Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order  

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

That said, Holy Carp! 7000 in the backlog! I’d love to see a video/documentary on how Prusa manages the logistics and allocation of their printer farm! How many of each model is in service? How manytotal parts in production, and how many of each part is printed on each printer? It’s a problem space that could use some super nerdy analytics...

Let me add a me too to your sentiment. I would absolutely enjoy learning more about the endeavors of the Prusa Research team! Everything else is open sourced. How about a small peek under the covers. A Procumentary... 🙄

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

That said, Holy Carp! 7000 in the backlog! I’d love to see a video/documentary on how Prusa manages the logistics and allocation of their printer farm! How many of each model is in service? How manytotal parts in production, and how many of each part is printed on each printer? It’s a problem space that could use some super nerdy analytics...

Their business processes are the real intellectual property. I’d be curious to know, but I’m sure they’ll keep that info close to their vest. They do an amazing job.

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

I do not know, where the original poster got the data. But we had 600 preorders from the launch week alone. We promised to start shipping in November and we did. Expecting us to ship thousands of preorders at day one is not reasonable. We provided a shipping table at the earliest point we could estimate dates. We shipped almost 2000 printers before Christmas. Right now there is around 7000 more preorders and we expect to clear them out in March. I would say we are on a pretty good track compared to MK2 launch.

Anyhow we are very happy for any new member of 3D printing community, no matter if it is i3 or not. Happy printing!

Everyone except the OP knows this. You’re cranking them out, we know. Its just this culture of "next day delivery" that makes business hard. Everyone has really high expectations and no patience. Sure he got a printer quick… but he didn't get a PR MK3 😉

Cant wait to join the 3D printing community with a MK3!

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

from here : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-N3lr0HiqUotot7OENLwsvehnlxSr1U3WVRhi9QyyGA/edit#gid=0
Which is apparently community maintained and does not reflect the full backlog. My mistake.

However, you practices have been misleading and you know it. And until the 14th of January, your accurate estimate" showed my order would be delivered the week of the 15th. How infuriating you think it is that after several delays already (November then December) , you discover this on the website, right at the beginning of the week when your order was doe to ship, without even a word of excuse ? And then when you call support, their first answer is "we will cancel your order if you want"... as if they were happy to get rid of customers who have waited patiently for months ? I still maintain you need to fix these supply chain and delivery issues, and try - honestly - not to mislead your customers, and treat them as if all you really want is to hae them off your back. Other companies clearly manage this better, so should you.

Honestly, if I owned a business… I would want to cancel your order too. Who wants to deal with someone with such a bad attitude. I’m not trying to agitate this thread but damn dude… kick back and have a beer or something.

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

Honestly, if I owned a business… I would want to cancel your order too. Who wants to deal with someone with such a bad attitude. I’m not trying to agitate this thread but damn dude… kick back and have a beer or something.

I just assume this person is young and has been handed everything throughout the years. I ordered in early November, and had an estimated ship date in January. Then, shortly after, I saw they were having issues with a supplier. I got an email from their team, and I opted to wait a bit longer for the powder coated heat bed. My current ship date is now February 5.

I'm willing to wait knowing that I won't have to mod the hell out of this machine to get it up to my standards.

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

ok, enough from olivier.p6 for now.
it's ok to post complaints here, but spamming the board and "misbehaving" is another thing.
I think we all agree that the prusa backlog is not nice and here are several people who waited for their MK2 or MM-kit for more than half a year (and I'm pretty sure that my MK2.5 upgrade kit won't arrive this month).
so we all wish that prusa would be able to satisfy the users demands much faster, but at last it's all related to Josef's management decisions.

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

just be nice to be kept up to date even if it is delays

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

I ordered my printer on Oct 8th and received it this past Friday, Jan 19th.

I do not think that I was mislead or misinformed here.

I knew the moment i placed the order that this would be a January delivery.

I am very happy with the time that it took to ship.

Sure, everyone would like their new purchase to be delivered promptly.

People forget that this is a New Product and Prusa is a small company.

People forget that New Products can have issues, with manufacturing, supply, design changes, etc, all of which can lead to delays.

If certain people are not willing to accept these "delays" in a new product, then they should order the product until the manufacturing process has worked out all the kinks and delays. Its that simple.

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

Funny how some people expectations are out of touch with reality.

I have been researching which printer to buy for 6 months, ive never owned a 3d printer before.

Through my research i have decided on the Mk3. While reading up about it i was made aware of the possible delays, and the very much beta tester method in which this launch has played out since nov.

Mine is expected to ship late march, i realize this likely means april, and would be happy even if pushed back to june. Because i know from reading all the blogs/updates that these guys are working hard to handle these teething issues and im not seeing anyone not being taken care of by customer service. I would rather wait that have a printer sent out with issues on day 1.

I dont understand how anyone would be waiting for this printer and not knowing the issues if they had been paying any attention.

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

This has definitely been a "Solve one problem and three more crop up." release. Not pointing fingers as these things happen. Honestly I think part of the "problem" is that Prusa and his team have a tendency to handle problems fairly quickly by accommodating as many people as they can. We have a tendency to keep setting the bar higher and higher. Fortunately he and his team are able to get over the bar eventually. Then we set it higher.

Just A Random Thought,

Neal

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

I agree with problems from suppliers. Not all shipping problems and other problems with mk3 was PRUSA RESEARCH , fault but other suppliers.

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

I agree with problems from suppliers. Not all shipping problems and other problems with mk3 was PRUSA RESEARCH , fault but other suppliers.

We have a saying where I work, "It's not Fu!@#ed up until it goes out the door Fu!@#ed up" Stuff happens but when there's a problem you have to own it.

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

Personally, I expected delays and not too heart broken over it. However, OP is spot on with their assessment regarding communication. You attract customers with a good product, you keep them for life with great service. Lack of communication results in lack of trust from your customers. It's not too hard to have someone spend 30 minutes A WEEK to communicate delays. Simple automated emails stating that you are ### in queue with estimated ship date of XX/XX/XXXX would be awesome and a great way to connect to the customer Prusa is a tech company, it should be extremely easy to determine average run rate to create that report. I think it's amusing that I've received better communication for a $25 roll of filament from amazon than I have for a $750 printer.

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

I've been in the BPO/customer service industry scene for almost 12 years, in positions from agent to global workforce management...
I know what I'm talking about, and THIS gentleman hits the nail on the head. It's all about the communication for me.
If Prusa asked, I would certainly volunteer to help him any way I can on that front, within the limits of my noncompete agreement...

My company (again, a huge BPO) has a saying....in contrast with edward.c6....These ideas do scale up or down with any company.
"In an increasingly technical world, it's people that make the difference"
"MIssion: Create and grow emotionally connected, valuable, lasting relationships"
"Act as one" - this means, your company is your face, all the way from supply chain to the customer, so make sure there's no zits to deal with before the big date!

Personally, I expected delays and not too heart broken over it. However, OP is spot on with their assessment regarding communication. You attract customers with a good product, you keep them for life with great service. Lack of communication results in lack of trust from your customers. It's not too hard to have someone spend 30 minutes A WEEK to communicate delays. Simple automated emails stating that you are ### in queue with estimated ship date of XX/XX/XXXX would be awesome and a great way to connect to the customer Prusa is a tech company, it should be extremely easy to determine average run rate to create that report. I think it's amusing that I've received better communication for a $25 roll of filament from amazon than I have for a $750 printer.

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

I've been in the BPO/customer service industry scene for almost 12 years, in positions from agent to global workforce management...
I know what I'm talking about, and THIS gentleman hits the nail on the head. It's all about the communication for me.
If Prusa asked, I would certainly volunteer to help him any way I can on that front, within the limits of my noncompete agreement...

My company (again, a huge BPO) has a saying....in contrast with edward.c6....These ideas do scale up or down with any company.

I agree, communication is the key and it has been missing.
When communication is missing rumors start and small issues get blown out of proportions. Like noise, blown up PSUs, power recovery, ...

A simple web page with identified problems, their status and what is done would have been good.
A log with current news like "New beta firmware can be downloaded here...", "Ticks is related to PSU, we investigate", "Contact Support if your rods is non-magnetic and have grooves", updated daily as long as needed.
Not just problem related news, but also news line "We are ahead of schedule and shipped 500 units more before Christmas.", "New profile for Simplify3D ready".

It is not too late... 😉

Just some thoughts...

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

I've been in the BPO/customer service industry scene for almost 12 years, in positions from agent to global workforce management...
I know what I'm talking about, and THIS gentleman hits the nail on the head. It's all about the communication for me.
If Prusa asked, I would certainly volunteer to help him any way I can on that front, within the limits of my noncompete agreement...

My company (again, a huge BPO) has a saying....in contrast with edward.c6....These ideas do scale up or down with any company.

I agree, communication is the key and it has been missing.
When communication is missing rumors start and small issues get blown out of proportions. Like noise, blown up PSUs, power recovery, ...

A simple web page with identified problems, their status and what is done would have been good.
A log with current news like "New beta firmware can be downloaded here...", "Ticks is related to PSU, we investigate", "Contact Support if your rods is non-magnetic and have grooves", updated daily as long as needed.
Not just problem related news, but also news line "We are ahead of schedule and shipped 500 units more before Christmas.", "New profile for Simplify3D ready".

It is not too late... 😉

Just some thoughts...

THIS, this is exactly what's needed. Just simple tweet sized updates on a page so we know things are in motion. An email saying roughly what place you are in the queue would be great too. Communication is needed and servearly lacking.

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

THIS, this is exactly what's needed. Just simple tweet sized updates on a page so we know things are in motion. An email saying roughly what place you are in the queue would be great too. Communication is needed and servearly lacking.

So something like this that is on their webpage?

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

A simple web page with identified problems, their status and what is done would have been good.
A log with current news like "New beta firmware can be downloaded here...", "Ticks is related to PSU, we investigate", "Contact Support if your rods is non-magnetic and have grooves", updated daily as long as needed.
Not just problem related news, but also news line "We are ahead of schedule and shipped 500 units more before Christmas.", "New profile for Simplify3D ready".

It is not too late... 😉

Just some thoughts...

you mean like the blog post from the other day with that info? or https://www.prusa3d.com/drivers with up-to-date firmware and drivers/changelogs including betas?

daily is ridiculous, even weekly is too much at this scale. I haven't had an issue yet that hasn't had a front page forum post with at least some official response.

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

A simple web page with identified problems, their status and what is done would have been good.
A log with current news like "New beta firmware can be downloaded here...", "Ticks is related to PSU, we investigate", "Contact Support if your rods is non-magnetic and have grooves", updated daily as long as needed.
Not just problem related news, but also news line "We are ahead of schedule and shipped 500 units more before Christmas.", "New profile for Simplify3D ready".

It is not too late... 😉

Just some thoughts...

you mean like the blog post from the other day with that info? or https://www.prusa3d.com/drivers with up-to-date firmware and drivers/changelogs including betas?

daily is ridiculous, even weekly is too much at this scale. I haven't had an issue yet that hasn't had a front page forum post with at least some official response.

The blog posts is great, but there is too long between posts. Posts could be much shorter and posted when a problem/news are identified/available. Some of the problems addressed in the blog has been circulation on the forum for weeks and been base for unnecessary rumors and speculations.

I think posts and updates should be posted so frequently, that the blog and the official PR info/drivers pages is the primary place to get general answers to PR products, not the forum.

The forum is great for discussions and the user community in general, but should not be the primary place for important information.

Re: Delays over delays for the MK3 - I'm fed up, cancelled my order

THIS, this is exactly what's needed. Just simple tweet sized updates on a page so we know things are in motion. An email saying roughly what place you are in the queue would be great too. Communication is needed and servearly lacking.

So something like this that is on their webpage?Screenshot_20180124-094830.png

I mean basically what area51 has stated info wise so we know what's going on and not sit on forums for info or wait months for a blog post. And what I meant by queue would be something like number 5723 or even less precise than that like batch numbers, and just have a on said page a current batch being processed is... just so you can get a sense of progression and communication. I can and will wait for my printer, I know it will get here but the information drought on processing orders and problems is hard to deal with.