Almost NO PLA basic in EU shop

Bambu Filament and Accesories
1

Why is there hardly any Bambulab PLA Basic available in the Bambulab EU-shop?

2

While I realized that this is very frustrating, this mirrors my own first experience with Bambu Labs.

When I first got my P1P of course the first thing I wanted to do is print an enclosure and they were out of PLA Basic Black!!! I mean C’Mon now!!! They couldn’t keep black filament in stock???

But Bambu actually did me a favor. It forced me to try off-brand filaments. Due to my many hit or miss experience with Ink Jet printers, I knew that going off-brand brings risk and I assumed that would be the same for FDM. Oh boy was I wrong. I purchase another brands from Amazon and it opened a whole world of filament adventure.

By the time Bambu fulfilled my backorder - four weeks after I purchase my printer and after I had already been using the competition - you know what I found? I found the following:

  • Their filament is not the high quality they profess. I had better printing experience with many of their competitor’s products.
  • Their Filament is way overpriced by at least 40-60% compared to Amazon vendors
  • Their lead times are atrocious. 10-14 days for what can be gotten in two days on Amazon.
  • Their return policies for all intents and purposes don’t exist.
  • Their customer service policies and minimum order quantities in order to qualify for free shipping are completely out of step with the rest of the industry. I can buy Prusa or Creality and get it in 2 days with no minimums or surcharges.

So think of it this way. Bambu Lab is actually doing you a favor by forcing you to consider other alternatives. Once you do, you will realize that you’ve been paying more for less.

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3

At this moment 20240116 12:30 CET, there are ONLY 3 COLOURS available of the 20 (spool) + 13 (refill) colours (pink, purple and magenta).

I understand you Olias.
However, I tried different brands of PLA, but non of them - untill now - are performing at the same level as BambuPLA. I am afraid I will have to start testing onther brands.
So much for cotinuity in my printed products.

SHAME ON BAMBULAB.

4

Really?!?! You’re upset because Bambu has sold a lot of filament and printers over the holiday season. They aren’t out of stock on purpose. Give your head a shake and smarten up.

2 Likes
5

Also understand the “unrest” in the Middle East has caused a lot of havoc/delays for shipments to the EU.

2 Likes
6

You may have missed the point here. This is not about Bambu selling out of product, this is about poor customer support and incompetent inventory management. Mideast wars notwithstanding, why is there filament available everywhere else except Bambu?

How would you feel if you bought a car and could only fill it up with gas at the dealership, but the dealership didn’t upgrade their gas tanks, so you often couldn’t use your car? Some people prefer to stick with the brand they bought to avoid problems, and they expect the company to support their product. Has Bambu done that in this case?

I recognize that the above analogy is not the same given the choice of filament vendors. But the point is nevertheless the same. For me it’s obviously a non-issue since - as stated above - I consider Bambu filament a poor value but I respect that others may prefer to not risk or would rather have the convenience and piece of mind using OEM filament. As misguided as it might seem to place such loyalty with a questionable vendor, they still have the right be angry at the vendor who let them down.

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Spot on, Olias
Thank you

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@ Olias

I’m printing a lot of PLA-CF. If you have any alternative product for that, I would appreciate it :wink:
I can not agree on what you said. Bambulab delivery is very fast (in my case usually 3 days). With the membership I got basic PLA for a roughly 19€/kg. I don’t think you will find something cheaper at similar quality.

General remark about Bambulab: What they have done in a short time is absolutely amazing. So many great products in such a short time. Scaling up a business or service will always mean, that not everything will be perfect from the beginning. If you are telling something different, please show that you have done something similar :wink: