3D Printer kit manufacturer BotMill has been making some serious moves to expand their business in the past while. In a discussion with BotMill Chief Gil Mayron, it was revealed that: - BotMill now has a bigtime reseller on their team: Robot Shop, who now offer BotMill’s Axis 3D printer for sale on their heavily trafficked site. Discounts available for volume purchases, too!
- BotMill has opened up a YouTube channel that provides detailed visuals on the 3D printer assembly process. As of this writing, there are seventeen available, but we expect more to come
- Finally, BotMill now offers free print samples to those curious about 3D printing.
Mayron says, “This certainly is a milestone in the 3D industry as we have now perfected our machine processes and can start to move forward with unique business deals.”
We think these are great moves, because they address one of the key problem facing personal 3D printer manufacturers today: most people don’t know much about 3D printing, if they’ve heard about it at all.
The deal with RobotShop will bring 3D printing (and BotMill) in front of many more potential buyers. The videos are, we feel, an essential method of calming less technical buyers facing a perceived scary assembly process, and the free samples are always a good idea because potential buyers get to see and touch what they will be able to make. Will these actions raise BotMill’s sales? Time will tell.
My experience matches the other posts – ordered in August of 2011 – paid by Paypal (over $1,100) – and received a box full of parts without a shipping list, instructions and ended up figuring out that most essential parts such as extruder, stepper motors etc. were missing. A getting a lot of BS from botmill asserting that they stand behind their products (which apparently doesn't involve checking a shipping list with what went into the box), i cancelled the order. I would never do business with them again.
Update on the Glider I ordered:
I would not recommend working with Botmill. At All.
I received my Glider about a week ago and had to leave country for a conference shortly thereafter, but from what I was able to glean from taking at look at it the day i got it was:
– there was no USB stick included, which isn't that bad but it certainly makes it not plug and play. (and also not as advertised)
– bolts were loose and some pieces attached haphazardly, also not that bad.
– a few of the stoppers are in the completely wrong position. That's troubling, but the thing should still work (assuming everything else is still okay…, but who knows since it will probably take me at least a week after i get back in country to get it running and fully tested).
The bottom line is that it's definitely not plug-and-play ready.
All-in-all, I'm pretty upset with Botmill. Not necessarily because the product wasn't as advertised, but mostly becuase when I filed a complaint with the product i received not being anywhere near "plug-and-play" ready (which they advertise), all they did was say "okay, you can pay the $100+ shipping costs to return it to us for a refund." This means I either just wasted $100 of mine for nothing at all and a waste of time, or $400+ (depending on how incomplete/unfunctional the product is) on receiving the parts of the Mendel without it being functional. It's particularly upsetting since the whole point of paying the extra costs was to save me the time of having to fix/assemble, but now i'm going to have to do it anyways because their product is so horribly not-as-advertised.
Definitely would NOT recommend working with them. They put on a good show of pretending to care by calling you just enough so that you won't post nasty things on their forums but when it comes down to it, as soon as they get their money, they could care less about what you think of their product or false advertising claims.
*Yes, this basically qualifies them as a scam-house.
Hope this helps,
-J
Wow~ Botmill responds pretty quickly. I just got a phone call from them saying that they were sorry for the month-long lapse in communication and offering a personal assurance that I would get my product soon. Also, they said that the login issue was a temporary glitch that would not affect my order.
The personal phone call certainly qualifies as excellent (although reactionary) customer service, and based on the fact that I actually got a call back, I think it's safe to say that slow as they may be, Botmill definitely isn't a scam.
I will update more on this after I receive the product and get a chance to test it out.
Scam. I ordered a product 6 weeks ago and haven't gotten any email updates since the "we have taken your money" email over a month ago.
What's really fishy is that when I try to log into my account to check on the status, I get a message that says the account doesn't exist! What B.S. (i have the confirmations email from Botmill billing that same account!)
Seriously, DO NOT BUY from Botmill. They are scammers.
Posted on RepRap forum March 17th:
Dear RepRap Community,
First off, we would like to thank you for all the support you have given us.
Please note that recently we have made several changes to our plastic pieces
as well as assembly process.
Our plastic pieces where being made by a manufacturer molding and
casting and the first batch was fantastic. Unfortunately one shipment
contained sub-par components and we have stopped to deal with this supplier.
We are now getting plastic pieces from a new supplier and as of the last two
weeks we have also started to print the parts directly on our BotMill 3D
printers again. We have them working almost 24 hours a day printing our
perfect sets.
We would like to apologize for any inconvenience or delays this may have
caused. For the few customers that had issues with some plastic part(s)- we
are replacing with the new pieces. For some customers who are still waiting
for previous orders-they are all going to be shipped in the very near
future-we are catching up fast to fill the backlog of orders.
In order to show proof of quality, service, and attention to detail, we will
now start to give progress updates with pictures and videos to every client
that has purchased an assembled machine as well as pictures and videos to every client who purchased a kit so they can see their pieces being made directly on our machines. Along with every printer we send
out will be printed instructions as well as a USB that includes promotions,
an accessory price list and order form, copy of instructions in link format, and more.
There are only a few people who received faulty items. In short, we are
communicating with all and will resolve all.
We truly hope that this can rectify any past issues and look forward to
moving ahead with new advancements in this industry.
Sincerely,
BotMill Team
http://www.BotMill.com
[www.BotMill.com]
People should know that botmill is essentially a scam house, they promise and promise but never deliver. If they do its a defective mess. Here is the real story here:
http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,60035,page=4