Are you happy with support?

I’m having a bad run with my Form2, without a successful print in weeks, plus a number of miscellaneous issues.

All prints are tearing. Rotation and repositioning don’t help. It’s all prints, not just the hard ones.

I can’t get Preform to run on my Win7 machine, including version 2.5. It does run on OSX, so I’m able to print, but with a more complicated workflow. (Except the prints are all failing).

The ethernet connection is unstable

Sometimes I get a phantom support platform outside the build window.

Also phantom “too large” errors, even though the print is within the build area. I just ignore those.

I have a bad cartridge that won’t register with the printer. Resetting it won’t work. It’s a bad chip.

I use a lot of tough resin and just noticed a film on the glass. It won’t come off with just IPA; needed Dawn and distilled water. Support says “be careful, the glass is coated, use IPA!” but don’t give me an approved alternative.

There’s dust on the inside mirror! The machine is in a clean environment and I thought it was sealed. The video certainly vaunts that it is. I suspect this is what’s killing the printing. I didn’t think to look at the first failed print, since the machine is “sealed”.

Anyway, I get one reply a day, and that reply isn’t usually useful or complete. It feels like they aren’t reading past the first paragraph. And don’t always reply to all the open tickets. At this point I have so many open tickets I just consolidated them on my own.

I reported the interior dust, and a day later, they said, “yah, happens”. But no instructions on how to deal with it. So I reminded them, but got no reply. Now, a day later, I’m hoping for something substantive.

I’ve asked for a phone call, but without paying $500 extra, they aren’t going to do that. I do get patronizing “we would if we could, but we’re so busy” messages, with a soupçon of “we really care about you” for desert.

But they haven’t gotten me running again. I’m usually pretty understanding of growing pains and technology that’s pushing the edge. But I’m frustrated, moving well into angry.

I’ve asked to speak to a supervisor. There doesn’t seem to be one. I’ve asked to speak to management. No luck there yet.

Am I just an outlier, or are others in similar straights?

Sounds like you need a start-over. Is it possible to return the printer for a replacement? I’m on my third F1+, and it’s actually a updated F1 chassis. Finally I got one that works very well. Squeaky wheel gets the grease, so I would say stay on the top of their queue until you are satisfied. Pictures posted here would help too.

RE: Win7: what’s the issue there? Is Win7 not supported anymore? I’m still running 1.9.1 on Win7pro because it’s pretty much pre-F2, it works well, and I don’t trust that F2 changes won’t screw up F1 printing.

Once I got obstreperous enough, and broke through the firewall of email only first line support, things got better quickly. Hard to calibrate when you only have email, so more was better. Verging on nasty, which I’d rather not resort to.

I live in Cambridge, and offered to parade in front of their office in Somerville with a sandwich board saying “unfair to customers”. And put an inflatable giant rat on the sidewalk.

I got a call from the support manager yesterday, and we quickly ranked the severity of issues and worked things out

Growing pains. The support folks needed some training on when to break ranks and get help from someone who has authority to make things happen.

I did have to get pretty aggressive along the way, but I think it was a learning moment! They’re back in my good graces.

:slight_smile:

I just deleted and reinstalled 2.5 on Win7, but no luck. It gets to the “repair” window, then exits out on “ok”. I’ll try deleting and rebooting before I reload it, see if that works.

It’s a reasonably beefy machine; 32 gigs RAM, i7 processor, NVIDIA GTX 460 Card, SSD drives. Should work.

Still a puzzlement. It showed up in 2.1, if I remember correctly. t’s not a big deal, since I just use an OSX machine for Preform, but it’s not a great workflow. Swivel chair production.

Have you noticed longer print times with 2.5 and the new scaffold? I’m seeing 10% to 15%.

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