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Its so boring to be an UM Customer


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Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

It is so sad

You order a UM1

You wait

You wait very long

You contacting the Support

You wait

You are angry about the customer service

you wait

you wait very long

You get the UM1

You get broken Hardware

You contact our Support

you wait

you wait

You get a wrong tracking number

You contact our Support

you wait

you wait

And for everything you have paid 1100 Euros.

Awesome!

 

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    Sorry to hear your situation. Hopefully Sander from this forum will be along soon and can offer a helping hand.

    Your post and name put a smile on my face though :)

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    Useless, I feel for you. I waited for my UM2 for over 10 weeks. I used my UM2 for about 6 weeks before it broke - this was 3 weeks ago. Since then I've waited for spare parts - which, as I learned yesterday, Ultimaker themselves don't have.

    The good news: now I have time to wait for my 9-week-old filament order to be completed. Go Ultimaker.

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    Sorry to hear your situation. Hopefully Sander from this forum will be along soon and can offer a helping hand.

     

    The helping hand means apologies, invoking support to send half-baked response and additional apologies - but what about spare parts, reliable information and deliveries of orders?

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    The helping hand means apologies, invoking support to send half-baked response and additional apologies - but what about spare parts, reliable information and deliveries of orders?

     

    I feel that.

    regards

    Walter

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    I know that the UM Factory is growing, growing is sometimes not an easy thing.

    But what could be so difficult to send an new PCB Bord to me?!

    Grab a PCB Board from the Stock, put some Bubblewrap around it, put it in a Box, print Label and tell DHL/Fedex to pick em up.

    :???:

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    As someone who worked for many years shipping stuff out to customers, that is a very easy thing to say but a very different thing to do when swamped with orders. During periods of high load we couldn't even make a dent in one type of orders because other orders took precedence. And at the same time the deadline for those "low priority" orders kept coming closer and closer until we had to ignore the "high priority" orders to ship the "low priority" orders because time was up. We skipped lunches, worked weekends, brought in help, worked nights and we still could just barely ship on time.

    I'm not saying that to defend UM, and it wont make you any less frustrated, I'm just saying that it is not always quite as easy as it sounds to "just ship it". Sorry, I get a bit defensive around those words but I mean no offence :p

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    @Robert: Yes i knew that. No Question.

    Only a real and truth response via mail or PM via Forum thats all i want.

    (ok, a new PCB also...) :-|

    What about Trackingnumbers they not exist? I kow a Tracking must be activated by DHL/Fedex. But 3 Days...com on.

    And belive me:

    Its better for your Soul/Head to have no Ultimaker than a Ultimaker how stays there on the workbench and have no function. :mad:

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    Unless the guys at Ultimaker did something very wrong they should be swimming in money by now (christ, they even withdraw money from you before sending items out, or even have them in stock)... So hire some more goddamn people, and if thats not enough, hire some more (maybe consider actually hiring someone who understands growth)... How hard can it be...?

    Sadly, what I have seen here on the forums the past months (ever since the UM2 released really...), is a once great company, rapidly loosing its popularity with its most priceless asset, its fans and customers...

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    Besides the unhappy customers (and i totally understand the frustration) there are also lots of happy customers, it's just that you see more people complaining than people saying everything is great.

    But it's true that they seem to suffer from a lack in communication, and probably in workers to keep up the good work

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    @ Didier Klein: Yes, good things you never hear....

    The goal of building a excellent Factory is to get rich AND HAVE HAPPY CUSTOMERS.

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    Customer service should always be top of the list. UM seem to be failing recently :(

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    Money doesn't buy experience, nor does it buy people who know the system. No mater how much money you trow at it, the time needed to learn someone the ropes is not going to change. Especially not if the person that needs to teach those people the tolls of the rade is already handeling to much work.

    To answer the: how hard can it be? Very. We dutchies have a good saying about this; "De beste stuurlui staan aan wal'. Loosly translated; The best captains of a ship stay ashore. It's very easy to oversimplify a situation if you're on the outside looking at it (Really, how hard can it be to steer a ship! Just turn the weel...)

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    there are also lots of happy customers

    they are happy untill something wil break and it's just a matter of time.

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    I do not have any axe to grind but it strikes me that if you could not contact your bank by 'phone or went to the cash till and got the message "Sorry we will not get a new stock of money until next month" then that bank would not last very long, growth or no growth.

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    "Sorry we will not get a new stock of money until next month"

     

    Of course. And UM knows this. And they are trying to hire more people. They know that they are losing money like crazy because they can't keep up with demand. If they were smart they would also raise the price by 20% to 100% until they can catch up.

     

    they are happy untill something wil break and it's just a matter of time.

     

    It should be called "Additive Manufacturing" and not "3D printing". "printing" conjures up ideas of "push a button and done" but there is a lot of work designing the model for printability and machines (like automobiles or milling machines) can be finicky and need regular maintenance and some skills. A lathe operator is paid well above minimum wage because there is a lot of expertise.

    My printers have all "broken" several times and were easy to "repair". I'm still happy.

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    Luckily I bought my UM2 from a UK agent, so I didn't experience UM's awful customer service at that time. It was only when I tried to order additional filament from UM that I ran into a very similar experience as you describe. In fact, come to think of it, I'm still waiting for that order to be completed. Pretty disgraceful really. I don't think this is about growing pains, I suspect it's about having the wrong people in the job - people who know how to tinker with clever gadgets, but don't know how to run an efficient retail system. All it should take is to hire an experienced retail manager.

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    So, this topic is now half a day old.

     

    I am still waiting.

     

    No DMs no mail from support.

     

    I have long compared various 3D printer. In Ultimaker I was sure to support a cool and innovative young factory.

    I was aware it might take a little longer.

     

    The but the warranty handling is even worse gives me the rest.

     

    That it is so difficult, annoying and impossible I have not even dreamed of.

     

    now I would advise against any new customers to order something at Ultimaker!

    Not at this price.

     

    So Ultimaker please do something!

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    Money doesn't buy experience, nor does it buy people who know the system. No mater how much money you trow at it, the time needed to learn someone the ropes is not going to change. Especially not if the person that needs to teach those people the tolls of the rade is already handeling to much work.

    To answer the: how hard can it be? Very. We dutchies have a good saying about this; "De beste stuurlui staan aan wal'. Loosly translated; The best captains of a ship stay ashore. It's very easy to oversimplify a situation if you're on the outside looking at it (Really, how hard can it be to steer a ship! Just turn the weel...)

     

    I´m not saying they can just hire 10 monkeys to put stuff in boxes and everything will be ok, I´m well aware that its more complex than that... What I AM saying, is that they should seriously look into getting some help from the outside from someone who knows abit about handling growth. Someone to help optimize communication chains, stock management, hell maybe even tell them that they need to stop taking in new orders before they get their shit together.

    As I've mentioned before in another thread, UM is not the first company in the world to experience growth, there are methods of dealing with that and consultants who are experts at stepping in and implementing such methods.

    Money for such a consultant (or team of consultants) may be very well spend....

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    What I AM saying, is that they should seriously look into getting some help from the outside from someone who knows abit about handling growth. Someone to help optimize communication chains, stock management, hell maybe even tell them that they need to stop taking in new orders before they get their shit together.

     

    Well... I used to run a growth company before I sold it some time ago. When I learned about the possibilities of 3D printing (late last year - I'm a fossil : ), I found Ultimaker. When placing an order, I found this on their website:

    Investor and distributorship inquiries: .com'>info.com

    So, I wrote and asked about opportunity to invest in the company as an angel investor. My offer was turned down. It was not the first time my investment offer was turned down - but it was the first time my investment offer was turned down by support staff. Then I realized I'm not dealing with an ordinary company... But I was still brave enough to place an order for an UM2. There's a fine line between being brave and being stupid.

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer
    ...If they were smart they would also raise the price by 20% to 100% until they can catch up.

     

    This is absolute nonsense, the Ultimaker is now already overpriced. And useful machines, there are already below 600 euros.

    Just one example: Da Vinci 1.0, and an ever growing list maybe good, or better machines ...

    The UM2:

    - Layer below 0.1mm ...extremely time consuming in relation to the expected result.

    - Possible high speeds ...can massively degrade the end result.

    - The Bowden construction ...is very error-prone compared to a direct drive.

    - The special print head (hot end) ...is an unnecessary complication of simple things.

    - Spare parts ...are only available in a complicated way.

    - Wait, hope, fear, beg and ask...

    - Only a fraction of all UM2 users with machine problems occurs here in the forum public appearance.

    - Childhood diseases ...and seemingly unsolvable problems, to maybe every 3rd machine.

    What remains?

    - Perhaps a nice Device design...

    - And exaggerated enthusiasm, including myself...

    I think if Ultimaker does not provide absolute customer satisfaction soon, then this trip is as soon as possible at the end.

    Markus

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    @Markus: Sad but true.

    A little update in my hopeless Case:

    Sander told me last night via Forum that they go double checking my trackingnumber.

    Doublechecking??!!

    I phone to DHL and they said: this number does not exist.

    At least, i am still...

    WAITING!!!

    Tomorrow i shouldt have an presentation in a technical Highschool with my Ultimaker.

    I told that on Monday the Guys from Ultimaker.

    I think its possible to send a PCB Board with DHL/UPS from Netherlands to Switzerland

    in 4-5 Days!

    Argh, i am going realy pissed off!

    regards

    Walter

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    Oh the joy of converting from a small business to a large one.

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    For the record, I agree that the UM is overpriced and is a bit ridiculous to ship to the US from the Netherlands. However, the quality of the laser cut wood and machined parts is very good. Im still not sure if I like the design although I have owned one for a year and make a living with it. My largest issue is that for the price, UM should have worked out all of the little quality issues such as the delrin ring in the extruder and the clamp that secures the bowden tube. For the price, I shouldn't have to source higher quality parts for such simple implementations in such an expensive kit.

     

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    Posted · Its so boring to be an UM Customer

    Hi Guys,

    Thank you all for your post.

    Well.. I am not sure if 'thank you' is the most appropriate term since I can sense quite some negativity in this thread.

    First of all I understand if people are frustrated as obviously I am aware that not all the times things go out the most efficient way and the frustration is being emphasized by what you could call flaky communication.

    I am not really sure where to start or reply to personal questions, I am also not sure if this thread is about a specific issue or if it is just about ventilating, so that is why I will just try to give you all some more insights in the growth of Ultimaker and what the future looks like from our end.

    Of course, in all of our openness, I welcome all comments and start a conversation.

    As many of you have already stated Ultimaker is going through a big growth, which has taken bigger proportions after the release of the Ultimaker 2. The lead time is one of the signs of this growth, and our unrewarding effort to keep up, since it rapidly moved up to 10 weeks. This took up a lot of our focus and time to make the entire assembly more efficient, faster and bigger and bring down the lead time. It took a while for us to get a grip on the entire situation.

    Another thing that has been a hurdle in most of the experience you have had is that our IT system has not been fully optimized. And as I think most of you can imagine, that can really create a lot of frustration both on your end as ours. Because we all have the same goal: make you happy and create a pleasant shopping and printing experience. But when demand is high you soon find yourself repairing, helping and preventing escalation instead of making progress. This has been quite a time consuming fase and deep valley to crawl out but taking the lead time as an example again; we have been able to bring it back to 6-8 weeks now.

    So we are making progress and I would like to think soon we can leave this behind us and can rely on more aspects then we can today.

    Unfortunately, this is not implemented today or tomorrow so until then I can only ask for your understanding and cooperation towards a solution to fix certain/your inconveniences.

    We all share the same goal; create a pleasant shop and 3D-Print experience. In case this is not met the best thing

    would be to get in touch with our sales & support team or send me a DM through this forum.

    I would be happy to help out wherever I can.

    I totally understand at times it is frustrating, but like someone stated on this thread.. it may take a while but we (Ultimaker) will help you out. Ultimaker does not have the etos to leave its community members in the dark.

    Thank you all for reading this post, hopefully I have been able to create some insight in the entire situation.

    I would be happy to answer any questions and continue the conversation.

    Have a great weekend, thank you all for your time.

     

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