annoying experience with FlashForge warranty issue

[roykirk]

Yesterday I had my first and last (because I'll never buy another FlashForge) experience with trying to get a warranty issue addressed with my Creator. I run a total of three Creators in my business, and I've spent over $4000 with FF in the past year because I've been pretty happy with their product. That was until this recent experience.

Last week, one of my Creators up and died about 7 days before the end of its 90 day warranty. I contacted technical support to inform them that I needed to get it fixed or replaced under warranty. What followed was a string of increasingly annoying e-mails from tech support asking me to unplug this wire, unplug that wire, turn it on and off, etc. The first couple I didn't mind because I realized they were trying to see if they could isolate the problem easily. The last straw was an e-mail asking me to disconnect every since wire from the motherboard. Seeing how much work that was going to take in labeling and removing (not to mention I'm not very comfortable working around electricity to begin with) I finally put my foot down and told them I wasn't going to keep doing this. I'm not a technician. I asked them to please send me a label so I can ship it back for repairs or send me a replacement and I'll send it back in the same box to them. That's when they told me that if I wanted to ship it back to them instead of fixing it myself, the shipping was going to be on me. I was incredulous. A quick check with UPS rates and packaging costs says it's going to cost me over $50 to ship this back to them. For the hassle and expense, I'm considering just chalking it up as a business loss on the taxes, tossing it, and buying a different printer from a different manufacturer. Time is money. I can have a new printer here in a couple of days and sending this thing back to them and waiting for it to return is likely going to take weeks. Very unhappy experience with FF on this.

[Graham]

3D printing, at least in consumer priced products, has a long way to go before it can be considered trouble free.

I consider the support I have received from FlashForge to have been superb, especially considering that they sell for less than half the price of the big named competitors who think and act as if they know it all and the consumer is the problem.

The terms of the Flash Forge warranty are quite clear regarding shipping costs and the approach to support. I understand that time is money especially when using your printers for business, but it seems to me that you made a decision to save money buying a consumer grade product and then want to receive industrial grade support.

[curious aardvark]

To start a 90 day warranty on new electrical goods is a joke, a bad one. In the uk it's 12 months minimum and in europe it's 3 years minimum - by law.

You guys really need to get this sorted.
You'll probably have the same issue with anything you by in the states. 90 day warranty on nw goods means you'll get sold shoddy goods by just about everybody (there are exceptions Davos :-).

Hell I got 12 months warranty on my chinese flashforge creator. Not sure if it gets sent back to china or the shipping warehouse it was posted from.
Though to be honest I can't see anything on it I can't repalce myself quicker and cheaper.

Secondly $50 to ship something the size and weight of a creator is NOTHING !
just stop whining and send it back. The sooner you do this the sooner you'll get it back working.
Even over here - you often have to pay RTB postage.

So it costs you $50 for a machine you're obviously happy with when it's working. Stacked against $1000 for something comparable - I would say the sensible business decision would be to pay the $50 and get back the machine you know how to use.

[roykirk]

I think the biggest issue I have is I don't feel like I've had any warranty support whatsoever so far. I suppose if I send it in to them and get it back repaired at some point then I've received some sort of warranty support. What really annoyed me is they were basically trying to field train me as a repair technician. When I finally got frustrated with that they actually confirmed for me that 'we expect our customers to repair their own devices.' Now, their warranty may very well say that return shipping is on the customer, but I'm wondering if it says anything about warranty work/repair is expected to be carried out by the customer?

[jfkansas]

I'd just replace the mainboard. I know he said he isn't a technician. Maybe have a buddy that is a little more techy do it. It is really unplug unscrew, screw, plug in. See if they will ship you a new mainboard. The steppers rarely go out. Cables go out and can possibly short and fry the board. Bad thing is if you replace the mainboard and a cable is bad, it will short the new board also. I would replace the x stepper cable, it is the only one that bends constantly and the switch cable too. Inspect all the thermocouples for shorts or breaks in the wires.

Also this is big, check for any heat related issues/discoloration on any of the plugs. How the wires are tinned and then inserted into the plugs is bad and can cause bad connections. The main power plug going to the board and the Build plate heaters are the usual suspects because of the power they provide.

[Geoff]

My experience for the most part has been positive from Flashforge China. I am sorry to hear you have problems with your creator. I still am using the old wooden one and I have to be honest, it's had a few up's and downs but it is still going and printing daily.

I think once FF got really big they cheapened on parts possibly to meet demand, I don't know.. but I have really seen a big downhill run in the past year quality wise. Regardless, I don't think $50 is really a great deal to get the thing repaired and have it sent back... they are not charging for the return are they?

[roykirk]

They're not charging to send it back to me as I understand it. But now we seem to be stymied on even sending it back. I decided to heed everyone's advice and just suck it up and pay to ship it back to them. But now they won't let me do so because I can't seem to find the serial number. They say it's a number with a bar code that starts with "FFC" and that it's located somewhere "around the back" of the machine. They can't be any more descriptive than that. But in the next sentence they say to look around because the labels often fall off. It must be awfully often because none of my three Creators has such a label. Now they say they'll dig through their records to see if they can find it. Until then, I guess I can't even send it back.

Btw, the problem with the machine was that I went to turn it on one day and the power supply was making this odd sound (like labored sound, not the common issue with it being loud and rattling), the display was dead, and there was no familiar audible "beep" from the machine. FF had me run through all sorts of troubleshooting steps and they couldn't identify what the issue was either.

[curious aardvark]

new power supply would be the obvious concluision.
I buy pc power supplys by the dozen. 10 minute job - nice little earner :-)
Anything that takes mains voltage and then drops it way down for use - has no end of fiddly little fuses and circuit breakers in that die fairly regularly.
psu fan probably died, thing overheated and kicked the bucket.
Sounds pretty straightforward to me.