Clearing out emails today and happened to come across a post in the Bambu reddit saying they had bought a bunch of Bambu filament sat around for a while and when they opened box it had a spool of Elegool filament in it.
Admittedly from Reddit but just wondering at how likely that is. On my way out I did post asking about if it had an RFID on it. A little more to it but seems sketchy to me.
I think the story could be true.
In China, there are specialized companies just make one product and those companies doing the same thing are located in the same area, like a herd of animal stay in one place.
Buyer companies just buy products from those OEMs and stick their brand names on it. Those OEMs can even do custom packaging service, modify product, laser engraving, finish packing and seal off.. you name it. So that buyer companies just ship that package directly to customer without doing anything, like a dropshipping company.
It could be true that BBL spools and Elegoo spools came from the same factory and the mixups happenned. Regardless I don’t see anything special about BBL filament. I only see it is way overprice considering it made in china and having an extra rfid tag for a tiny bit of convenience.
The elegoo and bambu basics are similar, but I think that is just because they are both eSun.
If you want to compare them:
Source: Sent Filament from Another Company
When viewed in full context, the problem with that case was that the filament packaging was opened well over 30 days after the filament was received - a significant delay - meaning that no one can verify either party’s credibility anymore. Neither the Reddit user nor Bambu.
Of course, not everyone opens their filament cardboard box to check it - mine also sit around unopened for months - but that makes it hard to keep track of this case.
Unfortunately, fakes are constantly being posted on Bambu sub. So for now, I’m taking a neutral stance: If there are a lot of cases, we’ll definitely hear about them. Wehave to question everything on the subreddit these days, since nothing is verified. Perhaps the user is trying to harm Bambu - or could he actually be right? In cases like this, important photos are always missing - such as those of the packaging.
However, one thing is almost certain: Bambu does not manufacture filament itself, but instead has it produced by other manufacturers. It’s been known for a long time that Bambu simply has the manufacturing company put their label on the filament, which isn’t unusual - many companies do that.
You would think by now one of the rival manufacturers or Bambu haters would have done a chemical analysis of filament from major manufacturers to find out who makes Bambu’s filament.
Companies absolutely reverse engineer their competitors products so I can’t understand why this has not yet been published or leaked.
I heard of a lab in Australia analysing filament samples to see if they could identity the manufacturer for the purpose of catching gun printers. They asked Australians to send them sample prints, and then their analysis said it all came from 3 manufacturers in China, but didn’t state the names.
The thing that seemed iffy to me for folks who read the reddit post was so this person buys 20 rolls of filament which sit around for a while which is not a problem. The part was where the very first roll they opened was not Bambu. In my experience with all the refills and spools I have bought is they all have some sort of tamper evident seal on the cardboard outer box. Me, I would have IMMEDIATELY done a survey of the seals on the other 19 boxes to see if they had been tampered with post packaging.
Had the seals been tampered with it would be evident which opens up the possibility of someone stealing the Bambu filament and replacing it in a distribution warehouse potentially. So I think most people, if they open box #1 of 20, of any product and it isn’t what they bought would check the other 19. Some people might not think of the seal aspect in that scenario but 100% of people who buy 20 of anything and the first one is not correct are going to chec the other 19. Yet in that post not a peep about “it was just that one roll” or “They ended up all being Elegoo spools.” Also, were these refills or spools. The color I would guess to be some PLA so should to my way of thinking been an order of refills rather than spools because the number of excess spools can get out of hand in a hurry and be more expensive if you were constantly buying spooled filament.
Refills you can see everything through the clear vacuum bag.
I also think that Bambu Labs would want to know if there was a issues with packaging and product coming out of their company. Most companies are pretty concerned about image and hard for me to see BL just dissing the person right from the start. Ive had to deal the BL customer service and tech support and those times I had no gripes about service
The only possibility I can think of - and since no one on Reddit has come up with it: A customer ordered filament, but then decided to return it. He had already used one roll of filament. So he quickly slipped a roll from another manufacturer into the package to claim the entire order as a complete return. The warehouse didn’t check it, and it went back into inventory.
But as I said, this is just a guess. There’s so much information missing in this case. Normally, Bambu also replaces filament even after 30 days. In this case, however, Bambu must have made a deliberate decision not to do so.
There’s a good reason why “cases” like this are only posted on Reddit and never on the forum. There, they’d fall apart at the mere request for a photo and proof.
We noticed it back then with the A1 and burnt circuit board incident: Reddit was flooded with fake photos and reports. Some of those Reddit users also appeared on this forum, and it was immediately obvious that their posts were fake. They had no chance of posting unverified fake cases.
At the end of the day, it’s always the same: Cases like these are always missing the crucial information - always. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen, but without proof? The only “proof” provided was a photo of an Elegoo filament spool - but for Reddit respectively Bambu sub, that’s enough. One of the reasons I left the sub years ago after all these years, even though I was in the top 1% of contributors back then.