New found respect for Prusa support
It’s early(ish) morning for me, I’m on my second coffee, and I’m scrolling this forum looking at the Nth variation of: why does my print fail, why does my print warp, why are my belts pulling out, why is my printer crashing, why is my Nextruder making these noises…
Several of us here are volunteer support. I do it because I enjoy it (mostly), and because I usually learn something in the process—sometimes by getting it wrong. Then later, when it happens to me, it’s like: “OK, I know how to fix this…”
There are also users who post a help question, get answers, and then we never hear from them again (presumably because the problem is fixed).
I can imagine being a Prusa support engineer, clocking in to start a shift and already having ten people in the queue waiting for help. You pick up the next case and it’s your 100th “Why is the filament not coming out?”
So this morning I see my Nth “Why is the Nextruder making this noise?” I start typing a response, then halfway through I delete it. Not because it was necessarily wrong, but because I caught myself thinking: “I’m done with ‘Nextruder making noises.’”
And yet, I still see this as fun. Why else do people volunteer their time? Because they like helping others.
And honestly, it’s given me a new level of respect for the people who do this all day, every day.
RE: New found respect for Prusa support
Usually people are able to withstand on the helpdesk support role for about 2 years, then it gets too repetitive and frustrating.
Now imagine not everyone comes to the forums....
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.
RE: New found respect for Prusa support
Usually people are able to withstand on the helpdesk support role for about 2 years, then it gets too repetitive and frustrating.
Kudos to the support people who hang in there for two years, doing it as a full-time job. I have only been active on this forum for one year, and only in my spare time, and am already getting the "repetitive and frustrating" vibe.
RE: New found respect for Prusa support
I know companies where research and development employees also have to work in first-level support. Even though many problems are due to user errors — especially not reading the accompanying instructions and manuals — analyzing support requests still offers considerable potential for product improvements.
Another difficult aspect of support is the behavior of many customers who believe that once they have purchased a product, they also own the company.
Prusa Support was extremely busy during the Formnext trade fair, especially after the launch of IndX. This was very noticeable. Support sometimes has a difficult time when it cannot answer all questions about a new product because it does not have the relevant Information.
For time being my contacts to support - email or chats - where very friendly and helpful.
Core One L
RE: New found respect for Prusa support
I understand you very well.
Based on my professional experience, I can give you a tip:
Create templates, save links and shortcuts to existing problems or solutions, use formatting, and insert this into your response, which you would write manually.
All the support centers I know have been doing this for years. You have to work efficiently and save time when dealing with countless repetitions of the same topics.
Sometimes “please use the search function” helps, but I always feel like the other person feels rejected and put off without real help.
Support work is hard. Not physically, but mentally. Stress and time pressure take their toll on your condition. As I wrote above, you have to prepare yourself for the daily situation and adjust well, then it becomes fun again. Not to mention your own learning curve.
Quick start printing for Prusa XL and Prusa Core One
Comfortable display working height on the Prusa Core One
Reducing metallic resonance noises on the Prusa Core One
RE: New found respect for Prusa support
I understand you very well.
Based on my professional experience, I can give you a tip:
Create templates, save links and shortcuts to existing problems or solutions, use formatting, and insert this into your response, which you would write manually.
All the support centers I know have been doing this for years. You have to work efficiently and save time when dealing with countless repetitions of the same topics.
Sometimes “please use the search function” helps, but I always feel like the other person feels rejected and put off without real help.
Support work is hard. Not physically, but mentally. Stress and time pressure take their toll on your condition. As I wrote above, you have to prepare yourself for the daily situation and adjust well, then it becomes fun again. Not to mention your own learning curve.
When I started doing that on my astronomy forum, copy/pasting answers to common questions, it for sure helped the OP but at that point I was no longer enjoying the experience because it was now mechanical rather than creative. Also there was no longer an up-side for me since I knew the topics well enough that it no longer held my interest. The result was going from a prolific poster (as on here) to dropping out entirely because I became bored. The spark was no longer there.
I'm still learning 3D printing. I've had a printer of some sort for 6 years now but have only embraced the hobby in the last 6 months: making my own designs and working with engineering plastics as opposed to printing someone else's trinket in PLA. For now I will continue to hand-craft responses to questions but probably will start skipping over the N+1 'Why are my belts getting pulled from the harness?'
RE: New found respect for Prusa support
Though not a degreed engineer, I've done engineering work my entire career, over 50 years. I've also run a customer service department. The Core One is my first printer and it's only been a few months, but I've been involved with 3D printing for several years. I find the mechanisms and process fascinating. In the early days, imagine if somebody had said, "Someday we'll be able to squirt melted plastic out of a nozzle at just the right temperature and just the right rate to build surfaces in mid-air!" They might have been laughed out of the room, but here we are. Or "Hey, and then we'll scale it up, use concrete, and build houses with it!"
I like to understand things at a deeper level than most, and I like to help people if I can. I often write things that are too long to post, so I put new pages on my website and link to them. FYI, my site is non-commercial. It collects no info and you can't buy anything. It has no ads. I get no pennies for clicks. It's just there to spread technical information on subjects I find interesting.
So many things are interesting and it's impossible to keep up enthusiasm for everything all the time. I drift from topic to topic over months to years and back again. We'll see if this 3D printing thing catches on.
RE: New found respect for Prusa support
When I started doing that on my astronomy forum, copy/pasting answers to common questions, it for sure helped the OP but at that point I was no longer enjoying the experience because it was now mechanical rather than creative.
Mix it up. Take the best from each one. No two posts are alike because they are all the same—to sum it up. Your personal touch in one reply determines the course of the next replies 😉
Quick start printing for Prusa XL and Prusa Core One
Comfortable display working height on the Prusa Core One
Reducing metallic resonance noises on the Prusa Core One
RE: New found respect for Prusa support
Help desk support is not easy work. I did PC hardware tech support by phone for nearly 12 years. What I would have given for someone to send me a photo! I managed several helpdesks for several companies. Hiring support types is not easy either. As stated, many burn out after a few years. And the 100th, my terminal is locking up, call of the day gets old. Yes, I worked with products that attached serial terminals to PCS to run Unix. Yes, I am that old!
Long before the internet, when I managed a helpdesk, my goal, or our goals, was to not need to solve the same problem over and over and over...
At one company, the support people took over writing and rewriting the instruction books and changing photographs. Engineers do not write good instruction books! These were the early days of boards that went into PCs with dozens of DIP switches on them. Then installing somewhat complicated software to run the terminals, and editing UNIX files to make them work. Nothing is super hard, just not intuitive to all. As we worked to resolve the ongoing problem that we had to answer over and over, we would rewrite the instruction books. Then implemented a new approach. While the instruction books was ready to go to print, we would grab one of the secretaries or shipping clerks that knew jack about UNIX and hand them the new instruction book, set them down in our lab with the product and OC and tell them to install it. Our repeat rate for solving the same installation problem over and over went down dramatically! I had written a database that tracked all this.
Support work via phone or chat is hard work. I applaud Prusa most of the time for the job they do 24/7. I do wonder what method they use to track working with the same customer on the same problem over and over to see that "retention the belts" is not working. But overall, they do good work.
It takes a good support manager and good people to maintain a great working environment. It is hard work, over the phone, via chat, on-site, or any other way.
Extra HAM Radio - N4MCC
RE: New found respect for Prusa support
Help desk support is not easy work. I did PC hardware tech support by phone for nearly 12 years.
My fellow tech support warrior in the trenches, please accept this brotherly hug of comradeship.... I can't say I did that many years consecutively, but I got my time in as well.
I did tech support for;
A couple of local ISP companies, one that was going under fast but refused to inform their customers.
Product tech support.
Consulting firm's help desk.
VOIP service and support center.
The dreaded retail / customer service desk.
And finally ended up finishing my time with customer / tech support with Prusa after a few years, but I still help out where I can.
The things I've seen... the scars I still carry 🙂
Shane (AKA FromPrusa)
RE: New found respect for Prusa support
Same here. I moderate several forums and have respect for them also.
On one forum, a guy tore into me when I suggested that he dry his filament. He snapped back that it is brand new and just opened. You can’t win trying to help sometimes.
It’s early(ish) morning for me, I’m on my second coffee, and I’m scrolling this forum looking at the Nth variation of: why does my print fail, why does my print warp, why are my belts pulling out, why is my printer crashing, why is my Nextruder making these noises…
Several of us here are volunteer support. I do it because I enjoy it (mostly), and because I usually learn something in the process—sometimes by getting it wrong. Then later, when it happens to me, it’s like: “OK, I know how to fix this…”
There are also users who post a help question, get answers, and then we never hear from them again (presumably because the problem is fixed).
I can imagine being a Prusa support engineer, clocking in to start a shift and already having ten people in the queue waiting for help. You pick up the next case and it’s your 100th “Why is the filament not coming out?”
So this morning I see my Nth “Why is the Nextruder making this noise?” I start typing a response, then halfway through I delete it. Not because it was necessarily wrong, but because I caught myself thinking: “I’m done with ‘Nextruder making noises.’”
And yet, I still see this as fun. Why else do people volunteer their time? Because they like helping others.
And honestly, it’s given me a new level of respect for the people who do this all day, every day.
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Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog