How is Mendel-parts still in business?

scordinskyc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sodacan:
>
> Calling your bank and saying you never got what
> you payed for usually begins an investigation.
> While that's happening, they usually credit your
> account with the amount, at least most banks in
> the US do.
>
> I'm almost at that point too, believe me. I also
> considered calling the local police. Any thought
> about that option?
>
> Christopher

I've heard though if you did a bank transfer through paypal that paypal will come back and perminatly deactivate your account.

even if that is true, and i doubt it. wouldn't the fucking logical response be CAREFACE? make a new paypal account, last time i checked it was not that hard

Another helpful and inoffensive post from Asger.

Does anyone know what the limiting factor is in the deliveries. I'm in the fortunate position to be able to wait for my orders, but many are not. Is it raw material supply? Investment for stock? Labour availabilty? I can imagine without much working capital (this is reprap after all) he might have to collect up orders from us to then make an order himself that satisfies minimum order quantities from trade suppliers? Yes I know this is stuff he should probably tell us but I genuinely think he is doing the best he is able. I'm just curious to know why it gets so bad.

I did speak to him on skype a week ago and he was extremely helpful to me. I firmy believe he is a good guy, and you can't knock what he's achieved or contributed to 3d printing. I also can't imagine how hard it must be to invest and innovate in so many areas only to have foreign companies take all the profit by undercutting him and reselling his designs. We get the benefits in lower price and new methods, but poor camiel takes the up-front cost. Yes, thats the point of open standards, but you can see why he hides away sometimes.

Hides away? i thougth he was ill

Blog post
"It seems like im still recovering from a crazy 1,5year, however things are getting also better, but it all takes longer then expected."

"for example v0.41 coming in a few weeks.. small addons for 0.40, like spool " plenty of spool you can print on thingiverse for the orca already

Hmm I thought I was supposed to be getting emails when people post here....

I have a dispute through Paypal right now, when I called them up they did actually suggest going to the bank and falsified the claim I heard about having paypal locked because your funding source reversed the transaction. Though thats probably because I have already filed a dispute. Not sure if they can do anything but 45 days is the limit on when they can force a reverse transfer.

I'm email him almost daily right now because hes not on Skype, he don't answer his hotmail, I don't know what language the voice mail was on one phone number and his cell is disconnected.

He should not be allowed into the RepRap wiki, with no warnings on it you don't know about his shady business. I got near immediate response when I first asked him a question days before I ordered and the website looked clean and proper. So I gave it a chance because of that and the print volume. He hasn't responded to any messages in the last couple months.

Rein Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hmm I thought I was supposed to be getting emails
> when people post here....
>
> I have a dispute through Paypal right now, when I
> called them up they did actually suggest going to
> the bank and falsified the claim I heard about
> having paypal locked because your funding source
> reversed the transaction. Though thats probably
> because I have already filed a dispute. Not sure
> if they can do anything but 45 days is the limit
> on when they can force a reverse transfer.
>
> I'm email him almost daily right now because hes
> not on Skype, he don't answer his hotmail, I don't
> know what language the voice mail was on one phone
> number and his cell is disconnected.
>
> He should not be allowed into the RepRap wiki,
> with no warnings on it you don't know about his
> shady business. I got near immediate response when
> I first asked him a question days before I ordered
> and the website looked clean and proper. So I
> gave it a chance because of that and the print
> volume. He hasn't responded to any messages in the
> last couple months.

I allmost fell for the same trap you did, guess i was lucky cause i read his own forums first. that was enough to discourage me

Good thing you didn't. If your looking for print volume keep an eye on Makergear's new M2.

Camiel wrote me that order 1296 has been shipped to me. UPS confirmed that it is in transit.

so, he is alive and shipping ...

this time I have ordered only some upgrade kits and backup parts ... I already have an orca 0.3 which is a fantastic machine!

this is my 3rd order from mendel-parts in the past 6 months ... so far everything was good (of course there was some delay in all cases ...)

I never called camiel, I never wrote him an email ... I know how is to be very busy ...

to be honest I plan to order more in this future from Camiel ... I have recently purchased some PLA from some other provider at a lower price (actually 33 Euro/2.3 Kg) and it seems to be of very poor quality compared to what I have purchased from Camiel. I was unable to print small details ... the PLA was not cooling fast enough - pieces are bending ... (even if I decreased the printing temperature to 200 degrees) ... so I had to switch back to Camiel's PLA.

you can check some movies with my Orca here:

http://www.youtube.com/olteanmihainicolae



just my experience with mendel-parts,
mihai

Actually I think your problem sounds like its cooling too quick if it's warping. No place that I have looked has had PLA work quite right. Alot of tweeking to get it somewhat good. Try ABS.

After banging pots and pans I did get my item yesterday. It was supposed to show up in February. February!!! Not April. Will never buy from him again and will never recommend him to anyone.

For print volume look up Makergear's M2, or anyone but Mendel Parts if you just want a kit.

Edit: Phone misspelled tweeking... stupid spell check.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2012 01:20PM by Rein.

I dont have a good enough camera to show you details ... but what I was trying to print was a tower with a circular hole inside. The base of the tower is 10x10 mm, but the walls are narrow - 1-2 mm.

-with mendel-parts PLA I have no problems.

-with other PLA ( I dont have intention to make harm to him, so I will not tell the name), the walls are collapsing inside ... this is why I suspected that it does not cool fast enough. I have tried to print to various temperatures (255, then 230, then 200) ... but in all cases the result was the same ...

I dont know what is the problem ... I'll try to find a better camera to show you the result...

as for the M2 ... I dont know what to say ...
Orca 0.4 costs 750 Euro (about 1000$) - and waiting time is 4 weeks + another (1-2 month for delay) - (in my case it was 2 weeks only)
M2 - costs 1300$ - and waiting time is 8-10 weeks ...

also, I'm from Europe - I dont know how much the M2 shipping would cost for me + the vamal fees (I suppose that mekergear is from US) ... so (from my point of view) I dont see any good reason to buy M2.

Of course, I totally agree that mendel parts has a communication/support problem - but so far I was not needed support - I've built my orca with a friend, and except for a leaking extruder, I had no other problem. I have found a local provider for PEEK and I have built the extruder core by myself ... and since then everything seems to be ok ...

mihai

Its about $300 more for the M2, I know. I'm in the US, the 040 was like 808 Euro's (roughly). If the M2 existed when I made my order I would have gladly payed more. I'm not even a customer of theirs and they reply in less than a business day of any email when I asked them questions. You know I tried skype to call Camiel, the land line sounded garbled and the cell number had a disconnected message.

Anyhow about your print, I don't know. I'm still learning stuff. PLA just sounds touchy in general from what I read, thats why I intend on using ABS or at least part of why. I'm sure the makeup is different from one to another supplier. Good luck with that.

I'm particularly upset because of his lack of communication and poor time management. I wouldn't put anyone through what I had to experience.

So with an orca 0.4 you can not Print Abs for a long time... 2 heaterblocks was killed in 1 week (3 Prints).... Has anyone the same problem? or i'm alone with this problem? I Set the Bet. On 20v to get 115C

I ordered an Orca V0.42 some days ago and it seems that it will be ready (to be picked up - I live just an hour away) fully within the scheduled time (already on the delivery list in the blog). I tried to call Camiel last Monday and just after some seconds I had him on the phone. He told me that he's got a new partner to share development / customer services in the future. He also restarted the webshop during the last days. So far I can't share other people's experiences in the past. I really like Camiel's way of constructing and improving the design. Hope the best for the future - the Orca is a really nice machine and hopefully the delivery / service will now get better!

Have a great weekend!
Lutjanus

He rushes his changes, he's already selling the 042? The 040 documents are not finished at all. You blindly assemble them and hope some sole has posted pictures for you if you get stuck.

I'll pick up my kit at his place, so I can make enough photos on my own and picking his brain about a little situation Camiel also told me that he based the manual for the V0.4x family on the V0.42 (so people building the V0.40 have to guess a bit more). He described the changes from V0.40 to V0.42 on the website and it should be managable even without a detailled manual (assessment for my own). But I think, that a common engineer's problem - to stop the developement / improvement of a product at a time, for selling it. So I think, it is quite a good idea to get another person into the boat doing all the customer n' shipping service.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2012 12:49PM by lutjanus.

He hasnt finished the 0.3 manual yet. When i spoke to him (about 2am after trying all weekend i think) he said the missing stuff was on the 0.2 drawings. I guessed most of it anyway. He hasnt finished anything, is too busy to do anything right and hes proven himself unreliable and not to be trusted, no matter how well meaning he is. Buy from somewhere else
Pete

pete-theobald Wrote:
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> He hasnt finished the 0.3 manual yet. When i spoke
> to him (about 2am after trying all weekend i
> think) he said the missing stuff was on the 0.2
> drawings. I guessed most of it anyway. He hasnt
> finished anything, is too busy to do anything
> right and hes proven himself unreliable and not to
> be trusted, no matter how well meaning he is. Buy
> from somewhere else
> Pete


I agree with you. I'm modifying the parts he sent me because he never finished them even though you can see what he intended to do with it. The aluminum hot bed for example would have bolt heads sticking above the flat surface since he never counter sunk the holes. He never said you needed a drill press in order to finish what he was too lazy to do. I also need to do that on the plate for the print head so the motor mount can be bolted on.

Lazy Lazy Lazy....

A year later stil crapy service.
cant contact, no reaction, no parts lost money.....

dont buy here !!!!!

One of my first orders for supplies was from Mendel-Parts in August 2011. All I was after was some filament which the site stated was in stock. After a month of waiting with a few emails and MP forum posts I was not able to get an update for my order. Unfortunately I was really in need of some filament by then and ended up opening a PP dispute as I wanted my money back to buy elsewhere. Thankfully this prompted MP to ship my filament and I did get it.

I understand that he is a small company and apparently a one man band. However I have bought from many other small businesses (Faberdashery and RepRapPro) and have had no issues. Items have turned up quickly, when I have had issues emails are replied to promptly and resolved.

Unfortunately my experience with Mendel-Parts, and reading the problems people have had with them, I haven't and won't place another order.

It is a shame as Camiel seems a very talented engineer and should be being recognised for his great designs.

Because mendel parts (camiel) is not traceable , can anyone me advise an good suplier for delivering GOOD filament 1,75mm in different colors for a Reasonable price?

Fons Nelen

Who says they are not traceable?

The info is right here:
[www.mendel-parts.com]

Anyway, at first I felt shitty that I didn't order anything from them instead of from my previous supplier, but now I read this, I feel less worse.
The Orca looks like a good machine (though I have heard bad things about the extruder), and I had almost bought it!

Quote

It is a shame as Camiel seems a very talented engineer and should be being recognised for his great designs.

The talented engineer is ripping me of, so i recognise that.

Quote
Ohmarinus
The info is right here:
[www.mendel-parts.com]

yes also in his blog "29-01-2013 We currently still have issues with our email and phone, 12-03-2013 We currently still have issues with our email and phone"

the issue is ... he`s not answerring !!!

i plased my order on 5/30/13 and cant get any respons on phone, e-mail, skype or web-post.

don`t order is my advice.

Got my order from 5/30/13 delivered today
Time fly`s when your heaving fun, I guess.
Too bad I ordered somewhere else so I have now 51 bearings and 2 timingbelts in stock.