I was wondering if there is any news on my printer. I’ve sent the printer to England on 23 February and I have had some contact with Paul Forth stating on March 3 that my printer would be ready to be returned in 5 working days (9 March).
On March 13 I kindly sent him the following message:
Hello Paul,
I’m looking forward to your diagnosis on the printer and what parts you have tested/resolved/replaced. I’m hoping you’ve found the root of the problems I’ve been having and I’m looking forward to receiving the printer back once all issues have been fixed.
Thank you for ensuring my printer will be working in an optimal state.
Kind regards,
Alex
Unfortunately I haven’t had a reply since. Perhaps Paul is on holiday, or perhaps there are some issues that the engineering team are looking into. Either way, It would be nice to know the status. Obviously I’m looking forward to get my printer back a.s.a.p. in a perfect working condition
Hi @Steve_Johnstone and @Alex_Vermeer, so sorry for the lack of communication on this. We definitely owe you both status updates, and I’ll see that your cases each get a reply shortly. Thanks for checking in with us!
Thank you very much @Stephen. Michael Curry had already sent me a PM as well notifying me that he contacted the support team to give me an update. Hopefully @Steve_Johnstone received the same message.
I’m glad you’re both taking this seriously and I appreciate the professional attitude to solving this so we’ll be updated shortly!
To be honest I don’t even think they have even looked at it and have said that due to a “unexpected delay” they will need another 7-10 days. I don’t understand as all that was required was for them to change the laser and re-calibrate.
I’ve had the printer for almost 5 months and haven’t been able to use it for a single commercial project. The one I did try, failed, and left me letting down my top client.
I’m so disappointed and ready to through the towel in.
Well… it seems we got the same message… Mine didn’t pass the print test either and I’m looking at a delay of 7-10 days as well… It does seem coincidental that we both have had the printer for nearly the same time. Might just be a bad batch…
I ordered mine on September 30th and received it on October 20th (somewhere around that date). When did you receive yours?
@Stephen,
I appreciate you taking the effort in looking into both our cases. However, I would love to get some openness towards what we can expect. Could you give us an ultimatum for when we can expect “any” printer back. For all we know this delay and the passing of the pint test might end in further delays up to 20 days because the printer (as a whole) is just simply a write-off and is only good for certain parts. Furthermore by doing excessive testing on the printer it’s costing Formlabs money because you need to put your engineering people on it. Eventually resulting in hours costing more than the actual printer is worth.
What I’m trying to say is that, if this 7-10 day deadline cannot be met again, because the printers aren’t passing the test, can we make an agreement that replacement printers will be sent (of course I cannot speak on behalf of @Steve_Johnstone)? Steve and I have similar issues with the printer and it seems the engineering team is having a hard time solving these issues. By sending us replacement printers, we can get back to printing and stop losing money because our printer is “offline”. Furthermore your engineering team can keep on researching what the problem actually is and use these two printers as study cases.
I’m just worried, that we’ll be getting another notification concerning an extra delay on top of the 7-10 days you’ve already stated because the issues we are having have only been seen on a handful of printers, and therefore a solution might not be found within these 7-10 days.
Still, I would like to thank you for getting back to us. I appreciate it a lot and I’m glad that you’re working with us in a professional way.
@Alex_Vermeer ex, I totally agree with everything you’ve said. I’ve asked for a new printer or a refund if they can’t fix it.
I’m a realist and know that as an early adopter of this kind of tech. there are always going to be some issues, but I think this is something else. Like you’ve pointed out, this issue is only affecting a very few machines. If the issue were affecting everyone, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation as we would all be in the same boat with same spec machine.
Like you said, if there have been engineers work on them all this time it would be cheaper to write them off. In my case it was agreed that the laser would be changed, before I sent it. If they didn’t hold them in UK stock, there was plenty of time get one in and have it waiting for when the printer arrived.
I ordered my printer after visiting them on their stand at TCT 2014, early October. I actual showed them sample parts I had FFF printed to make sure my expectation were realistic. I place the order shortly after and received the printer at the beginning of November.
