Is there a method of managing your queue if you are in the Express Checkout program? I meet all of the qualifications to enroll except, actually enrolling. If I were to enroll, what is in place to prevent me from getting 10 Express orders for next day delivery with no ability to actually do that with one printer?

To me, it seems ‘dangerous’ to my metrics to enroll in this since there is no way to limit the flow of orders in to my hub.

How is this type of thing managed? Or are there no controls in place to handle events similar to the one I described?

7 Likes

I don’t get it either. They keep asking me to apply and I have no interest at all. I don’t understand why any hub would sign up for this. After about 200 orders, only a handful have not required my input/adjustment or a conversation.

I have about a dozen machines but most of them are set up for specific purposes (specific materials, scale, resolution, etc). I intentionally attract difficult prints. I print materials that are very difficult to work with and I often accept orders that other hubs have declined. As a result, I often have to tell people “I don’t think this is practical” or even have to cancel/refund if I can’t make it work for whatever reason. 3D hubs has a problem with that, but I don’t. I do not care about accept rate. It’s a useless metric for me.

I do prototyping. That’s what I’m here for. I’m not a print farm. I don’t want to be a print farm. If I did want to be a print farm, why would I rely on this platform that can pull the rug out from under me at any time? Constantly changing qualifications based on constantly changing metrics which are weighted in a way that is constantly changing… you know… because…something something “conversion rate” something something…

My expectations for things that I care about on this platform improving, dropped to zero long ago but I’m here as long as there is a place for me and I’m allowed to do my thing. I still think the next phase is farms run by 3d hubs themselves (if this isn’t already going on).

-Jesse

10 Likes

It really makes no sense does it. They have all of these “metrics” and talk about customer service yet they want to fast track orders and not let you interact with a customer. It seems their goal has become quantity and not quality.

2 Likes

I agree, when you look at other companies such as cnc shops they all have a quote system. There isnt a one size fits all for 3d printing or cnc. The automated file checkers they have are a good start for estimating but it can’t determine the best orientation or material to use.

Although I have enabled the instant checkout because as we have seen you are now penalized if we dont have it. I have had to adjust pricing to hopefully cover an error. But so far out of the last ~10 orders only one person has used it and it was a small part.

They also want us to have one day turn around on most prints, but theres no way a good print at 500cm3 is going to finish in a day. Luckily no one has ordered something that big

11 Likes

i used support@3dhubs.com and asked them the same question

the “retarded” response was to put the hub offline if i could not keep up

it would be a no brainer to calculate the print time if each hub uploaded their firmware config… the slicer might set the print to go slower but the firmware config would get it close enough for most i think

then hub clould click print has begun and the sytem would now have an idea when it can take in an order again

or it could tell customer when print can be started and when it could be done…

2 Likes

That’s not a bad idea. They could take in some variables such as jerk and acceleration, and your average print speed for each layer height then do a reasonable calculation of time based on that.

Factoring time into the pricing model would be great.

News to me. Screen shot?

1 Like

Not sure what you’re showing me but I’ve never signed up for or applied for express check out, never turned on express checkout, never received an order for express check out.

1 Like

Got it to load this time. That’s messed up that they are sending you the orders without your consent!

but they are not, because I havn’t received any.

1 Like

I think you are over reacting, the website is having issues currently and is running like crap. Its most likely a glitch at moment

12 Likes

Possibly. Just reporting what I’ve seen.

I don’t see any hub. I see my hub in one picture you posted below, but I’m not sure what it had to do with express checkout.

What I do see is someone going over all my old forum comments and down voting them. Good times.

1 Like

No matter what, I’m going to want to download the design onto a real computer and examine it with MY software before accepting/agreeing/quoting anything. So, all this is a waste of time from my perspective.

For a long time, they’ve been pouring all their resources into trying to automate this check out, at the expense of everything else, and I think it’s a huge blunder. Just like how they have buried this forum (which used to be the first google result when searching just about any 3d printing related question), they are burring the hub operator. They want your machines, but not you. Mistake.

The more useless 3d viewers/analyzers/etc they add, the more expensive the site becomes to run and the more obsessed they become with “conversion rate”. Seems like cannot afford for people to play around on here without placing orders anymore.

Getting this massive variety of people/machines/materials standardized and automated isn’t realistic. Instead of expensive software acquisitions, customer service people with minimal hands on 3d printing experience, and ridged check out systems, I think they would have been better off letting the hubs continue to do all this work. They seem to think that the hub operators are the weak link in their business instead of a resource.

3d Hubs cannot manage my machines for me. They don’t know anything about them. They still call my machines “other”, so I don’t think they would be interested in my firmware setting anyway.

My 2cents.

3 Likes

The picture you are referring to is the second page after clicking the express checkout button.

The number in the URL is the hub ID. That hub ID goes to your hub.

I’m a long time member and contributor here. It seems like you are accusing me of something and I really don’t appreciate it. You seem really invested in this accusation for some reason, but you are mistaken.

I’ve gone so far as to show you screen shots of my settings. I tried to place an order to test what you’re saying and my hub does come up. That’s because the only other hub printing ULTEM is located in France. When you try to hit express checkout, it freezes on the loading icon, just like you posted. I’m assuming this is because I never enrolled/applied for express/instant check out.

ya dig?

You come up in the express. That’s not my doing. Sorry if it came across as an accusation. I guess the site is bugged, that doesn’t really surprise me.

But I’ve seen you coming up in express under that material for some time because we’ve looked at branching out into other materials and searched 3D hubs for ultem out of curiosity.

Maybe you didnt know. But your statements in your post above seemed to contradict that fact. I really don’t care if you’re in the program or not.

The only reason the wheel is spinning is because the site is having issues. It was fully loading yesterday and last weekend.

You can get upset with me all you want but that doesn’t get your problem fixed does it?

Why don’t you report it to 3d hubs? You should be thanking me for pointing this out to you since you hate the program so much and want nothing to do with it.

I see no problem. I come up for ULTEM and I’m not accepting express orders.

If I receive an express order, there would be a problem, but that hasn’t happened.

So what should I be reporting to 3d hubs?

If you disagree with my comments on “the program” or have a problem with it, then why don’t you address the content?

Thank you.

I think you might have “instant order” and express checkout confused.

Here let me break it down for you:

1) Enter location

2) Upload file

3) Choose PEI (Ultem)

4) CLICK THE BIG GREEN EXPRESS CHECKOUT BUTTON

5) Lands on your hub ready to accept an express order.

I don’t know how to make it any more clear for you.

You shouldn’t be getting orders routed to you from the express checkout button but you are. That is the problem.

It’s true that I may have confused the two in the conversation but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not signed up for either nor the fact that I’m the only hub printing ULTEM in USA at the moment. I’m not even close to qualifying for express. I only have a 75% accept rate according to them.

Your problem is that the only hub in the country offering ULTEM comes up when someone selects ULTEM???

Do I have that right?