Filament Shipping Issues

Bambu Filament and Accesories
1

Anyone else having issue with their Bambu Filament arriving in workable condition? I mean I only print around 10-15 spools a month but these last three shipments have completely turned me to another provider. I love Bambu filament always have had good results but the condition of the refills when they arrive is completely un-acceptable and not because the box isn’t pretty but because the spool refills are literally crushed and / or all tangled right out of the sealed airlock bag. Out of the last 30 spools I have had to respool 12. I don’t contact support because it takes them 3 to 4 days just to reply and get a solution. Took 2 weeks to get a fan replaced under warranty, after a week I just ordered the 12$ fan and had it in 3 days 4 days before the warranty replacement showed up

definitely looking for a change but curious as I can’t be the only one having spools arriving in this condition. Seems their qa qc process is asleep at the wheel

2

No issues with Bambu filament for me.

I don’t think it is a QC issue. It is most likely shipping. Sometimes with the refills you have to massage them a little bit to get everything lined back up.

If you are looking to switch, Polymaker has been great for me recently. The only downside is that most are shipped on cardboard spools. Some people don’t like them, I don’t think it makes a big difference except having some extra waste to throw in recycling.

3

Please post pictures of what these bags look like prior to opening.

Are you ripping the plastic bands off the refills before or after putting them on the spool?

4

I use Bambu refill filament almost exclusively. I haven’t experienced any problems yet, but that doesn’t mean you won’t. To me, however, it seems more likely to be an issue with the delivery service. As has already been noted: Please post some photos.

This will help us to understand what you mean by ‘completely unacceptable’.

I’ll say this right off the bat: I think it’s strange that you didn’t take any photos and send them to Support straight away. Normally, you’d get a replacement sent to you. Even if it takes several days to get a response. Would you give up on a free replacement filament?

Not just once, but three times? And all without opening a ticket? And three times without providing a photo, even though you’ve apparently had that happen before? Three times giving up on a free replacement filament?

… yeah… there’s a piece of the puzzle missing here, isn’t it? I don’t want to defend Bambu, but come on, post the whole story with photos. :grin: :+1:

5

filament8
filament81920×2560 643 KB

filament1
filament11920×2560 940 KB

filament5
filament51920×2560 595 KB

filament6
filament61920×2560 932 KB

Sorry thought I had attached the pictures of the shipment I received today. Here they are, be Sceptical all you would like, but this is how they are arriving to me, every box of 10-12 spools I receive a few that are damaged in this capacity, today 3 of the spool boxes damaged, one with crushed filament and the bag broken so its not air tight. Ill post more pictures tomorrow when another 10 spools arrive, doesn’t seem matter if its UPS or Fedex or DHL. Todays shipment came FedEx and tomorrows is UPS.

As far as waiting 3 - 5 days for a replacement, not sure what your time is worth, but the 1 hour it takes to deal with the going back and forth with support is 130$ of CAD design time for me so yeah its not worth a 10$ PLA spool when I can respool it in 15 min or toss it in the recycle bin. As far as the “Never opening a ticket” with support, again, I have other tickets open with them as all our equipment is Bambu and when it takes 2 days for them to just say yeah you need this or can you send us that, again, we are a time is money shop as most of what we do is CAD but 3D print prototypes and samples. By all means not bashing Bambu so get off that horse, we have a fairly large investment with multiple machines, I just was curious if anyone else has this issue with their shipments like we are having.

6

Ive seen worse. Those dont look too terrible.

What specifically are the print issues that you are having that leads to either respooling it or throwing it away?

Having a popped bag or dented box is not pretty, but it doesnt look like the filament is damaged.

7

Also no not taking the bands off the refill until it is spooled and the locked together, sorry I didnt realize I replied to you with the pics and info, forums not really my thing, just was curious if others have these issues.

8

When I open the bag in a bit Ill get you a close up of the filament, this one is not terrible the previous ones were far worse, bag being popped is not such a deal as I dry the filament before use anyways

9

I order much less and mostly through Amazon and what I get is similar. I haven’t had anything bust loose.

10

First of all, thanks for posting the photos; now the whole topic makes a lot more sense than your original post.

Based on the photos so far, it still looks like there’s a problem with the delivery service. If it were a specific warehouse, a lot of users would be complaining about it on the forum and on Reddit.

From which warehouse were the packages shipped? EU, US, or UK? Is it possible that the packages came from China and were only handed over to the other delivery services later? That might explain a few things…

Edit: I already found it: Arizona, United States, right? As far as we know, the U.S. warehouse checks the items at least on the outside before shipping to make sure they’re in good condition. This suggests that it happened either on the way from the warehouse to you - or the shipment came directly from China. You should be able to check your shipping confirmation to see what the country of origin was.

11

Thank you RetroSharky, these ship from US warehouse, I’m a certain the ones today and ones coming tomorrow are from California warehouse as they are a 1 day transit to me, I have had some ship from the east coast with the same problem, just one shipment of the prior 3 and that’s exactly what I was trying to figure out. The first one I got was Ontrac, think I mentioned DHL but after looking it was Ontrac, today was first FedEx and the other ones have all been UPS.

just trying to figure out if it’s the shipping company, the warehouse as the warehouse appears to be a fulfillment company or what. I’ll also clarify I probably didn’t need to respool all of them but after the first and second delivery’s the damaged boxes seem to jam up the AMS, spool lines were crossed so I would have to cut the filament then let it run out and restart, rinse and repeat. After those I just made it a habit to respool if they showed any type of damage.

12

I mean, we can never rule out the possibility that someone at the warehouse was having a bad day, but I think that would have been noticeable. Also, the fact that it happened on different days makes it unlikely, but not impossible.

Are there any other clues? Was the large cardboard box torn open and then taped back together? Was the box damaged? Could you see anything from the outside?

If you’re expecting another shipment, you should take some photos right away.

By the way: It’s up to you whether you want to file a support ticket, but you’re exaggerating a bit. Reporting a problem with the delivery doesn’t take much effort, and if I add it all up, you would already have been entitled to almost $50 to $100.

For 15 minutes of work, that’s quite a bit of money you’d get in the form of replacement filament. You don’t have to do anything while you wait - it’s just a matter of filling out a ticket once or twice.

However, this only applies if the spools are damaged. From the photos, the extent of the damage appears to be minor, so it probably wouldn’t be a valid reason to request a replacement. As I said, based on the photos - which is all we can go by.

If that’s exactly as you describe it and you’re not exaggerating, then that would definitely be a reason to get a replacement.

Anyway, as I said, it’s your decision. If you don’t want that, it’s your decision. However, to be fair, you’re also not giving Bambu a chance to make up for the damage. That’s part of the story, too.

13

Good points, not all of them are crushed or had issues, if I get another one like that I’ll give them a chance and open support, I would say 4 were completely crushed, the others like mentioned were salvageable. I was just trying to see if anyone else was having the issue or experienced it is all.

14

Help me out here.

I know how filament spools and refills are wound, and I know that given how the winding machines work, it’s impossible to spool a roll of filament with a kink in it.

I have a pretty good handle on physics, so I know that in a vacuum bag a roll of filament isn’t going to develop a tangle because the ends of the filament aren’t moving. They’re taped down.

But - you’re the second person to come on here and say rough shipping is making your filament tangled.

Am I going crazy here?

15

Maybe a personal/regional/etc. definition thing. In the first pic I see filament comeing up from beneath other strands, crossing over some, then disapearing back into the roll. Looks like an inside loop that developed a little slack and some of it worked it’s way outside, laying across others. To me, I would call that a tangle, but not everyone would. But I can see where it has the potential to cause issues unspooling. Won’t even try to guess when it happened, but probably not during the spooling process.

One “AI” def:

Tangle means to twist, knot, or mix things together into a messy and confusing mass

16

You’re 100% right.

Theoretically, it could happen if the filament refill is literally crushed and the strips torn. However, the filament would be in such bad shape that you’d probably have to throw it in the trash, anyway.

In any case, despite everything, the number certainly raises questions: 40% is a very large number:

The user who created this thread described exactly what he meant: a situation that forces him to rewind 12 spools filament onto a new roll - out of 30. Even though other users might define it differently, we know what he’s talking about.

Beside: of course, we should not overlook this - he did clarify that, later on:

17

Exactly. Something that never cause you an problem you have no reason to notice. If it happens enough times you start doing preventive measures, it’s an issue.

Edit: interestingly, for some reason it’s not noted in my post, my comment was a direct reply to @CarbonForge Basically saying I don’t think he is crazy.

18

Nevertheless, 40% is more than unrealistic, for the reasons CarbonForge has outlined. If a filament has a tangle, it doesn’t happen during production. If it happens at all, it’s due to extreme force. We’re talking about forces strong enough to damage the cardboard core inside. Forces that tear the sturdy plastic strap apart.

19

Ok. I’m not disagreeing with you or anyone, but I feel like we are haveing a conversation with each other, just not the same one. Probably regional. Anyway, have a good time zone.

20

It’s a shame to see this. I get damaged filament boxes from Bambu all the time. In fact, a few of my filament orders the boxes looked way worse than the pictures above. I guess I was just lucky that everything still worked fine. I’ve had filament show up loose in the larger box because it looked like Ace Ventura delivered them. I’ve never thought much of it because my spools have always been fine. It’s not just Bambu I’ve had a few reputable brands show up in similar fashion, direct from manufacture orders. I would say I have better luck with Amazon, but I don’t order in bulk from Amazon, so the smaller boxes probably hold up better with less weight in them.

a man is carrying a box with a new to label