I just realized Bambu Labs obviously isn’t registered with the BBB so I just googled “Bambu Labs reviews” to see what consumers rate the company…
I mean this doesn’t look that good what so ever… ah man
No surprise there, since it’s well known that Bambu support is struggling. A new company with 3000% growth is going to struggle. Not saying that it’s a good excuse, but it shouldn’t be surprising that it’s a problem. I do hope they figure out their support situation though, since I’m a big fan of their product.
I take most review/complaint sites like these with a grain of salt. Their business model is to get business to pay them to “handle” reviews and so they are tooled to put pressure on companies to sign up and pay them in order to look better. Don’t pay them and they will look at positive reviews seriously for removal and ignore negative. Pay them and they will look at negative reviews seriously for removal and ignore positive. Digital mafia.
5 Likes
yeah the after market support is known to have difficulty with employees, to me its a bit sad but the machines are still new so my guess would be better for them to have 3 year or 2 year waranty on them
1 Like
I’d agree if they were honestly “new”. They started taking money in 2020… were 4 years in so I wouldn’t necessarily use the “new” anymore. The fact they push marketing so much means they haven’t gained a big following yet to be an actual competitor.
I liked the product also but I don’t simply go by that because it’s also the name that holds that product that matters. I’m not going to go down the road of saying who’s better yada yada. But I never had taken the time to really see what prusa is or about so I watched their recent video which to my surprise was really thorough and transparent on every level of their business. But to hear they ship 30,000 packages a month was wild…
I trust these reviews after reading a majority of them because there isn’t anywhere else to leave a review… why would a company that’s trying to grow and become known for a great product not want to register anywhere for reviews? Not even make a section on their own site for reviews where they could have verified buyers review only. .
Idk I’ve become to caught up in this and I just want to know I’m supporting a company that’ll support me. So far they’ve taken a lot of money that’s for sure, with little remorse for the issues received after handing that money over though.
They didn’t start shipping their first printers until June 2022, so that’s a bit disingenuous.
Prusa is an impressive company for sure. The guy started making his own hardware back in 2010 and now he’s running one of the most well known printer companies on the planet today. He’s spent those years making sure his name was synonymous with quality and he’s done a great job at it. Trying to compare Bambu to Prusa is hard, since their journeys aren’t the same and have different starting points.
Oh I believe that most of those reviews are real, I never said they weren’t. I’m pointing out that you need to take those types of websites with a grain of salt since they don’t have your best interest in mind, they just want businesses to give them money by hook or by crook. I do hope Bambu does starts taking the time to improve their image on their support by being more transparent and engaging with their customer base.
I can understand this since the printers aren’t exactly cheap and you want to believe you are getting your monies worth. Like most things in life, you pay for what you get. We got a ferrari of a printer at a price that no one else could even touch (until they started copying). With that price point, that means they are focused on selling printers and not supporting them, similar to how companies such as Creality does business. With a company like Prusa, you are paying for a much higher level of support, so you get less printer for the amount of money you spend. Only time will tell if Bambu will be able to properly fund a better support infrastructure at the prices they are currently charging.
1 Like
That page has only 107 users who rated Bambu, and I along with many other people who have had a great experience have never given them our rating. It is not very meaningful.
I have mentioned before that people with problems will always be the loudest and most active, while you won’t hear anything from most who are not having problems, so it can seem worse than it is. It is estimated that Bambu lab is making 14 million USD per month, so when you consider how many printers they are selling, there really isn’t that many people complaining about problems.
Edit: Part of my statement above is no longer true. I added a review today (still pending).
I don’t think they have the resources to generate 14 million a month… Not sure where you got that source… Also the capital they had to have when creating all the stages of manufacturing probably costs a lot so I don’t see them even being that profitable as of now. A good business will focus on perfecting 1 area at a time versus creating a handful of things and only generating quick revenue. Just like youtube, you want active users and re-subs. If people order bambu labs filaments and don’t generate more than what they spent, their less likely to order again versus ordering cheaper elsewhere then ordering BL filament 3 months later again.
I’m not 100% sure, but I think I must have seen it on this:
1 Like
Maybe you should actually go off facts instead of opinion? From the Equal Ocean article on Bambu Lab written in Jan 2024
“EqualOcean has received exclusive information that Bambu Lab, a leading global manufacturer of consumer-grade 3D printers, is expected to generate CNY 1.5 billion in revenue for 2023.”
In Jan 2024 the full 2023 4th quarter sales would not have been available yet, which would have included the jump in sales from the A1 and A1 mini at Christmas, and they STILL exceeded 14 million a month.
1.5 billion CNY = 179.5 Million USD= 14.96 million per month.
As for the Prusa comments. Check out the reliability testing between Prusa and Bambu Lab by Shop nation. This was a short term test, but he’s carrying it through this year.
1 Like
And 4 months after posting the reliability video, he posted this based on his experience. Keep in mind, he does use Prusas. I tend to agree with him. And I was really looking forward to the XL, but with the price and issues it’s had, I’ve lost interest. An assembled unit with only 2 print heads is $3000, or twice the price of the X1C with AMS, and they still haven’t fixed the input shaping problem.
1 Like
Yes each printer has it’s own flaws. The PrusaXL is a beast within it’s own realm. If multicolor printing and time is your need and want than there really isn’t a better option right now.
I currently have one and it was solved with the latest firmware release. I was given spare nozzles and it’s been a beast cutting multicolor and true multi filament prints down to mere hours versus color changes and purge waste… Seeing our dollars not dwindle as much in “poop” form is also relieving haha.
This post was mainly discussing about the TrustPilot review page of “Bambu Labs”. It’s actually nice to see that I noticed they’ve started to respond to reviewers since I’ve posted this.
When making any large purchase it’s only up to you making sure that you’re ordering the correct items and not the company’s fault for your mistake…
The company is based overseas so it costs them thousands to ship product here especially 1 item discounted even… they’ve been great so I wouldn’t let this review be anyway influential on someone’s decision to buy a bambu
I haven’t needed to interact with customer support but my experience with my X1C has been wonderful. It’s opened up a whole new world of printing, I can use a wide array of filament materials, it’s fast, it prints beautifully, and the specialized build plates allow even more cool effects. I couldn’t be happier with the printer.
I hope Bambu has taken the filament issues to heart and marketing to people with no prior 3D printing experience can have issues getting them up to speed, but all in all for me I don’t regret getting this printer one bit. If something happened to mine and it needed to be replaced, I’d buy a new one in a heartbeat.
I know my experience may not be typical but it is my experience. I’ve even had people think I was lying when I’ve showed them things I’ve printed on it. The printer has been a lot of fun and extremely useful. No regrets at all.
2 Likes
Don’t know how I missed this.
Let’s apply some common sense. Most are either not knowing how to print, not knowing what to order, customer support (we know is lacking at times).
I see this as an indictment on users and not the company.
2 Likes
So, if one assumed that all 14 million was spent on just $1,250 X1C’s, that would be 11,200 new printers per month. We don’t know what the actual mix is, but probably a lot of P and A series too. So, rough estimate: maybe 15,000 to 20,000 new printers per month? Add to that the total already sold (how many? I’m guessing at least 200,000? Maybe 400,000? I’m just spit-balling here. Feel free to jump in with a better estimate). For a product that may involve pretty complicated troubleshooting, I can see how that might be hard to keep up with. Finding qualified support staff at a steep ramp probably isn’t easy either. It’s going to be a lot deeper than “Did you remember to plug it in?” 
That’s an outrageous estimate in my opinion and my career is in aerospace manufacturing.
Prusa research sold just under 60,000 total printers last year and still remain at the top on paper. That’s 5,000 printers a month…. They have the largest testing facilities as well.
BL most likely and I’m completely speculating since they’ve not released any background info on their manufacturing practices. With a more sophisticated and technical machine comes more testing and QA buy offs. It would be astronomical of BL to even come close to having space and the man power / resources to achieve even 5,000 printers boxed ready to go every month… that’s literally insane and would mean they have one of the largest factories. . I just don’t see that especially with them adding SKUS left and right.
But if that’s the case, what possibly could be underpinning the revenue numbers?
Hahahaha, ahh. That gave me a good chuckle this morning.
Wonder what the average Bambu user spends on filament and parts. And now there’s the Maker supply store! I’m sure the sum of the parts and filament I’ve purchased is more than the printers, but to what extent I’m not exactly sure.
1 Like
I’m not saying chatgpt is an irrefutable source, but I just now asked it, and it said:
Global 3D Printer Sales:
- 2020-2022: In recent years, the 3D printing market has seen significant growth. According to various industry reports, around 2 million 3D printers were sold worldwide in 2020. This number continued to rise, with estimates suggesting that over 2.2 to 2.5 million units were sold in 2021 and 2022.
- Growth Rate: The 3D printer market has been growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 20-30%, depending on the specific segment (consumer vs. industrial). The COVID-19 pandemic also accelerated the adoption of 3D printing in various industries, contributing to increased sales.
Well, either the quoted estimates are equally outrageous or else somebody is selling a lot of 3D printers. Normally it would seem unlikely for a newcomer like Bambu to immediately grab a large slice of the pie, and yet… it really does seem to have shaken up the industry, enough so to seemingly force competitors to drop their prices by a lot in order to compete. Or would that have happened anyway? My gut says no, it wouldn’t have happened without Bambu’s splash–at least nowhere near to the degree that it has–but maybe you guys have different intuitions?
OK, I’ve said enough. I just think it helps to put numbers on things. I hadn’t budgeted time for a follow-up post, but it is kinda interesting if the market really is this size. Time for others to either chime in or else I guess this crude attempt at sizing the problem will simply fizzle out.
In the US, Bambu Lab is selling over 1300 printers per day. I don’t have any global data, so maybe double that total?
1 Like