Let me clarify several things:

1.  When I say our company forces a buyback policy, I am talking 
about high volume single sided "punch & crunch" 15 mil lines & 
spaces, not 132 layer sub micron traces & vias.

2.  We would not even be able to do business with fab shops that 
are not UL approved.

3.  Not to mention various ISO standards.

4.  Liability can lead back to GOD if you can get him to pay out.  
In today's society lawyers latch onto the deep pocket syndrome. For 

example, Joe Blow's PCB shop may only be worth $150,000.  However 
if we can lay any and I mean even 5 or 10 percent of the blame on 
laminate he received from say, Westinghouse then Westinghouse will 
have a lawsuit on their hands.

5.  Our facility does single and double sided through hole and 
non-fine pitch smt (0.050 and 0.025).  Not BGA etc.  Buyback on 
those types of boards is a different can of worms.

6.  As hard as we have tried, we have "stuck with" the same 3 pc 
board houses over the last 10 years.  Except for fast turn and 
proto jobs.

7.  Yes, these three have all "ate jobs" they have screwed up.

8.  Not only do we have test for overall ionic contaminants, we 
have specifics items such as bromide contents.

9.  Yes we do make mistakes and eat boards ourselves.  Our V-Score 
spec still isn't where I would like it to be.  I would like to 
speicify a snap force in pounds per square inch, while QA insists 
on a +/- specification of board material, not taking into account 
tolerance for board thickness and material type.  We are still 
trying to find out what we should do on this.  Any Thoughts?

10. Our PCB "General" spec is 18 pages long.

On a last note, as far as not wanting to do business with a company 

that has a buyback policy, we get at least one offer a week to 
quote jobs, and we have come up with a standard quote package for 
these people, however like I said Nobody can beat out our three 
board houses.  Oh and by the way (Plug for our country) ALL THREE 
ARE IN THE U.S.!  With one being less than 30 miles from us.  The 
other two are based out of Chicago.

Sure we have a buyback policy, but then again, the pcb house that 
is
local to us, the guy gave the business to his kid and retired a 
millionaire 
at age 50.  Buyback is a way of life if you want to deal with a 
Fortune 250 
company.  Would you really quote a board at $117.00 if one pcb went 

in EVERY GM vehicle?  I think not.  And if you did, hmm.... don't 
wait for my call back.

P.S. 

I call my fab shops well ahead of every new design release and ask 
them to
check it out.  Having an honest and open working relationship with 
your
suppliers keeps all sides happy.




The mail list is run by SmartList v3.05
To unsubscribe from this list at any time, send a message to:
[log in to unmask] with subject:unsubscribe and no text.