QU-BD Problems

Has anyone else had major issues with qu-bd? Not just there extruders, but them as a company? I have spent the last 2 months trying to resolve my orders with them. First they charged my account despite showing the order as I error, and provided me a Credit Voucher to use when called out on it. This seemed fine until I tried using said Credit Voucher. They repeatedly claimed to have 'fixed' it, it still doesn't work. Meanwhile, I had made two new orders for extruders. I ordered the MBE V9s and another for X-truders. The V9s came a week and a half later, I couldn't get them to do anything except chew filament. I tried downloading instructions, link broken. I tried contacting qu-bd support, nothing. I was finally told the instructions link would be fixed in the near future hopefully. After weeks of waiting, literally, I finally received the X-truders. They wouldn't extrude a damn thing, they would feed to the nozzle and then go into stepper slip. I tried every configuration possible to make them work. I tried contacting qu-bd for support and received no response. Finally after weeks of waiting and 5 emails I sent an email to Chelsea and Paula from a different email address asking about purchasing and one from mine asking about technical support, Chelsea answered immediately to the sales possibility. I called her out on it. The next day she emailed me saying she didn't know what happened with support because she doesn't have access to those emails but she'd try to help. This was only after I sent a less irritated email promising future purchases if she'd help me. Long story short, I finally mailed all extruders back two weeks ago taking her offer for a full refund if I wanted. Chelsea acknowledged receiving the extruders and told me my refund would be processed within a couple business days. Status today, a couple business weeks later, qu-bd had the extruders and acknowledged so, no refund has been performed, Chelsea Thompson won't return my email, Paula won't return my email, I'm out $716.02.

Did everyone at qu-bd disappear? Has anyone else had issues with then? I've noticed they are no longer on Amazon, maybe too many bad reviews?

Sidenote, I've spent a near couple thousand total with this company in the last few months.

Doing a bit of research would have let you know that most of what they make is garbage. I've only ever ordered motors from them and had no issues with that but it was only like a $20 order. I'd never spend ~$1,000 without doing some research.

I built an OrdBot last year and made the mistake of fitting a QU-BD mbe extruder. I had no end of problems trying to get it to work. I even drilled it out and fitted a ptfe liner. Load of junk. I abandoned it and decided to go with a tried and tested design.
I now have a bog standard Wade's extruder and a jhead hotend from hotends.com.

They were selling a design that basically did not work straight out of the box.

i must be the odd one out of the box, the only trouble i have had with my qu-bd mk7 extruder is with PLA, with ABS i get more than good prints out of it, though i did get a different hobbed drive gear for it from ebay,

but ya its sad to see that you are having such trouble with your order.

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[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

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tjb1
Doing a bit of research would have let you know that most of what they make is garbage. I've only ever ordered motors from them and had no issues with that but it was only like a $20 order. I'd never spend ~$1,000 without doing some research.

Yeah, mistake on my part. Although, most of what I spent with them was hardware and electrical parts for building. I was ordering extruders for two machines, one quad and one double, I'll never replace everything across the board at the same time again with anything I've not tested. If I ever get my money back I'm thinking of trying those setups from Israel. Right now I'm happy with Printrbot Alu extruders. The worst part about qu-bd has been their passive aggressive behavior and now straight up scamming. It's sad that she got $400,000+ in funding and this is what we all get.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2014 05:12PM by jkerr.

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jkerr

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tjb1
Doing a bit of research would have let you know that most of what they make is garbage. I've only ever ordered motors from them and had no issues with that but it was only like a $20 order. I'd never spend ~$1,000 without doing some research.

Yeah, mistake on my part. Although, most of what I spent with them was hardware and electrical parts for building. I was ordering extruders for two machines, one quad and one double, I'll never replace everything across the board at the same time again with anything I've not tested. If I ever get my money back I'm thinking of trying those setups from Israel. Right now I'm happy with Printrbot Alu extruders. The worst part about qu-bd has been their passive aggressive behavior and now straight up scamming. It's sad that she got $400,000+ in funding and this is what we all get.

I believe they have/had another Kickstarter for some printer that was advertised as the best under $300 or something, I would think by now they would have enough capital to build these new printers in volume after their last Kickstarter. They just use it as advertising and pre-order service, don't reach the limit, they don't make them, if they do then they just give the OK and production starts...not what Kickstarter is for and a reason I stay away from Kickstarter. Not to mention the stupid way Kickstarter promotes different projects. Unless someone sends you a link, chances are you wont find it because it's buried in one of the stupid categories and then they want you to search through all the funded crap or whatever they feel is the best.

[www.bbb.org]

Products: Some are good and some are bad. Do your research.
Prices: Great
Delivery: Sluggish to Speedy depending
Customer Service: Don't count on any.

QU-BD doesn't follow the standard business model. They have super thin margins. You can take advantage of those small margins and get good prices. However, there isn't money left to pay for a support staff.

I sincerely believe that they have the best of intentions. However, they have horrible follow through.

Disclaimer: I have done thousands of dollars worth of business with them and will continue to do so. However, I am only an hour away from their shop and if I get tired of waiting I can just pop on by.

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ConceptFORGE
Wally, GUS Simpson, LISA Simpson, THOR Simpson, Sextupteron, CoreXZ

I had a pretty bad experience with them too.
Bought four extruders all of which I ended up throwing in the bin, I just salvaged the stepper from them.

When they first arrived I found that all four didn't have a hole in the nozzle, it just had not been drilled.
I sent photos taken with a digital microscope to show that they had a manufacturing problem.
Got a reply from them telling me that the nozzles must have got beat-up in transport (what BS) and they would replace them.
Never ever saw any replacement nozzles, I ended up making my own.

I have never dealt with them after that, and never will deal with them again. They tell lies and don't support their customers.
Products that I bought from them was just crap.

Here are some photos of their nozzles;

Easy to see that the drill had broken.


Pretty rough machining too.


Hole wouldn't have been in the center either, even if it had been drilled.


Another poor effort.



This is my nozzle in comparision.

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[regpye.com.au]
"Experience is the mother of all knowledge." --Leonardo da Vinci

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nicholas.seward
Products: Some are good and some are bad. Do your research.
Prices: Great
Delivery: Sluggish to Speedy depending
Customer Service: Don't count on any.

QU-BD doesn't follow the standard business model. They have super thin margins. You can take advantage of those small margins and get good prices. However, there isn't money left to pay for a support staff.

I sincerely believe that they have the best of intentions. However, they have horrible follow through.

Disclaimer: I have done thousands of dollars worth of business with them and will continue to do so. However, I am only an hour away from their shop and if I get tired of waiting I can just pop on by.

They don't follow a business model, period. Business requires follow through or else it is called a scam or con. They take money and you potentially receive something in return. I just the other day again emailed them twice, one asking about my refund and the other asking about purchasing product (from an address they hadn't seen before). The email with potential business was quickly answered, the refund email still has had no response. They won't even answer my personal email address with purchasing questions now. They have no problem finding time to market and take money, they feel no obligation beyond that apparently. This is called a scam, it's illegal. I know there is a way to deal with this as I'm friends with my local DDA who runs the Consumer Protection Division, I encourage anyone else that's had a horrible experience and/or been outright ripped off to PM me.

I have only ever ordered one thing from them, a silicon heater, and I don't plan on doing business with them ever again. When I ordered the heater, their website said that it was in stock. After about a week, I had not received a shipping confirmation so I wrote to inquire. I was advised that they had run out of them, but would have them back in stock in a 7-10 days. After another 14 days had passed, I emailed them again to ask my shipping status but never received a reply. Over the next 30 days I tried to email them at 3 separate email addresses and also made attempts to contact them through their support forum. Every attempt to communicate with them went unanswered. Approximately 60 days into it, I filed a dispute with Paypal. I never heard a word from qu-bd, but my silicon heater showed up in a Priority Mail box about 3-4 days after filing the dispute. It seems that the only thing that got their attention was the threat of taking their money away.

I had basically forgotten about them until I read this thread. After looking around a little more, it seems that qu-bd has been featured on such websites as the "ripoff report" and their issues have also caught the attention of their local Little Rock papers and business publications. They have completely elimiated their "support forum", most likely because it was filled with outraged customers. Lastly, I noticed that they have changed their url from "qu-bd.com" to "quintessentialuniversalbuildingdevice.com". I'm guessing it was an attempt at a fresh start, but maybe they just liked the way it rolls so smoothly off the tongue.

@jkerr, can you post any links.

Here are a few links to help people that have been scammed on the internet:

[www.the3dprintingassociation.com]
[travel.state.gov]
[www.econsumer.gov]
[www.ic3.gov]
[www.iccwbo.org]
[www.traderscity.com]

I don't typically say negative things about anyone but I would reinforce the above suggestions about doing research before doing business with this company or any for that matter. I was about to plunk down a good bit for one of their printers and then I found their support forum at the last minute. Ran like hell the other way after that

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stonedcoldskier
Lastly, I noticed that they have changed their url from "qu-bd.com" to "quintessentialuniversalbuildingdevice.com". I'm guessing it was an attempt at a fresh start, but maybe they just liked the way it rolls so smoothly off the tongue.

3D Systems threatened them with legal action, as the name was too similar to [cubify.com]

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greenman100

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stonedcoldskier
Lastly, I noticed that they have changed their url from "qu-bd.com" to "quintessentialuniversalbuildingdevice.com". I'm guessing it was an attempt at a fresh start, but maybe they just liked the way it rolls so smoothly off the tongue.

3D Systems threatened them with legal action, as the name was too similar to [cubify.com]

That's ridiculous, I'd wipe with the letter and send it back.

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tjb1

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greenman100

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stonedcoldskier
Lastly, I noticed that they have changed their url from "qu-bd.com" to "quintessentialuniversalbuildingdevice.com". I'm guessing it was an attempt at a fresh start, but maybe they just liked the way it rolls so smoothly off the tongue.

3D Systems threatened them with legal action, as the name was too similar to [cubify.com]

That's ridiculous, I'd wipe with the letter and send it back.

The USA system is not a loser pay system so the validity of the claim doesn't really matter. The advantage goes to the bigger company that can afford to spend money on legal fees. It is really a sad system. If a big company sees something that a small company has, they can get it or force the company into bankruptcy.

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ConceptFORGE
Wally, GUS Simpson, LISA Simpson, THOR Simpson, Sextupteron, CoreXZ

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tjb1

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greenman100

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stonedcoldskier
Lastly, I noticed that they have changed their url from "qu-bd.com" to "quintessentialuniversalbuildingdevice.com". I'm guessing it was an attempt at a fresh start, but maybe they just liked the way it rolls so smoothly off the tongue.

3D Systems threatened them with legal action, as the name was too similar to [cubify.com]

That's ridiculous, I'd wipe with the letter and send it back.

Lol, I agree. I'm not in any way supporting or promoting QU-BD as a company (or as decent people for that matter), but 3D Systems is a little ridiculous there. Maybe they were familiar with the company, though, and were afraid QU-BD's business practices and product quality would be accidentally associated with Cubify in conversation.

It seems I will have to take legal action against QU-BD or Quintessential Universal Building Device. I created a new email account and asked about purchasing, immediate response from Chelsea T again. Email from me about refund sent at the same time, no response. She has obviously had too much handed to her if she thinks she can just walk away with $700+ of someone's money and it's not a problem. I'm talking to the Consumer Protection Division that just won a multi million dollar case against Overstock.com for being shady with online sales. I encourage anyone else who QU-BD wronged to get in touch with me before Friday morning.

While I don't think it is necessarily the best place to talk about this stuff I thought I would clear the air.

Jkerr purchased several products which he told us he wasn't able to make work correctly.

As per our return policy: "All unaffected items may be returned within 15 calender days from the date of delivery for a full refund less shipping and handling costs. After 15 calender days all sales are considered final and no returns will be accepted. "Unaffected" is defined as an item that has never been assembled, used, had any electrical current applied to it, programmed, or otherwise modified in any way."

Jkerr requested a credit for the merchandise which we agreed to even though both of them had been used and had already had filament applied through it and many components were damaged. A credit was created at 100% of the value of his purchase and sent over to him despite the fact that the several of the parts were damaged due to misuse including 4 nozzles two of the heater blocks and a heater cartridge. The obvious reason they were working was due to an overtemperature situation as the filament was coked up inside the nozzles and the anodizing on the heaterblock had turned a brown color. In good faith we gave a 100% credit even though all the components mentioned are to be thrown away.

Jkerr used some of his credit to purchase additional merchandise. He then requested the balance refunded to him via Paypal which we refuse to do as it is against our policies.

TL : DR Version: Jkerr returned customer damaged merchandise, we issued a 100% credit anyway, he used some of it to buy more of our products and wanted the refund back in cash through Paypal and we refused.

I would be happy to post the pictures of the damaged components if anyone cares.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2014 11:09PM by Chelsea - QU-BD.

Also, not that it makes much difference but the value of the entirety of the returned merchandise, in unaffected condition, at retail is $385.00 not the $716.02 that was mentioned.

Additionally I am showing that between the ticketing system, and direct e-mail that there are 17 messages replying to you over the period from Feb 3rd to now. If duplicate spam tickets are created they are merged and responded to once.

@Regpye as I am not aware of the exact situation that caused the nozzles to be that way or why the replacements weren't sent to you, although occasionally things can be missed. Please e-mail me directly and I will get them out to you personally. Please include your order number.

Anyone have popcorn? This is good.

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Chelsea - QU-BD
@Regpye as I am not aware of the exact situation that caused the nozzles to be that way or why the replacements weren't sent to you, although occasionally things can be missed. Please e-mail me directly and I will get them out to you personally. Please include your order number.

My order number will be in your system.
I don't appreciate being told at this very late date that you will now replace the nozzles when they should have been sent months ago.
As for being being lost in post that is not believable, just as "being beat-up in the post" was not believable when you were informed of the product fault.
Several mails were sent to you about this problem and were unanswered after the promise to replace,so why would I believe now when you are now copping a lot of flak from everyone about your poor business methods..

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[regpye.com.au]
"Experience is the mother of all knowledge." --Leonardo da Vinci

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salsabettis
Anyone have popcorn? This is good.

I've got my feet up, my bowl of popcorn at hand - just waiting for the next salvo......

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"I have noticed that even those who assert that everything is predestined and that
we can change nothing about it still look both ways before they cross the street"

-Stephen Hawking

What is the explanation for the RPM buyers that have not gotten refunds after 5 months of waiting for refund and 16 months of QU-BD holding their money?

[www.fabric8r.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2014 08:25PM by greenman100.

Chelsea, I returned a single set of used MBE V9 extruders, a single used X-truder, a completely unused set of MBE V9 extruders and an unused X-truder. The amount I have listed is the total of all my orders including the $270.34 transaction you completed for nothing, so my total is a little off as I forgot to take out the shipping charges the customer is always responsible for. You have provided no credit for returned products, you sent me a few small parts towards the original credit you gave me for the order you said didn't go through but charged for. So how did you send this Credit over to me? I sure haven't seen it. And every time I've tried to use the original Credit for the unauthorized transaction I'm given a 'Fatal Error' message at the end of my order.

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Chelsea - QU-BD
While I don't think it is necessarily the best place to talk about this stuff I thought I would clear the air.

Jkerr purchased several products which he told us he wasn't able to make work correctly.

As per our return policy: "All unaffected items may be returned within 15 calender days from the date of delivery for a full refund less shipping and handling costs. After 15 calender days all sales are considered final and no returns will be accepted. "Unaffected" is defined as an item that has never been assembled, used, had any electrical current applied to it, programmed, or otherwise modified in any way."

Jkerr requested a credit for the merchandise which we agreed to even though both of them had been used and had already had filament applied through it and many components were damaged. A credit was created at 100% of the value of his purchase and sent over to him despite the fact that the several of the parts were damaged due to misuse including 4 nozzles two of the heater blocks and a heater cartridge. The obvious reason they were working was due to an overtemperature situation as the filament was coked up inside the nozzles and the anodizing on the heaterblock had turned a brown color. In good faith we gave a 100% credit even though all the components mentioned are to be thrown away.

Jkerr used some of his credit to purchase additional merchandise. He then requested the balance refunded to him via Paypal which we refuse to do as it is against our policies.

TL : DR Version: Jkerr returned customer damaged merchandise, we issued a 100% credit anyway, he used some of it to buy more of our products and wanted the refund back in cash through Paypal and we refused.

I would be happy to post the pictures of the damaged components if anyone cares.

Chelsea you have your timeline completely screwed up above, I have not been able to get a single thing from beyond the statement of you were giving 100% credit (no actual way of using it to date) since returning your product. The credit I used some of was the $270 and change you successfully charged but unsuccessfully processed. The whole reason for the PayPal request is I'm quite tired of playing your game. You've put out more effort in this forum than you have in resolving the situation. The reason the nozzles of the ones I tried to use had filament and were coked up inside is due to a non-functioning extruder, btw. So go ahead and post pics for anyone who cares, make sure they include the unused product I sent back as well. Why don't you send me an email with a valid access code for all my Credit (the original voucher and returned items) and we can be done with each other for good as quick as I can spend it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2014 10:22PM by jkerr.

im waiting for the revolution i ordered in feb, i asked for a status report yesterday. hard to believe this is possable...playing with fire if it is.

update: i received the revolution printer i ordered today, it took a while but it looks like an excellent machine, it appears to be undamaged in shipping, QU-BD maybe having some issues but this printer seems very well engineered...looks good....i will inform after testing

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widicus
im waiting for the revolution i ordered in feb, i asked for a status report yesterday. hard to believe this is possable...playing with fire if it is.

Still waiting for my two up. They already have my money so I hope it ships soon.

No updates on their site.