@user_2993510113 you know you can change the infill setting right? You can even make a printer profile with settings you like and save it and Bambu studio will open with those settings. Heck even orca slicer opens with grid infill as default. What would you rather do have the default be no infill?
As far as the printer being an out of box appliance, be glad you bought an A1 because you’d really not like the printers out there before bambu. Heck there are still printers out there that you have to spend quite a bit of time assembling and tuning before you ever get to enjoy a good quality print. And that’s not even counting the voron’s or rat rigs.
As far as them washing their hands of the A1 it kinda depends on the type of company they want to be seen as but I’m betting your fine since Bambu obviously has long term sales growth in mind or they never would have released the A1 mini or the A1. I’m actually kind shocked at the negative things I’ve seen thrown out against Bambu given how quickly this evolved. But then again I shouldn’t be shocked at anything I’ve seen on the internet.
As for you charging back your credit card, why? They already willingly initiated the recall (wise move on their part), and they are offering to cover shipping for return and discount on another printer (use discount on another A1), or a repair it yourself option for a bigger discount on in store merch, use it on filament=free filament. And I’ll remind you that they only have to offer repair options or refunds and nothing else. Oh yeah did I mention they did this on their own?
I’m leaning toward the return option, my only concern is if not having the original box is an issue? I tossed mine weeks ago after the 14 day return policy was up. Really wasn’t expecting a future need for sending it back.
That question can only be addressed by customer service ( there is a reply option to give or ask further questions) i keep my boxes and packaging for as long as a warranty lasts if i can , no you cant buy it
and it is requested that it be kept ,by bambu lab , id assume for those very reasons warranty / 14 day policy*
I’d rather the default didn’t damage the print, I don’t think I’m being unreasonable. Maybe other printers also have this problem, but why have their own Slicer if they aren’t going to make it work ‘out of the box’?
I have not bought a printer until now not because I didn’t know they existed, but because I don’t have the time to tinker. I bought BambuLab A1 On the understanding I wouldn’t have to, and I now I have to do a heat bed replacement. Other printers on the market are irrelevant to what I’m saying here.
I’m not sure where you are located, but in Europe you can’t run a business by sending out faulty or unsafe goods. To rectify faulty and unsafe goods is an obligation, not something to rejoice and shower praise on. You say “They did this on their own”, but no they had to under law, they had no choice at all in the matter. It sounds like you may reside in a jurisdiction with lower consumer protections, and that’s not the case for everyone worldwide.
The credit card is a good backup, because BambuLab just don’t inspire confidence so far. I’m not writing them off, but going from ‘only printers with cables damaged in shipping or by user needs to take action’, to ‘use this 3d printed cable protector’, to ‘stop using all printers immediately’ doesn’t inspire confidence. I have an emergency-break-glass option.
BambuLab are just following the minimum expectations based on the consumer law where I live. No celebrations here, not just yet anyway.
Ya, but I can’t see an entire printer being made just for that. It would make more sense to just have it as a part you can upgrade on the current. Like extruder v2.
The only way I see it getting an upgrade anytime soon is by heavily leaning on the a bigger size.
Yeah you and many others here sound entitled. You bought new tech. When you buy brand new tech you are inherently taking on a risk that there will be some things wrong with it. If you’re unwilling to take that risk, you need to wait a few months after tech releases as a rule of thumb.
This point applies twofold to products that seem to shoot low on the cost of what they offer compared to competitors. If you seriously saw this printer with 600-800$ worth of features and thought it was going to be flawless on release at 400 bucks your judgement is a bit off. Tbh, I’m quite the pessimist, so I’m just happy they’re not taking the money and running. I’m happy they’re not doing everything I expected a tech company to do. I feel lucky that they didn’t completely ignore the issue and pretend nothing was wrong, because that’s what companies do in the world we live in.
Am I saying they deserve praise for this? Nah. This is exactly what they should have done. They aren’t doing more than or not enough to address the situation. Their attempt to rectify this isn’t anything more than what should be expected. They still made a mistake, and for that they deserve criticism. But what I believe they don’t deserve criticism for is how they are rectifying the issue.
@user_2993510113 I can understand your frustration about default preset infill settings and being new to 3D printing. It’s still a long ways from being set it and forget it though I will concede that perhaps a better default infill maybe should be gyroid or rectilinear specifically because there are people with no experience. But all slicers have a default setting and most files have recommended slicer settings users should at least read and start with when starting out. So I still defend that that is an unfair criticism of Bambu.
As far as the recall goes, mistakes happen, and this is squarely on Bambu and the supplier. But many companies resist recalls until forced to do so and usually that results in multiple users injury or deaths. The lithium battery thing comes to mind. I sure didn’t see many battery manufacturers coming out after a limited number of them caught fire or exploded. What I am saying is it seems like Bambu did investigate, issued a warning and perhaps did more testing and evaluation plus read these and other forums and initiated a full recall pretty quickly. So while I say they are at fault for poor or substandard engineering they do seem to be taking it seriously. And yes they are obligated to supply “safe” products but sure seems like most manufacturers really resist recalls so I at least give them a break for just doing it. Sure it’s a red mark on their record but seems they are trying to rectify it quickly. And while it seems like a couple of months for replacement parts is a long time that pretty quick considering they are likely redesigning, and hopefully updating both the wire gauge and insulation as well as wire positioning inside the cable itself. Then they have to have their supplier manufacture the parts and there is Chinese new year in the mix as well. And yea Chinese new year is a major part of the equation since most products and parts are manufactured in China. It’s just how it is.
Finally I also understand how frustrating it could be if this is your first printer, and it’s your only printer and you’ve spent your money and are excited to make your dream items. I get it. I do. And I can understand the frustration. But at least look at the whole picture. That’s alll I’m asking here. I think they’ve done pretty well so far and I’ll keep my final judgement in reserve until the situation is resolved but so far I think it’s about as good as anyone could expect other then a product that has no issues. It certainly could be worse too though. What I’m saying is I don’t think they are being shady though I did get concerned when they sent an email directly to YouTuber influencers asking their audience to stop using the A1 before updating the blog.
I see people bring arguments up like this for a wide range of things. But the logic of the argument isn’t sound.
If you bought a TV at $5 or $500000, it doesn’t matter. If it says it is new, then it shouldn’t really have any KNOWN problems. Even more when you deal with a company like Bambu Labs, and not some joe blow selling it in the back of his car.
While I strongly dislike what happened, something to note all products can have unknown problems and well… stuff happens. IMO other than blaming everything but themselves, Bambu Labs mostly has done the right thing. Maybe not in a way I would do it. But they have done the basics. And now that they gotten a handle on things, they are now saying if you don’t want to wait until May you can just get a refund.
Now with that being said, as someone who has been around this for over half a decade and gotten my number of burnt, cuts, etc. We shouldn’t look down on anyone who doesn’t want to get their hands dirty. This even goes outside of 3D printing and it has nothing to do with noob or not.
So over my life I have had a lot of hats. This is to include aerospace engineering, QA, and so on. But during my early days of getting into network engineering and cyber security. There is a story that stands out in my mind that applies to this.
A Jr level network engineer asked one of the Sr level ones what router he has at his home. The Sr level said something like Google Wifi. The Jr level went off and said you can have far more control if you used a ddwrt or one of the others. The Sr level said after so many years of fixing problems and throughout my day jumping through hoops. I just want something that I can plug in, and I know it will work.
The thing to learn from it is even experts get tired of “getting your hands dirty”, and sometimes you just want to turn it on and not question if it is going to work. And when it doesn’t, you want to have is as brain dead simple as possible to fix it.
The reality is bambu lab could of done this recall by the batch with only 0.1% ? of machines being affected, but they decided to do it as a whole and give every user an option to return or replace .
I think we should bear in mind that BambuLab haven’t actually done anything yet, other than sending emails and making blog posts. I’m optimistic that this will be resolved and it will just be water under the bridge, however talk is cheap and it isn’t wise to count your chickens before they’ve hatched.
@crua9 i think the level of blame that Bambu took was quite generous coming from a Chinese company that is partially owned by the Chinese government as all Chinese companies are partially owned by the Chinese government and as such the Chinese government doesn’t admit fault, nearly ever.
As to your comments about judgement on people who don’t want to do the replacement themselves or just a return, I’d agree that it’s up to the individual to make that decision and it’s no one else’s business. They certainly don’t deserve to be ridiculed for making that decision since that decision ultimately only affects them.
And finally to the comments about seasoned individuals not wanting to do work for themselves, again I know all about that and see it every day. Anyone ever heard of the mechanic that doesn’t work on their own car? Again it’s the individuals personal preference and as long as it ultimately only affects them who cares.
@Neiljt its speculation at this point why it’s a full recall. All we can do is guess and that’s putting it mildly. We can also only guess what they have done on their end to troubleshoot and evaluate the problem.
So with that all out of the way here’s my speculation, after being informed of the issue they took a look at some of their own printers and perhaps unboxed a few and discovered that indeed it was an issue and thought it was due to inadequate strain relief, packaging and user handling. Then upon further investigation discovered an error in the build quality, design and spec of the cable and that all A1’s were affected and instituted a full recall.
But again that’s my speculation. I’ve turned mine off, I did so after reviewing the cable dissection on the Bambu labs A1 users Facebook group. I felt the cable was a ticking time bomb from my years of experience in plastics machinery.
I agree, but I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole.
Personally if they want to shift the blame, then I’m OK with that as long as the end result of things getting fixed or refunded is done. And it appears the end result is happening.
I’ve seen this even here in the USA. Where you have some CEO or whatever going nuts if anyone says anything bad about anything. So the employees will do lip service to keep the boss happy, but at the same time actually fix the problem the customer is having. But the customer and employee knows what is going on and doing a wink wink to fix things. The customer gets what they want, and the CEO is happy because they think they weren’t to blame to start with.
At the end of the day most people understand stuff happens. It doesn’t matter how good the company is. There is always a failure rate of whatever %. And then in engineering, sometimes things slip. What matters is how they handle it after that. And IMO they are doing a decent enough job.
Maybe not the best. Maybe a bit confusing at times due to mix messages. But at the end of the day. They seem to be trying to resolve the issue in their way. And that is all I can ask for.
I never heard of that one. But ya, the single reason why I jumped from what I was using prior (MK3) to the A1 was because the A1 looked like it was easier to work on when it came to basic things. I even took a picture of it. After this burn, I said screw it, I’m getting a newer printer. I’m happy that newer generations won’t know the stuff we dealt with, the burns, and so on.
Since my a1 is part of my business, it’s among the 100 other things I need to do today. And you may be thinking “well then why are you on some forums if you have a business and haven’t submitted you claim yet” normally I’d tell you it’s none of your business, but in this case I’ll make an exception. There are certain processes that while automated require your presence in case there is an issue. So basically I have to stand here and watch a machine so it’s thing and hit the e-stop if there is an issue. This afternoon I’ll be in the office and will deal with it then. Why didn’t I do it over the weekend? Because all the information is at the shop, my shop is not where my home is and it was a weekend, and I spent that time with my family. They already have to tolerate a lot with me being self employed.
Still no word on people who bought from official 3rd party resellers?
I chose the replacement bed option and submitted the ticket anyways, but surely Bambu has to handle this in someway or another? I don’t think resellers have the capacity to do the communication on behalf of Bambu to settle this issue.
@crua9 yes, the older printers were “fun” I guess. All I know is I was skeptical about the x1 c when it came out and some friends of mine got kickstarter units and I ordered my first one. After using it for a day I ordered more. When the first p1p arrived we sold all of our prusa machines and pretty quickly after that sold our cr-10’s. While we still have yet to replace the cr-10’s I’m hopeful that Bambu releases a large format core xy sooner rather than later. If not we probably will get a single k1 max and a single QUDI x max 3 to see which one is best for our needs until Bambu does release a larger build volume printer.
I get asked all the time why we don’t just build a voron or rat rig, the truth is we don’t have the time. 3D printing is only a portion of what we do, and I don’t want to dedicate several paid man hours to build and tune a printer.
