Note- this post is NOT a hate post against printrbot. Lol. Just my experience.

3D Printing
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Note- this post is NOT a hate post against printrbot. Lol. Just my experience.

My bad experience with Printrbot.

In about November, I think, when the PB metal plus came out for pre order, I ordered one.
It came around late January ( expected. I knew there was a long lead time ).
So I built it and plugged it in, but it didn’t connect to the computer. (I used anti static spray on my table and hands when handling the board). I knew it was the board, so I emailed support and they sent me a new board. It didn’t work again. I emailed them again, and they sent a new board, and hotend, as the hotend didn’t work either when I plugged it into my other printer to test. The hotend worked, but again the board didn’t. I emailed them again. They send me the new f5 board and I sent the old one back. This board worked well. So it turned out it was just that the f4 didn’t work for some reason.

Now I started printing (just 2 cubes) and it was very wobbly and made odd noises. I tried lube but it was the same.

I emailed them and the sent a new linear bearing. It worked. About halfway through the 5th print (total) (none of the Prints were more than 50mms or very big or longer than 2 hrs. Small thinks) the printer stopped.

The board stopped working. Again.

I emailed support again, but this time they told me that they have replaced it too many times and I had to pay 100$ for a new one. I tried to reason with them, but every single email I sent (about 3 altogether.) they send the exact same copied reply. At which point I emailed brook. And he just ignored me.

So I had nothing else to do but to return it. They refused to pay the return shipping even though I’m returning it because it’s broken.

I called paypal, and tried to get a partial refund to pay for the board. PB declined it.
So paypal told me to return it. After about a month back and forth with paypal, I got them to pay for the shipping (it’s really expensive, from Hong Kong. )
They said they would deduct it from the escrow that pb has with them. I didn’t really mind. I don’t know what they did in the end.

I ended up getting a full refund without paying shipping. :). So now I guess I’ll use the money to buy a Kossel.

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I have had similar bad experience with PB customer service. Thankfully my printer is working great now that I have all the parts, but before that they essentially refused to send me the correct parts (they had sent some spacers with the wrong size hole first, then some spacers with the right hole but the wrong size). I ended up machining the first spacers to the right size but it took a month for them to eventually get me the correct pieces.

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I have to stand up to Printrbot in this one. With so many parts replaced is more likely that you are making a mistake in the assembly, connection, configuration… processes that all those components where faulty. Actually, two boards, one hotend and a new linear bearing, all for free (if I have understood well) seems like a terrific customer support from my point of view.

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Yea it is. But they should really test the boards and hotends a before they send them.

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My experience with Printrbot has been great. I was missing a set screw, and they spent the time, money, and packaging necessary to send me that one tiny piece.

I agree with @Diego_Trapero , sending that much for free is exceptional.

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I wouldn’t expect any less than sending missing or broken parts for free with any decent company. Not my fault that all the boards were faulty.

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actually I would not call this poor customer support since they answered and they changed a lot of stuff at their expense indeed… Now, either you were very unlucky (it happens), or there was something else (e.g. power supply / bad mains?).

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Pretty sure I was hair unlucky. Because my mains work fine. And the power supply is from printrbot and pre wired. Also tested with multimeter.

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@James_Malenko anyhow every feedback is useful so thanks for posting!

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I also would expect such a level of costumer support from a company like Printrbot that is big enough to afford so many replacements.

But giving support for kits is a tricky business since you never know if the problem is yours or it has been originated in the customer side. I sincerely doubt all those parts were faulty.

I had a similar issues with my 3d printer, having to buy 3 Arduino MEGAs and in the end it was a firmware problem what was causing the problem.

I think this post actually speaks good of Printrbot’s support, but I also wish your new kossel serves better your purposes.

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Obviously there is no way of knowing the details of the exchange, but knowing what I know from my own Printrbot customer service experience I have seen quite a “grab a part and throw it at a problem” attitude, even if it is not the right part (they sent me the wrong part with my kit and then sent a wrong replacement part even after I sent pictures with measurements). In my case I made some not unreasonable requests (like if I could pay for overnight shipping) which were just flat out ignored the first 2 times I requested, but they had no problem with giving me a $30 coupon for stuff from their store (which incidentally was what they wanted to charge me for overnight shipping). I could completely see a situation where the part was damaged in shipping due to a similar level of negligence. Really, the big problem is that they don’t have anyone you can talk to in order to make sure both parties understand the issue and the solution.

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I personally decided on every last policy in place in our customer service department. Anything you don’t like is absolutely my responsibility. We are ridiculously generous 99% of the time. I don’t have to look at these tickets to know these CS guys are being quick to respond, more than fair, and polite.

I will let you in on a couple policies I rigidly enforce:

  1. Keep our word. we honor the agreement that is signed by every customer when they purchase… every single time. No questions asked. My CS techs have the freedom to even go beyond what I have promised on their own judgement.

  2. If people threaten you, me, Printrbot, etc… We don’t respond. Making any kind of legal threat, social media smear campaign, and so on immediately triggers non-response on that account. I have zero tolerance for that practice. No matter what, #1 applies, even if you are a jerk to my customer support, but when asking us to go beyond what we promise in the agreement, #2 applies. Honestly, this rarely ever happens, but it’s a great policy to have to protect your customer service folks from burnout… When a customer treats them like crap, their boss has their back and protects them.

  3. Be awesome policy: look for random opportunities to go way above and beyond what we promise to cool people you feel deserve a little atta-boy !

So there you go- we do what we said we would do… And if your just reasonable, there is a really good chance we will go above and beyond.

The funny thing about people who rant and rave in public that they have been swindled… If you read their tickets, which we have in great detail in zen desk- it is always always clear what is going on. But publishing the customers tickets and letting the world see how unreasonable people can get just isn’t classy.

People that believe these types of posts are the whole story, and not one side of the story told from an understandable bias, and go elsewhere to buy-- it’s just fine with me. It’s how the world works, it happens.

The only way to build trust is develop a relationship with your customers and be consistent over time… Time builds trust and a great brand.

-Brook

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I’m sorry but this is the full story. Nobody threatened me or anything like that.

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I didn’t threaten anybody. I didn’t talk to anybody from printrbot about the paypal case. After you started to ignore me and send the same repetitive email, I went to paypal.

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@Nicolas_Duarte agreed. Everything would be so much easier to sort out with a phone line.

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@Brook_Drumm Trusting only one source is wrong in any case. I think you proved to have one of the best policies out there (and especially b/c you are transparent imho). Now, there will always be unhappy customers whatever the policies, and for various reasons. They are often the ones that makes you better… even though the outcome it may not go along with their own expectancy (e.g. I really love #2 as a safeguard to #1!).

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@Brook_Drumm I am impressed with your CS. Up to a point. But not with your quality control measures. When a customer is getting faulty parts, there are a few things that you are not taking serious enough. #1 is the disapointment the customer is feeling by not getting a working product. #2 is the lack of thoroughness in sending another faulty part. Test it first! #3 is not responding to a customer who has paid good money for a product that is not up to specification. And I can understand it when a cusomer gets angry at some point. Not responding is childish, and only aggravates the disturbed relations. Seriously Brook, would you like it to be treated this way? Take a look how a great company does it, take Apple, when a product is repeatedly faulty, you are, when you ask nicely, eligible for a complete new unit, often a upgrade. I understand that with a kit that is a bit …troublesome, but anyone who has experienced Apple’s service that way, is a advocate for life. I am. And that’s what counts. Keeping customers. Not selling units. Keeping customers. And keeping them happy. As long as their demands are reasonable.
You know the 3 strikes, you’re out rule?

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I, too, have to side with Printrbot on this. They replaced quite a lot of things for you for free. It is very unfortunate that you went through four boards, but eventually any company is going to have to ask you to pay for more.

Personally, I’m still using my original rev. D printrboard on my (heavily modded) Simple Beta kit that I got in June of 2013. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with Printrbot… most of which are my purchasing upgrade options. There were only two incidents where a couple small pieces were missing (springs for the bed from the original kit, and a bearing for an extruder upgrade), and both times were handled as quickly as reasonable postage rates would allow, at no cost to me.

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Also going to side with Printrbot on this. This is an example of excellent customer service and I can only say they went above and beyond by sending you 5 (!!!) boards. @Brook_Drumm , you’re doing things right – you’ll notice most people here are defending you.

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@Rien_Stouten

I hear you! I totally empathize with the pain involved. I treat everyone the way I want to be treated. This does not extend to few cases that we do not get treated with the same respect. Anger is fine. Disappointment is understandable. Frustration, fine. You threaten us- you are out. Period. I would not do that and won’t tolerate it. It’s a double edged sword. Again, we keep our word every time. If you don’t like what we promise, don’t enter the contract. Vote with your dollars.

We have never had to recall a product or part. I HAVE discovered better ways to design a part or product and I offer those for free, informing everyone of that option. I have also dropped prices, offering credit or refunds to all recent buyers who ask. I am comfortable with these policies and believe it’s beyond what is expected- it’s the right thing to do. I also go beyond what I’ve promised on a regular basis… Often, it’s to reasonable customers, even kind ones, but (absolutely) not always. We extend these “above and beyond” values to angry people as well- I totally see where they are coming from.

Btw- we test every single electronics board that goes out the door. We do not test every sensor- we do random testing of sensors that go out in kits, specifically. We don’t test every wire or endstop or power supply that goes out in kits. But we test everything on an assembled bot since every assembled bot prints before leaving. In some cases, people misdiagnose the problem and demand a board replacement, or even a complete bot. I can’t tell you how many times a “bad” part or bot comes back on replacement or return and works perfectly. I take responsibility for this though- we need to improve our tools to troubleshoot. It’s not their fault it’s hard.

We are honest that 3d printing is hard and it’s not for everyone. We want to set realistic expectations. We want to build better tools and improve UX. we will continue to do so and this will help everyone. I don’t want to sound bitter at all- I’m not. I am incredibly grateful to all involved. The mistakes I make are the chief reason we have gotten better. I will own those mistakes and continue to give the benefit of the doubt to our precious customers.

Brook