Great printer, totally unacceptable technical support
I genuinely enjoy my Bambu Lab P1S, and until this problem occurred, I was extremely happy with the printer. Unfortunately, my experience trying to obtain technical support has significantly changed my opinion of the company. Also live chat is only available from 8:00 pm to 10:00 am EST so good luck getting help. My printer developed a filament-related error after completing a print. The message stated that it had failed to pull the filament from the extruder and that the possible causes were a clogged extruder or broken filament. I attempted the basic troubleshooting steps available to me, but the filament remained stuck. The Bambu Handy app requires diagnostic logs when submitting a support ticket. I repeatedly attempted to upload them, but the app remained on “Busy” for hours without completing the process. This left me struggling to find another practical way to obtain help. Bambu Lab’s telephone line does not provide actual technical support. It directs customers back to the website or app. When I tried live chat, I waited approximately three and a half hours. I eventually became number one in the queue, but I still never reached a technician. I also attempted to call customer service while waiting. After repeatedly being asked to press 9 to remain on hold, the line went completely silent, and I eventually had to hang up. The available self-service information appeared to lead toward increasingly involved repairs and disassembly. I am not comfortable taking apart a relatively new printer without direct guidance and confirmation that doing so will not affect my warranty. That is precisely why accessible technical support is so important. I understand that equipment sometimes malfunctions. My complaint is not simply that the printer developed a problem. My complaint is that when it did, getting meaningful assistance was extraordinarily difficult. A customer should not need a successful diagnostic-log upload, special computer equipment, hours in a chat queue, and the confidence to dismantle a machine just to obtain warranty support. Bambu Lab makes an impressive printer, and I still like the machine itself. However, a product is only as dependable as the support available when it stops working. Based on my experience so far, the company’s technical-support system is not sufficiently accessible or customer-friendly. So unless and until they improve their customer service I would not recommend their products.