Managing multiple customer requests

[Thomas_Eynon]

In an effort to get some more experience and reviews, I set my prices super low last weekend.(0.05 per cm3 - yeah operating at a loss). I went without any orders until today when I suddenly received 5 new order requests. I’ve booked my printer for the next two weeks for three print jobs and informing new customers about this extended wait time.

How do you guys handle these sudden incoming orders? Is there a way to let new users know that there will be a long wait time because of this queue? The only thing I can think of is updating my printer temporarily to have a much longer order completion time. It seems based on the orders, however, that this might not be updated for customers for quite some time.

[PepCo_Parker]

I’ve got 4 printers and actually operate at a profit even at low rates of .04$ per cubic centimeter. Having multiple printers really helps with volume.

[Printhublondon]

,

[jghh]

I just adjust my completion time when i’m busy so it fluxtuates between 1-7days

Or if it’s a really big order and it’ll be longer than my usual completion time. You can change it when you accept the order, so the customer knows what to expect before they pay.

[Solid_Print_3D]

I’ve been scratching my head over this. Correct me if my logic is wrong here…

PLA has a density of 1.25 g/cm^3. A small spool may have 1000 grams. That’s 800 cm^3 of PLA on that spool. If you purchase a decent quality filament for $30, you’ll pay $.0375 per cm^3. Then of course, there’s electricity, tape, glue, nozzles, acetone, hair spray, spare nozzles, replacement belts ( you get my point … the list goes on).

Just don’t see how you’re pulling a profit at .04$ per cubic centimeter, unless the setup fee per print is your profit, and your basically printing for free ( or at a loss). Yes, I know you could be using 25 lb rolls (like we do) but that really only saves 25% or so on the filament…

I gotta know your secret

[bubblebit]

I guess this approach just could cost you customers. IMHO in certain sense you are not delivering what you are promising… I don’t like price fighting at all. From my point of view I rather have customers that are willing to pay a price for the quality I deliver.

[jghh]

Damn the prices in the US are insanly low.

I’m the cheapest hub in my city (Aarhus, Denmark) and i charge about .50$/cm^3 and that is about 10x what i spend on my filament, but if a calculated my average hourly wage it’s still pretty low.

[JATMN]

Decent quality filament for $30? What are you running?? I buy decent-great quality filaments for days at $19-25/USD shipped. With 100’s to 1000’s of print hours testing of each. Although I would like to know where your sourcing 25lb rolls :o

[jghh]

Well his main point still stands, even if you buy filaments at $20 you still only get a few cents per cm^3 and that is before you have even taken power/glue/printer repairs into consideration.

[Solid_Print_3D]

I get my 25lb rolls from IC3D. I then re spool those onto old smaller spools. Saves money, and what the hell, gonna use all that filament anyway, am I right? You could get their 5lb spools for a decent price.

For the $30 thing, I was using Verbatim PLA as an example, which can be had for $31.99 on Amazon. Now, I’m no Verbatim spokesman, but their black PLA is really, really nice… butter smooth creaminess. Colorfab would be even more…

[JATMN]

I offer no post-processing services. So power and printer repairs my only over head more or less.

[JATMN]

For sure, its hard to find a nice black cant argue that. Have heard good things about verbatim though. colorfab, good luck getting that under $40/shipped lol

[jghh]

How much is your cm^3 price it can’t only be $0.04 like the guy mentioned above.

If you only get $0.01 per cm^3 before power / printer repair, i can’t see how you could ever make a real profit you would only earn a few cents an hour like that.

As a rule of thumb you should at least charge 3-4 times your expenses (so in the case of $0.03 filament cost, from around $0.10 and up is a reasonable price to charge)

[JATMN]

Not sure where your getting $0.01 my rates are $0.18-0.50 which still results in a Marvin costing $4.00 with a $4.00 minimum on orders. I get more orders than I can handle most of the time… and my prices are literally half what most hubs in my area are. I make plenty of profit, and shipping charges are extra (not included in price) I also dont charge for support material (same material type only) unless its excessive.

[jghh]

Yeah our prices are pretty similar then. The $0.01 comes from

"

I’ve got 4 printers and actually operate at a profit even at low rates of .04$ per cubic centimeter. Having multiple printers really helps with volume.

PD

Pepstick"

And i just argued that i can’t see how that could ever make a profit, nothing directly aimed at you

[Solid_Print_3D]

I’ve got 4 UM2’s, and I would lose my ass at .04 cents.

There’s communication time, slicing time, changing filament time. Printing labels and Shipping time.

Then there’s materials; at the very least filament, hair spray, disposable razor blades. Then there’s the fact that 3D Hubs calculates a 20% infill and 1 perimeter when calculating cm^3 - BTW, I almost NEVER print that, so you’re eating those extra cm^3.

Let’s just say your average setup fee is $5… and let’s say that $5 covers ALL your time spent on the items mentioned above. You’re then down to the printers themselves making the profit.

If I want to make, say, $8 an hour… and I’m only profiting $.02 per cm^3… I’d have to print 400 cm^3 per hour!

BTW I’m not trying to make waves, I’m just honestly trying to wrap my head around these numbers so I can stay on the ball

[JATMN]

3D printing is not something you can make a good income off of and should never be considered as such. Only exception is if your some how doing production orders of 100’s of the same part and just the daunting task of remove item from bed and print again. (I have done such orders, those *can* be super profitable if priced right) Or if you have your own product you designed and print and sell.

If your printing more than 20% infill with 2 perimeters, your cutting yourself short and should adjust your cm^3 rate accordingly or inform the customer of a price adjustment. I’m less worried about covering the less than 5min it takes me to evaluate the model to accept the order + slice mode + load filament + press print. If you cant do all this in under 5min then you might want to practice more (not under cutting anyone, just saying its doable) for power, these printers really are minimal power draw vs like your desktop computer. For Print time, for real? I set the printer and goto bed in most cases so I am making money while I sleep, honestly feel like a crook if I charge too much for that. Granted if there is print failures, yes this can be a profitless order I cant argue that.

As for communications consider that your marketing (Which hello, you dont even have to pay for). I have some customers I end up with endless back and forth communications some times all day for days. This is marketing, as such most of the same customers often slam me with back to back orders at least 1-3x *EACH WEEK* so its worth it to take the 30sec to respond to a question or concern the results is a happy repeat customer. A reliable flow of orders is worth it to me more than a inconsistent flow of random orders, that’s a steady flow of income who can be unhappy with that. Granted theres some customers you dont want to deal with, just dont accept the order thats easy.

Not a lot of hubs in my area get a very large volume of orders, and there is ALOT of them (20+ within a 10mile radius of me) either due to high prices or poor quality or mixture of both. I have had my hub all of 6months and have as much or more feedback ratings as some hubs that have been here for 2years+ All of my customers say I provide a higher grade of quality for the price I offer my services at. I under cut almost everyone in my area, because I can. Part of my lack of overhead is -not- offering post processing (aside from minimal support material removal) and my customers are all aware of this prior to placing order requests. But even with all this, I could not get a decent flow of order volume unless my prices were low plain and simple. Not just because there is so much competition, but because most of the people placing orders just don’t have the money to be spending $40+ on a coffee cup sized print with minimal detail and infill requirements and no post-processing.

I am a Maker, and I am a supporter of the community and the trade. I can be found in most facebook 3D printing communities helping nearly anyone and everyone. If you can charge enough to make a good income on 3D printing, by all means do so if your print quality is good. I hate seeing people with poorly calibrated i3 printers charging double my rates and getting upset they cant get orders, there is a few of those hubs in my region. I honestly cant do better than a little more than break even if I pay more than $25/kg (shipped) for my filaments. But my margin goes up by several folds the cheaper I can get it, some of my regular filaments I can get under $17/kg shipped due to bulk order and just testing everything, I have spent a lot of time and money testing various budget and discounted filaments to find what does and does not work for my needs. So my roll of $17 filament works as well as many of the $30 rolls I have tired, pending my needs and circumstances.

Anything else please feel free to ask

[Richard_Beck]

I get PLA filament that prints great from Micro-center for $14.99 per KG. I have never had a printing problem from the filament and have gone through many spools.