Some might have known that half a year ago, a startup called Micronics released a low-cost SLS 3D printer on Kickstarter and drew a lot of attention, it was only $3000 USD per printer, and soon, it was acquired by Formlabs and canceled the campaign. You can still find how disappointed the backers feel about this move in the campaign comment section.
As compensation, Formlabs announced that they would provide $1,000 credit of ANY CURRENT OR FUTURE PRINTER and a free Open Materials License in their news posted in July. 11th.
Here’s the link from the Wayback machine to show their initial statements on July.11th: Formlabs Acquires Micronics to Develop the Next Generation of Accessible SLS | Formlabs, as you can see they promised as follows:
In addition to the refund, anyone who backed a Micron will receive a $1,000 credit to Formlabs to use towards a purchase of any current or future printer as well as a free Open Materials License.
When we look at their latest version of the same news post: Formlabs Acquires Micronics to Develop the Next Generation of Accessible SLS | Formlabs, the statements have been changed to:
In addition to the refund, anyone who backed a Micron will receive a $1,000 credit to Formlabs to use towards a purchase of any current or future printer as well as a free Open Materials License. Furthermore, while stock lasts, the Fuse 1 will be offered at $9,999 to any Micron backer, and the $1,000 discount may be applied to this purchase.
Ironically, as an early buyer, I invested over 40K USD on Fuse 1 and one year later they released a new model Fuse 1+, and after a few years, the Fuse 1 price shrunk by 30K USD, so much for the advertised cost-efficiency and high ROI! The price reduction of the machine not only wiped out all my previous profits from this printer but also brought me huge losses - there’s only pain, no gain.
On July 11th, I submitted the form to claim the compensation promised by Formlabs. However, despite contacting multiple team members, I haven’t received any concrete updates.
During the communication, one of their team members offered to sell me a new Fuse 1+ model at a discounted price, but considering the terrible user experience with my Fuse 1, I would only like to use this $1000 credit for a new Form 4 printer - at least I won’t lose too much money with it. No response has been given since then.
Another user on the (Kickstarter campaign) mentioned being denied a $5,000 discount on Fuse 1 purchase for unknown reasons. It appears that Formlabs is used to make false commitments.
I have two simple requests:
- Confirmation of Fulfillment: Will Formlabs honor its commitment to provide the promised credit and Open Material License?
- Expected Delivery Timeline: If the compensation is still being offered, could you please provide a clear timeframe for its delivery?
Both the credit and license are digital, so delivering them should be a straightforward process. My primary concern lies in Formlabs upholding its promises and maintaining a reputation for transparency and accountability.