Solidoodle Support Issues (Page 1 of 3)

I sorry you've had a bad time. We try about our best.

Clogs are frustrating. There isn't much we can do to alleviate that. If you look, you will find customers on this forum having the same issues, and the same level of frustration. There isn't a one stop catch all solution for everyone. The wider industry is moving towards cheaper hot ends that can simply be tossed for this reason.

Sometimes we ask the same questions twice. You would be surprised how many times we get different answers the second time around. A large number of complaints spontaneously resolve themselves, or change over time.

I have written this elsewhere, but I may reiterate:
Most first time support contacts will be taken care of by Joel
People having further troubles will be taken care of by me.

There is a high probability I will ask you the same questions Joel does. Again, you would be very surprised how often you ask the same question twice and get different answers. It pays to be extremely thorough. I read *all* customer e-mails. Not just the ones I reply to.

We are between two rocks here. Demand for these parts is quite unpredictable, but customers demand estimates. Our policy is to give reasonable estimates. Sometimes we do not meet these. Customers hate to hear "maybe" or "should", but we'd prefer to be honest.

It seemed you had not been fully taken care of. We are still receiving e-mails from you.

Yes. We've been trying to let everyone know what the defects have been. This keeps everyone better informed. The chief complaint for the support department is "not enough communication." That is, out of all the problems that are directly in the purview of support, this is the most common one. We know that shipping times are something everyone wants lowered, but this is not something support has direct control of.

What sort of information would you like? You are queue to receive a new hot-end. We currently do not have a way of visualizing this. You will be notified when the order is mailed.

What would you like to know?

We answer 100s of questions a day. We are not keeping anything secret. In the case of parts returns, we err on the side of being thorough. We really like to see all the evidence in a case before we make a decision.

The moment you sent in the part, you were in line for a part. Remember, Solidoodle does not have a warranty. We reserve the right to investigate each part return to the fullest possible degree. We want to make sure that all returns are done correctly, and that everyone receives the right parts in a reasonable amount of time.

We understand that what people would like is to receive replacements as quickly as possible, with the minimum fuss. However, we do have to investigate, and there is a process. Those of you who have been with us for a while know that the process is quicker, and more efficient than it has ever been. We have made good on our promises to improve time and again, and this is no exception.

I wish I could mail you the part myself today. If I could I would. However, we do not mail on the weekends, and frankly there is a line of customers just as deserving of parts in front of you. Since we have a long lead time, we get demands - even threats - on a daily basis regarding lead times. We hear everyone loud and clear, and we are making strides towards speeding up the process. We have made good on such promises in the past, and shall continue to.

Complaints do help, but please be specific where the complaints lay. Customer experience can be a bit of a vague concept (though we do have a specialist for this very concept.)

From you post I feel these are the main points:
1)You do not feel your questions were answered.
2)You feel that support was not clear about your replacement.
3)You want a more definite lead time.
4)You want the part to come quicker.
5)You were confused by support's report of the original problem.

#1) We're here to answer questions. Sometimes it can be hard to gauge how detailed an answer should be. Which answers would you have liked answered? How could we have answered them better?
#2)  We're sorry if we appeared unclear. We'll use more definite language. For the record, no one with a faulty part is ever denied a replacement. (so long as they contact us in a reasonable time period.)
#3) We wish we could give you this. Sadly, support is not in control of the exact date of shipment of parts.
#4) We wish we could force this to happen. SD is currently improving it's spare parts program to better handle the volume.
#5) We'll work on formatting e-mails so that these reports wont come as a shock.

What's your order ID?
What was wrong with your Solidoodle?

Once again, we help everyone. You can easily find our phone number on this website. We aren't out to steal anyone's money. We help *everyone* with problems. I have most likely answered your e-mail, but I'd be happy to provide you support right if that's what you need.

I must say, although response times vary & sometimes there is poor communication (which is really frustrating) they do answer & they do come through, just takes time sometimes.

Believe me, I was recently disgruntled with them as well.

Really, is that even necessary?

I think they eventually get there too, but it seems as if there are some holes in their workflow too.

I have experienced the very frustrating change of person contacting me who hasn't bothered to read the emails up to that point and given a copy pasted standard reply.

Also, in the past especially it seemed like they would constantly forget to take note of promises they had made to send things out asap. As if writing it down on a centralised list was too obvious.

I'm sorry your're so religious you can't enjoy some good filatio...without doubt it won't be long before some strong man is wooing you wife's mouth with his saucy member lol...as for the BBB claim part yes...that was also needed to get actual customer support from SD.

I clicked report on this one and it most definitely was not by accident.  What did he say that deserved a response like this?  You appear to have anger issues.  I hope you feel better one day.

We don't need posts like this here. Keep it respectful. This is a warning, but if you continue to post stuff like this it will result in a suspension.

There are plenty of threads on here describing how to make covers and enclosures.

I think the out of the box thing is realistic for 90% of people.

Personally I only had trouble with getting the filament to stick nicely.  I did eventually get it worked out before I performed any mods.

Yeah, mine had that on the bed too, never gave it any thought until now. Thanks for clearing that up.

I'll weigh in on this topic as well. I noticed someone complained about the printers being listed as in stock, and SD charging you full price up front before your printer was built. SD was very upfront about this, they said there was an issue with their e-commerce software that required them to list the printers as in stock in order to be able to accept their orders. They also said they would be charging you in full upfront, and at the time I ordered there was a 8 to 10 week delivery schedule. They didn't try and hide any of that and I knew it before I plunked down my $1000 (SD3 plus two spools, tax and delivery) I got my printer in 8 weeks and it did indeed print right out of the box.
Three days later the heater died. I contacted SD and they told me to send the heater in. As the head was filled with solidified plastic and I was Leary about trying to force things apart I sent in the entire assembly. I experienced the frustration first hand as every e-mail I sent was answered by a different person who obviously hadn't read my earlier e-mails, or the responses from the other SD support people. I eventually got the problem solved and I'm printing again. If my heater burns out again, I'm buying a resistor and replacing it myself. I wish I'd have done that in the first place. SD support isn't fast, but they eventually got the job done.(three weeks later to be exact)
On the whole, I'm very happy with my printer though I'm still dialing it in. I'd recommend a SD to my technically savvy friends. For the rest of the people out there, you might want to wait for the technology to mature a bit before you jump in. Taking pictures was quite an involved process before Eastman- Kodak came introduced the brownie. Nowadays everybody and their children are shooting 10 mega pixels or more, on their phones! Who knows what we'll be printing at home 10 years from now?

TiM

TiM