51 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

mr_tim34 wrote:

I can agree that there seems to be a lack of continuity in the support department. I get an e-mail from one person, I reply, I get an e-mail from somebody else asking me exactly what I just answered in the previous e-mail. I was told they would be sending me a heater, I e-mailed back right away, not a heater, I shipped the entire hot end back and listed the individual parts in the assembly that I had shipped them. No problem they e-mailed me back, we'll be sending you a new hot end, I got a heater. I was repeatedly asked for the tracking number of my return shipment. If a ticket number was issued and all the e-mails included this number the e-mails could be kept together and READ before another CSR sends a response that has already been covered... Am I beating a dead horse here? I still love my SD3 and am having a blast with it.

TiM

We're always retooling the way we work with customers. If this happened to you, I am sorry. However, it is generally not the norm. Again, I agree that your experience was a bit ridiculous, and involved folks dropping the ball in a number of places.

We always make good on our plans to make things right. If there's something specific I can do to make things better, you can PM me with a suggestion. Sometimes it's hard for us to corellate folks on the forum with our customers elsewhere, so just PM me your order ID and I'll double check it.

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

52 Reply by iowajames (edited by iowajames 2013-04-11 13:20:52)

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

I like the more active presence that solidoodlesupport is having on the forums. If a single employee were to get on daily like you have been doing, and there was a dedicated sub-forum with rules regarding to how things are posted/asked, I think public image & response time will increase dramatically.

Maybe an official support sub-forum where questions can be directed to Solidoodle... Directly. There would be a sticky with the rules for posting:
(Examples)
-No foul language
-No rage typing
-Be courteous & respectful
-Be reasonable (No I dropped my SD2 & the part broke now fix it!)
-Allow time for response
-No posting personal information, order numbers only
-Search the forums first to see if you can solve the issue(s)
-etc

Then if they can meet all of the prerequisites, they can post a question directly to SDS and unless others have a good reason to post (ie they know the fix, or they can help in some practical way) no one posts in anyone else's thread. SDS should not be given admin/mod power so no one can accuse them of deleting threads, but it should be regularly paTrolled by admins to ensure no griefing is happening.

Just a few thoughts, as this way the email system can be sorted properly. Think about it, if the convo needs to go private, the tech can request a specific email during the convo. This also gives proof to the community that SD really supports the community.

Also, each tech should get an @solidoodle.com email address that forwards to a copy to a centralized support mailbox, as a quality measure.

No trees were harmed in the creation of this email, though some electrons were horribly inconvenienced.

53 Reply by danny

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

solidoodlesupport wrote:
DePartedPrinter wrote:
elmoret wrote:

Use a ticket system to handle support, so requests are handled by the same customer service rep, instead of haphazardly bouncing them around as is the case now.

I would hope they use a ticket system now.

nevermind^^

We have considered a ticket system in the past and evaluated a few. Sadly, we determined that this would not make the process much more reliable for our scale of business.

Really, the biggest gripe we receive is slow responses, and long drawn out repair sagas. We are working on this of course, but e-mails are seldom lost or forgotten.

use a proper ITIL ticketting system.

You need one person to monitor the email in-box and raise tickets,

tickets should be sorted into technical/nontechnical/commercial etc and then assigned to different support queues.

Technical issues should go to a technical queue where technical people look at the problems.
once a ticket is logged a ticket reference number should be sent out to the customer, they can use this to correspond with the technician, and technicians need to make sure that calls are kept up to date with call notes.
(then if one guy goes on holiday/gets fired/dies etc) then there won't be a customer left out of the loop.

if technical issues are maybe not resolved fast enough the customer may want a refund, in which case the ticket would be moved to the "management support queue" this keeps all incident notes with the existing ticket and enables the manager to evaluate the whole ticket, and decide on what the outcome should be.

Technicians should not close tickets without approval from the customer, (though tacit approval maybe assumed if a tech says are you OK with me closing the ticket and gets no response for say a week.

customers retain their ticket reference numbers and can therefore ask for a ticket to be re-opened if the issue is not resolved.

with a proper ticket system you get to keep all your messages in one place.

Implementing ITIL properly will enable you to set resolution targets for timely support.

It lets you track complete histories in one place, no more "lost emails" or misfiled emails, or needing to repeat questions in the hopes of catching out a customer...

Call timers will let you track how long it takes to actually resolve issues, and a decent call ticketing system will let you produce management reports on a monthly or weekly basis, where you can see who is closing calls, what support staff are not closing calls. how long calls are taking from call log to resolution, then you can praise/chastise support as appropriate for working very well, or working not so well.

Some ticket systems can even be integrated to email so when a message is recieved, if there is no ticket reference in the subject line a new ticket can be logged automatically, if a ticket reference does exist in the subject line then that call with be updated with the customers comments. likewise, support can send an email to the customer and CC the support mail box and have tickets automatically updated. or they can update a ticket and elect to have their update emailed to customers to keep them in the loop.


You say that you're tracking support by email, but given the feed back so far this is clearly not working.

you have a support issue, no matter how big or small you are this can be resolved by using the correct and proven systems.

solidoodlesupport wrote:

1) Most users who have significant troubles will deal with multiple CSRs. This is intended, as I and Raff will typically only get involved in tougher cases. The vast majority of customers already only see 1 CSR.

2) There is some legitimate confusion here. In case there is confusion, we are heavily backordered on parts. You have reason to be frustrated that our cart system system always reads "In stock" for all items. Support does not have control of this fact. However, if it were the case that the part was "in stock" as it were, it would go out the same today.

dealing with multiple CSRs is not a problem, neither should call escalation to a different CSR be a problem, I work providing IT support, we use ticketing systems to great effect. if you were using a proper ticket system it seems that half the frustrations with being asked to do the same things over and over etc might go away, leading to more satisfied customers.

RE point 2, you're all linux nerds... then fix the shop!! smile


zacgibson21 wrote:

Possibly reevaluating your payment system, when I went to purchase it was bounced back by the bank and I ended up being pushed back over a week on my order. I do not know if this is something you could have any influence over or not but its worth looking into.

definitely that, the paypal merchant thing is heavily used by scammers, when I ordered, not only was my order refused but because the bank thought your store was dodgy my credit card was barred from being used so I wasn't able to buy lunch that day!
having payment refused/credit card blocked/bank tell you that they think your company is high risk for scam because of your payment processor is a horrible introduction to your company...

54 Reply by 3DPrinter4Life

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

Yes, They're linux nerds that in the two years they've been in business have accomplished... hmm very little on the software side... how much original code has come out of solidoodle. It took forever for them to fix any software issues..

They don't even think ticketed support is worth it.

Solidoodle needs to invest in communicating and supporting customers. Having solidoodlesupport saying. i'm trying is not an investment in the customer. The constant feedback about how terrible customer support is should be a clue... but apparently it's not. Don't invest in a relationship with a company that can't deliver you any reasonable support.

55 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

danny wrote:
solidoodlesupport wrote:
DePartedPrinter wrote:

I would hope they use a ticket system now.

nevermind^^

We have considered a ticket system in the past and evaluated a few. Sadly, we determined that this would not make the process much more reliable for our scale of business.

Really, the biggest gripe we receive is slow responses, and long drawn out repair sagas. We are working on this of course, but e-mails are seldom lost or forgotten.

use a proper ITIL ticketting system.

You need one person to monitor the email in-box and raise tickets,

tickets should be sorted into technical/nontechnical/commercial etc and then assigned to different support queues.

Technical issues should go to a technical queue where technical people look at the problems.
once a ticket is logged a ticket reference number should be sent out to the customer, they can use this to correspond with the technician, and technicians need to make sure that calls are kept up to date with call notes.
(then if one guy goes on holiday/gets fired/dies etc) then there won't be a customer left out of the loop.

if technical issues are maybe not resolved fast enough the customer may want a refund, in which case the ticket would be moved to the "management support queue" this keeps all incident notes with the existing ticket and enables the manager to evaluate the whole ticket, and decide on what the outcome should be.

Technicians should not close tickets without approval from the customer, (though tacit approval maybe assumed if a tech says are you OK with me closing the ticket and gets no response for say a week.

customers retain their ticket reference numbers and can therefore ask for a ticket to be re-opened if the issue is not resolved.

with a proper ticket system you get to keep all your messages in one place.

Implementing ITIL properly will enable you to set resolution targets for timely support.

It lets you track complete histories in one place, no more "lost emails" or misfiled emails, or needing to repeat questions in the hopes of catching out a customer...

Call timers will let you track how long it takes to actually resolve issues, and a decent call ticketing system will let you produce management reports on a monthly or weekly basis, where you can see who is closing calls, what support staff are not closing calls. how long calls are taking from call log to resolution, then you can praise/chastise support as appropriate for working very well, or working not so well.

Some ticket systems can even be integrated to email so when a message is recieved, if there is no ticket reference in the subject line a new ticket can be logged automatically, if a ticket reference does exist in the subject line then that call with be updated with the customers comments. likewise, support can send an email to the customer and CC the support mail box and have tickets automatically updated. or they can update a ticket and elect to have their update emailed to customers to keep them in the loop.


You say that you're tracking support by email, but given the feed back so far this is clearly not working.

you have a support issue, no matter how big or small you are this can be resolved by using the correct and proven systems.

solidoodlesupport wrote:

1) Most users who have significant troubles will deal with multiple CSRs. This is intended, as I and Raff will typically only get involved in tougher cases. The vast majority of customers already only see 1 CSR.

2) There is some legitimate confusion here. In case there is confusion, we are heavily backordered on parts. You have reason to be frustrated that our cart system system always reads "In stock" for all items. Support does not have control of this fact. However, if it were the case that the part was "in stock" as it were, it would go out the same today.

dealing with multiple CSRs is not a problem, neither should call escalation to a different CSR be a problem, I work providing IT support, we use ticketing systems to great effect. if you were using a proper ticket system it seems that half the frustrations with being asked to do the same things over and over etc might go away, leading to more satisfied customers.

RE point 2, you're all linux nerds... then fix the shop!! smile


zacgibson21 wrote:

Possibly reevaluating your payment system, when I went to purchase it was bounced back by the bank and I ended up being pushed back over a week on my order. I do not know if this is something you could have any influence over or not but its worth looking into.

definitely that, the paypal merchant thing is heavily used by scammers, when I ordered, not only was my order refused but because the bank thought your store was dodgy my credit card was barred from being used so I wasn't able to buy lunch that day!
having payment refused/credit card blocked/bank tell you that they think your company is high risk for scam because of your payment processor is a horrible introduction to your company...

Kudos for the constructive criticism! Again, we see your point on the ticket system.

Remember, we are the support team and not the web development or software development team. I'm sure we'd all like to hang out working on software issues, and we do let the proper authorities know about them. However, that's not within the support teams listed area of responsibility.

We'll let the folks who do our web development know about any problems you find.

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

56 Reply by markulus

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

solidoodlesupport's posts where they talk themselves up as "verified linux nerds" are pretty telling about what goes on in their heads.

This is an image thing for them. They love the fact that they can call themselves ultra-hip techno-savvy uber-elite linux nerds. Until they actually have a hard problem that needs solving...

57 Reply by 3DPrinter4Life

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

The problem is this is misleading from the start. With the words world class engineer, and ready right out of the box... quality customer support when you need it, should i go on?

58 Reply by danny

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

Can you give any clues as to what help desk software you evaluated? And why it's not fit for purpose, is there any particular feature that was lacking? Anything that needed doing that wasn't done?

I can't be the only one here that works in support, who has experience with help desk products and might recommend one.


I assume you have machines where you can run a database, or are buying machines from a hosting company/facility or "cloud" provider?

59 Reply by cmetzel

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

I'm often accused and most likely guilty of being called a solidoodle fanboy.  I've also been in the boat of frustrated with support before and I think a lot of the suggestions here are helpful.  But why are we as a group spending so much time attacking them when they come back here asking for help in making the experience better for us?  If you're not happy with what they're doing, isn't it better to respectfully offer a solution or at least outline your specific gripe without so much anger?  They're trying to get better, they're looking for help to do that.  You might not like the answers he's giving, but if we all are saying you need a ticket system for support issues, it might give him the ammunition to bring it to the top level and get it implemented.  But saying they have their head up their ass or they're all about image just to name a few.  How does that help the users get them to where we want and need them to be to make our lives easier?   Maybe I've got rose colored glasses on because I haven't had the kind of problems that some others have had, but I think it's a great opportunity to give official feedback and maybe get some real changes made.  In the end it's for us.

60 Reply by markm (edited by markm 2013-04-11 22:06:54)

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

cmetzel wrote:

I'm often accused and most likely guilty of being called a solidoodle fanboy.  I've also been in the boat of frustrated with support before and I think a lot of the suggestions here are helpful.  But why are we as a group spending so much time attacking them when they come back here asking for help in making the experience better for us?  If you're not happy with what they're doing, isn't it better to respectfully offer a solution or at least outline your specific gripe ...

Maybe I've got rose colored glasses on because I haven't had the kind of problems that some others have had, but I think it's a great opportunity to give official feedback and maybe get some real changes made.  In the end it's for us.

I agree with this post.  I haven't been around long and have only had my printer a short time (it was an upgrade from a Cupcake I built years ago).  For the money I gave for the printer, I'm quite pleased with it, and with my dealings with support.

EDIT:  Somehow, I missed page 2 of this thread, so everything below is basically a rehash of what others have said.  I'm leaving it, though, so Support can see that the community does want it:

If I were to make a suggestion, I think what would be really nice would be for SD to have some sort of help desk software/database implemented, if they do not already.  I'm assuming they do, but when I had a few questions on my printer, the responses led me to think each problem is a new problem to them, even if it's a repeat of a different customer's issue. 
A good tracking system that would allow customers to log in and check the status of their service request would be nice.  This could even be mostly automated, actually freeing up support to do actual support work instead of having to answer status requests.  This would also allow the company to track customers/printers, and if there was a problem piece of equipment out there, find it more quickly.  By this I mean, if a single customer is continuously having issues, then the company can say, "Okay, there is something wrong with your printer beyond the individual issues you are having" and then track it down.  At the same time, if they started getting multiple calls from customers with similar issues, they would have hard data to say, "Okay, the <part> we are using is having a higher than expected fail rate.  We need to switch to another ASAP and have some spares ready to send out to customers."

61 Reply by nickythegreek (edited by nickythegreek 2013-04-11 22:27:58)

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

Not having a ticketing tracking system just blew my mind.  I don't even think that having a discussion on the pro/cons of 1 are even worth having. Get one.  It doesn't have to be the best, or expensive.  It just has to be used.  There are plenty of open-source solutions like redmine.

I think that the majority of support issues are really from the lack of proper intro material for people with new printers.  I had to dig deep to find everything I needed when I first received my SD2, and even deeper to make sure I didn't do something stupid that could of easily hurt my machine.

I recently purchased a rep2x (still hasn't arrived!) for another project and was very very impressed with their pdf.  Which brings me to my next point, make a PDF manual please. That way the first question out of everyone's mouth is 'Did you read the manual?'. I found Make's manual to be well laid out and would of killed for something like it when I first got my machine.

Check it out here: http://db.tt/tGBfG2H4

Screenshot of Table of Contents:
http://f.cl.ly/items/2y351e440j2u2a0z3w0E/Screenshot_4_11_13_6_02_PM.jpg


Edit:
I really liked their Troubleshooting section in that manual.

I would recommend a quick read thru this manual for Solidoodle owners who are brand new to 3D printing as much of the information is machine-neutral.

62 Reply by danny

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

It's easy to attack,
And where people ask what's wrong with... Then negativity is expected.  Some positive stuff is making it's way out as well though. And some unexpected stuff as well, like the gripe with the payment processor. Having my card blocked for trying to buy a machine wasn't great. But I can't offer a fix for that. Change payment processors isn't exactly a solution. (What other processors are there? World pay maybe? A few others. With research I can maybe make suggestions, (but it's certainly not my area of expertise).

There is a company callee the service desk institute, they may be able to give advice regarding support systems and practices.

63 Reply by Ghostling

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

here's a suggestion...

how about showing some consideration for the customer? I emailed for support to mail me a replacement heater resistor because the one that came with the printer died after 8 days of ownership with occasional printing.

support comes back to me asking me if I was sure it was the resistor... yes i'm damned sure it's the resistor.

so they tell me to fill out an RMA form, mail the form with the dead resistor from Vancouver to New York and wait for them to determine what the problem is and send me one back... the resistor is like 50 cents and probably even cheaper when SD buys them in volume, would it put you guys under to just mail me the damned resistor? and how does it make it better for you to waste an hour of my time and postage and waiting before you stand behind your product?

considering not too long ago i put down $700 and have nothing to show for it for a month, you guys think I'm going to scam you out of a stupid resistor?

64 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

nickythegreek wrote:

Not having a ticketing tracking system just blew my mind.  I don't even think that having a discussion on the pro/cons of 1 are even worth having. Get one.  It doesn't have to be the best, or expensive.  It just has to be used.  There are plenty of open-source solutions like redmine.

I think that the majority of support issues are really from the lack of proper intro material for people with new printers.  I had to dig deep to find everything I needed when I first received my SD2, and even deeper to make sure I didn't do something stupid that could of easily hurt my machine.

I recently purchased a rep2x (still hasn't arrived!) for another project and was very very impressed with their pdf.  Which brings me to my next point, make a PDF manual please. That way the first question out of everyone's mouth is 'Did you read the manual?'. I found Make's manual to be well laid out and would of killed for something like it when I first got my machine.

Check it out here: http://db.tt/tGBfG2H4

Screenshot of Table of Contents:
http://f.cl.ly/items/2y351e440j2u2a0z3w0E/Screenshot_4_11_13_6_02_PM.jpg


Edit:
I really liked their Troubleshooting section in that manual.

I would recommend a quick read thru this manual for Solidoodle owners who are brand new to 3D printing as much of the information is machine-neutral.

A manual may be in the works. We'll note the rather pervasive suggestions.

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

65 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

Ghostling wrote:

here's a suggestion...

how about showing some consideration for the customer? I emailed for support to mail me a replacement heater resistor because the one that came with the printer died after 8 days of ownership with occasional printing.

support comes back to me asking me if I was sure it was the resistor... yes i'm damned sure it's the resistor.

so they tell me to fill out an RMA form, mail the form with the dead resistor from Vancouver to New York and wait for them to determine what the problem is and send me one back... the resistor is like 50 cents and probably even cheaper when SD buys them in volume, would it put you guys under to just mail me the damned resistor? and how does it make it better for you to waste an hour of my time and postage and waiting before you stand behind your product?

considering not too long ago i put down $700 and have nothing to show for it for a month, you guys think I'm going to scam you out of a stupid resistor?

We understand that this sort of thing can be frustrating. Given the much more common complaints of being things being lost/mishandled we try to be extremely thorough with the paperwork these days.

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

66 Reply by jon_bondy

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

Return phone calls.

solidoodlesupport wrote:

What can we do better for you?

67 Reply by jon_bondy

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

So, my suggestion would be to keep your part inventory at a reasonable level, so as to eliminate this "line".

solidoodlesupport wrote:

Just like the printers, the support parts have a line. We ship a very large number each day. It is not as if people are simply being forgotten, as some might assume. There is simply a line.

68 Reply by jon_bondy

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

Total agreement.

markulus wrote:

To say that a support ticket system would offer no improvement over the status quo is laughable.

69 Reply by jon_bondy

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

It should be possible for someone to request a $0.10 part and have it in the mail the next day.  Requiring returns and paperwork is unnecessary and insulting for such a cheap part.

If someone thinks they need an expensive part like a carriage, then a video Skype should tell you whether the carriage is needed or not.  Sending out the replacement part before receiving the defective part should be standard policy, if you can confirm that the part failed.

I do not get the sense that there is a dedication to ensuring that the customer has a working printer, quickly and efficiently.  I hear more excuses than I would like.

And please sign your postings.  The rest of us have unique identities.  When "Solidoodle Support" posts, I have no idea who is behind the text, whether it is always the same person, whether they change from day to day.

solidoodlesupport wrote:
Ghostling wrote:

here's a suggestion...

how about showing some consideration for the customer? I emailed for support to mail me a replacement heater resistor because the one that came with the printer died after 8 days of ownership with occasional printing.

support comes back to me asking me if I was sure it was the resistor... yes i'm damned sure it's the resistor.

so they tell me to fill out an RMA form, mail the form with the dead resistor from Vancouver to New York and wait for them to determine what the problem is and send me one back... the resistor is like 50 cents and probably even cheaper when SD buys them in volume, would it put you guys under to just mail me the damned resistor? and how does it make it better for you to waste an hour of my time and postage and waiting before you stand behind your product?

considering not too long ago i put down $700 and have nothing to show for it for a month, you guys think I'm going to scam you out of a stupid resistor?

We understand that this sort of thing can be frustrating. Given the much more common complaints of being things being lost/mishandled we try to be extremely thorough with the paperwork these days.

70 Reply by TheOldMan

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

Could you please fix the order system? It is extremely annoying to put together an order (on parts shown as available) only to have a notice pop up at the checkout that such-and-such a part is out of stock.
I'd like to bundle everything together to save on shipping, but everything I want never seems to be in-stock at one time....

71 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

TheOldMan wrote:

Could you please fix the order system? It is extremely annoying to put together an order (on parts shown as available) only to have a notice pop up at the checkout that such-and-such a part is out of stock.
I'd like to bundle everything together to save on shipping, but everything I want never seems to be in-stock at one time....

When did this happen to you? We haven't had a stockout in the store in a long while.

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

72 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

jon_bondy wrote:

It should be possible for someone to request a $0.10 part and have it in the mail the next day.  Requiring returns and paperwork is unnecessary and insulting for such a cheap part.

If someone thinks they need an expensive part like a carriage, then a video Skype should tell you whether the carriage is needed or not.  Sending out the replacement part before receiving the defective part should be standard policy, if you can confirm that the part failed.

I do not get the sense that there is a dedication to ensuring that the customer has a working printer, quickly and efficiently.  I hear more excuses than I would like.

And please sign your postings.  The rest of us have unique identities.  When "Solidoodle Support" posts, I have no idea who is behind the text, whether it is always the same person, whether they change from day to day.

solidoodlesupport wrote:
Ghostling wrote:

here's a suggestion...

how about showing some consideration for the customer? I emailed for support to mail me a replacement heater resistor because the one that came with the printer died after 8 days of ownership with occasional printing.

support comes back to me asking me if I was sure it was the resistor... yes i'm damned sure it's the resistor.

so they tell me to fill out an RMA form, mail the form with the dead resistor from Vancouver to New York and wait for them to determine what the problem is and send me one back... the resistor is like 50 cents and probably even cheaper when SD buys them in volume, would it put you guys under to just mail me the damned resistor? and how does it make it better for you to waste an hour of my time and postage and waiting before you stand behind your product?

considering not too long ago i put down $700 and have nothing to show for it for a month, you guys think I'm going to scam you out of a stupid resistor?

We understand that this sort of thing can be frustrating. Given the much more common complaints of being things being lost/mishandled we try to be extremely thorough with the paperwork these days.


Jon, This account is always John. The rest us of us have our own accounts (typically prefixed with  soli - solijoel, solitj, and soliraff IIRC.) I made this account back when I was flying solo, so it doesn't reflect my name. You don't much of the rest of us, as we all have our responsibilities, and I am the point man for user communities.

-SoliJohn

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

73 Reply by TheOldMan

  • TheOldMan
  • Member
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  • Registered: 2012-10-19
  • Posts: 21

Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

When did this happen to you? We haven't had a stockout in the store in a long while.

Begining of March. Acrylic Jigsaw, 10" Kapton, and Hot Ends were parts out of stock, though there was no indication of that until checkout.
So everything is back in stock now? If I order this week, I shouldn't have any problems?

I will let you know...

74 Reply by nattyb (edited by nattyb 2013-04-14 20:14:47)

  • nattyb
  • Newbie
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  • Registered: 2013-03-02
  • Posts: 3

Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

I'm new here but I've just received my printer on Thursday, unboxed and set it up on Friday around 9am and by ~930 I realized something was wrong. I didn't have a multimeter in the office so I went to get one. By 10am I knew that the resistor was blown. I sent about 10 emails back and forth and still haven't reached a conclusion at this point (Sunday at 1230p).

The one suggestion I have is, give people what they ask for within reason. The machine costs ~900 bucks shipped from the East coast the West coast. If the customer needs a $60 then maybe you should ship it out to them after some troubleshooting. If a customer needs a $2 part? I'm not even sure you should waste your time asking what's up. Just send the part. It's cheap, it makes the customer happy and the problem goes away.

I don't know how much customer service gets paid but I hope it's within livable wage and if it is, and they have to spend an hour sending emails and telephoning with every person with a problem the customer service labor costs must be astronomical.

Let's do a little math. This is a really basic analysis of a given situation (and I'm no expert)...

Livable wage is for New York County, New York, is 12.75 hourly for a single person with no children.

If you spend an hour doing support it costs the company $12.75 plus the pick-pull-pack-and-ship and shipping.

$ 12.75 Hourly wage
$ 3.20 Pick pull pack ship based on .25 hourly wage
$ 2.00 Part Cost
$ 0.46 Postage Cost
-----------------------------
$18.41 Total cost of tedious troubleshooting Plus the added bonus of having really unhappy customers.

If you just send the part it costs the company lets say

$2 for the part
$3.20 Pick pull pack and ship
$0.46 Shipping via USPS
-------------------------------------
$5.66 Grand total with the priceless added bonus of having really really happy customers.

In short the cost of shipping a cheap part is less than the cost of labor for troubleshooting by 69% and this isn't even counting things like opportunity cost and the value of satisfaction.

75 Reply by solijohn

  • solijohn
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  • Registered: 2012-08-07
  • Posts: 1,465

Re: Solidoodle Support Suggestion Box

nattyb wrote:

I'm new here but I've just received my printer on Thursday, unboxed and set it up on Friday around 9am and by ~930 I realized something was wrong. I didn't have a multimeter in the office so I went to get one. By 10am I knew that the resistor was blown. I sent about 10 emails back and forth and still haven't reached a conclusion at this point (Sunday at 1230p).

The one suggestion I have is, give people what they ask for within reason. The machine costs ~900 bucks shipped from the East coast the West coast. If the customer needs a $60 then maybe you should ship it out to them after some troubleshooting. If a customer needs a $2 part? I'm not even sure you should waste your time asking what's up. Just send the part. It's cheap, it makes the customer happy and the problem goes away.

I don't know how much customer service gets paid but I hope it's within livable wage and if it is, and they have to spend an hour sending emails and telephoning with every person with a problem the customer service labor costs must be astronomical.

Let's do a little math. This is a really basic analysis of a given situation (and I'm no expert)...

Livable wage is for New York County, New York, is 12.75 hourly for a single person with no children.

If you spend an hour doing support it costs the company $12.75 plus the pick-pull-pack-and-ship and shipping.

$ 12.75 Hourly wage
$ 3.20 Pick pull pack ship based on .25 hourly wage
$ 2.00 Part Cost
$ 0.46 Postage Cost
-----------------------------
$18.41 Total cost of tedious troubleshooting Plus the added bonus of having really unhappy customers.

If you just send the part it costs the company lets say

$2 for the part
$3.20 Pick pull pack and ship
$0.46 Shipping via USPS
-------------------------------------
$5.66 Grand total with the priceless added bonus of having really really happy customers.

In short the cost of shipping a cheap part is less than the cost of labor for troubleshooting by 69% and this isn't even counting things like opportunity cost and the value of satisfaction.

Oh sure. We have no problem with sending out parts of all sorts at all. The resistor in particular is something we feel antsy about recommending on a wide scale. Most of users are not able to implement this part on their own. Also, when the resistor burns out, it has a tendency to take the thermistor with it.

If the resistor is not installed properly, it has the potential to ruin the entire hot-end, one way or the other. We used to be quite fast and loose about these sorts of things and got in trouble many a time. Maintaining strict procedures and keeping good paperwork has helped aid support a great deal.

Now imagine this scenario:
Customer decides on his own that he needs a resistor.
Customer doesn't want to go through trouble shooting.
Customer receives resistor, installs improperly.
Customers hot-end melts out.
Original, unrelated problem with wiring persists.
Customer blames solidoodle for slow support. Why didn't you know the problem before? Why did you give me yet another defective part?

I don't think there is anything wrong with doing thorough investigation before repair parts are given out. The machine is sufficiently complex to warrant careful consideration before sending out parts. Now, if someone were to contact us with the tests already completed, and would be willing to assure us of his ability to put in that particular part, then that is another story altogether.

We can mock up a PDF chart of common tests that you may complete before contacting us. That would speed up the process by some degree. However, we have seen many, many cases where users have suspected failed resistors and have had other, fixable problems such as poorly crimped connectors.

In these cases a few moments of troubleshooting would have yielded a functional machine almost instantly.

If you are ever working with a deadline, let us know. We try to maintain a strict first in first out policy, but we understand if you are working with a business or for a school project. Letting us know about deadlines will help us to prioritize cases. As an earlier post said, triage is everything.  However, given the current wait time for repair parts (perhaps 4 days, since recent process improvements.) I see no harm in asking a few questions. I think some people might perceive this sort of thing as support being reticent to mail out parts. In truth, it has much more to do with ensuring the customer gets the right parts.

Now, what I can synthesize from this is:
-Parts need to go out faster
-There needs to be less e-mail back/forth before decisions are made.

These two subjects are already on our agenda, we are developing strategies to make sure everyone's needs are best met.

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.