After waiting the required amount of time, I checked last week about my order and was told it should ship this week, which is later than I was told it would be a few months ago, but another week seemed ok. I called today since I didn’t hear from anyone and they told me it has been ‘pushed’ another 20 days. Since my original order, I bought a form1+ on Ebay so that I could have something to work with while I wait for months and months for a product that is sold with no mention of these delays until after payment is made. Frankly I got much better service and attention from the person on Ebay than I’ve gotten from Formlabs. I like the printer I was able to get. I don’t like someone taking my money and having no interest in keeping me informed about my order. Their attitude seems to be ‘I’m sorry you feel that way’. I think it’s a bad way to do business- I have had these kinds of problems in the past with my own business, but I have always made sure the customer is happy in the end. I don’t get any sense that the people at the company care that they can’t fulfill their orders. It just doesn’t seem to be a priority. So I’ve asked for my money back and I’m sure I’ll be able to get one of these things on Ebay sometime, possibly before Formlabs would have been able to fill my order. I’m definitely never going for the latest and greatest from this company again. Its been a tremendous waste of time and energy.
I couldn’t agree more. I have a form2 order that I put in December. At the time it said 12 weeks. I’m now approaching 10 weeks and I am concerned that it will not ship in time. I’ve had zero updates. I received a fairly generic answer the two times I called to check. I thought about cancelling, but have held out hope that the delivery date will be hit. That said, it is incredibly frustrating. Cars can be custom ordered and shipped overseas in less time.
And I would also echo your thoughts on responsiveness. The company I work for manufactures parts. I’d like to see if a form2 might be a good rapid prototype solution for us. I’ve spoken to sales about making a part and was told we can’t do that. I also help to organize a printer festival (MRRF) that I thought it would be interesting for FL to exhibit. I sent three emails. Finally on the third one I heard that they were booked up 6-12 months out. I’m glad I finally got an answer, but it shouldn’t have taken 3 follow-ups to hear something. I get the impression of a company that is too good for their customers. It reminds me of Makerbot in 2012.
I’m holding out hope at this point that I get a shipment in the next 2 weeks. Then I’ll bring my printer to MRRF. Otherwise I will likely cancel too.
I’m a lucky man, I received the form 2 January 7, my problem is the availability of resins, which is almost nothing and a clear cartridge, which is not recognized. The dealer told me that there are some chips that are damaged during the x-ray Customs inspections.
Mine’s delayed too, but I’m OK with it–I’m not a business so it’s just a hobby thing, but since the Form2 is the best available printer I will definitely wait for it. Plus they gave me a free resin cartridge so that saves a bit of money since I’d probably be buying more anyway.
I placed an order on 12/17/2015, not yet received.
I would certainly love to have the Form 2 already however I would want Formlabs to take however much time is required to do it right so it works out of the box.
I absolutely can appreciate the position Steven has taken - I do thank everyone for sharing their order + delivery status, it does help to frame my own expectations.
For those still waiting, soon we will all blink and be staring at the Form 2.
I placed my order on Sept 26th and I got mine Jan 29th. I think I was in the 2nd wave of production based on chats with CS. I’ve gotten all the resin I’ve order fast, usually within a week, ground shipping. Printed in grey, white, and clear so far. LOVE the machine! I even set mine up at work to get double duty out of it. Work stuff and personal stuff. Nothing like printing out a new design for my boss in 4 hours when he is used to sending it out and it coming back in 4 to 8 days! Just sharing some positive thoughts for everyone still waiting. It was certainly tough to wait that long.
From my experience with 3D printers in general, it is wrong to buy something that just appeared on the market.
It should be bought when it’s enough tested.
I think Formlabs printers can work very well, but it takes time to have something good.
And this comes after a series of problems with Form 1+ and support was very good until now.
Just to mention, I bought a small printer (not formlabs) for fun on a kickstarter project last summer and it should have been shipped in November 2015 and it’s almost March 2016. But it’s bettter to get it functional then get it earlier and in bad condition.
I’m fairly certain they are made in China and that’s why Formlabs is unable to answer delivery inquiries. They don’t know when the next wave will ship for sure, or how long they will be stuck in customs.
Thanks for the interesting replies. I do hope people don’t cancel their orders in large numbers but I thought it would be good to know it is an option. Formlabs doesn’t offer any kind of incentive to wait. Zachary mentions they gave him a free resin cartridge- in all the conversations I’ve had with them they never gave a hint that they would try to compensate me for the wait in any way. They just acted like this is the normal course of business. They don’t seem to mind if they lose a couple of customers, or make some of them unhappy. I think a number of these machines will be available later and there will be less frustration associated with getting one. The Form1+ I bought on Ebay for the interim certainly has been working well and was much easier to acquire. Meantime I can use my $4,000.00 for something else. I’d like to think my cancelled order will hasten someone else’s fulfillment, but I doubt it works that way.
I placed my Form 2 order back in late September 2015 and received it on February 18th. It might have took close to five months to get it, but I was told it would be shipped in the middle of February anyways (I kept in contact with my sales rep from time to time and he always responded with courtesy and attentiveness). Just had to wait and bide my time… and it was well worth it! Haven’t printed too many items yet, but what I have printed has left me impressed with the fit, form and function of this machine. My experience with Formlabs has been great to this point and I hope that it continues…
I ordered on 12/30/15 with a 12 week turnaround. I emailed customer service a few weeks ago and was my order was on schedule for end of March/early April. I hope that rings true.
Thank you everyone for the feedback. Those of you concerned with the shipping delays…your comments have not fallen on deaf ears.
Steve - I’m really sorry to hear that you’ve canceled your order with us, but I can certainly understand the frustration that comes with missed delivery dates. The Form 2 is a very complicated piece of equipment to manufacture and while we make every effort to provide accurate delivery time lines, there are sometimes unanticipated hiccups that happen.
There has been a massive interest in the Form 2 since launch, and while this makes us very excited…we will not lower our Q/A standards to push units out the door. Our two major priorities are getting orders into our customer’s hands as quickly as we can, and making sure the items they receive are of the quality they expect.
We care deeply about our community and we are constantly working to improve our communication methods while we hustle to increase production and shorten lead times.
I’d say it should be a calculated risk. Every product needs someone to be the first customer, otherwise nothing will make it past the adoption gap into a standard part of life.
I knew going into it that I wasn’t far removed from beta tester, so I wasn’t surprised by the delays.
Thanks Jory-
I am not asking you to lower your standards in any way. I 'm asking you to be considerate of your customers, whose money you have taken. It would not take too much to update people, post statements on your website describing delays, or to offer incentives to people who’ve been inconvenienced. It’s great for you that there are a lot of people clamoring for the product and I’m sure its everything you say it is, but I think its bad policy to assume having a good product excuses taking your customers for granted.
I would still be in line waiting if you had made any effort at all to notify me of any of the several occasions where my order was delayed. This has nothing to do with the quality of your product- it has to do with how you treat your customers.
we have ordered one of the form 2 printers - mid-october - delivery was to be 14-24 feb which has come and gone. only our begging for an update got any information. i agree their face to the customer needs a LOT of improvement. too bad they are the best game in town - they know it and are flaunting that fact with the way they treat us as they count and recount the money we have already paid them…
dennis
I ordered mine at the end of September, and it was delayed without telling me until the day of the delay. Then I was told to just wait until mid-Feb. Well, it just arrived a few days ago.
Two things:
Yes, Formlabs customer interactions are really bad. They were curt with me, and completely uninterested in any inconvenience their last-minute delays may have caused, not to mention the interest-free business loan I unwittingly granted them for 5 months. I very nearly canceled my order and went with a competing product.
My Form2 is performing brilliantly. Honestly, the results are beautiful. I won’t claim to be an expert on all manner of 3d printing technology, but the short of it is that I’m really happy with my purchase.
So, if you can be patient and put up with the awful customer support, the machine itself will probably be worth it to you.
The posts on the forum regarding customer care attitudes are concerning. I purchased a cubex from 3DS and experienced similar issues so I sincerely hope formlabs takes this feed back seriously.
On the other hand it is good to hear that the product does perform as expected, which was not the case in any way with the 60lbs of poorly assemble trash called a cubex
When I bought my first Makerbot, I had to pay about the same amount and wait several months. That’s the way these small printers companies do business. Like others, I don’t like the idea of financing the cash flow of a commercial business. (That’s why I do not have a Starbuck’s card, but they are in a different situation). Formlabs is still a very small company, so in the parlance of dealmaking, if they can use “other peoples’ money” or OPM, more power to them. Customers have the option of waiting until product backlog is caught up to order or they can pay the price to get early access. Like all of you, I paid the price but waiting to December to order based on my prior experience with Makerbot. I already own a Form 1+ which developed issues in December, more than a year after I bought it. It was swapped out for free, I did not even have to pay shipping. In my experience their customer service on issues is superb. While I don’t like waiting months to get my Form 2, I made the choice to do it knowing full well what I was getting into. I agree that it would be better if they were proactive on communicating order status with customers. When I reached out to them to check, they quickly got back to me with a March date and then just recently said it would be mid March without me having to ask again.
So, yes, communication could be better, and I would prefer it if I could have put down a $500 non refundable deposit and been charged the balance with shipment, but that is not the way it is. Looking forward, with my fingers crossed, to receiving my new machine in a few weeks.