2013-06-03

Email to Makerbot Industries support

After this hilarious answers from Makerbot Industries to a discussion thread on Google+, I sent the following email to Makerbot Industries....let's see what the answer will be (and open our strategic popcorn reserves).
The support-Ticket number is #121248.


Aparently whoever manages your Google+ page is under the impression I would get actual help with any of the following questions:
(I doubt it.)

Device: Thing-o-Matic



Is there any kind of support infrastructure to send in my bot in Europe to get the brownout fuses fixed,
so the devices doesn't erase it's settings every time is stays connected via USB while powered off?
(And a way to ship it without the extruder breaking off in transit.)


Is there any "service kit" or similar to fix the following design failures in your after-sales suport:
* inadequate mechanical extruder support
 (third mounting hole unused, stepper motor hangs in mid-air. Only supported by 2x M5 bolts through 5mm balsa wood with a 100mm lever for the heavy stepper to break that wood any time the bot is transported and thus shaken or even placed in a not-upright position)
* Glued together lower parts of the "dinos" not connected strong enough for long-time usage.
* any way to dismount the extruder for transport despite the next issue named here?
* missing plugs on the cables to mount any of the alternative tool heads you sold without disassembling the entire machine just to swap between extruder, plastruder MKII or unicorn.
* missing plug on the interface kit -cable.
* missing mechanism to tighten the belt (or mount a fresh belt since they come 1-3mm too short to mount by hand and expand to be 1-3mm too long/wavy when in use.)
* non thermoplastic replacement belts that don't expand and stay flat when heated often for long times
* metal support tube to support the PTFE being supposed to stay cool yet being directly screwed into the hot-end, thus warming up the filament, causing it to expand and thus jam.
(Using a dozen heat-spreaders and 2 fans to keep the effect of this design failure to a minimum at the moment. Not exactly pretty. RepMan 3.0 had a PEEK tube years before you started designing the ToM.)
* The delrin plunger in your 6th generation extruder filament drive mechanism. (high friction, no spring, no lever. Thus shakes loose every 5 minutes and doesn't react in any way to minute changes in filament diameter. Everyone else hat this one sorted out while you where still playing with DC motors.)
* Any official way to organise the cables in the lower "cable hell" compartment?


as expected:

Hi Marcus,

Thanks for contacting MakerBot Support!

Unfortunately, no, we do not have any official repair shops in Europe, or even in the USA, which can work on a Thing-O-Matic. We haven't sold this product in over a year, nor have any of our distributors to my knowledge, and there is at this point simply a lack of resources. For the same reasons, there is no available service kit.

I took a look at your order, and it seems like we've got a record of some support parts being purchased back in June of 2011, but no record of your Thing-O-Matic being purchased through us. If it is the case that you purchased it through us, please provide your original order number so that I can look it up. If it is the case that you purchased it through a distributor, I'd recommend contacting that distributor to see if they have any repair parts available.

If you have any other questions, feel free to let me know and I'll be happy to help!

Best,

Alex
MakerBot Support
Just as I expected.
I didn' ask for any kind of repair. There's nothing broken. What's broken is the design itself.

PS:
I ordered via a UK distributer since that meant european consumer protection laws apply. 

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