Makerbot plugged up and Customer Service

[chvet73]

I am a High school teacher who has a had a MakerBot Replicator 2 and now a 5th Generation Replicator. Makerbot after a 6 week down time finally replaced our Replicator 2 with a new Replicator 5th generation. It worked for 2 days.
Their customer service is awful I don't care attitude and response time is days often not solving the issue.
Our new 5th generation did 2 prints and stopped feeding filament. I'm still waiting for them to do something since last Thursday.
I have 2 questions:
First does anyone have a way to unclog the new 5th generation.\
Second am I the only one who has customer service issues with them or is this typical?

[curious aardvark]

Unfortunately it's a growing issue - both with the gen 5 and makerbot aftersales.
The fact that they've just sacked 20% of their workforce - probably won't help matters either.

Basically it's a dodgy machine and they don't seem to care.

[voodoo28]

Yup, Stratasys just bought them out. Hopefully now they can make a good machine.

[tarprint]

Unfortunately it's a growing issue - both with the gen 5 and makerbot aftersales.
The fact that they've just sacked 20% of their workforce - probably won't help matters either.

I think this explains the reason. Had a not so pleasant experience with their support aswell.

[ram3d]

Yup, Stratasys just bought them out. Hopefully now they can make a good machine.

Stratasys bought them out way back in 2013. If you watch the "Print the Legend documentary" they show the whole drama that went along with the buyout. About the layoffs and the closing of their 3 stores, I think this is the beginning signs of over saturation of the market of so many competing 3d Printers. They are probably marketed the most out of all the consumer grade 3d printers so if they are having sales problems what does it say for everyone else.

[curious aardvark]

It says people are buying printers that work, have heated beds and don't have over complicated extruders that just don't seem to be reliable.

Most people buying 3d printers at the moment, will do homework. Maybe not a lot - but enought to know what's working and what isn't.

And the 5th gen makerbot is a major step backwards.

[cadpro78]

It says people are buying printers that work, have heated beds and don't have over complicated extruders that just don't seem to be reliable.

Most people buying 3d printers at the moment, will do homework. Maybe not a lot - but enought to know what's working and what isn't.

And the 5th gen makerbot is a major step backwards.

I second that thought.

[Nicos.s]

With my experience, Makerbot printer is even not good as some machines Made-in-China.

[Crazy_3D_printer]

agreed!My first printer is a Chinese printer, value for money

[Sebastian Finke]

With my experience, Makerbot printer is even not good as some machines Made-in-China.

Absolutely. I think China is way ahead in terms of price, quality, lead times and after-sales service.