How is Mendel-parts still in business?

camiel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> yes thats true, well lets say if nothing really
> strange happens we should be able to ship that in
> 3weeks.
> However to not dissapoint you, I would count for
> at least 4 weeks, and maybe keep one extra week in
> mind for strange things that happen.
> So worst case maybe 5 weeks.


I know this thread seems like an attack on your business & your self personally Camiel, and in some ways it is,.. but mostly its just people like yourself who are very enthusiastic about this technology and who are very frustrated with your lack of replys to e-mails & lack of products that they paid you for weeks ago.
If it were my business, the reply to the comment above would have been "I'll have those in stock again in 3-5 weeks,.. if you're able to wait that long I can put you on a list & send you out an e-mail as soon as they are ready to ship".

The major difference between you & me is that I would not take the payment until the item is ready to ship,.. in my mind a delay of more than 3 days between payment & shipping is unprofessional.

The issue is that YOU HAVE THE MONEY, and the customers have nothing (often not even a reply to their query) for many weeks after an order is placed. I accept that you have many happy customers, but to allow this to happen even once is crazy, and you seem to have done it many times. To run a successful business this must change.

My advice:
1. Increase your prices. At the moment they obviously do not cover your time, effort and the general hassle involved in running a business. Charge for your time and add a PROFIT margin!
2. Employ staff,.. even if just to put parts in boxes & answer e-mails. You can train them gradually to do the more technical bits.
3. NEVER accept payment for an item that is not yet ready to ship. You've been selling for a while now and you admit that you've been swamped with orders,.. so you should undoubtedly have sufficient cashflow that you no longer need to pre-sell items you haven't yet built.
4. If you ever again get into a position where there are major delays handling orders or responding to e-mails, put a message on the home page of your website informing customers about the delays,.. one well worded message (and the same on an auto-relpy from your main e-mail addy) would take only a few minutes to implement but would inform and appease hundreds of customers.
5. Take the incentive,.. if a product has been delayed unexpectedly, offer a refund before it is requested. Pair it with a money off voucher for future use to make up for any inconvenience & disappointment.

Keyboard warrior I may be, but I know a lot more about running a business than I do about reprap,... and the way you are running your business is making my head spin. Communication & customer care allow even rubbish businesses to flourish (see Microsoft or Dell for examples!!). Your business is better,.. but unless you communicate with ALL customers and offer aftersales support for ALL customers, then your business will never shine as it should.

You're bloody lucky that James is there helping you,.. and you're bloody luck he's a nice guy & wasn't just travelling to take revenge & get back the money he gave you in good faith so many weeks ago. Use this opportunity wisely, learn from his experience and listen to his advice. Get your business model sorted NOW!

And enough with the grumpy, smart-arse replys to these critical comments (although the paypal dispute after 5 days is understandable, I'm with you on that one!) . I know its only natural to reply that way,.. but you genuinely owe a lot of people reading this an apology, and you have yet to offer it.

Thanks [NJones]! We're working on him, and it's all getting better. Another van-ful just left with UPS, and even now he's delivering a dozen envelopes to TNT.

I won't be here tomorrow until the evening; off to Utrecht.

J

Your hard work is appreciated James!

Thanks [NJones] for the advice, I agree on all your points (and some we already do).
(Only maybe the "Employ staff" not fully, training takes few months I noticed, so you need to find people that stay for at least 6-12 months.. which is difficult, you only find out after a few weeks how things really are going..)

But I seriously apologies to all people that had to suffer from our troubles.
Im also alot more active on our own forum last week (because that helps alot of customers at once.. the whole reason I built it).
Today we had a lovely day here, with big thanks to James, all orca v0.2 (processing) now shipped and alot of happy customers on the phone etc.

And spacexula: Im sorry, I went too far on that reply, I regret it today... but after a day hard working and reading so many negative things sometimes it gets a bit too much Im sorry.

And Elidor: sorry for the trouble I caused you and I apologies for my rude reaction.

I often think that I would react the same as alot of customers, if i would experience those things.
(however my first reprap order ever was at techzone and took 3 months without any communication back..)

But it really bothers me daily that we have trouble, its constant in my head... but its not that im not trying to improve.
Its just complicated in this fast moving enviroment and good competitors (like Ultimachine and MakerGear etc)
However last few weeks things are going back in the right direction and we have catched up massively on outstanding orders.

I will just keep doing my best, but over next few months the focus will be on communication & support instead of development.
Thanks all for your input.!

And specially you James.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2011 07:10PM by camiel.

Camiel,

order placed ! thanks !

I like companies run by a single person which knows everything about his products.

I think that many great products have been created by one-man companies ...

I hope that I dont have to call you ... I know that phone calls will interrupt from work, and I dont want to do that.

thanks again,
mihai


camiel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Mihai,
>
> yes thats true, well lets say if nothing really
> strange happens we should be able to ship that in
> 3weeks.
> However to not dissapoint you, I would count for
> at least 4 weeks, and maybe keep one extra week in
> mind for strange things that happen.
> So worst case maybe 5 weeks.
>
> And if you have problems getting in contact with
> us via email, (we still have some delay on email,
> but by end of this week we should have catched up
> on that) try phoning us between 10am and 11pm.
> 0031 40 202 67 49 (UTC+01)
>
> hope that answers your question.
>
> regards,
> Camiel Gubbels

Good reply Camiel,.. my faith is restored.

Camiel, I must say I love the fact you're updating your Blog on a regular basis - I actually go to it every day to get a heads up on how things are going. Very easy way to keep everyone as informed as they want to be, and saves you the time of answering the same question over and over again.

Well! Sunshine on this forum thread. Hooray!

Today I'm not in Eindhoven, I'm in Utrecht Fab Lab to meet Johan de Stigter. I'm two hours early ... that will teach me to read my e-mails more carefully.

well

thank you all for paying attantion

i care about the community and admire the pepole that taking action here

and thanks for guys like camiel that have a great product and contribute to the community

right now camiel doesnt want me to make business with him and i say

camiel my friend take it easy this big issue here is to wake you up

pepole wants your service

right now im sure that you will give a good service and people will buy even more .

thank you for paying attaniton

So,.. time has elapsed, James is back in the Uk,... how has ppls experience with Mendel parts changed (or not)??

Just in case anyone gets the impression that all is resolved...

I'm still waiting for a refund of 327 euro for an order I made on 11th April. In spite of having exchanged several emails recently I've still not got my money back and no goods have been shipped either.

On balance, I'd have to say "avoid like the plague"

Which is a shame.

Doug.

i wish i would have read this fourm first before sending camiel any money.

my post on his fourm was not approved it wasnt abusive at all. it basically said
not to sell sutff you dont have.

he has stopped updating his site so now i am really nervous.
not sure if thats a good or bad thing.

He did do a software update last Sunday, so I guess he's still there.

I'll try and call him tomorrow, and I am prepared to go back to Eindhoven.

I am also working on pulling together either a rescue or a take-over package.

I'll keep you all posted!

James

Yeah, I have a love/hate relationship with Mendel Parts - love their products, hate the customer service. Camiel is great when you can get him on the phone (he's usually there at the hours he lists), it just takes me getting up at 4am to try to catch him. I can't post on the forums because I haven't been approved, and I've been waiting 2 weeks. I've got my Orca, but stuck and waiting for some feedback from him. I'm not in a huge rush and knew that going in so it doesn't bother me that much, and that being said I would still buy from him again. When he gets the manual completed it probably won't be as much of an issue - what is done was pretty straight forward to follow. Heck, even some good high resolution pictures would go a long way...

Hopefully James can work some miracles again - last time he was there, things were really moving and going smoothly (at least from the outside, it might have been chaos on the inside).

Anx, my turn to apologise to you ... I have made some pictures for you, then forgot to upload them.

They are part of my book, so I will put them on my website. Check out [www.Building3DPrinters.com] later today.

I will create a Flickr account, upload them, then post on that website.

Hi all!
I did a order on a v.0.3 a little more than a week ago without checking the forums (bad idea). Problem with the paypal made me do a bank transfer (even worse idea). Now my order still standing on "pending" without any contact possible. (Tried both mail and phone)

My Idea was that I and my brother should have a get together and build a 3D printer between Christmas and New year at my parents house but that starting to seem like a dream, not a reality right now...

Now I stand with two alternatives, either order a Christmas eMaker Huxley and fight to get my money back or hope for a miracle that my Orca v.0.3 will be delivered complete before Christmas.

What do you think? Are you going back anytime soon James? According to things I have read you should be called Superjames! Are you the Santa this year?

Hi, Malx,

Yes, we are definitely going, soon.

I haven't managed to contact Camiel, but this morning I have been e-mailing with a mate of his, who is going round to see him!

Two things have to happen before we actually schedule our trip:

1) My friend who is coming with has to get his passport renewed (he did say he'd go sit in the passport office until it was done!)
2) I need confirmation from Camiel's mate (or even Camiel!) that he's alive, and at work (if not at work, I know where his home is!)

Keep the faith; we will make something happen!

James

Sounds great James!
Then I will "hold my thumbs" and hope for the best a couple of more days/week. I really like the look of the Orca but that it kind of pointless if it's made of unobtainium...

Well, with two other people I have set up a company, http://www.Building3DPrinters.com, and we will be supplying Orca v0.35 ... it's like an Orca 3, but it has linear bearings (makes it work smoother and is easier and quicker to build), and a bunch of other cool things.

So far we have two Orca v0.25 working, and we're half-way through modifying my Orca 3 ... I have linear bearings on the Z axis. We also have fancy lights under the X carriage, so you can see what's happening (very "ambient light").

We have our first order, so are working flat out to hope we can ship it.

We're reluctant to take any more orders, for fear we end up like Camiel: everyone loves our stuff, but we're unable to ship!

But there are four of us, so we're hopeful!

James

Also sounds good James!
Who knows, I may be ordering an upgrade kit from you in the future . But right now Christmas is my biggest priority, me and my brother don't meet each other that often so I really need to have a kit ready then. (We have both taken some extra time off to do something like this together)

OK; we will take that as our guideline. I'm hoping to go this week or next, if everything works out.

James

[Anx] Sorry for the dealy ... had a crap day (I'm starting to sound like Camiel!)

I've just begun uploading a load of pictures to Flikr. I'm fairly new to Flikr, and my existing e-mail is used to load up pictures from my Nordic Walking business, so I've created an account using my dog's e-mail address!

The Flikr account is called "ThreeDeePrinterBuilder".

There are two types of pictures: Hi-res photos I took during my build (I think there may be more of those: need to check the SD cards in various cameras!) But I have also taken drawings out of Camiel's manuals, and coloured them in using a secret method. I think it makes them MUCH easier to read and understand.

There are close on 200 pictures, and last time I looked it was about 6% uploaded (and my broadband link is now unusable for anything else, so I'm going to dinner!)

Let me know:

a) If they help
b) If they don't!

Two out of three of our printers are now printing fine (it's mine that isn't, because I'm spending all my time writing the book and developing websites and making videos! I really must get printing, SOON)

Here's a sample of our new coloured diagrams. The pictures are now all up, and can be accessed from our blog post: http://www.building3dprinters.com/2011/11/photos-and-diagrams-from-our-orca-builds/

The pictures are looking really good and will be great help (if/when we receive an Orca)
But I must also say that I really like the "lego"-type drawings that Camiel is using. (They are just a little few and are missing some details)

Together with both pictures and instructions it will be a piece of cake.

Just a question I have been wondering while looking at different printers and that come up in my mind again while looking at your pictures. Why isn't anyone printing a plastic box for the electronic card? The cooling airflow in that box shouldn't be that hard with a 60x60 fan. Or does it get to hot for the plastics (ABS) even with a fan?

We have got a redesign for the electronics / fan for Orca v 0.2 ... We put a hole in the POM sheet, with the fan behind, and then the electronics in front, facing in, mounted using magnets so they can be easily lifted off if you need to.

There are designs on Thingiverse, with airflow tubes built in, but to my eye, they look worse ... there can be a sort of "techno-chic", provided all the wires are tidy!

But we only have one v0.3, and we're still working on linear bearings, and belt clamps (the x-axis belt clamp is the only horrible part of the design!), so electronics housings are a way off!

For me its not the look of the electronics, it's more that I don't like having things like that in the open. However, I'm quite good at 3D-design, I will probably come up with something myself.

Is it big difference between the Orca v0.2 and Orca v0.3 when it comes to mod for linear bearings? (I have only looked at Orca v0.3). Sorry I don't have one, otherwise I would have helped you with the mods .

The reason I wan't a 3D-printer (except from the project part with my brother) is that I normally constructing RC-airplanes and multicopters. A 3D-printer would help me a lot with prototyping smaller structuring objects. (So I will probably mod it for resolution before minimum total print time)

Hey James, thanks for posting - I had been waiting for an email, so I hadn't been back on lately, but it looks like I'm going to need to start work on the Orca again!

So what's the scoop with getting a v.30 to v.35 kit - I thought I would be first on your list! If I'm not, put me on it! I'd rather apply the changes you were talking about before I go a whole lot further, since the bearings/etc would be great additions to an already great printer design...

anyone hear something from Camiel/Mendel-Parts?

Waiting a month for my Orca 0.3

*Follow*

Nope, he is impossible to contact (although James found out that he is alive?).
One of the RepRap Developer really should link to this thread from the Mendel_Buyers_Guide like they have done with others companies. It's not good for the community that mendel-parts gets to continue to disappoint new people.