mendel complete kit.

I had Jame's circuit working on a breadboard but I somehow botched it when I soldered it to the breadboard. I have alot going on with school so I havent had time to mess with it. I am happy with the value of my purchase even If I cant get it to run. I am quite close though.

I order and made the payment to james [email protected][www.profounddevices.com] the 20th of march total amount 556.USDand i recived 2 mails from james o the 21th but since then not a word from profunddevices, last week i request information ive send 8 mails along this week no answer at all.
it seems that most of the peopple if this foro had purchase thing or kit to James.
well i am a littel worry. I had wait for 4 weeks now no inf at all

James updated his web site (I think last week) to state that if you email him, he will respond within 72 hours. However, he has not responded to my emails regarding missing parts from 3 weeks ago.

Buzz

Ive seen it, and he also update his youtobe chanel, and in his web he say that he`ll send a mail by the 4th week ones the payment is confirmed.
If he just mail saying im doing my best no time of shippmet stablish yet.
I may sleep better.
Luis

23 days and counting since james villeneuve has posted on this fourm.

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

Also, a word of warning... For all of the boxes that James shipped to me, I would get a shipment notification. Some of the emails came from him, some from paypal. In either case, this is when he printed the label. Usually, this was a week or TWO before he actually shipped the boxes.

A question to all who have gotten their kits... can someone tell me which thermistor he is using? Unfortunately, he 'pre-assembled' my heater so I cannot see the markings on the thermistor. He has not responded to my simple question of what thermistor he is using. I know it is a 100K, but that is about it.

Buzz

Just for full disclosure, here is the information regarding the shipping time for my order:

Order placed Jan 30

Everything but extruder:
Received email shipping notice Feb 16
Actually was shipped Feb 26
Received March 1

Extruder:
Received email shipping notice Feb 26
Actually was shipped Mar 18
Received March 20

My extruder was shipped with the incorrect x-bar pieces. Correct pieces were received March 23.

On March 30, I sent James the following email. I have not heard from him since.

James,

I am missing two parts from the extruder kit.  I am missing:

1K resistor, for the heater driver circuit

1 – bearing.  I have the bearing that you pre-assembled on the extruder, but not the other bearing.

Could you ship those out to me so I can finish the assembly?

Not counting the missing pieces, the time frame from order to final shipment was almost 7 weeks.

Buzz

My kit shipped about 3 weeks after the initial estimate. Every email I have sent James has been answered very quickly. He does like to print out shipping labels well in advance of actual shipping.

Thanks to all of you but it is easy when your tallking pass
To me at this point time is not important one or two weeks more, it is the point of not getting any note to say im a live
Luis

Nothing yet.
One question, how many of you think i have lost my money?
Luis

One question, how many of you think i have lost my money?
Luis

Villeneuve is ... a bit erratic , but he's not a crook. Try emailing him again.

---

-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

---

Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

SebastienBailard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One question, how many of you think i have lost my
> money?
> Luis
>
> Villeneuve is ... a bit erratic , but he's not a
> crook. Try emailing him again.

I would add that IMHO he isn't getting Rich on this project. Those changes and all the extra postage must be costly.

Hmm.....

Parts that break easily and are of poor quality, incomplete shipments, holes drilled in the wrong places, late deliveries, instructions that are misprinted, no parts lists, non communication when a buyer has a problem, selling the product before it's even been proven to work.... ect, the list goes on.

I'm not sure what else to say except this seems like a very dubious operation where the seller doesn't quite know exactly what he's doing or he's winging it as he goes while accepting valuable funds from trusting buyers.

I understand there is no professional producers at the moment and who knows if when i have my kit i wouldnt end doing the same, But, im willing to help. we take our risk and probably my confidence in james is due to the forum, because peoppel where getting their kits pice less pice more sooner or latter, and i feel my coments poorest about James i feel a littel better thnks to Sebastien and Prober, I know he is not getting rich and because of that comunication is need.
Until now no news from James
Luis

Prober Wrote:
> I would add that IMHO he isn't getting Rich on
> this project. Those changes and all the extra
> postage must be costly.

If he has sold 30 kits at $500, that 15 thousand dollars in.

He might not be getting rich, but he dang sure is not suffering, especially considering we STILL haven't seen a single one of his kits produce a part successfully.

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

James mail me and next week he will be shipping my kit.
I feel much better
Luis

Hey all,

I too am a part of this great saga of ordering a catalyst mendel. Everything looked good, as I received prompt email responses from James including confirmation of my payment.

After 8 weeks of no contact, I started emailing to inquire as to the status of my order. Over the span of 2 weeks I sent 3 emails, and finally received a response to my third saying little more than that my kit would be shipped out that day. I sent a 4th email thanking him for the response, and asking if my order had been misplaced or if there was a backlog. I have yet to receive any response to that email.

Anyway, I received my kit yesterday, and for the most part I'm happy with it. I'm still sorting through and assembling what I have received, and hope to resolve any issues privately with James should I find any.

At this point, I'm relieved to have the kit in my hands, and hope everyone else fares as well or better than I. In all, this has been a bitter-sweet experience. I think that considering the price point, and the posts in this thread suggesting that this kit is more of a Rep-strap, this kit is a good option for people looking to start out. It's a cheap, complete kit, but certainly not a turn-key setup.

Kind regards

Jesse

Well, by defination, it is a repstrap as none of the parts are printed. I would agree that the price point was good, however, at it's current price, I would not buy it again.

Well, by defination, it is a repstrap as none of the parts are printed. I would agree that the price point was good, however, at it's current price, I would not buy it again.

Aside from definitions, we're got a very long delay between payment and receipt of order and I'm starting to get concerned. I'm going to email James myself.

---

-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

---

Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

James, I believe you should put your sales "on hold" until you've taken care of your standing orders. I'm very worried that you are critically overextended.

New users, as a RepRap forum admin, I do not suggest you place new orders with James until his current customers are happy.

Good luck, James. I wish you well with these matters.

---

-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

---

Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

Hopefully there is a lesson to be learned here, if it sounds like a duck, looks like a duck and smells like a duck, don't buy it on discount expecting it to be the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Actually, I did get mine on discount, and I am very happy with my purchase. At the price he offered, I am not surprised that James might be having problems with order fulfillment.

My problem is that James was going to ship to the wrong address

when I ordered, I knew I would have probably moved by the time he produce my kit so I asked him to confirm before shipment

the day I got my flat in Derby, I receive a Paypal confirmation of shipment to my old address, in Bristol...

I emailed James to remind him he had promised me to check before sending, and he tries to find if I can have my parcel redirected. I just didn't see how it could be possible. So he said he canceled this shipment and send it to the correct new address. I never received the new tracking number even after several emails

SO

1) UNTIL I RECEIVE MY PARCEL, I WOULD ADVISE ANYBODY NOT TO PLACE ANY ORDER

2) I WILL WAIT A BIT MORE (already more than a month) AND LOOK AT PAYPAL REFUND OPTION IF ANY.

3) WHEN/IF THE KIT ARRIVE, I'LL LE THIS FORUM KNOW

4) I WILL BUILD IT AND LET PEOPLE KNOW OF QUALITY ISSUES

I understand there are no serial producers of a machine is still under development, we all know that changes and new ideas are applied to it, every time.
, Time wasn't a problem when i order in web that clearly said that could take 4 weeks to ship it,, we buy from James for a reason, some to save money, some to save the work of doing the shop with the list from reprap.org and so on.
the issues i complain James because there was no information of how he was doing. Now he wrote me back, and his web shipment status is working ok, now I'm ok. if there is a delayed but in the mind time he makes improvements, to me ok.
James could have delivery problems but as long as he tells the status of the order and inform costumers on time. Probably it make no difference on the time waiting to have a mendel, but people would be happier.

Best regards
Luis

hi everyone,

i am watching the list go on and on. i am relatively quiet for i know in order to produce the mendel complete kit is pretty time consumming. however, i want to see what is the correct email to write james since i have tough time to get a reply from him in the last two weeks to inquire about my orders.


best regards

Tom,

I sent you the email in a private message.

--Kris

Guys,

Since I read deeper about what's happening, and Since James persist in being silent, both through email, or through the forums, and also seeing he prints labels and "declares" dispatched items sometimes several weeks before shipping, (which I think is just dishonest)

I am considering contacting Paypal and complain about James to:

1) ask for a refund.
2) ask suspend/terminate his account, and put him out of business/forbid him to use this service and buy lots of thing online, forever.

Obviously, this would have more weight if several of us contact paypal at the same time. so I'd like to coordinate that before starting any action.

I have nothing against long lead time, after all it promised to be a great service to the community, even if they are longer than original planned, but I will not accept being kept in the dark, or potentially lied about items shipped when they are not.

This is my warning for him to come clean.
post of list of customer with order status (which was removed from his website) send us tracking number.

Jean-Louis Bourdon

Lets review the facts a bit.

When James originally posted the ads for his kits there were red flags discovered right away that people were questioning. As time went on, more and more red flags were popping up.

Of these red flags the most notable were these three.

First, these kits were being sold with no proof that they would function and James kept dodging the issue by posting videos of other machines running, assembly videos that had nothing to do with his machine actually running and when he finally posted a video of the machine printing out parts it was blurry to the point where it was difficult to tell if it was printing anything useful or just making a mess.

Second, buyers were reporting several problems with the kits that did arrive. Missing parts, parts that break easily, holes in the wrong places and molded parts that were of very poor quality.

Last of all, Communication has been a key issue that James seems to be ignoring. Several buyers have mentioned this problem. At this point communication is of vital importance because of the complaints being lodge in James' direction. These issues need to be addressed. And yet, he remains virtually silent.

I do not believe that James has purposely put himself and others into this awkward position. I feel that he has somehow gotten in over his head which would explain the virtual silence if he's not sure how to solve the issues.

In the future it may be best to avoid buying Reprap devices, kits or parts from anyone who sells them under sketchy or questionable circumstances. In particular, when buying "complete kits" make sure there are videos of the machines printing out parts before purchasing one

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2010 05:49PM by Kelly.

Hi

I issued a Paypal request for the cash I paid James, and to its credit. he refunded me completely.

I am sad that my Mendel won't come this way. I am also angry that I wasted so much time believing my kit would arrive anyday since I was led to believe it was in the postal system for the last 5 weeks

I feel exactly as the same as you Jean-Louis Bourdon, I'm also waiting more than 5 weeks... A half a hour ago I received the "refund due to time of shipping" mail.

So I waited so long and it properly just wasn't shipped... at least I have my money back so I can think of buying/making another one.