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Few quick things

Discussion in 'News & Announcements' started by Harry, Aug 9, 2013.

  1. Rob

    Rob New Member

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    Another unhappy backer here. I've been voicing my concerns over on the kickstarter comments section but thought I'd chime in over here too.

    The main problem I have is the total lack of communication. I have tried sending a message directly through Kickstarter (over a week ago) and received no reply.

    I tried the contact form here on the Robo3D website shortly after and have had no response from that either.

    My question is the same as the other people who are in one of the pledge levels with a March deliver estimate.

    Why don't the numbers of shipped printers (115+?) add up with the number of March Pledge level (92) backers (myself included) who should all have printers or at least tracking emails for their shipped printers?

    Now, to the issue of backer order and pledge level jumping. I also started out at a later delivery date pledge level. I actually managed to jump from May or June i think it was, to April then finally into a March slot that opened up over the course of the campaign.

    Pledge levels on Kickstarter are a promise from creators to fulfill exactly what is listed in that level. No more, no less.
    Kickstarter obviously allows project creators to see in what order backers have pledged to their campaign, but backers do not get to see this info.

    Kickstarter uses a reward tier system which creators can limit. If someone drops their pledge from an early bird limited spot and someone from another level switches their reward to that open spot (as I and many others did) then that backer should receive exactly what is stated in that reward level (including estimated delivery dates).

    If Kickstarter rewards were chosen/delivered by backer order then they wouldn't allow limited slots that re-open to be filled manually by someone who happens to see it. It would automatically move everyone up one spot according to backer pledge order, and noone could tier hop at all. Kickstarter doesn't do this though, so the Robo3d team should not be shipping out printers in this way either.

    If they are shipping the printers according to backer pledge order rather than reward tiers then that is totally against kickstarters policy/description of reward tiers, and is also totally unacceptable.

    Quoted directly from Kickstarters FAQ for creators:


    My pledge level clearly states a March delivery estimate, so if any April deliveries are completed before mine then as far as I'm concerned you have failed to to fulfill my reward/pledge level.

    Again, this is all speculation stemming from the fact that the Robo3d team are just ignoring backers questions completely. I reckon they should take a long hard look at the last sentence of the FAQ I quoted from Kickstarter.

    They are not going to do well at all as a business if this is the way they are going to treat their customers!
     
  2. David Mortlock

    David Mortlock Active Member

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    I think you have to accept that you will get little, if any, communication from Robo3D. They certainly do not seem to be able to answer simple questions.

    What they are able to do is post stuff up on FB about the 3D printing world. Stuff that anyone who follows 3D printing news will have already seen. I have even resorted to posting comments to their FB posts and that elicits no response.

    Are they trying to get new custom in when they seem to be having trouble fulfilling current orders? I hope not.
     
  3. keraynopoylos

    keraynopoylos New Member

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    In about 12 hours Harry has promised to get back to us with an answer on this, no matter what the robo3d team reply is.

    So we should know more.

    And then we see what we do.
     
  4. David Mortlock

    David Mortlock Active Member

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    It would be great if Harry could do that for us but I believe that we are relying far too much on his good nature.

    It should be the responsibility of the Robo3D team to answer our questions and keep us updated. Many times they have said they will communicate better and they have fallen at every fence so far. I hope this situation can improve in the short term.

    My thanks to you Harry for trying your best but I don't think you should shoulder any of the burden.
     
  5. keraynopoylos

    keraynopoylos New Member

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    I agree.

    Their lack of communication is suspicious, is you ask me. They definitely know of the uneasiness this is causing to the backers and do nothing about it, while they could just drop a few lines and put an end to all this.

    Instead they rely on this bizarre relation to Harry, who is the team's official/unofficial spokesman in the forum.

    So they feed little to no information through him, while we can't push Harry for more, as he is not -by the book- affiliated to the team.
     
  6. keraynopoylos

    keraynopoylos New Member

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    Regarding the last Robo3D Project update(#26) I can confirm that I have pledged for an unassembled kit including ABS.

    So it looks like the boroglass is what has been keeping them, and as they said they are expecting it any day now.
     
  7. JasonSolves

    JasonSolves New Member

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    Yeah, they said stuff. No idea what it means for most of us....
     
  8. bringjustn

    bringjustn Member

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    But why say they have been shipped, not that they are waiting for the boro to come in to ship out?
     
  9. keraynopoylos

    keraynopoylos New Member

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    As I understand, they have been shipping assembled non-ABS units only.

    They had problems with the packaging of unassembled(I know, sounds weird) and they are waiting for boroglass pieces before they ship more ABS units...

    Anyway, I take it that "any day" should mean whithin the current week...

    However, there was an update that mentioned they would be shipping the unassembled kits as assembled after all. Has this changed(Harry)?
     
  10. da9l

    da9l Member

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    As I understood it, simply put: The PLA printers are being shipped on a daily basis. The ABS printers are delayed due to the borosilicate glass that they've ordered and they haven't arrived yet.

    So my educated guess is that those 6 backers in the Mars tier all signed up for ABS printer. So unless there are any PLA printers among those 6, all this makes sense now.

    However, I do think this could have been communicated more clearly through either here at the forum or at KS. I know that you guys in the team mentioned that the update frequency at KS would be every second week. Seems like that's just slightly too infrequent. Once a week might be a better choice.

    Thanks for adding the borosilicate glass and keep up the good work you are doing Robo team!

    Regards, Daniel
     
  11. cosber

    cosber Active Member

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    I have a problem the tier system and with moving to a higher tier if an opening comes up. If my pledge was the 200th made, then I should be getting number 200. (depending on the machine ordered of course). How fair is it for someone who came on board months later to jump ahead just because they were fortunate enough to log in and see an opening?

    And while I'm at it, there are so many complaints regarding where we are in the shipping queue. I honestly do not see why the guys can't post a shipping list. They obviously must have one. Forget about estimated ship dates, let us figure out how long based on our place on the list and regular updates on how many have shipped in a week. This is a very simple way of quelling the mass hysteria that fills these forums.
     
  12. AutopsyTurvy

    AutopsyTurvy Active Member

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    cosber, if the tiers were simply "first come first served" then why bother with a tier system at all? The tiers by the month are intentional. I'm sure if they'd wanted to have just one big batch with 1000 printers in it and no dates (or rather, one date, dunno if Kickstarter will let you not have a date at all), they probably could have done it that way, but they didn't. So they really -should- be shipping by monthly tier as much as possible. Sucks if you have to wait longer because you got on a later date and wanted an earlier one, but there -are- tiers by month and those should be followed for the order of printers.
     
  13. keraynopoylos

    keraynopoylos New Member

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    Plus it was clarified yesterday at the shoutbox that they ship by backer number within each tier.

    So they intend to respect tiers.
     
  14. bringjustn

    bringjustn Member

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    I'm starting to wonder if some of the disconnect and confusion is stemming from it only recently being mentioned they haven't shipped kits or ABS machines yet due to waiting for boro. My guess is several of the March backers added ABS to their order which is holding things up. I hope this is the case, I just wish it would have been expressed sooner that this is what is happening. A simple statement like "we are only shipping PLA printers, printers with the ABS upgrade will be shipped once the boro glass upgrade arrives."
     
  15. David Mortlock

    David Mortlock Active Member

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    You are right. Just 20 words would have made a lot of difference.
     
  16. Stas

    Stas New Member

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    Shipping list would be a major privacy violation that could result in a lawsuit. Have they revealed the problems with supply earlier, a lot of the unease would not be there. I respect what they are doing and that they need to work VS answering every little question. But the multimedia guy, that was hired, should also focus on the forum.
     
  17. David Mortlock

    David Mortlock Active Member

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    I am an April backer and have added ABS. I hope the boro comes through soon or it will begin to hold up a lot more orders.

    Maybe they could let us know when the boro is due.
     

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