Has anyone else experience extremely long delays in shipment of their Form Wash and Cure?
I placed an order for a Form 2 along with Form Wash and Cure early in June 2017. I received the Form 2 within the time frame provided. However, I did not receive the Form Wash until late November - over 5 months and still have not received the Form Cure as of November 28. At the time of order, I was assured by Formlabs that the Form Wash and Cure would ship no later than September. The online status is inaccurate and unreliable and I have contacted customer service multiple times. Checked in September and was told that shipment will happen in October, checked in October and was told November, checked in November and now informed that it will ship in December. I’ve been offered no explanation except that “all customers are experiencing the same delays”. Formlabs has also failed to offer any compensation or even provided a discount for future orders and no one has even tried to reach out. These delays are ridiculous and unacceptable. If the product was not ready for production, why advertise and sell to customers? Beware if you do make a purchase. Customer service has been rather disappointing.
They were on preorder, since they were available for preorder for about a month before you ordered then you’re behind a list of other orders so it’s likely that they aren’t able to keep up with demand so some preorders are delayed. Delays in shipping things is very common in many industries so it’s not like this is unheard of.
I understand the preorder and delays. We’re talking about >3 months from initial estimates. The larger issue is that I have to continuously contact customer service because the website is inaccurate. I’m okay if you told me from the beginning that I can expect a 6 month wait. Telling me “next month” everytime I check is unacceptable. Seems like that’s the answer I get every time with no explanation whatsoever. Just don’t promise customers something and fall short.
I have stuff on order for other things that were supposed to deliver 2Q 2017, and have had things delayed more than a year, 3 months is nothing. And most likely they never promised a delivery date and it’s always been an estimate.
We’re disappointed by the delays in Form Cure as well and as we continue to grow, we’re focusing on how to better avoid and predict manufacturing delays as to ensure that fulfillment times are as accurate as is realistically possible. Manufacturing issues did arise and it’s been our goal to work through these and get units to customers are quickly as possible. At the very least, you should have every expectation of being kept up-to-date as to the status of your order and we have sent emails to Form Wash and Form Cure customers notifying them of the delay. Were you able to receive those?
Honestly Frew I’m with the OP. I haven’t had mine ordered for nearly as long but hate that I have that kind of money tied up for months and months. Especially when the time estimates are not consistent at all. I get Formlabs is still learning but I think that time is up this process should have been figured out a year or two ago. The company is no longer on Kickstarter. I also have not received any emails for ETA.
I wouldn’t have such a problem if over 1200.00 with tax wasn’t charged to my account the day I placed the order. Why take the money when it’s a Pre order? Companies like apple don’t take the money until it ships. This would also keep Formlabs more in line on getting products to their customers. No compensation at any time has ever been offered from Formlabs as I read these forums. It’s almost like we pay very high prices for products that were a first of their kind. But now the market has other options. I think customers will stay now only if the customer service is on par with the high prices we pay
I will keep you all posted looks like I got an email a shipment from Formlabs is on the way we will see what it is. Says 20 pounds, what I have not received from them yet is my form wash form cure and two long term use tanks.
Frew, the only notice I got was a very generic message indicating a “slight delay” at the end of October indicating that Formlabs was still working on it. No other communications.
Mine was delivered today. Girl friend signed for it for me since I am out of town. Excited to see how the unit performs, going to still keep a bucket of alcohol for a pre wash before contaminating the wash bin. I really hope the cure is shipped in no more than one month if longer the disappointments will start to set in again. Full cost is way to high of a deposit.
Eventually you will become so accustomed to FL missing ship dates and never telling anyone anything that you’ll forget how strange it is and just be resigned to it.
There are signs of hope. They used to simply ignore people when they asked for updates on shipping times. Now they say that their failure to say anything is unacceptable.
Unpredictability in fulfillment times is in part an artifact of product complexity and in part an artifact of our still learning how to best predict manufacturing delays. The latter has proven to be a pretty tricky problem and we’re at the very least committing and investing time into better updating users who have pre-ordered.
@Steven_Hines We’re not complacent with the precedent of delayed products and are continuing on explore ways of better predicting manufacturing times as to be able to more accurately conform to the fulfillment dates set out in product launches.
The pre-order price seems to be a cause for concern for Form Wash and Form Cure as well and we are using a reserve system for the Fuse 1 whereas users pay for a $1000 deposit. We’re considering extending this system to other products as well.
I have no quarrel with FL not hitting their announced launch dates. There’s nothing strange about missing ship dates, particularly with new products in new technologies. It’s universal and almost expected.
It’s the “never telling anyone” part that’s the problem.
Ship dates approach, arrive, and pass without comment. Until recently, questions about delays, etc., go completely unanswered, leaving everyone in the dark. Then a subset of people who placed orders would report receiving emails about delays and ship dates.
The bizarre thing is that its so easy to fix this. Compared to building and shipping a functioning SLA printer that actually works awesomely well. Baffles me that nobody at FL thinks its a good idea to tell people who put thousands of dollars in deposit on a product that their order is delayed. Particularly because simply explaining the delays would immediately defuse the complaints.
As for charging in advance, that’s just the way it is. If it enables FL to ship their products, then I’m fine with it.