Update on My First 3D Printer
A week ago today I received my first 3D printer. When opening it a small plastic piece fell out of the box that clearly should have been on the printer. I thought it was no big deal; it must have popped off during shipping and I just needed to figure out where to pop it back in. Then I discovered a lever on a switch was broken. After further research it seems this was an end stopper switch. Ordering and replacing it would probably void the warranty though. I sent an e-mail to Monoprice and since it was a Friday afternoon I figured I probably wouldn't get a reply until Monday.
By Monday evening there was still no reply in my e-mail inbox or spam folder.
I went to the Monoprice contact page, filled out and submitted a form on the webpage for Tech Support. After submitting the form a message stated it was submitted successfully and a representative would be contacting me by the end of the next business day.
Tuesday and Wednesday went by with no response. I did both the direct e-mail and contact page form again.
A flyer that came with the 3D printer states:
..Do not return to the reseller you purchased from. If you are having trouble, contact Monoprice Technical Support at...
I think a week is a long enough period to stop abiding by the flyer. After a reasonable effort to get help from them I contacted Amazon customer support. I'll give Monoprice the benefit of the doubt for now that the pandemic is causing them trouble running their business.
This is what is happening now: I am getting a replacement MP10 Mini and returning the faulty printer I got. Fair enough.
Since my 3D pen also uses 1.75mm diameter filament I practiced loading some yellow filament into the feed mechanism. At least I was able to do something with this particular 3D printer.
Image Source: Personal Photo
That sucks. Hopefully you can get this resolved and get to printing.
That thing looks awesome! Sorry about the problems but...that is super cool! What are you going to do with it? I know next to nothing about them other than apparently they're printing houses in Austin, TX and ribeye steaks in Israel. I'm assuming you're not planning on anything so exotic but....I really don't know what you can do so I'm curious...?
As it is (after I straighten this situation out) it can print using plastic polymer: PLA, PLA+, PETG and a kind of wood mixed with plastic filament to give a 3D print a wood feel and appearance. With an enclosure around the printer it can also print using ABS plastic.
PLA is cheap so mostly I'll be using that at first.
Anything I print will have a volume limit of 200mmx200mmx300mm. Parts can be made to snap together to form larger prints if needed.
I definitely want to make a MakerScanner and I got a digital caliper to help me create my own designs. I am also going to print a few things with the Hive logo on them and write posts about that for BUILD and CreativeCoin tokens.😎
May this inspire you: https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-hive-logo-ring-121545
Awesome! I suppose the beauty is part of what makes copper fill more expensive. Maybe I could just use hi-gloss PLA. 😁😎
Sorry to hear about your troubles, but yea customer service is sometimes really horrible. I think you should leave a review with your experience so other people know. It may end up being removed but I do think people deserve a right to know.
When you get it sorted and are happily printing stuff, you could print some spare pieces of the part that fell off, just in case!
The circle of (3D Printer) life my friend!
On am ore serious note, there seem to be a lot of scoundrals using this pandemic as an excuse for dreadful customer service.
Best wishes :-)
Monoprice is notorious for this, unfortunately. Once you get a fixed printer, you'll be much happier! They make good printers, when they don't have defects like yours.
Someday when 3D printers are really fancy and super convenient this will be my story I'll tell about how rough and tough things used to be back in the day.😎