So I ordered my Shapoko Pro. I was told it would ship 3 times now and I’m tired of the runaround!
Do what you say! My joy for this purchase is quickly fading. Where is the customer service? The, “I’m sorry because of our mistake we are going to do X to make it right” or an explanation of whether? Not to mention that you have your customers like Sam Crafting posting the fix for the machine before you. You didn’t even ship his unit complete since he was missing the plastic T Traktor strips. The attached is my correspondence. Don’t make promises and then not follow through! This isn’t your first rodeo is it?
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Based on the email train, I’m getting less and less hopeful that I will have my unit shipped to me anytime soon. 
@GP_Race_Works When did you place your order?
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First part of November.
Times like these are what defines a small business. Not sure of the logistics of this company. With that being said if this were my small business I would rent a U-Haul truck and bring all of the Shapeoko pros that have been ordered to the UPS/FedEx/US PS/DHL (insert any large shipping company) and have them en route to my customers that have paid hard earned money. The excuse of we can only load so many on the UPS truck that comes to the shop in my opinion is BS. It would be nice if someone from Carbide 3D would comment on this post. This is not me throwing shade just an observation.
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As a hobbyist who likes to make stuff in my free time versus a business who might be expecting to use new equipment for completing jobs and each delay costing potential revenue, I am eager for my Pro to ship but thankfully not losing money from the delays. I feel bad for those that have real work they can’t get to because of the situation.
That said, the “we can only fit so many on a truck” excuse doesn’t really seem all that believable. If it were the limiting factor, the obvious solution would be as you said @Chinchillaviper, take them to the UPS/FedEx hub. If they had get creative and to do it themselves with a box truck rental, or pay more and get a logistics company to do it, whatever it took to get orders off the shipping dock and moving to customers is what should be done.
Of course, if Pro orders aren’t being filled on time because all the machines are just not ready yet, then I wish they’d just say that. And stop moving the goalposts by saying it’ll ship next week, week after week. If they just told me January and I got it before that I’d be stoked.
You know how a restaurant will tell you it’s a 15 minute wait for a table and then find one for you in 10? They understand that expectations are the root of all resentments.
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Carbide3d, I’m going to tell it like it is. The “we can only fit so many on a truck” is an excuse. I owned a manufacturing business and we had times when we had huge orders that could fill 10 UPS trucks. Guess what, they all went out the same day or the next day. We would call our UPS rep and he would make sure they where picked up. If that didn’t work we would use UPS and FedEx to get them out. I would even fill a truck and drive directly to the local terminal. Whatever it took.
I never gave excuses, or made up stories. That’s how I built a loyal customer base and sold my company.
That said, if you plan on moving past a hobby business you need to realize that $3000 or $30 don’t say its going to ship and then not do it. A good business practice is to only sell what you have in stock. Sure pre-orders are nice, but the expectation of the customer is now set.
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Not completely sure how this forum works but if someone that is smarter than I can tag actual management at Carbide 3D to comment on this post would be super helpful. I placed my order second week of November so I am somewhat on schedule just scared that I will not get my machine until March.
As a sidenote I will gladly pay for the U-Haul truck rental… 
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I’ve mentioned this on the team chat, and hopefully someone will be able to take time away from manufacturing, packaging and shipping to respond here.
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Thank you Will, you are awesome!
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They already did say they they proactively tried to get more than one truck to come for pick ups, but were denied and only got one truck. This year, and specifically this time of this year is crummy for shipping. I had a computer part sit at a hub for 3 days. It’s likely that even if they brought a UHaul to a local hub, bypassing the truck… their packages would still be metered out.
Just additional perspective from someone who has been in a similar situation to theirs with a few product releases… albeit around 15 years ago.
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UPS is delivering here in SoCal via driver’s personal vehicles, I’ve had 2 such.
There is a bigger picture here that includes peak Christmas rush not to mention a Pandemic.
Logistics, like so much else in the world, will not get better for a long time.
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Gloves off on this one, if I offend anyone find a corner and cry in it…
If you fail, try again. If you fall down, get back up. If you make a promise, keep it. These are the core values of any small business, no matter how much the product cost. With that being said if anyone tries to tell me that if you have 100 machines to ship and UPS only picks up five a day, telling me that renting a box truck and bringing multiple packages to a hub does not speed up the process you are sadly mistaken. I was well aware that my machine will take up to a month to ship out. That is called a buffer for a company. This buffer I would assume would account for wildfires, pandemic, earthquake, astroids, the list could go on and on. One day pass this buffer equals a fail. The pandemic did not stop Carbide 3D from taking money out of my account correct? Man up, say you made a mistake and fix it!
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ordering more Orville Redenbacher
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I’m not offended. I’ve just been on both sides of the situation. You can buffer for things that have happened before, are plausible, and then add some. But when circumstances stack on top of each other…
And if you think driving it to the hub helps, you may or may not be right. Again, I have actually, literally driven a dulley and 50ft trailer to a hub full of packed exhausts and been told I could only unload half of them that day. That was not during a pandemic, nor holiday… definitely not during a holiday during a pandemic.
Again, just sharing my experience that just so happens to really correlate to this situation. We also had a room full of millions of dollars in ECU reprogrammers waiting on packaging foam. Logistics is a crazy profession!
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Not sure it’ll be worth it. The room has been misread.
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And my skin in this game is odd. They’ve said they’d send me one, but that it would come after paying customers were taken care of. I have no clue when mine ships.
I think that shows their commitment. Us “influencers” (I don’t know if that odd term really applies to me) are at the back of the bus. But take that how you want. I empathize with those that are upset.
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All right, I feel better now. Just had to get my frustrations off my chest, I work for a corporation where I take surveys all the time and can’t voice my real opinion…lol. I know carbide wants to do the right thing and it’s hard so I will just sit patiently and wait for my machine to get here so I can ruin some wood
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I TOTALLY get where you’re coming from. I work at Boeing. Surveys, classes, and meetings are a significant portion of my job. But I’ve also completely lost my filter, so my manager usually gets pieces of my mind. 
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I can understand the frustration of the run around. This is a new product and there are going to be issues. I would rather wait a bit longer for a quality product. Then getting it on time.
On carbide’s side just own up to it the delays…have working in customer service I understand the desire to say the check is in the mail…just say we’re having issues and we’ll ship it once we get these worked out.
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I am sure you are disappointed that you have not received your machine, but as others have stated - it is the first of a new machine design with unique parts. Given the 'rona situation and Christmas and (possibly causing issues, the weather on the east coast) there were bound to be delays.
But putting that aside, what I want too ask is this; Do you think that the Carbide 3D people are sitting at their desks, knowing that they have a warehouse of packed up machines ready to go out the door, and just decide “I’m going to mess with these guys for a bit, and not ship them their machine. . .” ?
OR - and this is a crazy thought - MAYBE they were basing their ship date on the many suppliers of sub-components getting their parts to the C3D shop where they assemble the larger sub-assemblies before packing them up in shipping boxes?
MAYBE their shipping dates were based on: (and I am totally making this up because I have no affiliation with C3D other than to own an XXL)
- The v-wheel mfr telling them they shipped their wheels on Nov 15th
- The v-wheels tracking said they will arrive on Nov 22nd
- The left handed thrust bearing mfr said they would ship on Nov 17th
- The let handed thrust bearing tracking said they will arrive on Nov 25th
And maybe those mfrs had issues receiving their supplies to make their parts, so they ship late, and the shippers (yes, all of them) are handling more packages than ever before since no one is shopping in person, you know - because of the 'rona!?
So, maybe instead of emailing or messaging you a 4D chess game length email about all of the plethora of possibilities, pitfalls, and potentials, they go by their best estimate and end up being wrong.
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