Their CEO said in interview that they are hiring support people (remotely, so even you can apply!). It is that this take a lot of time to progress and have visible effects.
Watch yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaOrQD9PqNc
I wish this âeffective managerâ explained why they did not hire and train support in time before the new product launch. Please do not tell me this was âan unexpected surgeâ.
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The problem with support predates recent product announcements by months. Product announcements only made it worse. Have no idea about bambu internals beside what that CEO told in interview.
In the world of CEOs they all are interested in sales and good reviews from influencers, so they âestablish good relationships with communityâ. Strategy is simple: send to the average Youtube influencer a freebie (especially if it is a new model) - done, they sing the right song, sales are booming⌠Profit, Bingo!
How many videos have you seen about waiting for support replies or resolution for many days and weeks? CEOs do not like such publicity, influencers have Tier1 support quality. Mere mortals? Who cares about mere mortals!
In January, I probably would have bought a P1S instead of the X1C, but that was not an option at the time. I now think I would regret having a P1S.
Iâve frequently needed the higher bed temperature, hardened nozzles, and hardened extruder. The touch display wastes some screen space but is very simple to use.
The LIDAR was not part of my decision, and I seldom use it, preferring to calibrate my filaments in OrcaSlicer.
I think the bigger issue is how much a good service center costs. Iâm a BA for a small 20 person Service Desk and the annual cost is somewhere around 15% of what I assume is Bambuâs profits. Handing over 15% of your profit is tough. Especially if you are already seen as doing better than most in your market.
At best, I can see them ramping up a little, but in all honesty, when things go bad you can never have enough people on the payroll. You just have to weather that storm and mitigate it for next time.
@just4memike and how much for work at home support? since they seem to try and fix everything through the support tickets anyway. The storm is only getting worse. This time next year they will have 2x the possible product list.
Again Iâm just guessing at the profits and volume they are creating, but just understand, paying 20 people a $50k salary for a year is significant to a small company. Thatâs $1,000,000 a year in salaries for a small help desk alone. China will not likely be at that salary rate, but it will still be a similarly high salary for their market as you try to find people that speak common languages and understand electronic technical theories and FDM/FFF theories. Thatâs a pretty niche part of any foreign population. So they would be paying out the backside for a conventional support desk. The site is a substantial cost, but a good deal less than the annually salaries. The personnel cost is a big one.
Also note, they will not always need the number of people they employ during a product release. 60-80% of the time they would be overstaffed, so you can expect a company like this to manage the problem a different way.
If it were me, Iâd likely do some hiring for junior techs that can process the tickets on a 2nd tier level, and outsource the level 1 stuff as needed. Those junior techs can be leveraged to the 1st tier support if needed, as well take over the first tier support when things slow down and they end their outsourcing contracts. That way it could be quickly scalable when product releases are made. The problem with this is, the support would be rudimentary. Outsourced support is generally poor on a technical basis. But people would feel like they are being heard and it could still be reasonably fast, which would likely take away all the bad press even if things are just slight better.
From what ive seen, they have a few guys answering tickets that know 0 about printing. They then reach out to a couple engineers that take a guess.This is why the gap between responses is at minimum 24 hours.
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Mine arrived last night!! 
Was hoping to set it up then, but UPS didnât get here until almost 9 PM. So have to wait until after work today. 
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Trust me, all these expenses are included into the price when you are buying any goods from any manufacturer. After few months you perfectly know how many support requests are per one sold printer or part, multiply the time needed to sort that request out and voila, basic math and you know how much $$ you should have allocated for the support. I am sure at least $20 is already included into the price as a bare minimum which covers at least 2 incidents per every sold printer or accessory like AMS.
Even before any business starts selling whatever product, they are expected to know that math and numbers from the previous experience or from a senior accountant who has it.
The CEO that runs this kind of business is well aware of all that basics, period.
Iâm not prescribing a method for them to fix their service problems. As you say, they already know how to do that. I was merely responding to the message above where the poster suggested adding 20 people at $60k a year would end all the issues.
As for their problems⌠they are slowly showing their true colors and soon the sentiment will turn negative. Personally, I now see them as a bad company with an exceptional product. So, Iâll treat them that way. Still of use to me, but no longer an amical deal.
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@just4memike The average manufacturing worker (I assume pays more than a support agent.) in china make 97,000 yuan per year. Thats roughly $13,000 usd. sell 11 units, pay a years salary. They should hire you for PR. I love that you made up $60,000(first it was $50,000) and then stuck to it as fact and claim i made the number up. You also made up the 20 people part. I bet there are print farms that have purchased enough to pay for a few employees each. If not all of them. Also, its china. Theyve been making most of the worlds tech for a long time. I would assume they have plenty of people that can read through a list of possible issues through text.
You too⌠obviously didnt read what I said. But thatâs fine. Not here to argue or feed the trolls. Have a good one.
@just4memike Thanks. I was wondering why you had so much to say about other peoples support experiences.
Received mine last night⌠but with a shattered front glass 
Sent support an email and waiting for a reply
I would have thought about it when I ordered the X1. Iâd still go with the X1. Primarily because I fell in love with CF⌠Especially the colored stuff⌠Anyway, I didnât want to be limited in what I could print. I knew I wasnât going to be doing industrial stuff so the X1 is perfect for me.
If I ever get to the point that I need more from a printer I know the X1C will have been the reason I got there (except size, I do need a bigger printer lol)
@I_Anthony It just requires a $35 hotend assembly and it will print anything the x1c can.
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More than that. Itâs not just the hot end. Itâs the extruder assembly thatâs also hardened on the X1C.
What that means is that those gears etc⌠Will hold up a lot longer, especially running CF, stone, metal, or any other very abrasive materials.
Not saying you are wrong, but, in the rare case someone is running roll after roll of CF⌠They might want the extra hardened stuff. For me, I just like knowing the stuff is hardened and I can just toss in whatever I want.
@I_Anthony I hear you. I just added the hardened stuff. I have an x1c and a p1p(with the all the x1c stuff besides lidar and screen) but wish i hadnt bought the x1c. I never use the lidar because of using a textured plate and i do everything from the app or pc.
Edit: Looks like the lateest firmware adds support for textured plates.
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