Hey 3D Hubs,

I’m back. Orders have picked up again for me at least so I have no complaints there this time. Today’s issue is an old one I’ve brought up before; hub rankings, location and verification.

To start with, what sparked this issue is a new Hub that just passed me for 2nd place in my city. Now I have no idea how but I get that it can happen and that’s fine. I didn’t take it personally, its not like their hub has anything I don’t in terms of opportunity. Comparing the two hubs though; I’ve been around longer, I have more reviews, I have more material choices, they just have more FDM printers. That’s about all I can see that would put them above me.

My issue with them though is two things. Their location and their Hub page. If you type in my zip-code I am .45 miles away, they are 11.7 miles. Not to mention no one in the Boston area actually considers the town they are in part of the “Boston area” like you tag them. Now I get the whole location thing makes no sense and has been debated 1000x over. Just wanted to really vent that it still makes no sense.

Now the big issue I noticed with the Hub that made me actually upset with both them and you, 3D Hubs, is their entire page is filled with stock photography. They show photos of prints their machines couldn’t possibly do. They show materials either they cant print or certainly don’t offer. Whats the point of me setting up my little photo box and taking time to get a good photo, edit, and upload it if I get the same benefit as just uploading a photo from google.

Also its just completely misleading and bad for Hubs and 3D printing in general if some company is false advertising materials and capabilities. Its misleading and confusing to customers who generally are already a bit confused as to what can and cant be done.

So I know you said a while ago you were going to add address verification in November (which hasn’t happened yet) but how about some sort of rule against uploading stock/googled/other peoples photos?

Thanks,

Josh

@Filemon @gabriela3d @Brian @Bali

3 Likes

Hey Josh,

Thanks for flagging this, first of all we’ll look into the legitimacy of the Hub you mentioned. We do not allow Hubs to upload fake pictures or to mislead customers in other ways.

Regarding the ranking, we’re currently testing the new better ranking for 50% of the users, I’m pretty sure you’re still seeing the ‘old’ version. As soon as we’ve confirmed the new ranking is better will roll it out.

Regarding verification it’s still high on our priorities list, we’ve so far built the ability to flag fraudulent Hubs/users, and we’ll move into Hub verification in Q1. This is pretty important to do right so we don’t want to rush it.

Thanks for keeping us alert and for flagging that Hub, we’ll get back to you on that!

Brian

Thanks for the quick reply.

Glad to know there is already something in place for things like this. It might already do this but it might be worth a pop up or message somewhere on the photo upload letting people know about this. I don’t think they did this with any malicious intent but when your header photo is half a dozen or more delta printers but you don’t have a single delta on your hub that’s not very good.

Little sad I’m not in the 50% getting to test the new rankings since I was part of the A/B that got to suffer through the last testing. Oh well, I hope it works well because its needed and look forward to seeing it soon.

Thanks,

Josh

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it’s the same deal in europe (denmark) i have “nearby” hubs that are over 1½ hours away in car, and if i remember correct 3D hubs idea was that you could jump on a bike and collect… no way in hell i’m driving that distance on a bike :stuck_out_tongue:

some hubs also lists themselfes as being in my city and when it comes to it they are 2 hours in car away from me. and the excuse is that they drive through on a “regular” basis. worst to do this “scam” are business hubs…

and some do it as it was the “closes” one…

i think the problem here is that hubs have to pick a city from a list… why not ditch that and just use the city they live in… if a “COMMUNITY” is not created for that city just auto create it… i think you get the point here

2 Likes

btw… “So I know you said a while ago you were going to”

i guess this is also the case with the “badges list request”… ie it has not been done and people are still being discriminated against for not buying a BIG brand printer and BS excuses are giving for sticking to that

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@Brian as for getting the right distance Google Maps Platform से जुड़े दस्तावेज़  |  Distance Matrix API  |  Google Developers

i used it for the local pizza store so distance to customers could be figured and delivery cost set.

you will not longer have to ask for anything but the hubs address. and this is the address for pickup. If hub puts in a false adrress and ask client to pickup at different address make this a reason for the client to be able to pull out

@Brian wrong link… was this one i used: Documentación de Google Maps Platform  |  Directions API  |  Google Developers

the first one always take the fastest route and not the shortest one

Hey Josh,

PrintAworld’s primary service is in Brooklyn (https://www.3dhubs.com/new-york/hubs/printaworld-brooklyn), Which does have the delta printers mentioned. From speaking with the owner, they are just setting up their Boston based location and were using some of the photos from their Brooklyn location. They will be adding Delta printers soon, I requested that they change the imagery in the meantime. Thanks for the heads up!

Alex

Thanks for sharing @Boelle that’s actually really neat. We’ll make sure to take that into account when we do the verification.

Yeah! Your(3dHubs) faulty concept of what is local has called a huge delay in my project. A company that shows up in the results for printers in my city is actually located in another state and around 8 hours away. That means that I’m stuck waiting around 8 days for delivery. If they were local, I would have had my items 4 days ago but now I’m waiting on USPS for a Saturday delivery.

The company seems nice enough but they are too far away.

Hey @Josh_Raples, verifications are now available platform wide, read more about it here: Talk Manufacturing | Hubs

3D Hubs! 2years ago this post, is from! So why with address verification, completed & verified, am i sat in my hubs office, and your site says, I am 455 miles away??? This is loosing MYSELF & YOU revenue $$$ £££. You are clearly making money! But you are loosing yourself & possibly thousands of hubs money!!! Get it together-fix this basic issue. If my 10 year old sat nav can tell me my location to within 30yds, & Google, I’m sure you can get people’s location correct! Or remove it from the site & let customers work it out for them selves, they have to at the minute anyway!!!

2Yrs and they still can’t give customers a hubs correct location! Clearly it is not on any priority list! Or do you do things like the government! A 10yr plan!