Timescale:
I’m having trouble with timescales on my orders. I say I can print something in two working days, but the system’s deadline is always wrong. For example:
1) I received an order on Sunday and it said the deadline was the next day - Monday!
2) I get an order on Wednesday and it says the deadline is Thursday. That is one working day - not two!
When something says it will be delivered the next working day you don’t expect it to be delivered on the day you ordered it - this is also true for any example I can think of - but for some reason 3D Hubs operates in a different way.
3D Hubs, please can you change how the system works to how it is expected to work. I doubt I’m alone in thinking that this is silly and needs to be fixed.
Other Issues:
A) When I post an order or say that it has been picked up the order should stop displaying the deadline date in red and should maybe be green instead to indicate that it is taken care of. Just because the customer has not confirmed (which they rarely do by the way) does not mean it hasn’t happened, so I end up with a long list of red dates despite the fact I’ve done everything I should have.
B) When looking at orders, it’s hard to tell what stage it is at. Allow me to propose a system which shows exactly what stage the order is at.
New () - Shows an order that you have not responded to and how long there is left to respond (counts down from 24:00:00).
Processing - Shows that you have responded to the order and you are discussing the details with the customer.
Awaiting Payment - Shows you have accepted the order and are waiting for the customer to pay 3D Hubs before you begin printing.
Printing - Shows that the customer has paid and that you are currently printing the order.
Awaiting Pickup or Shipping - shows that you are arranging a pickup time / location with your customer or are in the process of packaging and posting the order. At this point the deadline should go green for items that are to be picked up as it is then the customer’s responsibility to pick up the order,
Picked Up () or Shipped () - Shows that the customer has picked up the order, or that you have shipped the parts to them. The time indicates how long before the order changes to completed. At this point the deadline should go green for orders that were to be delivered as the hub has done everything they need to do.
Finished - Either the timer has got to zero and the order has automatically been finished or the customer has confirmed they have received the order.
Completed - 3D Hubs has paid the Hub for the order.
3D Hubs, these changes would take very little to add and would improve workflow massively so please take a moment or two from stacking your five(hundred) euro notes and implement them.
Two final suggestions I have:
I) A notes section on each order page that you can store information in such as special requests from the customer or delivery/pickup arrangements. This should be visible only to the hub, and not the support contact or the customer. A character limit would be helpful for part II.
II) an information button on the order page next to each order. Here you can view the details of the order (printer, material, colour, resolution, delivery/pickup, and notes). This could be mouseover on computers and a button on mobile.
Thanks for reading this and please consider these suggestions. UI design is perhaps the most important part of a system and yours is really hard to get on with. If you are against any of these features, please tell me why and what you’d prefer / why the current system is better.