Ordering, printing, and the fine print.

The basics

Vancouver Print Lab is an FDM 3D-printing service based in Vancouver, BC. When you submit a model and pay for an order, you’re agreeing to these terms, together with our content policy and privacy note. We may update them from time to time; the version in force when you place an order is the one that applies to it.

How an order works

You upload a model, we price it — automatically, or by hand when a file needs a closer look — and you pay in full before anything is printed. We review every file before it goes on a printer, and may ask a question, suggest a change, or decline a job at that stage. The quote you approve — material, colour, quantity and options — is what we agree to print. Finished orders are collected by local pickup in Vancouver; we don’t ship.

Your model is yours to get right

You’re responsible for making sure your model is printable and suits what you need it for — its dimensions, wall thickness, clearances and fit. We print the file as you supply it; we don’t redesign, repair or engineer it, and any tip we offer along the way is a friendly courtesy, not a guarantee. Our file review looks for obvious problems and printability or policy issues — it isn’t an engineering check, and it doesn’t move responsibility for your design onto us. If a print doesn’t turn out because of the file itself — wrong scale, walls too thin, fragile geometry — a reprint is a new order.

What FDM prints are like

Prints are made from plastic, built up in fine layers, so a few things are simply normal and aren’t defects: visible layer lines and seams, small marks where supports were removed, minor blemishes, slight warping or shrinkage, and small differences in colour or finish between the screen, batches and machines. Our standard dimensional tolerance is about ±0.5 mm or ±0.5% of a dimension, whichever is larger — anything tighter, like a press-fit, a thread, or a critical dimension, needs to be agreed with us in writing on your order, and often wants a test print first. Within that band, a part isn’t defective just because it isn’t CAD-exact or shows the texture of the process.

Not for safety-critical use

Our prints are made for general, hobby, prototype and decorative use. Unless we’ve agreed otherwise with you in writing for a specific order, they are not certified or warranted for:

• Load-bearing or structural parts
• Anything medical, dental, or in contact with the body
• Food or drink contact
• Automotive, aerospace, or machinery use
• Electrical or fire-safety parts
• Weapons or their components (see our content policy)
• Children’s items subject to safety regulations
• Any use where a part failing could cause injury or serious damage

FDM plastics also aren’t guaranteed to be heat-, chemical-, UV- or water-resistant. If your use is on this list, talk to us first — sometimes we can help, but only when we’ve agreed it up front.

Your files and your rights

When you place an order you confirm — as you tick at checkout — that you own or are licensed to print your model, and that printing it infringes no one’s rights and breaks no law. If a third party brings a claim because of a file you sent us (for example, an intellectual-property claim), you agree to cover our reasonable costs of dealing with it. We may decline or stop any job we believe infringes someone’s rights or breaks our content policy or the law, and refund the part we haven’t printed.

Your files are deleted by default

We use your uploaded files only to quote and print your order, and delete them automatically once the order reaches a final state — done or cancelled. We keep no long-term archive unless you ask us to, and we never sell or share your files. Keep your own copy: once they’re deleted, we have no backup. For how we handle your personal details, see our privacy note.

Paying, cancelling and refunds

Payment is due in full before we print. Before you pay, we may correct a quote — for a clerical slip, or if reviewing the file shows it can’t be printed the way it was automatically priced — and any applicable taxes are added.

• Cancel before printing starts, or if we decline your job, and you’re refunded in full — we don’t charge for work we haven’t done.
• Once printing has started, custom work can’t be refunded, except where a part is genuinely defective through our error — then we’ll reprint or refund that item.

Normal FDM characteristics (above), a change of mind, the wrong file uploaded, or a part that “didn’t fit my project” aren’t grounds for a refund. If something’s wrong with your order, tell us within 7 days of pickup. None of this removes rights you have under British Columbia’s consumer-protection laws.

Turnaround

We’re a small shop with limited machines, so any ready-for-pickup date we give is a good-faith estimate, not a guarantee — queue position, a reprint for quality, or a machine needing attention can move it. We’ll let you know about any real delay, and if it’s a long one you can cancel an unprinted order for a full refund. We’re not responsible for delays outside our control, like equipment failure, a material shortage, utilities or illness.

Our responsibility, and its limits

We stand behind our work: if a part is defective because of something we did wrong, we’ll reprint it or refund it. Beyond that, our total responsibility for any order is limited to what you paid for that order, and we’re not responsible for indirect or knock-on losses — lost profit or business, damage further down the line, or injury from using a part in a way we didn’t agree to. Nothing here limits anything the law doesn’t let us limit: liability for personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud, and the rights you have under British Columbia’s consumer-protection and sale-of-goods laws, all stand regardless.

The legal bits

These terms are governed by the laws of British Columbia and Canada, and the courts of British Columbia. If something goes wrong, please talk to us first — we’d much rather sort it out directly. If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still applies. Together with the quote you approved, these terms are the whole agreement for your order.

Questions?

Not sure how something here applies to your order? Ask us — through the order flow or the contact details on the about page — and we’ll walk you through it.