This meant they only qualified for a discount if purchased with other items.
I agree there is a bad taste, as they didn’t make the situation back to what have been had you not made the mistake.
But, I have to side with BL on this one. Whilst there was a mistake it was at your end.
It was a genuine error on your side. That doesn’t make it BLs fault though.
They didn’t lose a new customer as you are a new customer, you bought the gear, you bought it in a sale. In the grand scale of things, the additional discount you missed wasn’t a large part of the total price.
I recommend you take it in your stride and enjoy the new printer.
I bought 10 filaments a week before the sale started, I missed out on the discount. Again, the difference wasn’t huge as bulk purchasing means the price was knocked down anyway. Plus, I used Gift Cards I gained from points to purchase them (and lots, lots more).
Figure out how you could do the same thing and profit that way.
You are free to side with Bambu Labs, of course. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion & I’m glad you are free to express yours! But first things first: I disagree with your premise that there is a side to be taken. There are no sides here & that wasn’t my purpose.
You are correct - they didn’t loose me as a customer as I already made my purchase. But what they did loose is goodwill from a happy customer. Its the attitude that Bambu Labs exhibits that speaks volumes, not a few bucks on a single sale either way. How likely is it that one potential customer out of the multitude of potential customers will decide NOT to purchase a Bambu printer because they don’t like that attitude, you expressed, displayed toward customers? That is where they loose a sale. And if two out of the multitude of potential buyers decides not to purchase, its a net negative for the company. Furthermore, it is not this single example of the attitude of the company: they will continue to make these kinds of decisions and so the examples will continue to mount, & the more examples, the more likely they will be turning off prospective customers. The field is riddled by examples of exactly that.
The “additional discount (I) missed wasn’t a large part of the total price” so why would the company NOT extend that discount to me? That is the whole point - it would have cost them nothing to extend the discount for the goodwill that it provides to the community, but they elected not to. Meaning they willfully did not provide the discount that I earned when I made my initial purchase. That’s downright cheap. Chintzy. And THAT speaks volumes about the company.
I run a small business, and I would never treat a customer like that because (1) it is not right and (2) I rely on repeat business and business by word of mouth. A few bucks either way is NEVER worth alienating a customer or prospective customer. Never.
Buying filament a week before the sale is not the same situation and I think you know it.
In terms of “Figure out how you could do the same thing and profit that way”, I have, I do it whenever the situation arises, & my business is doing quite well. Again, I treat my customers with respect and do what is right by them, and my business is benefitting from it. I hope that Bambu Lab is equally successful after 20 yrs.
And that is why I posted my experience. The money actually means nothing to me. It is my hope that Bambu Labs figures out that it is not worth being penny wise and pound foolish. I think they have a very good product but their attitude needs readjustment if they want to become a truly great company. I have a vested interest in their success.
I’m also interested to know if there will be a new flagship from Bambu and whether it will be bigger.
Because my parts are getting bigger now and aren’t really suitable for cutting and gluing.
So today I had to start using my Sidewinder X1 again after 6 months, because the P1S has a 257 x 257 mm print plate, but isn’t able to print a 245 x 245 mm base plate. So a printer with a larger build space would be desirable.
KenB-in-NC, the issue is BBL does not run the business in any of the countries the warehouses are located. I’m not even sure they own them in China! So the issue is as soon as the order is placed it’s handled by whatever company is owning/handling the supply chain but not BBL itself that’s why you can only cancel your order within 2 hours, you cannot reroute any order and as you experienced, you cannot change it. BBL could have provided a voucher though for the difference but I’m afraid it could only be done when your hotend is back and again as they don’t run the supply chain, it becomes very complcated.
That’s the drawback of purchasing direct from a chinese company that has no control over its supply chain and they’re not the only chinese company that operates this way. Creality is the same, I waited 2 months for a printer to come to me, I tried to cancel, could not do it, I refused the package at delivery so that the entire process was still within their control but still they could not reimburse me until the printer was back in their stock and inspected although I had never accepted the package not even touched it. It took 2 more months to get my money back!
The only way to prevent that is to purchase from a local distributor but then you may not benefit from the discount they offer during special events so it’s a compromise, buy at lower price and take the risk of things not going smoothly or purchase from a distributor at higher price and benefit from a local support.
You didn’t check your order before you placed it only realised when you received something you chose in error.
You asked BL to fix your error and they did.
They didn’t make it perfect to your satisfaction. If they had local offices, they may well have done, but as @philch points put, they have no local offices.
Had you done your research you would have known they have an excellent reputation for the quality of their printers, they have an abysmal record of customer service.
Despite that abysmal record, they refunded you.
You didn’t get an additional few dollars discount that you would have got had you not made the error in ordering that you did.
BL made a loss of the items you incorrectly purchased due to shipping, having second hand items to resell.
You then got annoyed because I dared not side with you.
Feel free to rant, I do and have done here many times because of the lack of decent BL customer service, in fact I’m known for it. But, getting annoyed because not everyone agrees is weird.
I’m not annoyed because you “dared not side with you.” Obviously you are someone who thrives on controversy & continue to miss my points. So the best way to deal with someone like you is to ignore you.
@philch Those are very good points and sorry you had to wait so long for the refund to process. I returned the unopened hotends so they can sell them as new, and waited for them to get them back before I received my refund. It was a fairly quick process - about 2 weeks max. Returned to a USA address so I’m not sure they waited until they got the product back in their hands in China.
With my business, I purchase a lot directly from China, & know about lead times, snafus, etc. Mistakes happen, and its how you respond to a mistake that matters. When I need something quickly, I buy from USA locations and expect to pay more - that is always the price you pay.
Bambu does not have a good reputation so far in terms of customer support, so buying a Bambu Labs printer, I figure I would be relying more on the community of users than any support from Bambu Labs. This was, fortunately, not my first rodeo so I knew what to expect. Now that I have a vested interest in Bambu Labs, I’m hoping that they improve customer service as their product seems to be very good. Hope springs eternal!
I’d say that it’s nice to be still able to dream about what you hope to come out, to become true. Nevertheless, I’d rather wait and see, without raising any hopes. When and if BL comes out with a new printer it remains to be seen if it will be what users have kept asking for, for months.
A similar sales pitch was delivered by BL’s CEO last year…and everyone hoped for a better and larger printer flagship, to replace the X1C…only to see the A1 series coming out instead… So, I won’t hold my breath nor believe anything is circulated, not until I see the next printer (if any & if ever) coming out.
This one was confirmed to be big (https://youtu.be/jtmAdczXzRk?t=68), and according to a CNC Kitchen interview with the CEO, the “X1XL” wouldn’t be worth it, they would make it bigger and upgrade the tech, rather than just scaling it up. That was rumors, this is pretty much confirmed.
is no longer important to me since I will receive the Prusa XL on September 30th, 2024. Unfortunately, there was not enough information from Bambu Lab about a new and larger device.
! I wonder how long the reduction in printers on the site will last :! Do you have any information?