I am a huge fan of Formlabs. Our startup Arbor Grace uses our Formlab2 nearly round-the-clock in building medical device prototypes. However … the customer support needs to improve. It gets tiring asking questions on the pop-up window only to be met by a non-technical person who simply wants to ‘redirect’ simple questions to another department. Or the online ordering system saying ‘2-3 days for processing’ without stating Formlab shipping does not work Saturday and Sunday. Many startups don’t get to take the weekend off and, I’m only guessing, Formlab probably did not take weekends off when they started out either. We’ve seen order processing take as long as 6 days if its placed later in the week. Its the best semi-professional machine on the market today - affordable, accurate (to a point), and reliable (the best part). But my impression is that Formlab does not invest in customer service they same way they do with technology.
I have been using a Formlabs partner (Source Graphics) to order resin/tanks/… . They are
closer to me, have a website that shows what’s in stock, fills orders the same day, sell formlabs
products at the same price as ordering directly. This solves one of the problems.
I 100 PERCENT AGREE it’s very trying to ask a simple question only to get a non answer.
I am in Canada and also using Formlabs distributor - Shop3D.ca. They ship orders the same day or the next day the latest and always have full inventory in stock. Plus I don’t have to pay $50+ for the shipping - it is free!
Support could be better but they do have the higher level option - Pro support - for the extra $500 per year, which is really not that much more to add to the price of the printer if you consider what you get with that.
I use the Pro Support Plan and FL has been very responsive when the need arises, I highly recommend it for a business. Not to pricey when you consider your lost time. Time is money!
Shop3d charge like $70 for shipping with full insurance no?
I called Shop3D and shipping to the USA is quite expensive and the border crossing makes it unreliable (their words). They also did not carry a full stock of everything according according to the person I spoke with (who was very helpful). I suspect Konstantin_Dani is probably a Formlab employee or paid forum troll … the worst kind. Appreciate the comments and Source Graphics will likely be our go-to choice for FL materials from now on.
Pro support plan has been great for my business. It is a significantly underpriced machine for what you get (if you have engineering use for it) so I consider the cost of the service to bring it up to what it actually should be.
I also use SourceGraphics for the majority of my supplies since they are on the west coast so I get things faster and for cheaper shipping.
I think customer service in general has gone down hill! I had some parts 3D printed by a company and the parts did not turn out right. That happens sometimes, but the customer service was so terrible that I will never use them again!
I don’t think people, especially young people, understand how important customer service is. I am a mechanical engineer. There is an air cylinder company that is my first choice because of the great customer service they gave me 20 years ago. There is another brand that will not use unless forced because of the crappy customer service they gave 20 years and continue to give to this day.
So to recap, old engineers hold grudges and good customer service pays off in the long run.
By the way, I have not had any problems with Formlabs customer service.
we have the pro support.