[Closed] Waiting sucks  

Re: Waiting sucks

I feel your rant. I waited over 5 weeks when it was 3-4 weeks. I agree waiting does suck. Your love it though 😉

Re: Waiting sucks

Waiting is horrible... and it's amazing how time seems to slow down when you are...

As for the support, they can't give an exact date in case problems arise so hence the '1 more week' estimate... They could get a batch of faulty parts come in and end up waiting themselves!!

Josef has mentioned also that their current support/customer software is no longer able to deal with the shear number of customers they have now! I don't think they ever dreamed both the printers, kits and upgrades would sell as well as they do!!

What we need is the Prusa (Printable) Time Machine Delivery System™©®... you get the printer the day before you order it! 😮 😕 😯

Re: Waiting sucks

I know that feel, but the wait is totally worth it. Waited roughly a month myself for a preassembled unit in June/July.

Re: Waiting sucks

Oops - spotted a mistake in my original post. Ordered THREE WEEKS ago (not last week!) with a 3 week backlog. If I had ordered a week ago I wouldn't be complaining 🙂

One point I do want to make though - if an order isn't going to get shipped for weeks or months, I'm not really sure it's fair to take all the money on the day the customer places the order. Perhaps a deposit or something, but I'm a $1200 down and I have literally nothing to show for it, other than the expectation that I'll receive a printer at some point. If anything happened to PR (I'm sure it won't!) I'd be classed as an unsecured creditor and basically lose all my money.

If this was kickstarter then it is "backer beware" but this isn't kickstarter.

Re: Waiting sucks

If anything happened to PR (I'm sure it won't!) I'd be classed as an unsecured creditor and basically lose all my money.

Consider this: 6000+ printers sold with dual/quad upgrade possibilities. Maybe 3000+ users have pre-ordered or will do in a week or so.

That's way more than half a million Euros in the bank. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Peter

Re: Waiting sucks

I ordered a Mk2 (the assembled printer, not the kit) from the online shop a week ago, the page said there was a three week wait, but I really want a Mk2 so was prepared to wait. Today I used live chat and I'm told it's at least another week, but when I asked if it would definitely ship next week I got the answer "who knows".

It's pretty poor to over-run an estimate, it's even worse to not even tell your customer but have them contact you to chase and worse still if you can't give a decent expected delivery time.

Waiting sucks, and they had my money for weeks already and I have nothing.
</rant>

It seems like bad form to complain about something without proposing a solution.

Do you have a suggestion or are you merely here for attention and emotional coddling?

Re: Waiting sucks

I would have thought the solution was inferred - either send me the printer I've paid for or give me a date when I'll get it.

Re: Waiting sucks

I thought exactly the same when I ordered it. Prusa seem to have a very odd way of doing business. You should try buy spares 😆

That said the printer is friggin awesome so you sort of let it slip.

No other business would you pay the full price and not be given the product or a date for delivery. However if you paid a deposit and then didnt pay the rest when it was ready for delivery that would just cause more hassle then its worth so I can see why its full price.

Re: Waiting sucks

...However if you paid a deposit and then didnt pay the rest when it was ready for delivery that would just cause more hassle then its worth so I can see why its full price...

Hi believe Ben is on the point here.
I know some online sellers that tried preorders with just a down payment.
The trouble they got in varied:
- The Credit Card was not covered when it came to final payment
- People that changed 3 times there mind and there for needed to be refunded each time (which is losses to the seller as he has to cover the fees)
- Double effort for the accounting because many of the online shop systems do not really support down payments. In worst cases this means that the Order needs to be marked as not fully paid in the online store system and than the final payment needs to be managed manually. Only after the payment is fully arrived it can be marked (manually) as fully paid.

As much as I can understand sellers that don't want to take all the hassle, as much I understand buyers that are afraid of scams!
Unfortunately there are to many ...(word censored by myself)... out there which try to trick people into paying upfront and then not delivering.
Personally I am very careful with preorders. Actually I am only placing preorders on shops with very good reputation (like Jo Prusa's) and even than I think twice if I can wait with placing the order when there is stock again.

Yes waiting sucks!!! But....
Please try to look at it from Joe's side as well:
I can imagine that he wrote the truth when he wrote that he (and his Team) were overwhelmed by the success the MK2 has. As much as this is positive for all of us it is also a huge challenge for Joe and his team to adjust all the workflows to the high demands.
Only one (very simple) example would be packing the kits. I am only guessing that the parts are coming from apr. 10 suppliers. Before there was.... let say 2 people sorting and packing those parts into Kits. Chances are good that Joe had to get trained some extra people in packing the kits. This training has to be done by the ones who have before done the packing. Even if it takes only one day, this day there will be less kits shipped and there for the backlog increased....

Sorry for the rather long text.

All the Best
Frank

Re: Waiting sucks

Paul

Apologies for the grumpier members of this forum which you have used quite correctly to initiate a debate which has in the main, generated a good discussion.

The only thing I can add to this discussion is that in this case, the supplier has set the terms; you have the choice of accepting those terms or not.

The vast majority of us who have accepted the terms have been exceptionally happy with the result.

Peter

Re: Waiting sucks

I would have thought the solution was inferred - either send me the printer I've paid for or give me a date when I'll get it.

Here's how this game works.

You insist on a date. After you've given them your money.

They're like, "OK, he wants a date." So they give you a date.

Either they overshoot their date, or they give you some BS date way out in the future.

So where does that get you?

Re: Waiting sucks

I just want to chime in here, as a small business owner myself.

In my business, I ship out usually the same day, but if for some reason it doesn't go out the same day, I can sometimes get an angry email demanding "restitution" from a customer. The other 99.9% understand that sh*t happens or it's normal business (and don't care). I have actually had one person tell me he was suing me because it didn't go out the same day. (I am not selling life saving medication...) 🙄 It was a 4 dollar item. He's going to "sue" me for sending out his 4 dollar order the next day...

I think some of us don't really understand the difference between major retailers and small businesses and expect the exact same thing from every entity selling products. We also have a choice.. you made yours.

This is a slightly different business model than your average online retail store. This is a "hundreds and/or thousands" product, not a "hundred of thousands/millions" product, so they do not have an endless supply of parts or extra employees on hard to handle rushes, issues with the supply chain or even a worker calling out sick (maybe) can cause serious delays. This printer has recently been reviewed by several high profile people and outlets, it is being hailed as one of (if not the) best. They also just announced the 4 material upgrade pre-order. That also spurred people to buy the Mk2. They have to assemble and test your printer, then pack it properly, that takes at the very least 4 hours for each printer. If last week they received 100 orders and this week they get 200, that puts a strain on shipping schedules. It can even happen overnight. If you ordered at 7PM and between 2PM and 10PM there were 75 more orders, that can push your date back from what it listed as the lead time if they haven't had the chance to update.

Most people who buy from Prusa know a bit about him and the companies background, they have done their research about printers. They also know this is a small company and they are generally buying from Prusa to not only get a great printer but also to support their efforts.

In short.. they cannot 100% accurately predict a shipping date for many perfectly valid reasons. I ordered a kit and it shipped today, 9 days after I ordered it. It's a kit, not an assembled unit, they should have the parts right? I should be upset right? Demand something-something? Why am I not angry?

Simple. They are not Amazon or Walmart and I knew going in there might be delays and the end product is going to be fantastic. Not only that, but if I have to wait, that means everything is new and up to date and I am not getting a random box 'o parts that were laying on a shelf for a year.

When you buy something online and it says "lead time" or something to the effect that it won't be shipped right away, you make a choice. You made that choice. You can always cancel your order, there will be someone else very glad to get theirs shipped out faster.

Someone also said something about no other business doing this? I can probably rattle off a few thousand of them. This is nothing new for on demand niche products tested and assembled in house.

My long winded point here is it's best to pay attention to what kind of business you are ordering from, it will make things less stressful in the future. Contray to popular belief, we are not entitled to literally everything as consumers.

Re: Waiting sucks

I understand the OP's concern. Usually the follow-up with customer service is what can make or break confidence. Without trying to sound entitled (believe me I'm not, Ive handled various levels of customer service in my own businesses and for others for decades) the thing that might have unsettled the guy was the "who knows?" response when asking about it shipping soon. Some of it I would attribute to language/geography variations but at the core it could have come across as not caring, not interested, etc. I know here in the states that would get thrown all over social media and it'd be talked about on every news station about the anguish the customer received from the mistreatment. (laughs)

That said, I don't think the rep meant it that way, and chat/text cannot convey concern. I ordered one just awhile ago and I did ask ahead of time about current delays- only on the off chance I misunderstood the wait times and after reading a blog entry that confused me. Ive researched enough to be happy with my decision to order it and get in the queue but waiting is still uncomfortable considering (for me) what I'm doing on my end with the tech and Ive already been toying with a first printer that I surpassed its capabilities so knowing a great one is coming has me chomping at the bit.

Funny thing, my wife said I dumped the first printer like an ugly girlfriend after getting to take out a pole dancer (the Prusa MK2)

Gotta find humor in more things and to the OP, I think, based on the overall consensus I think the wait will be justified by the product and continued service Josef and crew are trying for.

Re: Waiting sucks

I have no desire to continually resurrect this thread, and many of the points raised are valid. However, I am still of the opinion that if, as a business selling an item to a customer - in this case a large, expensive item, if you publish a lead time then you should stick to it, or communicate that you can't.

If, as several people have said, lead times are impossible due to supply chain logistics, large numbers of orders or whatever, then don't publish a lead time - say that orders will be delayed till these things are resolved. If the lead time changes and you have a backlog of orders that you aren't going to meet, then a simple email advising of the fact isn't beyond the realms of customer service - particularly as you point out when you have hundreds rather than thousands of customers.

This isn't a $4 widget, this is a $1,100 printer which I've paid for, haven't received and still have no date when I will receive. You are all entitled to your opinion whether this is fair, reasonable or otherwise - as am I. My original intent for the forum post was two fold - firstly as the forum is marked as the official support channel for Prusa Research - to make my thoughts clear to PR. Secondly, for anyone doing their research ahead of buying a PR printer themselves, to see that the published lead times can't always be relied on.

My final point - I haven't in any way demanded restitution of any sort. I have simply asked when I will get the printer I was told I'd get a week ago. Given that it looks unlikely any PR person will respond to this forum post, I'm going to ask a moderator to close this. Keeping it tied to the top of the forum isn't really what I intended and I don't think serves much useful purpose.

Regards,
Paul.

Re: Waiting sucks

Hi Guys

As Paul has requested that the thread be closed, I have attempted to do so.

Peter

Re: Waiting sucks

Ok, we're waiting. There's not much more to babble about it... But I still need a support group like this thread, where I can whine about it for no reason!!! 😀
I think I'll have a heart attack the minute I'll get the ups delivery note. I'm just too excited, I keep visiting my order page every day to see if there's any progress.

RE: Waiting sucks

Why close the thread, Prusa needs to get moving, and fix all the crap.

WHEN A 300 X 300 X 400

PRUSA love to hate it, but what else is there? PRUSA is like marriage, one day everything is fine, the next day the police are taking you to jail for assault.

RE: Waiting sucks

Posted by: harry.s2

Why close the thread, Prusa needs to get moving, and fix all the crap.

You do realize you're responding to a thread that's nearly 3 years old and about the Mk2 printer, right?

RE: Waiting sucks

Posted by: bobstro

Posted by: harry.s2

Why close the thread, Prusa needs to get moving, and fix all the crap.

You do realize you're responding to a thread that's nearly 3 years old and about the Mk2 printer, right?

Pretty sure he's a troll, he posted the same crap in a bunch of other old threads he necro'ed