Yay, I got my Form 2 Friday, just before the long weekend. It’s sitting there collecting dust because I didn’t get any resin. I ordered gray resin along with my form 2 and the shipment is stuck since the previous Wednesday June 29th with a shipping status of “Label Created”. That is the status as of the evening of July 5th.
Formlabs happily took my money when the order was placed three weeks ago. The resin had, and currently has a 1 week lead time. I emailed customer support and they told me (makes no sense) it probably didn’t ship due to the long weekend. What does this have to do with shipping on June 29th? The long weekend didn’t start for three more days. I sent another email early this morning asking for an alternate resin and this email wasn’t even answered.
So, first impressions are important. I have a bad taste in my mouth right now. Not a good way to start a relationship. Prior to the sale my inquiries were answered nearly immediately. After the sale, not so much. I hope this is not a taste of things to come.
Note for Formlabs - Never ship a $3500 printer without “ink”. Anybody selling a product that requires consumables knows this. Maybe consider sending out the resin when you take payment…seeing as it ships in a separate box from a separate state. When you can’t explain why a shipment isn’t shipping, maybe offer an alternative resin and ship it expedited. Don’t ignore the email hoping the customer will go away.
What you are saying here is also not so nice. Maybe you are just too eager to start using the printer. I can only say good things about Formlabs They have been great since day one, and their support is always prompt and helpful.
Sorry to here about not getting the resin, that must be frustrating. Don’t be to hard on Formlabs, they may have screwed-up but overall I believe you will have good experiences with working with them, they have been responsive and willing to make things right on issues that I have had.
Frustrating. I also got my printer ahead of the resin. But I had resin for my Form1 I could use, so it wasn’t that big a deal for me.
FormLabs should have an option on their ordering page that says “don’t ship printer until resin ships” since for many customers, getting the printer without any resin will engender nothing but frustration.
It is 4:30pm the next day and I still have heard nothing from Formlabs. My resin is now, for a week, sitting somewhere with a label, tracking still shows label created.
EDIT: I was just contacted and told my issue was due to a glitch and that it will ship momentarily.
I just want to play devil’s advocate here. Resin is a perishable product, if the change in logistics you propose resulted in delivery of resin before it could be used you can be sure that people would complain about wasted shelf life. It is in FL’s best interest (and typically also the end user’s) to delay shipment of perishable product as long as possible to ensure the user receives the more recent batch and therefore the longest possible working life.
I understand your frustration but FormLabs customer service is top notch, try to stay positive. Happy printing once it does arrive. =]
Well that makes perfect sense. Funny that you post, Customer support just got involved and made a solid attempt to make this right. I think my frustrations are justified, but I will hope my experience is the exception to the rule. Hopefully I’ll get some resin soon.
@pmcgarr: Paul, your experience with the delay in the delivery of the resin, combined with Formlabs’ responsiveness not being that good about your letting them know about your issue, is not that unique. There have been other posts that have been just like yours - - they are located in various forums and discussions. And I had an identical experience as you when I initially received my Form2. I fully agree that it is not a good starting point and it raises questions in your mind. But I also can assure you that you will be very glad that you got your Form2. Despite the initial stumble, things will get better…and you will be really pleased once you get your prints going!
Not that perishable. I just finished using some Tough 01 resin I bought a year ago. I’ve had plenty of other resin bottles that took many many months to use up. In my experience, resin shelf life is long enough not to matter.
Thanks for the note. I had to kick and scream to get attention, but once I did they really did end up taking care of me. I now have an active tracking status and am expecting resin tonight. Customer service stepped up and ultimately went above and beyond.
I am optimistically switching over from disappointed to excited, in preparation for my weekend of making parts. I will report my experience in another post.
