No one hasn’t complained about poor customer service at some point in their product-purchasing adulthood. Whether it’s something broken upon arrival, not what you ordered, missing parts, or overly slow in shipping, you brace yourself for inevitable frustration as you reach out to customer service for help.
It’s not always this way, in fact, customer service may be getting better overall.
Technology, such as AI-chat solutions for easy questions, video support, and help via instant messaging apps provide more ways to reach out for help than ever before. There are also more customer-led discussion forums online at platforms like Reddit, for example, where you can reach out to your peers with questions, as well as groups on Facebook. These solutions and a reinvigorated cultural focus on service have made the American Customer Satisfaction Index, a government-sponsored economic indicator, increase sharply over the past two years to its highest ever (78.0 on a 0-100 scale) in the first quarter of 2024.
Although your new 3D printer is designed to be up and running as soon as you assemble it according to the instructions, this doesn’t always go to plan. Here at our own 3D printing lab, we’ve received printers for review that were missing essential parts or arrived damaged. So this article is inspired by both our reader feedback and our own experience.
Here, we set out to take a deeper look into 3D printer customer service options offered by the major manufacturers and whether or not purchasing from a reseller or distributor – or online at Amazon or AliExpress – has any benefits.
Also, if you’re purchasing your printers for your workplace, what extra warranties and service are available for minimizing risks and downtime? Let’s dive in.
What Service Can & Should You Expect?
Good service builds loyal customers, but sometimes that really low price is too attractive to pass up. Although good service and low prices are not mutually exclusive, in practice, they tend to inversely correlate.
So to make your 3D printer selection, purchase, return, repair, and service go smoothly, learn what to expect from various providers. If service and customer support is a top priority for you or your business because you’re relatively new at this, look for the companies with a reputation for going above and beyond.
Below, we’ve done a lot of the work for you scouring the policies and support pages of the top 3D printer desktop brands and following up on issues you’ve reported to us and those we’ve read online.
What Does Top Service Look Like?
One 3D printer maker that comes up often in online forums, in a good way, when discussing customer support is Prusa Research. The Prague-based firm goes all out to ensure that its customers enjoy a seamless 3D printing experience and is especially present when customers don’t.
We’re going to shine a light on Prusa’s customer service as the model, although it’s not perfect, that other companies should strive for.
First, the customer support portal on the company’s site is just called Help, or the equivalent in six other languages that its site is available in. From the help page you’re directed to select your printer model or your firmware if you want to get specific right away. Or you can jump into troubleshooting topics, like performing maintenance or unclogging extruders. The help page is also where you’ll easily find all of the manuals and guides about your printer, making digital models, slicing, and software.
“Great customer experience is one of the main reasons people love Prusa,” says Rudolf Krcmar, chief marketing officer at Prusa Research. “Even though our printers are renowned for their reliability, we ensure that when a customer needs assistance, their issues are addressed promptly so they can return to printing as quickly as possible. After all, people prefer to print, not to deal with customer service!”
If you do need to send your printer back to Prusa, there’s a guide on that, too, which explains how to prepare and pack your machine for return.
Of course, if you’re too frustrated to read guides or search the trouble shooting tips — we’ve all been there — tap the live chat button and a support person will help or point you in the right direction.
If you have a specific, non-urgent curiosity or a how-to question, the Prusa user forum is a good place to look. It’s searchable, available in seven languages, has 64,000 members, and is active daily.
Prusa machines are not available through resellers, but that may change soon. Krcmar says thanks to increased production capacity, Prusa is now able to look for resellers in many countries. “However, ability to provide exceptional customer service is one of the key criteria for selection.”
* Shipping back your return to the manufacturer, that isn’t damaged in any way, usually requires that you pay the shipping costs, plus you won’t be refunded the shipping fee your paid originally.
** The Word on Warranties
Your rights as a customer vary depending on where you live and where the manufacturer is located. For example, customers in the European Union have a legally mandated right to return most online purchases within 14 days, while in the US, return policies are more flexible and at the discretion of the retailer rather than federal law.
Under EU law, consumers are entitled to a minimum two-year legal warranty covering defects that are present at the time of delivery, even if they become apparent later. In the US, warranty terms can vary widely depending on the manufacturer, seller, and specific product, but one-year warranties are common.
Although EU consumer protection laws apply to EU residents even when they purchase products directly from non-EU sellers, such as those in China, enforcing these rights on foreign companies can be challenging, so keep that in mind.
Some warranties are voided if you attempt “unauthorized repairs” and any modifications may also invalidate the product warranty and further increase the cost of repairs.
One last word on warranties: Don’t forget to register your warranty with the manufacturer online. Some manufacturers require this extra step to “activate” your warranty.
Why Buy From an Authorized Reseller
Ages ago, 3D printers were only available from the manufacturer. Then showrooms and resellers began popping up. Shortly after, you could buy desktop 3D printers on Amazon, AliExpress, and mainstream electronic stores like Micro Center in the US or Saturn in Europe.
“It’s unusual to get something for nothing, but when you buy a 3D printer from a great reseller instead of directly from the maker, that’s what happens,” says Douglas Krone, CEO of 3D printer reseller Dynamism. “While the after-sales support infrastructure from the maker is identical in either case, you gain access to the resellers’ support team. In practice, it gives customers a larger team of support engineers. And a further added benefit is that great resellers have a range of experience across platforms, and so can offer innovative solutions from a neutral viewpoint.”
But why buy from a reseller?
- Purchasing Advice
- Tech Support
- Product Bundles
- Training
- Service Plans
- Extended Warranties
- Repairs
Although, resellers and manufacturers often have the same price (sometimes the retail price is set by the manufacture and can’t be lowered by a reseller), you can often find customization options or product bundles, such as a printer starter kit with filament and accessories at a special price, that manufacturers don’t offer or offer at a higher price. A reseller may also be the best source for volume discounts if you’re buying more than one machine.
If you’re not sure which 3D printer fits your needs, a reseller can advise you and explain the various machines that it sells and how they compare to each other in ways you may not have thought of. A reseller is typically the better choice for business purchases since it can help you plan for growth.
A good reseller will know how scalable each machine is and whether they are upgradeable or not.
Then of course, there’s customer service. Although some manufacturers, as we’ve outlined above, offer robust service, many resellers have an added layer of service that is guaranteed to be in your language and timezone, should you select the closest one.
Resellers, it could generally be said, are more focused on customers since they don’t manufacture anything and their entire operation hinges on happy customers. Some of the services that resellers offer include training classes, repairs, installation, troubleshooting, and extended warranties and service plans.
If you buy a Creality 3D printer from a local distributor, like US-based Dynamism or EU-based IGo3D, you would avoid shipping fees to send the machine back to China for return or service. Although Creality, for example, has warehouses in the US, Europe, the UK, Australia, and Canada, its warranty does say, “if the return to China is required,” you’ll pay the postage. Working with a reseller would negate any surprises.
One of biggest reasons to go with a reseller, of course, is tech support. Dynamism, for example, offers unlimited tech support with every product. IGo3D, in the EU offers a free basic tech support plan and two paid plans, that offer extras, such as a 4-hour email response time, free shipping for repairs, free annual maintenance, and even on-site repair (excluding technician travel costs).
*All service information for the above retailers is our best estimation from all publicly available information.
License: The text of "Customer Service from 3D Printer Brands: Who Excels in Support and Repairs?" by All3DP Pro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.