SparkFun Forums

[propellanttech]

Hi James,

When it comes to pricing, have you considered some sort of flat rate instead of per pin or pad? I wonder how that might work out.

I think this has been hashed over with other people, but I'm not sure it is in this thread.

The problem with flat rate: Most people will use the service for what it is for, but others will submit a design that is labor intensive.

Our machine will handle a large number of different items on one board. If you start getting into a very high number of different components the labor and time required goes up. (so the cost to us goes up).

I think we have a pretty good pricing schedule right now. It is a compromise between flat rate, and per pad price.

If you download the Excel sheet you will see we have a flat rate minimum board amount, then a per pad amount. We use which ever is higher.

This may seem unfair, but it really is not. If we do a board run where the part count is extremely low, we will charge only what we think is fair.

Everyone must remember this is a "quote" not a set in stone price.

I know some people looking at the prices, think they are high. If you really do some shopping, they are not really high at all.

Our system is not perfect, but neither are we. It's all in the human equation.

As for the prices, for now, they are not changing. We have flexed a lot on the pricing since we first started. We will not change the pricing schedule again (if at all) until we see what types of orders we get.

If anyone is unhappy with our prices, then have 500 boards assembled, the pricing works differently. We look at complexity of assembly, not amount of parts. Anything above 100 boards is a custom quote.

James L

[propellanttech]

After speaking with our Pick and Place supplier, we will be pushing our starting date back.

The manufacturer of the Pick and Place hit a bump in the road with their production schedule, which has caused a delay in the shipment of our machine.

This will push our beginning date of taking orders back two (2) weeks. We understand this may be a complication with some of our customers that have projected to have boards assembled.

We could have been unflexible...and demanded our machine be shipped on time, but we feel rushing the machine builder is not in the best of anyones interest. We understand things like this happen, and hope our potential customers will give some leeway for the production setback.

Our news page will be updated with the information for everyone else to read as well.

James L

[propellanttech]

Just to shed some light on what has been going on....and what we are working on.

As the machine is still in the shop being assembled......we have taken a very serious look at our website. Although the site in it's current state works to some degree, we are not really pleased with the design (even though we designed it).

We have decided to go with our own domain, and a different look. The site was to be up already, but as usual we have the worst timing of anyone on the face of the planet. Our host is putting in a new server, and asked if we could wait for it's installation. We of course agreed, because of our laid back style. The new site will be up at the first of next week.

We will have a lot of work to do to get the new site up with all of the features the old one has. The new site will have forums, and be easy to keep updated.

The ordering and the status pages are going to take some time. The new web page is of different language to give us the options we need, but the programming is a steep learning curve (for special items like we need).

We are searching for a person who can help with the new web page, so it may take some time for the Status and Ordering pages to come around.

Until then, we will be using the old page for orders, and status.

We will keep everyone apprised of the situation.

James L

[smdFan]

Just to shed some light on what has been going

We are searching for a person who can help with the new web page, so it may take some time for the Status and Ordering pages to come around.

James L

It is good that you are thinking about new webpage. I wanted to tell you that but kind of got lazy. I recently wanted to creat a webpage with shopping cart and progress and all those eCommerce related stuff. I did manage to create a basic shopping cart using Javascript. Although, I was successful, I gave up. It is not worth the time and effort and you need to have a lot of programming skill. I looked into commercial shoppring cart software and found that a good PHP shopping cart cost around $300. It is best if you spend a little and get a good professional website with all those eCommerce things. There are a lot of them. It is well worth the money, if you ask me.


Regards