1 Topic by Ski52

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Topic: Replacement Parts vs Time

I ordered a replacement part for my SD2 3 days ago.  Prior to ordering I checked the on-line data, it said - 'in stock'.  I now check my order and it says 'in production'.  What gives? 

These seem to be relatively fragile machines with regards to settings, calibration and such.  I have learned an enormous amount since Christmas when I got it, but obviously not enough.  I have no problem with the machines' quality and don't mind replacing parts til I learn how to use it. 

I ordered an upgrade from the base model, and it took over 3 weeks to get here. 
Why so slow on the replacements?

I looked on Ebay, of all places, and they had the replacement part for 1 dollar less, with a delivery date of this coming Saturday.  I don't really care about the price, it's the time factor, so I ordered one.  Now, I will have 2 & hopefully will be printing again.   

I believe you probably have quite a customer base going - how about stepping up the customer service.

I don't mean this as derogatory, just as a point of order. 

Thanx
Ski

PS - before I bunged up the machine, it was starting to produce like I think it is supposed to....  Learning curve.

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2 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

What part?

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3 Reply by Ski52

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

The barrel & nozzle.  Simple, I know, but I broke the barrel using the recommended 2 jam nuts to remove it from the nozzle.  I hope to save the nozzle after a trip to the drill press to drill out the broken barrel.  I need to find a 6mm tap to chase the threads. 
This all comes from leaving it at temp for too long.  My mistake.  I'm learning.

The problem -
Solidoodle - part ordered almost 4 days ago - little or no response - 15.00 + 6.00 shipping.
Ebay - part ordered - shipped notice within 1 hour - 15.00 + 5.00 shipping. 

The money is trivial - the part is essential!

Ski

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4 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

The barrel has to be at 200C before attempting to do what you described, or you'll break it every time. I used to use a blowtorch, I have since drilled it to a 0.6mm nozzle and never had to fix a clog again.

Careful with those eBay parts - quality can be hit or miss.

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5 Reply by adrian (edited by adrian 2014-03-12 09:43:03)

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

Solidoodles 'in stock' means simply - we have it in our catalogue. Their E-store is not capable of providing factual stock reports.

And they also, even though they talk about 'being next-day real soon now', aren't. Its not uncommon at all to wait 2-3 weeks for them to dispatch what should ostensibly be an 'off the shelf' part. Its because you wait till they are good and ready to ship it - usually once a week based on any feedback on this forum.... and then it will only be via the most expensive form that USPS provides... Don't complain too loud - they'll hit you with the 'we're just a 2.5 year old startup' line.....  (who have 60+ employees yet still can't get the basics right....)

Welcome to the community neutral

6 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

adrian wrote:

Solidoodles 'in stock' means simply - we have it in our catalogue. Their E-store is not capable of providing factual stock reports.

And they also, even though they talk about 'being next-day real soon now', aren't. Its not uncommon at all to wait 2-3 weeks for them to dispatch what should ostensibly be an 'off the shelf' part. Its because you wait till they are good and ready to ship it - usually once a week based on any feedback on this forum.... and then it will only be via the most expensive form that USPS provides... Don't complain too loud - they'll hit you with the 'we're just a 2.5 year old startup' line.....  (who have 60+ employees yet still can't get the basics right....)

Welcome to the community neutral

We ship spare parts every day. There's even a guy who does that. I mean that's it, 40 hours a week that's all he does.

People order a *lot* of Solidoodle parts and filament.

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

7 Reply by adrian (edited by adrian 2014-03-12 23:16:30)

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

solijohn wrote:

We ship spare parts every day. There's even a guy who does that. I mean that's it, 40 hours a week that's all he does.

People order a *lot* of Solidoodle parts and filament.

Really ?  How on earth would you explain the numerous complaints about 1-2 week wait times on order status changes let alone actual shipment.  ... even yourself commented no less than a month ago about how you where *wanting to get to next day but not there yet*  I wasn't making that statement out of thin air - what I explained is pretty much exactly what you yourself have posted in here and on IRC...

There is countless examples of customers waiting more than 'overnight'...  So don't go pretending that its 'the norm' when I could make this very uncomfortable and pull out numerous and repetitive posts about people waiting weeks and weeks for parts - not shipping delays that is, waiting for you to ship them. There is a littany of evidence, both my own experience, and countless others - that contradicts your statement...

Sheesh, even the next thread down from this one has a statement of:

and it just took them a month to send me 2 pieces of Kapton.   .

That was a domestic US shipment.. and it still took a month... and thats just this year!

Maybe it would be better if you said 'we *now* have someone...' because if that person has 'always' been there - how do you explain the constant and repetitive complaints about "Solidoodle not having even shipped a spare part yet" ???? You seem to be saying one thing here but being contradicted by a pile of statements to the contrary by actual customers... and not historically - right this week...

And no, I don't buy you have that large a volume that it takes a fulltime person over a week to get through the queue... There is numerous other suppliers that I know have higher volumes than you could hope for, and they manage to get it done in less time so ... Or are you inferring that you have to get so many thousands of spare parts out each week for the ~4000 printers you've shipped which would just beg an entirely different question wouldn't it ?

8 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

Well, I suppose the best thing would be just to let you watch as lead times decrease. We went through this same process with the printers themselves. There was a lot of pain, and disbelief that we were addressing the issue, but the graphs speak for themselves.

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

9 Reply by elmoret (edited by elmoret 2014-03-13 14:30:46)

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

It takes me roughly 3 minutes to package a part and print a label. Let's call it 5, just to be conservative.

8 hour work day, that's 96 spare parts a day, or just under 500 a week.

That's 25,000 spare part orders a year, but there has been only 22,000 orders to date - and some of those (hopefully most) have been printers, AND that's over 2.5 years, not 1 year.

Something doesn't add up here.

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10 Reply by adrian (edited by adrian 2014-03-13 15:49:48)

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

solijohn wrote:

Well, I suppose the best thing would be just to let you watch as lead times decrease. We went through this same process with the printers themselves. There was a lot of pain, and disbelief that we were addressing the issue, but the graphs speak for themselves.

My disbelief would seem to stem from the way you make your statements as if they are rooted in historical fact and are reflective of solidoodle's shipment performance right now today. No one said you weren't trying to get better at it and I'm sure you are on your way to changing that - but the right now you still clearly suck at it.  I do look forward to the day someone, somewhere (probably in the US) actually gets a part next day and so have no problem believing you are trying to change ...  But I don't feel any of my statements in my response was incorrect, false or misleading, in representation of your performance to date..... I was not stating it was your long term business plan, just that its how the business has been run so far - and that's all a customer cares about. Not what you're planning, hoping, or establish structure, to do in the future.

But please don't pretend that you are something that you aren't by responding with aspirational statements about the future while ignoring the bulk of the issue - that your performance right up till today has been 'less than average' in terms of spare parts dispatch and the proof of that changing, as you said, will be in the tangible comments from happy customers that didn't wait weeks for a spare part to ship domestically in the US.... But until then.........

11 Reply by Ski52

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

As a 'Newbie'  - didn't mean to open such a can of worms.......

Now I don't know if the old adage - 'the squeaky wheel gets the oil' - applies or not, but this afternoon I received an E-mail from Solidoodle that my order has been shipped!  If that if fact is the case, without any provocation from this thread, then - yes - their customer service has picked up. 

I am in the process of making a small switch panel to control the 120V AC power, the 5V USB power, and the 12V power to the array of fans I am installing to preclude this from happening again (even though I will now have 2 nozzle assys smile )

Elmoret, you say you have opened your extruder nozzle to .6mm.  Does this effect the printer/finished product in any way? 

As I said, I'm relatively new to 3D printing, but have been dealing with computers for near 40 years.....  Back from the Heath/Zenith H8/Altair days, and some of the first Sinclair Z80's- long before Timex bought them.....  16K of memory was 129.00.... 

Open for suggestions....

Thanx
Ski

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12 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

Ski52 wrote:

Elmoret, you say you have opened your extruder nozzle to .6mm.  Does this effect the printer/finished product in any way?

You lose a little bit of detail since you're effectively squirting through a bigger orifice, but not enough to matter on what I do (engineering stuff - not figurines or anything.

It has also let me double the print speed, as the hot end can move a lot more plastic through a 0.6mm hole than a 0.4.

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13 Reply by Ski52

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

I received both nozzles to day in the mail.  As far as I can tell, they are IDENTICAL - down to the size of the clear plastic baggie they were shipped in.  One plus, the one from Ebay came with 2 pieces of new fiberglass insulation for over the thermistor, and over the entire head.  Will save those for future use. 
Hopefully in the next day or so, I will get this contraption back together and working......

Ski

Ender 3 Pro

14 Reply by adrian

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

Thats great to hear that you ended up getting them both. Hopefully this is a sign of Solidoodles new norm and not a special case.

15 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Replacement Parts vs Time

Ski52 wrote:

I received both nozzles to day in the mail.  As far as I can tell, they are IDENTICAL - down to the size of the clear plastic baggie they were shipped in.  One plus, the one from Ebay came with 2 pieces of new fiberglass insulation for over the thermistor, and over the entire head.  Will save those for future use. 
Hopefully in the next day or so, I will get this contraption back together and working......

Ski

Sounds like the guy that posted that in the FS section also listed it on eBay. That's not an "eBay" part then.

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