Update August 19th

Getting anxious to get my hands on my printer, another San Diego will call. Feb backer. School has started and my so is already doing some projects that he could really use this printer for. I too am hoping for US assembly.

 

Hi Harry.

Braydon obviously decided against giving us an update or even dropping a word. The same goes for Coby who was online but didn't answer mine or SPyKER's messages.

Since no one else will, would it be possible for you to inform us on the boro glass situation(did it arrive on Monday or Tuesday?) and if it's arrival means the dispatch of the remaining March ABS units..? (I mean, will there be anything else holding them up?)

Thank you.

 

As a Kickstarter backer in the April tier, for ABS+PLA, I'd like to start my first post here on the forums with some questions:

1) The Aug 19th update mentions that the factory in China had *started* Assembly of 1000 units. Yet we have not seen any news or received anything that indicates this is, in fact, the case. Why is this?

2) The fact that the borosilicate glass was expected "any day now" is clearly either deliberate miscommunication or lying. It is now 2 weeks after the update, and we still have not heard whether or not the boro glass has arrived. 2 weeks is certainly *not* "any day now". If the boro glass hadn't even been shipped at the point of the update, then say so. What is the status of this?

3) Why have there been no more shipping updates? There was supposed to be "50 a week" yet we have heard nothing. Why is this?

4) Why do we only seem to get information from the "shoutbox"? Prior to signing up for this forum I had *zero* visibility of this. A shoutbox is NOT a way to communicate with people who paid over 500 dollars for a printer. Why have you not sent out *more* communications as the shipping dates get closer? Why does it feel like radio silence?

5) Where is the so-called webcam of the build area that was mentioned?

6) Why do you not *specifically inform* those March and April backers, personally, about the shipping or boro glass status, or whatever the next hold up is? There can't be that many of us, yet we have been kept in the dark. Messages on facebook are met with vague answers. Why not, instead of posting stuff on your Facebook to evangelize 3d printing, actually use the time to communicate with your backers?

7) No offense to harry here, but why are the real Robo 3d guys not replying to threads and messages personally? Harry is doing a nice service to the community but he shouldn't *have* to. Why do we not see actual real correspondance? (and *no* a "shoutbox post" does not count - it's only visible to forum members for a start).

I love the Robo 3d look, feel, and overall design, and the fact that it can come fully calibrated etc. It's just a pity that the communication has been such a letdown.

 

@Delphy, you're asking the same questions a few of us have asked over and over again.

The creators have a history of stating things that are later proven not to be true. I have no idea if it's outright lies or just a continual inability to distinguish truth vs lies from their suppliers.

 

We have been told there will be 500 printers ready by the end of their trip to china. They will not be shipping any out until they've had a chance to verify the quality of the assemblies.

Have you ever ordere3d something from china? It can be a very long process even for expedited shipping. It can also take some time to clear customs. 2-3 weeks for a shipment from china is perfectly acceptable.

I've been out of town for a few days but the last I heard they were getting about 10-15 out every other day. They also had labor day off.

first off, 500 dollars is NOT much money. Yes it's by no means a little amount of money, but it's also not a $2,000 printer. Put things in perspective. The shoutbox is a fantastic means of communicating with us loyal members who greatly appreciate the time they take out of their busy schedule to answer questions. Remember we didn't just buy printers, we started a company. They have lots and lots of work ahead of them to ensure they can survive after the kickstarter orders go out. Making us happy is not as important as making sure they're around next year financially.

That was never promised but rather an idea he said he'd look into

Again, they're running a business now. They don't have time to operate a facebook page so they hired a social media worker to do updates to expand their media presence. I personally enjoy seeing their updates and am glad I subscribed to their facebook page. They also have no obligation to give you play by play updates. They gave us an expected delivery date (end of september) and that's all they can possibly predict for now. It's just not feasible to constantly be verifying everyones order number and expected shipment dates when they're still learning their production techniques and hiring on more employees.

Again, they're business owners now. While they want us to be happy and give positive reviews of the printer, they probablybelieve that the printer will sell itself by being a low cost quality option for the makers out there. If they had time to be on the forums they would be, but it's unrealistic to expect them to be an active part of a forum. Owners of almost all online forums are rarely active members, and it's no different in the case here.

Don't let this ruin your impression. It's not like they've been slacking. Buying bulk products always have lead times and there's nothing they can do about this except hope we stay calm and don't give them negative reviews.

 

Hi Harry.

​

Braydon obviously decided against giving us an update or even dropping a word. The same goes for Coby who was online but didn't answer mine or SPyKER's messages.

​

Since no one else will, would it be possible for you to inform us on the boro glass situation(did it arrive on Monday or Tuesday?) and if it's arrival means the dispatch of the remaining March ABS units..? (I mean, will there be anything else holding them up?)

Thank you.

 

Yes I have ordered stuff from China before, but that wasn't my point. My point was that in the email they stated "any day now". Now, I'm not sure what that means to you, but "any day now" does not mean 2-3 weeks away. If they had only just ordered it and they knew it was taking 2-3 weeks then say 2-3 weeks.

I do realise the difference between a company and a kickstarter, but is this really how a company will treat people who invested in them? The shoutbox is NOT a fantastic way to communicate - actually taking time out of a busy schedule to listen to customer concerns and answer questions *is*. If Robo3d actually was a company, I think they'd have seen quite a number of refunds by now. And, to be honest, if you think that making us happy is not as important, then does this really bode well for the future?

I don't expect them to verify everybodies order, but come on - we keep having to ask constantly for updates, and we get short snippets, or incorrect information (again, any day now is not 2-3 weeks). Remember months ago when they said "We have all the stuff built we just need cases"? I do. And keeping silent on number of printer shipping out is not the way to go. If this really was a company, then I'd expect full tracking information, production status, etc, of *my* printer.

I think they could make us - the backers - happier if they gave us more information about what they are actually doing. I don't think it's unrealistic for them to be active on their own forums. It is, after all, listed on the official website as a support channel.

I can suggest a number of things they can do, but most of them simply involve more communication about what is happening. Case in point: The boro glass was expected on Friday last week. It's now Thursday. Have we had any kind of update? No. Even a short message on Saturday saying "Sorry folks, we still haven't got the boro glass - we've checked with our supplier and estimated delivery is now on XX". They might not be slacking on setting up future production capability but it seems like they are slacking on replying to people who actually helped get them where they are today. Let's not forget that our funds went into this venture, and the longer this goes on without any updates about the process, the less calm people are getting.

All it takes is 10 minutes a day of somebodies time to give a true status update. Why do we have to grovel and beg for such simple things?

 

I had a whole reply typed out but I'll try and hit the points again.

Give a mouse a cookie, and he'll ask for a glass of milk.

They're dealing with a double edged sword right now. If they give us too little information people are knocking at their door on the daily for more. If they give us too much information they run the risk of being made a liar, by no fault of their own, and people will be knocking down their door.

At the present I count 5-6 social media outlets they operate. Forums, Shoutbox, Facebook, Twitter, and the Kickstarter board (Which until recently I didn't know was a thing). Now I'm not one to expect other people to live on the internet like I do. In fact most people don't have a flexible enough job to allow them to go to other websites, but mine allows me to keep the shoutbox open all day if I want. I can respect they have social lives outside of work, and most of their time at work is rightfully spent managing their employees and building printers.

If they only have 10 minutes a day to be on the internet, then they would choose the method of communication that is most real time, aka the shoutbox. It simply is unreasonable to assume they have time to go through these 5 different social media sites, reading all the questions (most of which are very aggressive and insulting) and answering. Thus they go to the most real time one. I do my best to ask all the questions I'm hearing, and they've been excellent at answering them in my opinion. I try really hard to keep people calm, but I also have to play devils advocate and try and help them see better from the Robo3d shoes.

Finally: With every business there is growing pains. Most companies hire someone to do customer support, but people about 10 people they don't have the resources for that yet. They're wearing many hats right now and sometimes the ball will be dropped. It's not like they're doing it to annoy us or lie to us, but I believe they truly want us to be in the loop but sometimes things are fuzzy and that's ok.

Braydon and Mike are in China right now and they're the two most communicative founders. They'll be out of contact for a while and until they get back we'll probably have to deal with being a little dark.

Don't you worry though. We'll know sooner than you think. Let's just all sit back, have a beer, open up cad, and get ready for our printers. We'll be getting them any day now, and I for one and more excited about that than I have any concern over the delay.

 

Every day I open up cad, look at it for 5 minutes, get frustrated, close it and play solitaire. If my printer were here, it would be sitting collecting dust, so I guess I shouldn't complain that it's taking so long.

 

Start small Find some object in your room with relative complexity, something revolved or square. Try and think about how you'd model the part. If you can't envision the steps pick a new object you can.

Once you model it. Model it an entirely different way. Analyze the pros and cons of each method. Which one took less steps? Is the level of detail required in certain areas or can it be simplified for modeling purposes?

I know I've been caught in the trap of just wanting to model the ideas in my head and getting stuck on a step and quiting. Though once you've gotten practice actually making physical objects into cad models, it becomes much easier to make cad models become physical objects.

 

I try to spend a few hours a week modeling in blender. Even if I throw the stuff away. Just to try and bash concepts into my head. My only complain is without the printer I can't understanding how much of Print3D plugin whining I should care about, and how much is "it would be good to do." =)

I should just break down and buy the Blender for 3D printing DVD, but I'm appalled at buying a tutorial set on something that should be better documented to start with. =(

 

Ben, you should not need to buy a DVD, plenty of resources out there including: a blender course in tufts university in iTunes university have a free course. You tube has a plethora of getting started vids.....
But we are getting off topic....

 

So Harry, no news from you either..?

 

I'd assume total blackout till they're back state side. Then the news will come in a big way I'm sure.

 

Why are you assuming a total blackout. They do have internet, e-mail, telephones etc in China.

Our company have no problems at all with comms to and from China.

 

Having just been in Canada I can appreciate how difficult it is to get connected even in advanced countries. Even if they do manage to connect there's tons of stuff on their minds and it would be hard to focus on much. I assume they're working their butts off and that's what matters. There's absolutely nothing they can do to affect whether or not they got something so minor as glass.

If they did get the glass I'm sure coby and the technicians are hard at work getting printers ready. That's all that matters.

 

Glass is hardly minor when it is holding up all ABS printers. And how long would it take someone to log on and say "glass is here" or "glass is delayed".

ps I see Coby is logged on now and I am guessing he probably knows.

 

Thanks Coby. That is all we wanted to know.