Switch to Fulfilled by 3D Hubs announcement

[3DReneHub]

It is a pitty that they mostly US centric, because I live in the Netherlands (Europe).

[wirlybird]

Of course there needs to be “standards” but when you have 3dhubs saying they need only the best quality parts, their words, then eliminating a hub for have a response time that is 16 minutes over their “limit” when every other “standard” is perfect makes no sense.
It is a metric that has too many variables to use as a hard fast rule. It is a more suitable metric to use in conjunction with other ones.
And yes, orders that have come in during the middle of the night have counted to my average. Others have shown this as well. If they weren’t counted my response time would be a couple minutes.

3dHubs want’s to use this metric but refuses to address some very basic flaws in it. No one says don’t use it but fix it to where it is a realistic gauge.

[wirlybird]

I really have liked Treatstock. My customers love it compared to 3dhubs.

[wirlybird]

You will have to provide a W9 for tax purposes. I’d contact them to ask about your specific situation.
I have found their support to be very nice and helpful.

[JDMusicLabs]

This is really sad. After 523 completed orders: “thanks for the help and screw you”.

For all those complaining about the requirements for fulfilled by 3d hubs, I don’t think any of that mattered. It was just so they could justify refusing any hub they wanted. Even if we all had perfect scores, that wouldn’t mean they would have to keep everyone.

3D hubs just wants to be another i.materialise or shapeways without doing any of the actual work. Maybe I’m being naive, but I don’t see this model going a long way.

Prices will most certainly go up and all the students and hobbyists will desperately look somewhere else for their prints.

I sure hope someone else has the means and time to make a replacement for 3d Hubs as it was in the beginning so we can go back to something that worked and was good for everyone. I was trying to convince my sister to do something like this and told her “who comes up with an alternative will make a lot of money very fast”. Unfortunately she didn’t do it, so I hope someone else does it.

[bhudson]

I am in the same boat, though I didn’t start as early. I helped write the knowledge base. When they introduced the rating system and the express orders, my approval rating tanked because of the customers ordering parts using the express system and then they couldn’t be printed, so I stopped using the express offering, so now I am no longer able to be a Hub. Seems like a catch 22, especially with their penalty system on cancelled orders.

[JDMusicLabs]

Well, we were already getting penalized before. We were maybe “too nice”, so we almost never refuse orders. I would go as far as to redraw their models in order for them to print correctly, no extra charges. But still we got a lot of people who had to idea about 3d printing and expected production quality products, or who didn’t understand how near unprintable their objects were. We also had people complaining they ordered something from shapeways and complaining the results in resin weren’t exactly the same.
Just one customer leaving a bad review affects the ratings a lot. But we weren’t too bothered because we did get a lot of returning customers, which I think means much more than any review based rating.

[bhudson]

I was penalized for: Unprintable models - non-watertight, etc, that the customer didn’t want to pay to fix, weapons orders, orders where the part orientation wasn’t correct when uploaded and as a result didn’t fit on my printer, orders where the material selected on an express order wasn’t what the customer wanted, and orders where the customer placed the same order four or five times. Every time I asked for a review some of them were taken off, but I was never able to fully recover and my last review didn’t change anything.
The lowest customer rating I had was four starts on one order. 3D Hubs would not share their rating system because they were afraid of abuse by hubs.

[jockspice]

I do 3d printing as a hobby and a side business and this is the end of it for me as the latter. I’ve helped print prosthetic parts, made models for a local company of their full-scale products and printed for numerous students for their end of term products. All of these were done through the ability to be local, last minute jobs printed in short time and picked up or delivered in person, sometimes on the same day. I’ve provided model tweaking, re-slicing and reprinting for no extra charge because it helped the customer. 3D Hubs helped me to help others, and took their cut for facilitating it.
All of that personal touch will now be lost and for them to do this to all the hubs that helped them get to the place they are now, is a massive kick in the slats.
This will be their end and they have orchestrated it.

[digitalirony]

Did anyone else just have their orders/hub dashboard just stop loading?

[JDMusicLabs]

It still works for me…

[digitalirony]

yeah, seems I am running into an API issue or something.

[JDMusicLabs]

If only they were legally liable… I have 3 Form 2 printers, resins and accessories that I bought just because of 3dhubs.

[keebie81]

Its not useless inventory. Its still useable materials. Should never rely on only one place for business.

[JDMusicLabs]

So people should have turned down business from 3dhubs because they didn’t have more places for business? Of course 3d hubs can do what they want and have no liability for what anyone decided to do based on the work they got from them, but people can still be upset, right?

[cobnut]

… but 3DHubs never gave you any guarantees of work, did they?

I’ve sold quite a few unused and even part-used reels online (usually via eBay), and they sell pretty well.

[mx20100]

Hey guys, since most of you know, 3DHubs will be moving fully to B2B (business to business) meaning only businesses will be able to have a Hub. I understand the decision to that movement, so I am here to ask what will happen with us (3D printing enthusiasts)? Where will we be able to go to list our printers, to be able to provide cheap enthusiast to customer 3D printing services? This decision that 3DHubs is taking is making me think of selling my printer due to not knowing what else to do with it.

[fritsvantfoort]

there are several options from making your own website or creating for instance a special facebook page where you represent yourself, a nice website to search services and presentate yourself is https://www.3dseeker.com/ a bit like 3dhubs in the early days, also it would be great if you join this conversation

https://join.slack.com/t/3dfabhubs/shared_invite/enQtNDM0MTEwMDQxNTg3LTc3OTIxZmJhNzJlNzEzZjExMjU5OGFmYzBiYjg5ZmQyODI3ZTc5OTRiODU2YWFlY2E3YTYxYWI3N2Y3ZThhMzM

[JDMusicLabs]

I think most of your questions are answered with a no. The only thing 3d hubs will provide is the access to this forum. Everything else will be gone.

[Peter_Bond_1]

Aspects of what you say tally with my experience - far too many potential customers didn’t have a clue about additive manufacturing, so needed to be led carefully (for which see “free consultancy”). Then go to a hobbyist who undercharged on the actual printing… CF a lot of time spent back & forth on ring design (unwearable, unprintable) that needed significant CAD rework.

Worst I had was a customer who hid a couple of parts inside a larger object to avoid the per-object charge, then later contacted me to complain it had been received damaged but had signed for it as undamaged (insured shipping service). They complained to 3DHubs, who offered to refund the customer in full, but me on the resin only. Dug my heels in on that; it was also a prime reason why I shut my hub down a while ago. This latest move is little more than an extension of that attitude towards the hubs.