG DELTA AREA-CHN2023-11-21 18:54:00 Processed at ZHUJIANG DELTA AREA-CHN2023-11-21 18:12:00 Arrived at DHL Sort Facility ZHUJIANG DELTA AREA-CHN2023-11-21 17:12:00 Shipment picked up2023-11-21 11:13:10 Customs clearance status updated. Note - ...2023-11-21 11:13:10 Customs clearance status updated. Note - ...2023-11-21 07:40:00 The instruction data for this shipment have been provided by the sender to DHL electronicallyIs it normal for a package to hop multiple times through cities like that?On DHL tracking, there is no such route, only "The instruction data for this shipment have been provided by the sender to DHL electronically" .

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2023, 08:10:11 pm
content: Not all mentions of a location mean that the package has actually been there physically. "Processed at xxx" can also mean that they have just received and processed information. So what looks like a Leipzig-Brussels-Leipzig-Brussels move at first glance, is only one physical move from Leipzig to Brussels if you look at the messages more closely.I assume that the "departed from Brussels" message somehow made it into the log with a delay (over the weekend). The shipment must have left Brussels before it arrived in Amsterdam.In that case, the actual path in Europe would be Leipzig - Brussels - Amsterdam - Eindhoven, which makes more sense.

author: ceteras
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 27, 2023, 08:11:38 pm
content: Thank you, indeed it makes sense!

author: ceteras
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 20, 2023, 06:59:10 am
content: Update:On the 13th of December - "EINDHOVEN - NETHERLANDS, THE, Delivered", it left the customs.14th to 18th it traveled through Germany, then it arrived in my country, Romania.It got here yesterday, it took about a month to arrive from China.Shipping Method: EuroPacketCustoms clearance handled by JLCPCB

author: BreakingOhmsLaw
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2024, 08:18:31 pm
content: If anything, the are getting REALLY fast:2024-02-04 01:09:08 Order submitted2024-02-09 13:04:00 DeliveredThat's 5½ days from order to my doorstep in Germany. This was a 2-layer board.Two weeks earlier, i ordered a 4-layer board:2024-01-12 22:09:58 Order submitted2024-01-19 10:10:00 DeliveredThat's 6½ days.That makes them my first choice. In the past, the board would take longer than the parts for the BOM. Now, I need to order my parts from Digikey no later than the next day if I want to have them ready when the PCB arrives. They are certainly getting my business. The only thing they could improve is the option to order parts for assembly from other distributors than LCSC.

author: S. Petrukhin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2024, 08:59:22 pm
content: Delivery from China to Russia now lasts 3 days and costs 200 RMB (Chinese people's money). That's about $25/kg. It is cheaper and takes longer.Previously DHL worked more expensive and worse.

author: up8051
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2024, 10:04:06 am
content: Not always fast, my last shippment take 16 days.Quote

author: S. Petrukhin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2024, 12:53:21 pm
content: Quote from: up8051 on February 15, 2024, 10:04:06 amIt looks like your package had a tour of Europe.DHL probably does not have a direct connection between Poland and Hong Kong.