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I don’t want to wait anymore. Promised many customers my company can do resin prints “in the following week” and now need to apologize to them AGAIN.
The order’s value is almost $5,000 and I wonder if I can also get interest from the money I “deposited” in their account when I cancel this order.
Same with me. I ordered 12/2. I was told 12 weeks, and when time came I called, I was told about 20 days delay from original quote. I normally would not order anything where I have to wait so long, but this sounded like a printer to have, initially as a hobby, and perhaps later use for business. For that reason I am ok with it. Also I understand, new product, there may be some issues, so I would rather it is late and better than on time with issues. But maybe a bonus resin would have been good :)grin:
My experience has been different. I ordered (and paid) in late December '15. I was told when I ordered that it would be at least 90 days. My sales person has pro-actively sent me several emails with delivery updates. It has definitely NOT been a case of poor customer service. They’ve always been responsive to my requests for samples and data sheets. No complaints.
Must also say, I haven’t had any problems with the customer service. I once had a VAT with missing fill up line and after my email got lost during holiday, I got a personal phone call from the customer service and two free tanks to apologize.
Having a hardware startup business with so many suppliers is a tough job to coordinate. Overwhelming demand adds the rest to it. When I bought my printer, I saw it more as an investment to support the company which would eventually pay off with getting the form1+ in return.
Its only their second product after all.
It is interesting to see how “passionate” people have become about semi-instant gratification. The internet and companies like Amazon with Prime have completely altered our perception of the acceptable times for purchase delivery.
In the not too distant past, you would have had to wait 6 to 8 weeks to buy anything through mail order, and that includes junk from Montgomery Wards or Sears. Now, if something highly technical cannot get ramped up and into full production in less time than that people get unsettled.
I too ordered mid December, and am all too eager to get to play with my new machine. However, I temper my eagerness by remembering that not only did I order a machine, I am extending support to Form Labs on their adventure. Something, I am all too happy to do.
It is not easy building a successful product company from scratch, and overall Form Labs has been doing a great job. Is there room for improvement, absolutely, but there always will.
Could they keep every pre-order customer constantly notified of estimated shipping dates for their orders, sure; however, that takes resources, that would be rolled back into the cost of the device. I personally prefer to have a well operating machine, at the reasonable cost it is, than get an email every week saying “hey your stuff still be on it’s way”.
If buying a Form 1 from eBay fits your needs, then more power to you. However, I am more than willing to trade a little but of extra time up front, to save some of the potential failed print issues that are resolved with the Form 2.
I probably wouldn’t make business decisions on something like this—everything is always later than estimated, I buy stuff from Sideshow/Hot Toys and 90% of the time it’s later than they originally said, and they’ve been doing stuff for years. Sometimes significantly later.
In other news, mine shipped yesterday, ordered on October 30th
I think some here are missing the point. The wait is to be expected. You could even argue that some delays are to be expected. But its also expected that there are status updates. Once a week or once a month, something should be sent out. Be transparent. If they had delays on parts, fine. Mention that. A design problem cropped up? No problem. By all means fix it before you ship the machine. But most of all, keep us informed. I think you’ll find customers much more patient if you are straightforward with them.
As a beta tester I get the sense that Formlabs is overwhelmed with orders. I don’t have any inside information, but while resolving a issue with my beta unit, when it came time to replace my unit after a lengthy triage of this and that, getting a replacement was not quick. It was apparent demand was exceeding supply. I work in product development and all well planned project schedules are wrong from the day you put it on paper. To Smounic’s point delays are to be expected with new products, but it’s frustrating when its at the front end of production schedule.
From my experience so far, Formlabs is committed to providing the very best quality product. The service team is top notch and I’m very pleased with the the service. My second unit; production version; has been rock solid and hasn’t had a single printer failure and I’m printing fairly complicated prototype parts. It has already shorten my development time and saved me money on prototyping cost.
I do agree the order status needs some improvement. I had to frequently follow up on replacement items. I wouldn’t get any updates until I was emailed the tracking number.
On the other hand I get it. It is extremely hard to project ship dates if there are product or component yield issues. You simply can’t predict what you can ship until the finished product comes off the line, then you add a higher than expected demand and you have, last minute shipment delays.
If you are serious about doing prototypes on the Form2, you do want to wait for your order. I would order one even if they told me it would 16 weeks or more, (they initially quoted me 12w) you simply can’t get this printing performance at this price point anywhere else.
Hang in there, it’s worth the wait. IMHO
I agree in principle, but since the latest estimate puts my shipping date at nearly 20 weeks from my November order, I’m not sure it applies.
I’m hanging in there, but I also agree with others that the key is communication. Today I received my very first unsolicited update email, over 15 weeks after I ordered (I’ve submitted two support tickets over the last few months to ask after the order status, which were answered satisfactorily if not particularly accurately). Sadly it was to tell me that I’ve got at least another month to wait. And I was also interested to see that the lead time is now 8 weeks, according to the store. That would mean I could have ordered one 3 weeks ago and still have it show up when this one is supposed to.
So, nearly 5 months in total, and that’s assuming it’s not delayed again… they hand-build a Rolls Royce in that sort of time, although admittedly those aren’t very good at 3d printing.
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