Just had my first “Instant order” come through - kinda scary to be honest not knowing what the user has submitted! First order, and yes there is little support needed so the quote is about right, but the material and layer height chosen is far from ideal… (it’s for a GoPro, and they have chosen PLA 300 as the cheapest option).
Does the customer get any notice or confirmation that they have chosen instant payment so have to be happy with what they have chosen, even though it may not be suitable?? If it wasn’t an instant order I would have advised the user to use a better plastic, and reduced the layers to at least 200 micron (I’m now going to remove my 300 micron options as I almost always tell customers not to use it).
I was bemused by this new feature. I won’t be signing up but fascinated to hear how it goes for those who do. I have seldom had an order that didn’t have some sort of special explanation or setting of expectations. Seems very impersonal this way. I pride myself on making sure that I won’t accept an order unless I know I can make the customer happy. Not sure how this fits in with my ethos. I’m sure it will cause a lot of Hubs to go through a lot of pain doing a ton of work for very little value just to avoid being down-rated. 3D Hubs will get their 12% either way though.
It’s OK. I treat them differently to normal order and just print them as they are. Less communication, less chat - just print and send. If I know a design will fail due to incorrect settings, I will tend to slightly improve the print - such as use 250 micron instead of 300, or use a little support even if non calculated. Usually the instant orders are simple easy prints that don’t require any thought, so it kind of works.
I have been concerned about the same thing. In my case, I tend to deal with large prints and often multiple parts per order. I have had order print times vary from 3 hours to 160 hrs. With that kind of variability, it is impossible to guarantee a fixed lead time for all orders.
