Back on June 24 I ordered a linear rail kit for the Y axis on my printer (type not important) with more axis to come latter if it proved to be OK. This is not some crappy Chinese system with crappy rails but a good quality system which has had good reviews on YouTube. Months passed and no parts. It seems that this company, in Michigan, was just three people working in a garage but had a good product. Now word got out and they became swamped with orders plus a supply problem getting the actual rails which are not the cheap garbage kind so all this effectively broke the operation. Repeated inquires to the company got Zero responses. After 4 months I finally received an email stating that the company in question had merged or been bought by a bigger company with proper facilities to produce the rail kits and my order would be dispatched asap. Again 7 weeks passed and no kits yet so I sent another info request and received an apology (on the 12th Dec.), I had been missed and my kit would be shipped by the 15 of Dec. I received a notice on the 16th that is was shipped (USPS). Now it was made in Clio Michigan about 2 hours away from me not counting time spent at the boarder or just over an hour to the boarder. So where is it now.
First it sat in a shipping facility in Clio for many days then, exactly 6 months after I ordered it, it was shipped …to Allen Park Mi south of Detroit. After that it went to Aurora IL. (Southwest of Chicago) and then onto another facility at Carol Stream IL West of Chicago where it is now sitting.
I wonder how far west it has to go before someone realizes that it’s going the wrong direction. I could have driven there and picked it up at Clio in 2 hours.
That sounds very frustrating. If demand outstripping supply caused the problem in the first place, it seems the fault would lie primarily at the feet of the seller, not their suppliers. Maybe I misunderstand you, but it sounds like they were allowing parts to get sold on backorder, instead of just saying they were out of stock and not allowing the order to be placed. In my opinion, that is a inherently risky business strategy. If they do not inform the customer that the parts are back ordered before the order goes through, that is also a very dishonest practice.
I’ve had to deal with shipping incompetence before(UPS, not USPS), and it is extremely frustrating. I hope they can eventually get you your parts. Situations like that hardly seem worth the time and stress to (hopefully) ultimately get the product one has ordered. Unfortunately, it’s usually impossible to know ahead of time if that is the experience one is going to have. I wish you success in getting your order delivered.
I sounds like they were just overwhelmed with orders beyond their production capability. They did post longer and longer delivery times until they stopped and their Facebook page which had been giving updates also quit. They guy did say they where working 16 to 18 hours a day 7 days a week trying to catch up but it sounds like they just collapsed, unable to make headway.
Utilize the tracking information provided by USPS to monitor the progress of your shipment. If there are any further delays or unexpected detours, it’s essential to be aware of them.
All the major couriers have no clue what they are doing this time of year. I would say if you don’t receive the kit within the next week charge back your credit card and consider it as a lost package.
I am still waiting on my shipment of ubisoft shirts that I ordered in September of 2022. The package got lost in the mail, DHL told me to contact ubisoft and ubisoft told me to contact DHL so I just charged back the credit card and considered the matter closed.
I checked the tracking number today and seems like the site has crashed. To many people trying to find out where the #=!! their Christmas packages have gone to. Probably somewhere near Chicago.
OK I was able to log into the tracking number. It finally went from Carol Steam IL. to Itasca IL.3 miles North and then shipped to the USPS Regional Origin Facility (Chicago???), then to the USPS Regional Facility (apparently not the same place ) and then became “International Transit Processed Through USPS Regional Facility” and It might actually be on it’s way.
One can only hope.
P.S. Once it crosses the border it will no doubt go to Toronto and then on to Montreal before being sent back the other way and on to Winnipeg before someone finds it and drops it of in my town in Ont.
OK I received a notice that it cleared custom and is in Canada today so it is just a matter of how far away our mail system sends before coming back to me. I’m not hopeful.
Can’t say this happened to printer parts, but a similar thing happened with a critical medical device a family member left at my home. My eldest decided not to use UPS to ship it to said family member because Canada Post was closer and cheaper. The address info was correct. Google maps - known for some inaccuracies was able to find the address correctly as well. Canada Post? Not so much. The device ping ponged between Ottawa and Kingston for nearly two weeks. Because Canada Post’s GPS systems couldn’t find the address.
But having litterally taken mail from the hands of a CP mail delivery person at the destination more than a few times… one wonders.
It took a couple of phone calls and we got lucky on the second day. A supervisor was still on the floor in Kingston. They snagged it from the back to Ottawa (4th trip) and hand delivered it. Canada Post, unasked, actually refunded me for the shipping.
There is a reason they call it logistics … though it may defy reason
Best of luck - hopefully you get your kit before the month is out.
It arrived at Toronto yesterday and was shipped to the “international transit facility” today. I hope that doesn’t mean they are going to ship it to another country.
Well let the bells ring out and the banners fly…IT IS HERE.
(insert fireworks of your choice here)
But even in the end, 6 months and 10 days after I ordered it and it finally arrived it just can’t simple can it.
Yesterday a CanPost truck shows up at our door with the parcel in question finally. Tax Due. I have cash or debit but they only take Credit cards which I don’t use. Right there in front of me and I can’t even touch it, the agony. So today I as in the wife unit went to the post office to retrieve the package $25 due. $15 HST and a $10 service charge. Now they charge you to get taxed. Anyway it is here so now I have to install it and re-calibrate the machine.
Their not called that now it’s 3D"something else" but the 3Dfused website still works for ordering. The new merged operation does seem to have things under control. I haven’t tried to assemble things yet, to busy but it looks good. The frame is well made and black anodized. The linear rail comes out of Texas, made from steel or stainless steel (not aluminum like a lot of the cheap ones), I don’t have a magnet handy. The slider is super slick with no wobble and there not cheap. Not the super expensive ones but a lot more then the cheap crap that comes out of China on Amazon. These are $42 each from the seller, so over half the price of the part. The assembly is ready to install, everything is adjusted at the factory in Michigan so it is just a matter of bolting it in place of the existing parts. Hopefully after it is assembled it will have justified the cost with some improvement to prints. Hard to say since my printer turns out nice prints already. I have been told that putting linear rails on is a long turn gain not a short term one. I guess we will see.
Won’t help. Good stainless is not magnetic.
Actually, just thought about it, you can’t anodize steel or stainless. (99% sure)
Nice you finally got the stuff. Sux you have to pay tax and a fee on tax, but that is our lovely government.
In Niagara falls NY, they have a service where you can order stuff, have it sent to them and hop over the border for “lunch” and pick your stuff up. They should have something like that in your area.
Which is why I needed the magnet to see if it is magnetic, 300 series SS is nonmagnetic, mostly. It is the frame that is anodized not the rail itself. Actually I looked at it again and it is probably powder coated not anodized.
They have services like that here too but I don’t order enough to bother with one. The worst part is the service fee that they added. Isn’t the crazy taxes we pay enough. Stupid question, with Trudeau spending us into poverty.
With the current exchange rate it is. That’s why I only bought the X axis kit for now. I will have to sell a lot more blood to get the rest. There are certainly cheaper kits out there but this looked better.
I could have purchase rails and built my own set up but at my age there are only so many tics left in the heart, don’t want to use them for that.
… I’m trying out one of these hogged out rails… we’ll see…