Just curious if anyone has tried contacting Lightyear and if they ever replied back? I bought 2 of their G10 1.5mm thick plates to help overcome a warp in my X1C print bed and one of the plates has a huge delamination in the center and unusable. The other plate is awesome and I just want a replacement. When the plate heats up a bubble forms in the center. I have tried emailing them, phone calls and even filling out the form on their website. I tell them I like my other plate and just want a replacement and not my money back but nothing. They say they have legendary customer service and have warranties on their products but if they are unreachable then those claims are useless.
Curious if anyone else has had a similar experience. So bummed because their plate helped a lot and I have 2 printers and the parts I make need to be relatively flat and the G10 plate helped.
Having read other comments, it seems like a bit of a lottery as to what you get. I have two plates, and one has some blemishes on it that telegraph through to the print. I’m not sure what they are. I haven’t tried contacting customer service, so I have no insight into how that goes, but you can read comments from others on this forum who have tried.
I like the lightyear plates, but I like my DIY version just as much, so 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.
For sure, having at least two functioning plates is worthwhile for rapid turnaround. Maybe get 3 in case one of them fails, as yours has. I’m guessing that it’s a fairly small business that makes them.
Thanks for the great reply. Mine did not fail but arrived defective. It looks perfect but when it heats up a huge bubble forms. Not huge in height but huge in dead center and 4 or 5 inch wide full length. It’s high enough to cause the first layer to not adhere where the bubble is. I imagine its too much of an error in the leveling routine. Just nuts they tout their legendary customer service but dont answer the phone or reply to emails or form submissions. Im considering making my own I have some 1/8” and 3/16 garolite and was thinking to remove the cover off my cool plate i never use and attach the Garolite. It hardly bends but i never bend it anyhow since after it cools the parts usually are loose on their own. Was thinking I can get a 12” square of the 3d build plate adhesive sheet on Amazon. Curious how you made yours. Did you use a router to cut out the G10 to match the spring steel plate? I have a 100W CO2 laser but never tried to cut G10 so unsure if its possible.
I purchase a plate for my XC1 and it worked as advertised so I ordered 1 for my mini as well. The plate arrived defective, similar issue to yours, I reached out to them, took a while for a reply, but they sent me a new plate.
I sent a mail, waited more than a week and then instead filed a message on their web site “Contact us” (which I hate because I don’t get any history. I saved a screenshot though). My message also referred to the previous email but I just got a brief answer and a partial refund. That is not what I wanted, I want a working G10 plate. The one I got looks gorgeous but is not usable for parts larger than a Benchy.
How, exactly? By what method? email, phone, web-contact, other? With all the junk email these days, punching through the noise might be the issue. We have one example of something that worked, but what was it exactly?
So if you only hot a partial refund for something defective than thats is total BS. They tout their warranty and legendary customer service. Im so pissed to hear im not only one on the side of their horribly legendary customer service. I should not have to use all 3 forms of contact us options they have and still get no response. As of today their voicemail is full now as well so that avenue is no longer an option. Totally unacceptable. I read elsewhere that the white plate has issues and that’s the one that is defective.
That may have been just the first generation white plates. The white plate I received only just recently is working great. It’s my black plate, received at the same time, that has some weird blemishes on it. I washed them both in soapy water (Dawn) when I received them, as per directions, so each has had at least that mild level of cleaning.
I don’t know what would cause a plate to blister, unless maybe moisture somehow got trapped inside it during or after manufacture. People who put PCB moisture probes in the ground can attest to that. I just mean that as an example; I’m sure you wouldn’t have done anything that extreme. But, for sure, don’t soak it overnight or something. In general, this type of material is meant to be impervious, for obvious reasons, especially when used in electronics. You don’t want them delaminating during a reflow.
We don’t know how Lightyear sourced their material. Maybe they got it on discount to save money, but it was discounted for a reason. Who knows.
I did have an issue on the first gen black plate that I had to contact Lightyear about. They got back to me in a few hours, asked some questions about the circumstances that caused the plate to deform, and got me out a replacement as soon as the next batch arrived.
I have emailed them maybe 10 times over the last 2.5 weeks and no contact. Also phone calls and form submissions form their website. Either they are ghosting me or they are flat out not there.
I am at a loss as to why they will not return any of my messages. I have been contacting them ever few days for the last 3 weeks and nothing, I have been so pissed I designed something to make their product obsolete…
Sorry to hear that, my experience was somewhat positive, once I sent an email explaining the plate was defective they immediately said they would replace it. Unfortunately I got billed for taxes and duty on the replacement, that’s when I had to email a few times but they did cover it for me.
On my end they have totally disappeared. I did try and ask some questions prior to ordering and they never answered either. I gave up and just ordered anyway but that should have been my first lesson as to their customer service. Their voice mail is full also and I cant even leave a message. I will keep trying but part of me wants to just sell the item I designed to spite them. I have a prototype being machined now…
This happened to me as well. I tried to contact them multiple times via each email address I had, plus the web form on their site. Ultimately I just gave up and opened a case with PayPal last week, and got a refund that way (today)
Disappointed because the plate was great while it worked, but lasted only a couple weeks.
Any alternative manufacturers out there for garolite plates? Will not purchase from Lightyear again after this experience.
Just wanted to share my experience as well: ordered in December, it was expected to ship in Early January. In the middle of January, I got a email my order is getting ready to be shipped, so I thought they’re going to send it soon. I’m overseas so I’m expecting to get it in 3-4 weeks, that’s fine. After 3-4 weeks I login and check and see no changes. Checking tracking # - still “getting ready”. OK, a week ago I finally get another email, says a new order number is ready to be shipped. OK, I can wait for 3-4 weeks, right? A week after instead of shipment, I get a email from them, they don’t like mail address format used in Turkey. OK, I try to adjust the address to be readable both by local couriers and the westerners That was on 23 February, and no response from them.
The only thing I regret… well, I haven’t used PayPal unfortunately. I’ll try calling them though Maybe for some reason my emails land to the spam folder
If the reason you went thick Garolite was to help with a warped bed, then I will have a product available soon. Necesity is the mother of invention that or unhappy customer.
Parts on the CNC now and if it works the lightyear product will be obsolete for this fix. I do prefer Garolite as my buildplate for the materials I use so may make my own as well and if I do would be open to take a group order and make a bunch at once possibly.
Thanks for the advice on Paypal dispute. I just set that up. Imagine that will light a fire under their butt. I mention I will send them back if they want them, but they better email me a prepaid label as Im not spending another dime on them.
Its crazy they are so bad at customer service yet tout legendary customer service on their website. I have an online business and really work hard to help anyone in need regardless if it ultimately turns out to be the users fault.
That was on 23 February, and no response from them.