I suppose I do get a lot of student orders, and it’s not quite crunch time for semester projects yet so that could have something to do with it. But the placement thing is odd, and I do wonder if so many factors go into now that it’s difficult (near impossible) to predict where Hubs will end up when a file is uploaded.
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That is not correct. We changed how we weight the reasons for rejecting an order, that caused the drop. The graph is a representation of how your accept rate based on these weights. We should definitely clarify that in the description.
Adam, 3D Hubs
Good. Thanks. I was worried hubs were doing things they shouldn’t. This is a pretty big issue. I have been on the phone and via email with several hubs the last few days. They are quite upset. The drop in accepts (at least how I read it) worried me that people were protesting.
Some have suggested this, and I think discussion is best.
Also, good to know some other folks from 3dhubs are following this. Maybe we can get some results!
Day 7. On day 6, no response from 3dhubs at all in this thread on this abomination. They do not understand the depth and breadth of what they have done, and how it affects our marketplace, not just on 3dhubs, but with all or our customers. They are vastly underestimating the anger out here.
They continue attempt to redefine FDM printing as low quality prototyping. They continue to have contempt for those hubs who have spoken up here, by ignoring responses and answering questions incompletely or with pure misdirection.
I encourage all hubs who are aware of this, (which is not very many, because most hubs don’t read talk or have tried to create an order…) to PLEASE continue to discuss this here. It is important that 3dhubs is aware of the issue. Also, they are probably praying for this hub to slip past the front page or TALK.
EDITED: I had posted that it appeared that declines were on the rise, based on data that 3dhubs shares with us. I was worried folks were dropping orders in protest, but they said that this was not the case, and it appears with my own tests that this is true, so I removed the post. (people were asking why I deleted the post)
Here is what happened. In lieu of responses from 3dhubs, I will speak for them. I will speak for them every day that they do not participate.
A. Last year, 3dhubs received $7 million US in series B funding. This was presented as an investment that would allow funding for 3dhubs to pay for a greater focus on professional type printers. https://www.startupdelta.org/news/3D-Hubs-secures-7M-series-B-round-to-focus-on-professional-users
B. 3dhubs posts on TALK a request for help in defining guidelines for “customer expectations” for FDM. They ignore hubs that say that is a bad idea. This was actually step 1 in their SECRET plan to denigrate FDM.
C. 3dhubs adds a dialogue when customers put up a model, with a dialogue that says “can we help you choose a material?” which pushes customers to SLS or SLA. Including our customers, our repeat customers, and customers that come from our own websites.
D. 3dhubs adds a “Disclaimer” for those who choose FDM, stating that the prints are not smooth, within tolerances, etc. They are then guided to SLS or SLA. Again, this includes our customers, our repeat customers, and customers that come from our own website.
E. 3dhubs changes the description of FDM to “Protoyping”. All the descriptions for other methods are given better wording, FDM is given negative wording.
F. 3dhubs changes the materials descriptions the customer chooses from “General Purpose Plastics” to Prototyping Plastics.
G. 3dhubs adds a dialogue that appears just before the customer completes the order with a “Disclaimer” that warns the customer that FDM is not the best way to go, and includes links that lets the customer choose SLS or SLA. This outright steals the customer from the FDM hub, and moves the customer to an SLS or SLA hub. This is true for our customers, our repeat customers, customers that we brought to 3dhubs on our own, and customers that arrive via our own websites or Facebook pages.
H. This was done in secret, with no input from the FDM hubs, no warning, and no notice on the changelog. 3dhubs says this is just a test, but we believe it is already a permanent change.
I. After 6 days of input, on day 6 3dhubs fails to respond to any messages, including those who have stated that their orders have declined. Active hubs have shown a direct loss of orders, but 3dhubs ignored the them.
ANOTHER HUB who has lost business as a result of being called a “Protoype Hub with low tolerances and prototype quality materials?” shocking! That’s about 8 or something for the number of hubs who have checked in with lower orders. And since TALK is read by a very few of us, it would seem that we are hearing from very few of the entire represented data here. Many hubs are probably losing customers without being aware of it.
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Why would your orders go down? Well, lets look at your hub, which I will rank on a scale of 1-5.
Quality of prints: 10. Your photos of your prints are excellent. In fact, some of your prints are better than I have seen from some HQ hubs.
Tolerances 10. Can measure that, but your stepper motor holder sure looks like it fits PERFECTLY.
Hub Quality 10. Great presentation, description, etc.
Reviews 10. Appears to be a perfect score. Reviews like “Very knowledgeable with CAD, 3D printing techniques/strategy. Provided recommendations to improve quality, even fixed a problem with STL file” “If I could give 6 stars …” Great communication and customer service " “Pierre made special adjustments to his equipment in order to print my parts with the best quality.”
I also see you print 2 ft x 3ft with your FDM printer. AND you deliver, do cad design.
------------- I can see no reason why your orders would have dropped of -------------------
Or perhaps the customers came to your site and found that you do prototyping materials, and went to a different hub.
Or perhaps the customers came to you and was shown a “can i help you choose a material” which aims your customer at a different hub, and thus went to a different hub.
Or perhaps it was the “Disclaimer” that warns the customer that FDM is not a good print quality.
Or perhaps the customers got the point of placing the order, and was told they should “consider a different material” which directs them to SLA and SLA and went to a different hub.
Or perhaps the customer saw that 3dhubs does low quality prototypes in prototyping material, and went completely to a different 3d printing site all together.
Or perhaps the customer saw that 3dhubs does low quality prototypes, and went to an FDM printer farm.