Pitfalls When Ordering  

Pitfalls When Ordering

My i3 MK3 order is seriously delayed, and I thought it might be helpful to highlight the things that I might do differently if ordering now. You can read this as “advice”, but realize that some of these items are based on conjectures or hunches on my part.

(I’m saying “Seriously delayed” because I ordered in Week 46, and it’s now week 12. That’s 18 weeks, 4+ months, 125 days. This puts my order 9 weeks past behind their currently posted shipping schedule.)

Thoughts, realizations, and things I would do differently:

* I ordered some extra extruders with my printer. It might be that ordering extra stuff with your printer causes delays. It can be devilishly difficult to determine if one of those extra parts is holding up your order.

* I (stupidly) asked to delay shipment by one week. We were away on a trip, and it looked like the printer would ship during that time. I didn't want the printer sitting on our doorstep. I also felt that others in line could get their printer earlier, with no delay for me. Bad move. I suspect that the workflow at Prusa was disturbed by this unusual request.

* I ordered black printed parts. Maybe orange is more common and readily available?? I was told by one service person on the Chat interface that Black parts were out of stock.

* Adding my name to the Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet might have helped. Although this seems far-fetched to me, I started getting more detailed responses to my queries within 12 hours of adding a row on the [Orders] tab.

Regarding getting reliable information about your order:

* Asking the folks on the Chat interface has not proven useful for me. They certainly deal with lots of problems and issues and are always very pleasant and I feel there is a genuine desire to be helpful. However, they do not seem to have access to authoritative information. If you are asking if a given part is out of stock (and thus holding up your order), they may not have reliable information. I have similarly found that information as to probable ship dates for my order are not reliable.

* The “In Stock” information on the web site does not appear to be a reliable indicator of what parts might be holding up your order.

* I seem to get more reliable information from using the "Add a Message" system on the Order History page of your order (versus the Chat interface). I did receive a direct email from a Customer Support person when I posted my question as a message on my order. This might be the same thing as sending an email to [email protected], but I'm not positive.

My overall feeling is still positive. I get the sense that all the folks at Prusa are exuberantly enthusiastic. This attitude may have nudged realism into optimism when it comes to production schedules, and the inevitable SNAFUs that occur with large-scale production of leading-edge designs. When I consider they are working in an OpenSource environment, with flocks of competitors and a substantial expansion underway, their progress has been amazing.

-- Clint Goss