techzonecommunications.com as a seller

DarrenP/Entropy, thank you for not making this an "ax grinding" thread.

Anyone else reading this thread: be aware that just because someone signs their name to a message does not mean that it really is that person.

Jan 30 update:

received word on Jan 14 to return the mono board. Returned it immediately. I assumed for repair/replacement but haven't heard any word about what their intent is, nor if they've received it.

Still waiting for the wooden gears to replace my broken ones.

Update: I just received my replacement Monotronics board, took two weeks to get it back. Not bad. Although I have yet to receive a response to any of my emails.

The board looks like its someone else's burnt one with a stepper driver replaced. Multiple plastic parts are melted and a wire is scorched. I plugged it in and it seems to work thus far. Was kind of hoping for a brand new board considering thats what I paid for, but I will not complain. I hope everything works out for you devtty1

i do think this community is allot bigger than we think it is, i think they like some other places got in over there heads before they learned how to swim. i got my kit from them fine, but it was just the frame parts, i had most everything else i needed. i am still trying to find a canadian supplier that i feel that i can trust. mixshop is only meeting me halfway quality wise with some parts,

---

[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

I have a Mondo kit that cost more than $1000. For that money you should NEVER ship such a product without an ASSEMBLY MANUAL. ITs not like its self explanatory. Our kit arrived with parts that look different and have different hole layouts than are shown on the unbelievably incomplete page for the Mondo. Further a large number of photos on that wiki page as has been said, are simply MISSING! For instance, the Y axis opto sensor installation photos are MISSING... Good luck with that! You are out of the water right then and there. Then there are cryptic comments in the photo captions that indicate you are simply NOT seeing all there is to see... For instance, there is a photo saying "Photo of x axis idler without bearing springs"... Nowhere anywhere in any photo or any description does it say that springs are to be installed in this piece. NOWHERE. I see springs in the package but dont have any facility on the 'idler' to install them.

Techzone is a company someone else in the organization here chose to buy the Mondo from. Had any of us known what was to happen, and how unresponsive they would be, we simply would NEVER have purchased from them and told them as well as everyone else exactly why. We WANTED to use this machine to make parts for our purposes and this machine was supposed to be number 1 of TEN PLUS we wanted to put on a line for parts production. Techzone is already out of THAT job. Heaven forbid we need replacement parts for anything...

Rule 1: You NEVER sell a product that requires assembly without some form of assembly manual.

Rule 2: When you DO have such a horrible page that shows outdated photos with different hole layouts in parts, you DO make an attempt to be supportive and respond to emails and questions from people who handed YOU $1000+ dollars!

Rule 3: NEVER BUY FROM THEM... Period...

fusion94 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I picked up a Mondo kit from TechZone and I have
> to say that I'm really disappointed in it and in
> TechZone in general.
>
> 1) Shipping: shipping USPS priority mail
> (generally 2 days) took 6 days in this case. Now I
> know that they don't control this part of the
> equation per se but it was the start of the
> frustration.
>
> 2) Build Instructions: The build instructions for
> this kit are crap. I understand that this is a
> "new" kit but they first started selling this in
> May/June of 2011 and the instructions are
> incomplete. And when I say incomplete I mean utter
> rubbish. Sure it's a wiki page but for the most
> part it's nothing more than a collection of images
> without any text. Now this could be acceptable IF
> they included all the pictures. Unfortunately
> about 15%-20% of the images are missing.
>
> 3) Parts: So when a user purchases a kit, that
> user generally expects all the parts to be
> included. Especially when the kit is being
> promoted as a complete kit. This is not in fact
> the case. I've had to manufacture a couple of belt
> clamps that weren't included as well as sourcing
> miscellaneous nuts/bolts. I've also had to
> manufacture a mounting board for the electronics.
>
> 4) Support: I've used the contact form on their
> website and have emailed Kurt direct and have yet
> to get responses back on the missing parts. To me,
> this is unacceptable.
>
> Having said all this, I've been able to overcome
> most of these obstacles as this isn't my first 3D
> Printer build and I've got a pretty decent
> workshop here at my house. I've also learned a lot
> more about 3D printing during this process. I also
> learned that I never care to give any more money
> to TechZone if at all possible.

Tony,
Are you available to help us with our Mondo? I am tired of the lack of responsiveness by Techzonecom...
I can give you more details as we move forward. Suffice it to say I think you will be pretty interested..
Marc Dantonio

I received my "replacement" Monotronics board, and like I mentioned, it was scorched worse than the one I sent it that was on fire. To no surprise, this board was also defective. It worked fine at first but the extruder stepper controller stopped working in a few minutes (the part of the board that was melted) and the hot end will not heat up. No voltage reading at all on the tip manager board. I'm completely done with this company and this situation. $700 WASTED.

DO NOT BUY FROM TECHZONE! ANYTHING, EVER!.

The rest of my RAMPS parts will be in shortly. I look forward to getting that up and running.

I had endorsed Techzone in the past, and I want to retract that statement. I consider myself a very good customer, but have not received the goods that I purchased months ago. I have never been a needy customer. I just wanted them to supply me with electronics and hardware kits. They were always bad at sending e-mails promptly and updating their customers on the status of their orders. They have now completely dropped off the face of the planet.

It has been months since I have heard from them. I have since moved to RAMPS and I am better for it. I don't know what happened.. If I can't get a single e-mail from them and I spent big money with them every month I don't know about the single one time customer.

They owe me a long list of goods, and are totally unresponsive. I wish they would just respond to emails to make their customers feel important . Last word through the forums is that they got a huge batch of bad boards. That might have sent them over the edge.

For now I have moved on. They have lost all my business. I did give them a chance... many many chances....

Jeff
thefutureis3d.com

Jeff,
Do you have Mondo kits available? We bought one and cant even get it together because of missing parts, NO manual whatsoever for a $1000 purchase, and completely unresponsive support. Interestingly our goal is to create a farm of a bunch of these. I talked to Kurt Bidstrup ONE time and he seemed responsive but pointed me to the wiki where I already saw the few photos of the assembly steps and the many more photos that are MISSING. I responded again and again and again and again and he just never responded. Finally I told him today in an email that I was going to publicize every single last email with him complaining about the service, lack of proper parts, MISSING parts, wrong dimensions, different parts than shown in the meager pictures...etc... I also said if it hurts his business then too bad, I dont care.

If you have Mondo kits, or something similar we would be willing to talk to you if we ever GET this one running. I am on a deadline and need to have it running within the week. If it does what we want can we talk to you about getting multiple machines? Maybe even having you assemble them for us prior. I can explain on the phone. My company is FX Models. Look us up in google. We are usually in the top 5 results.. We are in CT. Call us.
Talk with you soon I hope.
Marc

Marc, I sell Mendel printers that have a heated build area of 16" x 16" x 11". We also have a new line of Glacier Steel printers that will be able to go even larger. Shoot me an e-mail support@thefutureis3d.com and we can discuss. thefutureis3d.com

As far as the techzone Mondo kits.. Those scare me. I am not fond of wood printers. I also never got their mono electronics to work. It only took me 2 days to completely upgrade our line of printers to RAMPS 1.4 with Marlin firmware. Let me show you what I have and maybe we can get something for you going. I have a huge backlog of printers at the moment. But maybe we can get you going.

We are also coming out with a brand new print head that will be 100% metal and will have temperatures up to 500c. We are making this for NASA, and will make it our standard head for all our 3D printers.

---

Jeff Christiana

Marc,
Sure drop me an email at fusion94 AT gmail DOT com

---

Tony Guntharp
Co-Founder SourceForge.net

In summary, this thread should warn you to avoid doing business with techzonecommunications.com. Also avoid doing business with ebay seller reprapsmurf as these are the same people and while reprapsmurf seems to be interested in doing a legitimate business, the fact that they have left so many of their techzone customers high and dry, you should expect the same results with reprapsmurf

My recommendation is not a hasty response. If you read thru this thread, you will note that I have exercised a great deal of patience and empathy. It has always been my position to give techzone the benefit of the doubt

However, after almost 5 months of poor communication, faulty parts and no customer service I have no choice but to draw the conclusion that techzonecommunications.com is not a legitimate business but rather a scam.

Unfortunately, I did not see this thread beforehand. I am in a similar situation. They shipped the first "1/2" the product, lacking many parts, incorrect parts, inaccurate parts, etc. the second "half", they conveniently left off. I am using the term "1/2" because there is no way it could be construed as 1/2 the required parts.

Beware, do not do business with this company. If you want to throw money away, try a charity site or the local food shelter.

Im afraid I may be in the same boat too with Techzone. I purchased thier lazercut mendel back in Feb. Didn't recived it until March and then it was only the hardware. I have yet to recieve any electronic parts. I sent them an email about it but the only response I recieved back March 9 was that they were having problems with the boards and would ship in a few days. I have sent several emails to them and have recieved no response. I am a newbee at this though I have worked with building computers and robots for some time now. (my first computer was an Altier 7) I am very seriously considering going to another vender for the electronics parts. Any advice? I now realize I should have ggone to this board before investing the money.

Mrrlyn - I am so sorry you had to find out the hard way. If you get your electronics, please update this thread because they have not shipped mine either and the only email I got about it was "....we are having problems and it will ship in a few days". Interestingly, during this same time that they are "....having troubles...." they were selling kits (allegedly with electronics) on ebay.

You will want to avoid doing business with ebay ID reprapsmurf and I've chosen not to do any business with any reprap organization that shows up in or near Idaho

You'll find some members of this forum sympathetic to your plight and others smug. As for me, you have my deepest sympathy. If you know of another way to get the message out about techzone, please do.

I also bought a TZ laser-cut kit. I will certainly say that all the problems other people are reporting here are consistent with my experience.

Most of TechZone's problems all boil down to one problem: COMMUNICATION (specifically, lack thereof)

I ordered my kit over a year ago. It took a while to arrive; long enough that I was getting concerned, but it did finally arrive. I had no missing parts, but all I got was a box of parts. No instructions, nothing even saying to go to some web page for instructions. At the time, the wiki here for the TZ was almost non-existant, so basically I got a box of parts and had to figure out everything on my own.

I did eventually get it put together and working, but never got it working well. The "popsicle stick" bearing gizmos are crap. They leave way too much slop. If I tighten the X-axis belts enough to reduce the backlash in the belt, the wooden parts deform and cause the belts to bind to the point that the stepper can't move things, even after turning the current up to where the motor gets hot. There's not too much reason to tighten the belt that much because the slop from the popsicle stick gizmos is worse than the belt backlash.

I had two occasions to order parts that I wanted in a hurry. In one case, I had plans for demonstrating the printer to a local user group and busted the wooden block that the hot-end was mounted in (a design they've apparently since abandoned). This happened a few days prior to my planned demonstration. Anyway, both times that I tried ordering something with 2nd day shipping, I would hear nothing for about a week, then I'd get an email back asking if I still wanted it overnight. They would eventually get around to processing my order, and I'd eventually get it.

Anyway, where things stand now: I purchased a used MakerBot Thing-O-Matic, and I plan to use it to make replacement parts to use linear bearings in place of all the popsicle-stick gizmos. After pushing the TechZone boulder uphill for so long, the Makerbot is a breeze. I still prefer the Mendel design over the Makerbot design, but the Makerbot is well-documented, very responsive customer support (even if you're not the original purchaser). In other words, what you'd expect them to be. They're probably just average, but in contrast to TZ, they're a pleasure to deal with.

P33t and Mrrlyn, I'm sorry to see that people are still getting caught up in this situation. And it sounds like you're coming out worse than I did. At least I received all the parts. Mrrlyn, I've been messing with electronics and electrical things since the early 1960's, and I built my first computer by soldering all the chips onto the boards in the mid 1970's (An Altair 8800), so I'm a very experienced kit builder as well. So it really says a lot if folks with our degree of experience have difficulty with these kits. Also consider that I've been dealing with them for over a year and have had these same problems with them all along. It sounds like things are much worse now than I had experienced.

You may want to consider cutting your losses and going ahead and getting your electronics elsewhere. The TZ electronics seem to be OK but if anything goes wrong, you're kind of stuck. If you get RAMPS electronics elsewhere, you will have multiple vendors you can deal with, so you won't be stuck waiting for one single vender to respond. At present, I still have TZ electronics on mine, but whenever anything breaks, I'll be switching rather than trying to deal with them any further. I debated switching the electronics a while back, but I had so many physical/mechanical problems that I have basically completely given up on the laser-cut Mendel. If I get the mechanical issues resolved by printing new components, then I'll be looking at electronics again.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2012 11:56AM by ShayWalters.

I am actually considering going to another vendor for the electronics. I am currently considering Makerbot's Gen 4 electronics. A little bit costlier, but I have heard good things about Makerbots customer service and their circuitry. It may be worth it.

WARNING: long time ago.
I ordered a lasercut Mendel kit and 5lbs of natural ABS in november 2010. Paid with credit card. Heard absolutely nothing for 2 weeks and recieved the kit after three weeks. The ABS and one bearing were missing. Not bad. The ABS arrived two weeks later.

The parts were cut with a laser that was not at a right angle to the bed, so the whole printer was warped. The print-bed wasn't close to flat. The belts and smooth rods were NOT metric (advertized as metric printer), the hotend failed almost immediately, the thermocouple electronics failed after a few hours of printing (and the instructions on software were more or less non-existant)

In the end it did give me a workable printer, that happily printed me a Mendel, which later printed me a Prusa and now i am 3 printers further down the road. The electronics are still working (but i don't use them anymore).

I feel especially mad about the fact that they told me that i bought a metric printer, but send me a mix of metric and imperial parts. It took me weeks to figure out why my prints were just that littlebit too big.

The Techzonecom.com experience was not good. I had great experiences so far with all the other companies i ordered stuff at which are: Ultimachine, Makergear & Makerbot.

For what it's worth, I filed an online complaint with the USPS today regarding Techzone. I will be filing a complaint with the Idaho Falls Better Business Bureau later today

Following is an email I received from the Idaho Falls BBB in it's entirety. The only edits I've made are to my personal information and deleted white space.

If you have had negative experience with TechZone, please consider following the advice in the email

-----------------
From: sgillihan@idahofalls.bbb.org
Subject: RE: Inquiries, Consumer Tips, Scams, General Information
To: devtty1@yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, April 12, 2012, 8:43 PM

Good morning XXXXX,



The BBB currently does not have a Business Review for Tech Zone Communications, LLC. I am setting one up today. If you go to this link:

[www.accessidaho.org]

You can see the name and home address of the owner/operator of the business in Blackfoot, ID. I encourage you and everyone else that has had a problem with this business to file a complaint. For you, you can provide me with your address and phone numbers, the details of your complaint and your phone number as well as the full detail of the problem and what you would like for a resolution. I can process it as soon as possible and we may get a resolution that way.

For anyone else, they can got to BBB.org, click the link to file a complaint and look up Tech Zone Communications, Blackfoot, ID. The file on them should be ready in the next 30 minutes and the complaints will come directly to me. Additionally, we may be able to help them, too.

If we are unable to help, it creates a paper trail for you and everyone else that you can then take to the Idaho Attorney General. A single complaint about a business gets an investigation, but several similar complaints about business can lead to the State taking legal action.

Please let me know if you have any additonal questions. We are happy to help.

Regards,

Samantha Gillihan | Business & Consumer Services
Tel: 208-523-9758
Fax: 208-227-1603
Email: sgillihan@idahofalls.bbb.org

www.bbb.org | Start With Trust

BBB Serving the Snake River Region
453 River Parkway, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83402
P.O. Box 9817, Boise, Idaho 83707

Did you know BBB does more than just collect complaints? Use BBB to get news and tips concerning marketplace issues. Or find a great BBB Accredited Business.

Would you like to be added to our email list to receive other BBB information? Send us an email to confirm your acceptance to info@boise.bbb.org.

thanks devtty1 for that information, I will look into that this weekend, they currently have 1 day left before I take action against them, starting with the bbb, ending with further legal action if required. I hope once it is all said and done, no one else ever has to go through this baloney with them again.

Hi devtty1,
It is really a shame that things have gotten to this point that such action has become necessary. If the TZC folks would have communicated with people, even if they were having difficulty filling orders or whatever, IMO things would have been much better. I know in my experience with them, the most frustrating thing dealing with them was the lack of communication. What communication there was, was frequently very tardy.
I'm not going to try for any sort of restitution from them. Although my orders were being filled like molasses, I always did end up getting the things I ordered. And I think that while they were slow, they were probably within the legal timeframe (30 days?) for filling my orders. My problems with them were not anywhere as severe as several other people here have reported. But my dealings with them were much earlier, too. If I had things I had paid for that had never been delivered, then I would feel differently.
I can certainly sympathize with the folks who ordered the Mondo kits. That's the situation I found myself in: No instructions, and what few things I could find online would show different parts than the parts I had.
In my opinion, the design is not a workable design to end up with high-quality prints. But with such a new technology, there are compromises no matter what type of design you use. As I said, I did eventually get my mendel working, but it was an uphill battle to get to that point, and it was an uphill battle to stay at that point, and I never did get results that I was happy with. So I still would whole-heartedly urge anyone considering this design to try something else.

I have sent another email off to Techzone about my missing parts. If I don't hear anything from them soon in reply though I may just be following devvty1 and file a complaint with the BBB as well. I don't like doing this sort of thing but even with a hobby business, you have to show some respect to the customer and keep them in the loop. You can't just take someones money for something and then not deliver. They could at least refund me the portion of my money that covers the electronics so that I could go to another vendor.

Daniel Storck.

I had no issue with the Mondo I ordered mechaniclly, but the electronics were a disaster.

They have simply not gotten back to me about the DOA electronics, or acknowledged my mail sending them photo instructions on how to assemble their own extruder properly.

I am guessing that techzone's owner does something else for a living and won't dedicate a proper amount of time to this. I do hope they sort themselves out though!

I used to deal with them every month. I have not received an e-mail since Jan 5th...... I am very curious to what happened to them... They owe me a long list of items. Most I don't use anymore. But dang it.. I paid for it, I should receive them. Has anyone received an e-mail since Jan???

---

Jeff Christiana

I have received emails since January, Jeff.

I also have initiated a chargeback. Maybe My CC company can motivate them to stop the theft. Will deal the BBB after this process is complete i 30 days or less.

My last communication from them was about the same time as Jeff. I just gave up dealing with them.

I got this from the Idaho BBB. If not resolved, I'll move on to the state attorney general.

--------------
Hi XXXXX,

I wanted to let you know that your complaint is in process and the ID number is 8997180. If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me. I will update you each time I hear from Tech Zone.

Thank you,

Samantha Gillihan | Business & Consumer Services
Tel: 208-523-9758
Fax: 208-227-1603
Email: sgillihan@idahofalls.bbb.org
www.bbb.org | Start With Trust

BBB Serving the Snake River Region
453 River Parkway, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83402
P.O. Box 9817, Boise, Idaho 83707

Did you know BBB does more than just collect complaints? Use BBB to get news and tips concerning marketplace issues. Or find a great BBB Accredited Business.

Would you like to be added to our email list to receive other BBB information? Send us an email to confirm your acceptance to info@boise.bbb.org.

More or less the same story for me, finally ordered a 3D printer for christmas. Received a good kit, but bad electronics, was promised replacement - followed by no replacement, stall after stall, and often enough, silence. I am sympathetic to their situation(it's hard to run a business), and while that might help explain why things are this way, it is no excuse.

My source of anguish lies here:
* I don't have another $200 to plop down for this mistake.
* I waited YEARS to build a 3D printer.
* My Huxley frame is fully assembled, centered, zeroed, and dusty as hell since it's been sitting idle, staring at me for months...

So yea, I'm a little upset.

***Why is their web site still selling the parts they owe me, while they refuse to send one to me?***

I have also filed a complaint with the BBB, they have contacted Tech Zone and we are awaiting response.

First time ever filing a BBB complaint. It sucks, I feel bad, but you can't treat people like this.

Hi all,
It would have been nicer if our community sprit was happier.

I don't have anything to add other than your possition is shared here in the UK.

They have most certainly lost many subsequent sales with my peers in the Medical Research community.
Our funds are tight, so we would only be able to get into this by scrimping and saving from other areas.

Maybe my Monoelectronics board works. Hard to say, Doesn't seem to be communicating on USB and I can't workout how to set the motor current since it just feels like the board is so hot it's going to go up in flames.
If I don't make some kind of progress this week, I am going to advise my UK distributor - Coombes Solutions Limited T/A RepRap Central registered in England & Wales under No. 6903020 that I want a full refund and will persue something else.

So, anywone who can offer practical solutions to turning my Mondo assembly to work with alternative cheap/reliable/easy to use electronics, I would really appreciate the contact. paul.hammond@ucl.ac.uk

I have to take my hat off the few who have successfully got their machines printing !

All the best,

Paul

Hi Paul and everybody,

We have actually got our LC Mendel working after a lot of fixing up errors in the laser cut pieces, replacing bolts, screws, returning the monotronics board, waiting three weeks for replacement and making our own oak blocks which we have had to replace twice -the list goes on and on! It is a constant one step forward, one step back with this machine, it seems for every two pieces we print, we have a new problem...

We are definitely disappointed by the quality of the parts and the service, and really feel for everyone else struggling with it too.

Jacqueline
www.singularitymachine.com/blog