Switch to Fulfilled by 3D Hubs announcement

[Richard_Beck]

No, it’s not a big loss and you’re wrong about your estimate of orders. I have been active with 3D hubs from the day they opened up Houston,TX and had a lot more orders in the past. They dropped off significantly this year and last as things changed on 3D Hubs end and, IMHO, as some hubs likely lowballed/tuned their pricing. I’ve been moving from counting on them as a significant and growing part of the business to seeing them as a declining source of marginal revenue.

But that is not the point is it?

They are free to change their business model and we are free to be pissed and to vent. That’s what we are doing here. It won’t change anything, but at least it lets us feel better. I am sure that is why 3dhubs set up this thread in the first place.

I do have one question. If an existing business with 50 or 100 or more printers or 2 or more large HP printers, wanted to participate, how would they qualify to be added? It seems like a catch22 looking ahead unless 3dhubs will be changing their process for adding partners.

[cobnut]

Ditto @bhudson, 5.0 on all scores apart from print quality at 4.9, and that’s almost entirely due to unreasonable expectations, average 4.98. it’s totally achievable, if you never send out substandard work, meet your deadlines and are always prepared to go the extra mile to make the customer happy.

I had one print quality of 3 that was totally absurd as I’d warned the customer about supported surfaces, they’d ok’d the warning AND I sent two copies of the print, trying to make the best of it. Contacted 3DHubs & they talked to the customer and they agreed to revise it as a 4 (though that was still unfair).

[bhudson]

Yeah, I had that also, multiple times. I am not eligible for the Fulfilled program because the quality of orders on Instant Order was so poor that it tanked my completion ratio. So I stopped using Instant Order and still can’t recover the completion ratio because of the stupid customer orders.

If I were to organize a replacement for 3D Hubs I would put a lot more emphasis on customer education at the start of the order instead of having it buried in the help files.

[cobnut]

@bhudson same here. The instant order feature was hopeless for me, just way too many unprintable orders (at least via FDM). I also turned off the student discount as it seemed a lot of student models were also unprintable.

[secliways]

. 3dhub is turning their back to the very people who made the business. Alright they build the website, and it is right to pay the fee on each order. Without the single hubs they would not exist. Customer come to 3dhub because they can find my, our hubs to get their part printed not because 3dhub prints it for customers. Based only on the latter their claim is false. For it to be really fulfilled by 3dhubs they should print the orders themselves, full stop. But that is not the case and by shutting down non qualifying hubs they are playing a dirty, unfair game, and I won’t be surprised if they were to lose the market in the future. They will never be like Shapeways, and others similar platform, unless they shut down everything and buy their own printers.

[cobnut]

@secliways you know Shapeways uses “manufacturing partners” as well, right?

3D Printing Service Online

“Fulfil” simply means “satisfy”, in the sense of a need or requirement, there’s no more to it than that. People want something 3D printed and 3DHubs (or Shapeways) makes that happen, they’re “fulfilling” that requirement. Where and how the part is actually produced is irrelevant in terms of that definition in exactly the same way that Amazon doesn’t need to own an electric toothbrush factory before they can “fulfil” your order of an electric toothbrush.

[secliways]

Partners network is an extra on Shapeways, their service does not rely on other people printing their orders. If all Hubs drop off 3DHub.com, they are finished. That’s my point, DUDE! They have made their name using somebody else hard work. And Amazon is a place where people can sell stuff. Always being that way. They have expanded and never kicked out the people who made it happened for them. And not all orders are marked “fulfilled by Amazon”. But it does not mean you cannot buy it anymore!

[cobnut]

@secliways not sure what you mean by “partners network is an extra”, do you know precisely how much printing is done by Shapeways’ own factories and how much is done by their partners? Does it matter? It’s still possible that a 3D print delivered by Shapeways was printed by a 3rd party, just the same way that 3DHubs prints are. DId you not read this part of the linked page?

“As a production partner, you are integrated into our materials offerings and ordering processes, and fulfill orders placed on Shapeways.”

Oh look, there’s that phrase “fulfil orders”. It’s spelled incorrectly, but I’ll let them off.

My example of Amazon was in respect of your definition of “fulfil”, not how they treat their sellers, but regardless, if you think all Amazon sellers are happy and satisfied with how they operate, you should browse through their seller forum sometime. Take a read of this, seems oddly familiar, doesn’t it?

Giving up -the towel is being thrown

ALL businesses have to make tough decisions from time to time, and occasionally those decisions impact the people that were there at the start. It’s not ideal, but often the only alternative is that the business fails totally and then everyone loses.

[secliways]

“Fulfilled, or not fulfilled That is your question”. And you are totally missing my point of view. Peace out!

[OLCE]

There is a new invitation link for the slack (valid for 30 days)
https://join.slack.com/t/3dfabhubs/shared_invite/enQtNDM4MjE5NDY2ODM0LTFjYmRhOTZlMWI2MmVmMDNiMDAwNTNjNzgxYjAyODViZGVhZjg0Njk4YmM3NjRmNWU2NzVjY2Q0ZGM2NmUzMzA

[AndreasDesmedt]

I felt this coming from soooo far away. When they were starting “Fulfilled by 3DHubs”, adding CNC, adding Metal 3D Printing,…

I began on my own next to 3DHubs by starting a website, Facebook page,… and I get more (and higher value) orders through that than I ever got through 3DHubs. I’ve had a lot of customers complaining about Shapeways prices, this is going to be the same with 3DHubs. Businesses will find other partners, other manufacturers.

This is an insane backstep to all the Hubs, and I’m convinced that they just signed their own death by making this move.

[Lembach3D]

Discord come and join me here

[Lembach3D]

Discord come and join me here.

[Justin_Barcelos]

Bit confused at the new pricing. Will the Manufacturing Partners still set their own pricing or will 3D Hubs have standardized pricing across their different regions?

[cobnut]

My understanding is that all pricing, including postage, will be set by 3DHubs.

[ectarmedia]

I have no problem doing B2B, but I don’t have enough time to fix my “Response Time” for stuff sent over weekend/overnight… This seems like arbitrary parameter which does not makes sense since I cannot set schedule of any kind for my 3D Hub.

So what happened now ? My hub 5.0 star hub with 50+ orders will just disappear ?

[bhudson]

Your response time needs to be yellow to apply. If your statistics are yellow or green you should be fine, especially if you let them know that your response time is because of the overnight orders. You also have to have the “instant order” option enabled for all printers.

If you do not apply to the Fulfilled by 3D Hubs program or if you are not accepted, yes, your Hub just goes away.

[Lembach3D]

Discord here

[keebie81]

I still dont think overnight orders count to the time. I get a few a week at night and my respond time still is in the 1-3min on average.

But if worried about it turn hub off at night and then back on in morning.

[bellair3D]

I’ve been told by a member of 3D Hubs customer support that reviews and performance metrics won’t be part of the new system and therefore won’t be carried over anyway…with a week until Oct 1st I wouldn’t worry much about the metrics much anymore.