"When I was still in design school, I brought back some ZoomRP fliers from a tradeshowz they exhibited. Their booths was very sparse and barebone, but given how many students do last minute printing, I figure it might be a good resource to know about. I never had to use them myself, which I later felt very fortunate about.

A year ago, a younger classmate who was preparing for portfolio review used ZoomRP to print her prototype. She unfortunately messed up her CAD and had to print it twice. The first print looked like it came from an actual Stratsys printer, it just didn't work because she modeled it incorrectly. The second print looked like it came from someone's Makerbot. It was a disaster with squiggly mounting holes, plastic hair growing all over it, and the ugliest fill pattern I've ever seen. I couldn't believe my eyes that a professional service would ever allow something like this to ship.

To add insult to injury, she paid about $600 for the print, which she could have printed for $50 at a local makerspace. I told her to demand a refund and issue a chargeback if they don't honor it, and to send them pictures as proof. She was very hesitant because she didn't like to confront people and was just going to try to sand it and make it work. I told her no amount of sanding was going to fix it and basically bullied her into standing up for herself (ironic, I know).

She tried to get a reprint, but whoever replied insisted that what she got was a legit print from a Stratsys printer, even after she sent in pictures. After some prodding, they offered a $300 discount on a reprint. She didn't want to argue anymore and agreed, much to my dismay when I found out. I told her not to settle for anything less than a full refund, but she didn't want to push it anymore as she was already stressing out over portfolio review, which she now had less time for thanks to the whole debacle.

Her reprint came out fine, which makes me suspect some technician saw an easy way to pocket some money by printing it at home with their makerbot. Or maybe they ran out of material and had to meet their deadline. Either way their response was unacceptable and a flat out lie. I hope word got around our department so nobody else would get screwed like that. I'm writing this so that future generations know what's happened. I don't know if they've cleaned up their act in the last year, but I would never trust nor recommend their services to anyone. There are many many service firms out there now, so use one with an actual reputation."