JLCPCB major manufacturing error—admitted fault, won’t make it right - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: jwsulliv
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 16, 2025, 09:52:21 pm
content: I ordered several hundred dollars of PCBAs from JLCPCB.Upon receiving it, the board was visibly incorrectly built. This was a minor rev of a previously successful board, and it was immediately obvious that the PCB was missing all plane layers. The board is translucent when held up to a light.JLC admitted fault:QuoteHowever, they refuse to provide working PCBAs or adequately refund the value of the boards:QuoteThey have instead offered a coupon for the board fab only. I have not actually received the coupon, and I replied saying this is inadequate. They marked the issue resolved.The components were purchased as a package deal, and JLC failed to provide PCBAs built to print. Note that JLC literally only sells parts for assembly by them, on boards made by them, so it’s not like they can claim these were two unrelated orders.Salvaging components—ie doing a bunch of rework labor to make JLC’s mistake right—is absolutely absurd. This is especially absurd when most of the components are power FETs attached to decent sized copper pours, making rework difficult.

author: Jackster
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2025, 10:23:18 pm
content: That is shocking and you should be after a full refund for the PCBs and assembly. If they don't do so, make a claim via your credit card.

author: KE5FX
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2025, 10:40:48 pm
content: Agreed, that's nuts.

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2025, 10:46:14 pm
content: Yeah, that's terrible, a cursory inspection let alone E-test should have found that before it even got to the assembly.They should be refunding or remaking the whole lot and send you a return label for the bad ones if they really think it's worth recovering parts!

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 12:12:43 am
content: This is not great, but, did you specify anywhere you are using negative inner layers? Its another one of those unnecessary legacy PCB things that you should avoid. Also good idea to check off the "Confirm Production File", if you did not do that. Its on by default for >$300 orders.Quotehttps://jlcpcb.com/help/article/Suggested-Naming-PatternsQuote from: sleemanj on June 16, 2025, 10:46:14 pme-test would pass if its generated directly off of OPs gerbers no?

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 12:38:40 am
content: Quote from: thm_w on June 17, 2025, 12:12:43 amYeah fair enough, I didn't notice that the internal layers were initially negative as supplied thought they had just omitted them.

author: jwsulliv
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 12:53:01 am
content: This was a 6 layer board, that had been ordered before (extremely small change to a trace on the top layer), without issue. They did confirm the production files and the production files did look correct. Additionally, compared against the prior order, the gerbers in JLC’s system looked identical (again, except for the one changed trace).

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 01:11:11 am
content: I wonder if the gerbers had the "negative" flag, so looked ok when you checked them, but then their software didn't see that? Maybe that is what they are trying to say, not sure.Explanation on dkred:https://forum.digikey.com/t/negative-gerber-layers/29443

author: jwsulliv
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 01:13:42 am
content: I also checked in their gerber viewer. It seemed ok and matched the prior (working) board, which was ~identical and generated with the same Outjob too.

author: squadchannel
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 01:17:18 am
content: It's about time the "@JLCPCB Official" came out and solved the problem.

author: Kean
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 05:36:22 am
content: Quote from: Jackster on June 16, 2025, 10:23:18 pm100% this.The way JLC handles issues like this means it is very unlikely I will ever use their assembly service. I've heard quite a few similar stories where they admit the mistake is on their side, but won't provide anything more than a low-ish value coupon. I've experienced it myself with the PCB service, but not to this level (e.g. wrong colour soldermask, or a few missing PCBs/3D prints). A lot of my client jobs are urgent, and at least doing my own PnP assembly means I can detect this kind of issue early.

author: seavan
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 05:36:51 am
content: Assuming you paid with a credit card, can you file a claim?

author: jwsulliv
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 06:02:50 am
content: To be 100% crystal clear, I did review the production files (in the "ok" folder in the zip that they provide, in their file format). The production files looked fine. For good measure, I compared them against a previous order of a nearly identical board, and the polarities of the plane layers/etc are the same.So, this could not have been something I messed up when re-generating gerbers, or missed in production file review: because if that was the case, presumably the board that was made correctly would look different from the one that was made incorrectly.https://postimg.cc/HJcz72pL

author: jwsulliv
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 06:15:37 am
content: Also, for good measure, here is the comparison of the production files between the two orders, which I re-uploaded in their own viewer. Left side is the original order which worked, right side is the new one which did not (note the slightly different silkscreen).https://postimg.cc/cKLMNG92

author: JLCPCB Official
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 07:02:45 am
content: Hello @jwsulliv ,Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention . We sincerely apologize for the error in your recent PCBA order and fully understand your frustration.Upon thorough review, we found that the issue resulted from an incorrect production file created by our enginee. We take full responsibility for this oversight.To make things right, we will be providing full compensation for this order. Our team will be reaching out shortly with the compensation details—please keep an eye on your email.Additionally, we are implementing enhanced internal measures to ensure such errors do not occur in the future.If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us.

author: shapirus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 07:10:20 am
content: Quote from: JLCPCB Official on June 17, 2025, 07:02:45 amIt would also be nice if customers could resolve such issues via standard support without having to go public and escalate it via 3rd-party websites and forums and hoping for a responsible person from the manufacturer to notice it. Maybe you will find it advisable to correct your internal procedures in this respect as well.

author: Jackster
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 07:54:46 am
content: Quote from: JLCPCB Official on June 17, 2025, 07:02:45 amThe fact that it took a public post on a forum to get this resolved is not a good look to be honest.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 08:00:33 am
content: Quote from: shapirus on June 17, 2025, 07:10:20 amI agree, I have the feeling that either JLC has a policy to try to bully a customer into accepting a loss by default.For example I had components that were marked difficult to place, so they came with extra assembly costs. And then when I submitted my board, paid for it, they asked for even more assembly costs for these components. Like OK, it's only a few % of the total cost, but shouldn't you guys then markup your components properly?Or maybe its cultural, IDK enough for to make that judgement.Quote from: thm_w on June 17, 2025, 12:12:43 amNah, Gerber file will contain a line that tells you if it's inverted. I use planes as well. Maybe GerberX2 is better for these files, IDK.

author: 48X24X48X
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 08:56:44 am
content: With Chinese companies, you have to be clear. I want a full refund or a full rebuild. And just add you will put it on public space if that doesn't happen. No need to be so polite. It's your hard earned money.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 12:59:30 pm
content: Quote from: Kean on June 17, 2025, 05:36:22 amyeah although my experience over nearly 200 orders has been generally good, I'd be very hesitant to trust JLC for anything urgent as there are frequently queries ( sometimes errors I've made, sometimes them not understanding something), and these can easily take a day to resolve, and often multiple iterations, taking a day each.A current job is a front panel where I'm using gaps in the copper & mask to let LEDs shine through the PCB material and it's been about a week so far explaining that these are not to be drilled. My gerbers specify exactly whet I want, but anything slightly out of the ordinary seems to confuse them enormously.

author: mtwieg
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 01:20:39 pm
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on June 17, 2025, 12:59:30 pmI don't think this is an issue particular to JLCPCB or other overseas fabs.Years back we had a board design where we needed soldermask defined pads with very specific geometry. The fab routinely ignored our mask gerbers and any notes we included and generated their own mask using their standard scripts. The result was a <25% yield at assembly. Told the fab about the issue, agreed over the phone to be more careful next time, same thing happened again, and again, and again... I think it wasn't until we withheld payment or threatened to switch suppliers that they finally started listening.This was a very high-tech fabhouse in north america (no, not going to say who).

author: loki42
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 01:46:09 pm
content: Quote from: mtwieg on June 17, 2025, 01:20:39 pmTotally agreed. I've had much less trouble with Chinese manufacturing than many other places. There's a few which I might have been unlucky with (will avoid Malaysia) but most are better than what I've been able to get locally here. I brought lots of things in house because local suppliers I dealt with were so bad. I now get my powder coating done in Australia after having it done in the USA and China before. The Chinese quality and consistency was by far the best. I only get it coated locally as I do all the metal work in house and it's cheaper to ship it locally. It's so hard to get decent quality here though, and forget them owning up to mistakes.

author: D2236
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2025, 02:25:27 am
content: We have been using JLC for many years with no real issues. On one order we placed last year, it was required to have incremental serial numbers on a batch of boards that also had to be ENIG (gold plated). Well, they messed that up. Serial numbers were smudged and unreadable on some of the boards. To try to fix it, they reprinted more boards with higher numbers above where the batch numbers were supposed to end.When we confronted them, they had some lame excuse that something went wrong with the production sequence that smudged the numbering. They only wanted to refund us for the boards that were smudged, where we were looking for better compensation as the batch was totally unusable and something our client would reject. After a long fight with them, we got about half of our money back. It was disappointing, to say the least.At another time, we had an issue with silkscreen on a batch of boards by AllPCB. We pointed out the issue; they apologized, made new boards, and shipped them express for free.