My experience with Ultimaker Support

[carsten 36]

Hi,

i´d like to describe my experience with Ultimaker Support.

First of all, please excuse my english, it´s not my native language.

As i got my Ultimaker2 i was surprised by it´s great printquality and allthough it is my first 3d Printer, i was able to make some awesome prints from the start.

But after about 2 months of excessive printing, some problems start to worry me. I got more and more underextrusion.

I tried different filaments and temperaturesettings, but nothing worked for me. I got me some help from this forum and i tried anything but still no success.

I disassembled the material feeder and cleaned the nozzle and than i was sure that it had to be the material feeder, because the nozzle was always clean.

So i wrote to Ultimaker Support and asked them for help.

After 2-3 days i got an answer from Marrit Hoffmans and she asked me if i could send her some pictures of my failed prints. I did so and she confirmed that it was underextrusion. She asked me to do some tests like to clean the nozzle, etc..

i thought great, i already tried that things, why don´t they listen to me?

It must to be the material feeder!

Than the filament started grinding and i had to level the buildplate after every print. I was not able to get a single usefull print.

First i thought Ultimaker should send me some spare parts to save time, but after that i was convinced, that i would not be able to repair my printer by myself.

I wrote Marrit that i want to send my printer back for repair and she accepted my request.

Marrit told me that they would need about a week for repair and 1-2 weeks for shipping and i thought ok, better i wait a few weeks, than to experiment for months.

So i packed my printer and waited for DHL to take it. DHL needed a whole week, just to pick up my printer....

After 2 two weeks i asked Marrit how things are going and she told me that they changed nearly the whole hotend and made a firmware update.

I was surprised, there was nothing wrong with the material feeder...

One week later (DHL needed a week for shipping...) i got my printer back at home and it prints like a new one!

If i had tried to repair my printer with spare parts, it still would not work, because i was wrong about the cause of my problems.

So what do i think about Ultimaker Support?

After all i had to say these people know what they are doing!

Although i was getting impatient, Marrit kept calm and was very kind.

She managed to get my printer back to work again and i´m happy.

Does it take a long time?

Yes and no, i have worked on computergames for a long time and i know what´s like to make support for a new product from a small company.

Call me a pessimist, but i thought that it would have taken longer. Ultimaker seems to grow faster than they expected and they try to keep up with their success. They are working on this.

Most of the waiting period must be adressed to DHL.

A week to pick up seems long, one week of shipping seems long.

I got my filament from Colorfabb within 3 days and it´s nearly the same distance.

Was it expensive?

No, i had to pay nothing at all(warrenty)!

I know that some people have problems with Ultimaker Support and Sales and i won´t deny that, but people like Marrit and others at Ultimaker could use some support from us (if you are a satisfied customer). So they know that they are doing a good job and come back to work the next day!

Kind regards,

Carsten

 

 

[kolia 31]

That's great to read such a post! Anybody who did some customer support knows how frustrating it can be, and how hard it is not to look rude when the customer thinks you ignore their analysis until you finally find the real reason and fix it.

 

[DidierKlein 729]

Good to hear some good experience with the Ultimaker Support, when i started reading your topic i thought that it would all be about complaining

I myself had to contact support twice and all went perfectly well, i even had a message to see if the part they sent me solved my issue.

I worked as support for software so i know the kind of pressure you receive when it goes wrong, you rarely get any news (or even thank you) when it goes well i'm sure your message will be seen as a reward by the Ultimaker Support

And DHL sucks (one of the French guys had his Ultimaker lost by them)

 

[aroth 1]

I myself had to contact support twice and all went perfectly well, i even had a message to see if the part they sent me solved my issue.

 

Sounds about right. I contacted them once to ask for a spare part (under warranty) and they shipped it out no questions asked. Registered express mail, all the way to Australia.

I'd managed to fix the printer myself by the time the part arrived, so now I just have an extra part. Still, quality support. I like having extra parts.