It took me over a month of jumping through hoops like this just to get a $20 replacement part under warranty. At the end, I just bought the darned thing instead of continuing to provide information like that requested in your screenshot, above. Not only is this excessive, It is off-putting. It telegraphs a lack of trust in people who have chosen to be customers. Bambu has a nice printer. Their customer care is behind the curve.
I havnt even looked but I bet its nearly impossible to upload videos to a support ticket aswell. Ive never had this type of experience. I told them nothing boots up. No lights except the plug light. They had me take it apart to check the board lights and there was none. Its most likely the power supply but im thinking bambu support dont actually own printers themselves. Theyre probably just working down a list of questions and requests. Bet it takes over a month to get a replacement.
Customer support costs money. It can actually cost quite a bit of money (I work in customer support). Those costs have to be passed on to the customers - higher prices for the printers or separate support contracts you pay extra for. Or you go the route Bambu has gone with this annoyingly formulaic support process. But Bambu’s support model isn’t all that unusual. I’ve run in to the write-it-down-and-take-a-picture thing many times in the past. I’ve had the argument about “how can I take a picture of it not working? You know that doesn’t even make sense. It doesn’t do anything.” And I end up sending a stupid picture of it not doing anything and they’re happy and I get my replacement part.
The problem I think is two fold - Bambu has sold a lot more printers a lot faster than they expected to, and while the printer is good it’s clear there are some teething problems and reliability could be better (meaning there are more support calls than they expected, too). This might even be a function of the fast production ramp.
Early adopters always pay the price of a startup’s ramp. You gotta make some money first to spend the money to expand the business “infrastructure”. I suspect things will improve with time. Maybe quickly, since I gotta think they’re making good money.
@RocketSled They had huge investors. Also, if too many support tickets is the problem, you would think they would want to get them solved asap. Instead of drawing each ticket out for a week or month.What you said sounds good though.
It’s a lot of text, but not really such an arduous request. Only two things you’re really being asked to do here.
- Provide confirmation that you’ve actually done the bare minimum of verification that a problem actually exists.
- Confirm you’re not a scammer using someone else’s reddit post to get free parts.
I understand that we’re all used to Apple and Amazon having no-questions-asked policies, but those companies are decades old, and have priced every issue into their business model.
Other (much larger) printer manufacturers are having trouble catching up to Bambu even a year later, not because Bambu have tech secrets nobody can unlock, but because their price point is difficult to compete with at that level.
Are they making money? Sure. Are they making as much of a margin as is considered safe and comfortable? I doubt it. I’ll tell you who definitely does have that margin. Prusa. Their 10 year old tech is priced at the point where they can send someone around to make you a cup of coffee while you wait for your support ticket to get resolved.
Also I’m not aware of any Chinese company which doesn’t treat warranties with some suspicion. I suspect that comes from being surrounded by grifter culture, which isn’t rare in the West either, these days.
I want to be clear, I’m not trying to dunk on you for having a complaint. I really do believe that people who push for better service, are helping the rest of us. Without people who complain, nothing would ever improve. In fact, it would just get worse and worse… I’m just trying to have some perspective. It’s hard as hell to flip tables in a marketplace AND provide everyone with that concierge feeling.
I’ve done the startup thing myself. Even had huge investors. The cash burn rate for a startup that has to produce a complicated physical product is high. You can’t do it without deep pockets. But that doesn’t mean you’re rolling in cash. Typically it’s the exact opposite. Investors only give you the minimum they think you actually need. That’s how investors make money. By maintaining a tight rein on the finances of their investments.
So no, “huge investors” means very little in the context of this discussion
@ivovic I would agree with you, if the ticket wasnt made through the handy app that is connected to my printers and also has most of the info requested. Ive also explained to them that the only light is from the power switch. On top of all that, they already had me take it apart once to check for a main board light. They should have asked me to record that. Besides all this, ive never had a company request video, photos, hand written…Especially a company that already has my info. My order was also made ghrough the site using the same exact credentials. Any replacements would be sent to the same address as the original printer and the number i called from is the one connected to my account. If what ypure saying is correct, then their price point is only competitive because theyre cheating by have poor customer services? And being stingy with warranties?
@RocketSled I guess youre right. All companies should operate like this.
A lot of what you’ve said here is reasonable. I wasn’t privy to the whole back-story, and again, I’m not trying to be super critical of you.
Mind you, I also think it’s reasonable for base level ticket jockeys to not have access to a database of serialised user data. I dunno. This is a tough one. Everyone — okay, mostly Americans — are wary of cloud-connected services, and saying things like “I don’t want to send the CCP my designs” and Bambu have been trying to address this stuff, with recent end-to-end encryption updates, and so on…
There’s a trust relationship here, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable for them to ask you for your details explicitly, rather than just having their staff being able to nebulously retrieve them. The worst thing for Bambu right now, would be some kind of user data breach. Segregating that information is absolutely the right thing to do.
I had a ceramic lasagna dish break in transit. The kitchenware retailer I bought it from asked me for pictures of the pieces in the box. In this case, they wanted the photo so they could claim the postage insurance… but it’s a $16 product… It’s costing everyone involved much more time than it’s worth, but of course their argument would be “If you don’t think $16 is worth it, just buy another one” 
Certainly. That’s in fact how almost every company maintains profitability. I say almost every company, because it excludes ultra-premium priced products like luxury cars and iPhones which they sell you for 6 times what it costs to make them, so they can afford not to ask you for photos when it breaks.
You could look at multi-billion-dollar insurance companies who don’t even have products. All they do is charge you for the privilege of giving you a warranty. They’re notoriously careful about when they pay out, even though in most cases, you’ve already paid in 20x what you’re trying to claim on, and they didn’t even have to manufacture anything.
Again, I’m not saying you don’t have anything to complain about… and I really hope you get a resolution soon.
I had to do this for a repair but it’s an engineering thing. To resolve actual problems and where they come from. Enabling them to determine the correct solution. As well as to do economical evaluation and not just throw parts at it. Especially if it turns out you have a wiring problem in your electrical outlets or something. If your not able to determine on your own and prove were the failure is. Then think of this as a learning experience.
@Rocky_Prattistic My original ticket said it was most likely power supply. Now a week later, after ive done a listbof things for them, theyve concluded that its most likely the power supply. Instead of just sending it though, he has to get with his team to figure out what to do next. That was 2 days ago. Im completely able to diagnose things on my own. If they sold the psu as a replacement part, id probably just order it. I paid for a warranty though. If you want bambu lab to be main stream, they cant be requesting the end user check power supply output voltages. Having me void my own warranty in order to get a part warrantied is kinda mind blowing aswell. Theres always gonna be a fan boy or two, I get that too.
I see, now you’ve also unsuccessfully concluded that I am a fan boy as you put it. Sorry I was unaware how many high tech companies you have ran successfully managed. By the way if you were truly any good at electronic design you could simply repair the old one and make it better so it never breaks down even in lighting strikes. Though everyone may have pay more for there printer. I also noted that your a highly skilled technical writer in the Chinese culture. Lol
@Rocky_Prattistic I get it. Youre awesome. Youve ran multiple large tech companies but you also find the time to 3d print and â– â– â– â– post on tiny forums. Makes sense. I bet when your car breaks down, instead of getting replacement parts, you just design a whole new car. Straight up genius wasting your highly paid skill on bambu lab forum (1000 users) arguments. I can tell english isnt your first language or youre using a translator. My guess is chinese born. Right? Btw, Im still waiting for them to decide if they are going to honor the warranty or not. But that must be common where youre from. I guess you would just design a new type of small form factor power supply though.
Ah, no your right your not worth my time!
@Rocky_Prattistic Well thanks for all the valuable input, Elon
I just recently had an issue with my AMS and had a similar request for info.
I had to upload the log file and a video which I did both through the Bambu Handy App.
Opened ticket on 6/17 and was closed by 7/1.
All things considered I was very pleased with the response time and solution.
@ChucklesPrints Ticket was open for 2 weeks? What was the fix and how long did it take to receive?
Ultimately Bambu labs determined my issue was with the filament hub inside the AMS. Once they determined that I received the part in only a few days. Mostly the time was spent troubleshooting the issue.