For any Aussies that are members of this forum I would certainly be very hesitant to purchase from this business again. I bought an Ox CNC (large) kit from them just prior to Christmas 2015 and have had 2 problems. Firstly, they sent the wrong size screws which were replaced reasonably quickly. However, another issue raised it's head whereby I was sent the wrong stepper motor mounting plates. It took 3 emails to receive a response and the issue with the plates is yet to be resolved. Given that the problem was over the Christmas/New Year period I could excuse them for not responding to my emails. However, I would have thought that someone in the organisation could have simply put these plates into a padded bag & posted them to me but no, I am still awaiting their pleasure, it seems. So all in all I am quite disappointed at their lack of customer service when in this day and age are very much paramount. PS. I posted a negative review on their website at www.makerstore.com.au and within 30 mins it had been deleted. So, buyer beware.
Well here we are in March and I have been trying to contact Makerstore au for the last 4 weeks. No reply to E-mails ,No reply to countless phone messages left. An Email sent to OpenBuilds US in which they replied they know of no problems with the Aus supplier and a list of worldwide stores and that I could order directly from the US. What is the point of having an Australian supplier of their products that one can't contact? Why import to a company that can't get their s#it together. Openlab is even worse. Might interest someone to find out what's going on? I too posted in the review for an explanation on Makerstore.com.au and it also disappeared .
Hi, Just tried to sign up to MakerStore Australia and I got knocked back on every conceivable password combination I can remember. It got ridiculous when it required 16 letters, digits, upper / lower case and special characters to get a password accepted. Not even the bank requires that level!
I bought my OX from Makerstore Oz about a month ago, I had a few problems during the build which were, eccentrics were so tight to get in the holes I broke one, Two of the V-Slot Wheels were damaged upon opening the package, these were my two major concerns. I emailed Makerstore about these problems and Steve replied to me the very next day, informing me that he had already sent replacement parts and gave me some great advise about building my machine. My machine is up to the wiring stage now. I cannot thank Steve enough for all his help.
Steve, whilst reading through this thread, it is disturbing to say the least, that posts in the Australian forum are deleted. To other Aussies, I must say I have had direct email communication from Steve in regards to makerstore products and he seemed very helpful and communication was pleasant, however I have not purchased anything from there as of yet. I have a few suggestions/complaints in regards to the Australian distributor though. Please take all my comments here as purely constructive and helpful if you wish to grow your Business here in Australia. Firstly before purchasing anything of significant value, particularly online, I have some criteria that needs to be met and I am sure others do as well. Firstly I investigate the web site thoroughly and if it is a distributor of a main product I do direct comparisons between the local and parent web sites to make sure that there is some consistency, however I find that the Aussie site www.makerstore.com.au does not stock all the items (kits) that the US store supplies. The C-Beam Machine is not available at all. C-Beam rail does not seem to be available either. Why is that ? Surely as a distributor you should have an agreement with the main Supplier that all of what they produce can be purchased through your partner channel by local buyers. Secondly the Aussie site seems like nobody is home, it does not seem to be maintained, the downloadable Catalogue is Summer 2014 and the linked Forum which is linked via the "Maker Community" Link from the "About" pull down at the top of the site has been hacked and has absolutely NIL CNC posting activity, Maybe the previous posters forum posts have been deleted because it just may be compromised. Here is the link to the Forum in question and is safe to visit: http://makercommunity.info/forums/ There are multiple posts in there regarding Escorts available from Mumbai and absolutely NO posts regarding CNC's. The whole thing bears Openbuilds Logo's and has the same feel and site design as the Openbuilds web site, this makes the whole thing feel like it is tied to the Openbuilds US, So please take note OpenBuilds US as this certainly has the potential to smear your reputation...... If it was my baby I would have it ,de-linked, de-commissioned and taken down immediately !! That is if you have the power to do that, as I realise this is coming from a different domain, so you may not have admin rights to it, But surely you could persuade makerstore.com.au to at least de-activate the links. Thirdly I like to see some historical information in regards to products from a potential supplier and what type of support is given either by the supplier themselves or by a community based forum, but due to the lack of any forum activity and the fact it is obviously hacked I cannot make any judgement whatsoever on Maker Store. Anyhow I felt compelled to bring these things to the attention of somebody that cares and I would love nothing more than for the Aussie distributor down here to build upon the success of the US site and see this Open Community grow down this way. Cheers Glenn.
Thankyou for your Reply Steve. Well I am pretty new to this community so I was not aware of the background to the Open Source Hardware Logo. I was simply making assumption the it was Openbuild's own Logo, as I guess many would, thankyou for clearing that up. I also did understand you operate your business independently to Openbuilds, however I also assumed you only re-distribute their product, looking through the inventory on the Aussie site it certainly seemed that was the case. In regards to the Catalogue, Yes it certainly is a very good reference catalogue and I have even printed a hard copy of it. I would certainly advise everyone to go and download it to keep on hand, I was more concerned that the date was so old, making the whole site look like it was not maintained, then with the forum adding to that problem. I guess what I wanted to point out to you is that for somebody considering purchasing from you there is not any history of purchases or discussion in the forum so it makes it hard for one to feel he/she is making the right decision purchasing. I do understand this obviously is a new business and you have to start somewhere, I would strongly suggest that you try to get people that purchase from you to at least make a post or review in your forum, I wouldn't use another third party site, keep it all together in one place, I would also strongly suggest to try and keep most of it through your forum rather than Facebook or other Social sites until the ball is really rolling. You could also start generating activity in the forum by posting small monthly news articles, they don't have to be huge. Even just small tips/tricks or maybe what you are currently making or up to at the moment with your store and this most likely will start to generate some needed forum activity. For example I am more an electronics guy and am not trained at all in mechanics, but am interested to learn and is why I am here. Some of the knowledge you may just take for granted could be a really cool discovery for a new reader. Maybe even make some small Video's of what you are currently making. It was Mark's C-Beam Build Video that dragged me here like a magnet because watching the video I felt that I can tackle this without too much trouble, and here I am.... now engaging in their forum. I run a small business too Steve, I am a one man band, Sales, Accounts, Support, Purchasing and Courier, all in one day. I know its a long day and there is never enough time to fit everything in, so I completely understand. I am hoping that I have given you a few little pointers as a prospective customer from the outside that I think will help you grow here down under, and I really think there is a great potential for you to fill a huge void that we have here in Australia. I am certainly behind you and will purchase bits and pieces as I require them. When I do my first build, I am looking at the C-Beam XL bundle that is about to be released, I will be there in your forum with some details on the build also. Thankyou again for your reply. Cheers Glenn.
I bought my Ox about 2/3 months ago through Makerstore and I had really good email contact with Steve up until after I had put most of it together but I had bags of wrong sized bolts left over and I ran out of the 8mm bolts and T nuts so I had to order more. Also There was no V rail for the Z axis. After emails back and forth I was told I was supposed to use the left over long lengths (20x40) as the Z.... but it is an Ox which needed a 20 x 60 length so again... I had to make another order. I didn't have time to complain as I wanted it finished but I wasn't happy. I also had bad fitting eccentrics too but eventually got a hammer onto them (not ideal but what do you do..) and they went in. Just wanted to share my experience. Still got my Ox working in the end Mitch
