MakerBot announced the creation of eight “Authorized ServiceCenters” in Europe. How does this fit into their strategy?
MakerBot Europe has been making big changes to their operations ever since it was formed. We’ve learned they’ve reorganized their product distribution, and now they’re working on their service capabilities.
While there have been multiple resellers of MakerBot gear in Europe for quite some time, the company has decided to certify eight specific operations as “authorized service centers”. The specific resellers now certified are:
- Schimautz Ges.m.b.H. (Austria)
- KD85 (Belgium)
- Machines-3D (France)
- CadXpert (Poland)
- WAY d.o.o. (Slovenia)
- Ultralab S.L. (Spain)
- Alltron AG (Switzerland)
- 3bFab (Turkey)
You could previously obtain MakerBot service from these companies, but now they have all agreed to provide consistent service at a high level of quality. This give MakerBot customers a known, reliable location for any required service, much like Apple Stores provide a confident place to get help for their products. And of course, service is provided in the native language for each country.
This move also works well with MakerBot’s MakerCare warranty program. It’s an optional feature available when you purchase a device that can add 24 months of service to the equipment. Thus, when you buy the service plan, you also know exactly where to take the machine in for repairs.
What’s next? If you look at the map of Europe above, it’s pretty clear there are some holes that MakerBot will likely fill with one or more additional Authorized ServiceCenters. Also note that this is a map of Europe – and there’s a lot more to the world. We expect to see a similar service strategy emerge in the USA and elsewhere, should the European experiment succeed.
Via MakerBot
