Bambu changing the terms of use of their printers

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Bambu changing the terms of use of their printers - NZ consumer law

cychronz

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#318463 20-Jan-2025 12:22

hey everyone,

Sorry about the video, it seem to contain some rude language...the main announcement from Bambu is here: https://blog.bambulab.com/firmware-update-introducing-new-authorization-control-system-2/

Bambu is changing the terms of use of their product as per https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/comments/1i4x3lw/bambu_lab_firmware_update_forces_cloud_dependency/

I unfortunately bought one of their printers recently, and was wondering if the NZ consumer laws are as robust as the Australian ones, where you can return the product if companies do this. I use various third-party services with the printer including different slicers and home automation(Home assitant) which will be blocked by the firmware. It also sounds like Bambu will force you to submit jobs via their cloud, which has significant privacy concerns as they'd be able to see exactly what I am printing, and capture all my work effort on models submitted.

They also say that the printer may not print new jobs until the new firmware is applied, and there is no downgrade once the firmware has been applied.

Any thoughts appreciated...

snj

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#3333460 20-Jan-2025 12:52

Was it originally advertised as non-web/app dependent? If so, would fail these two parts at least:

Fit for a particular purpose [... that the retailer advertised/told you the products were suitable for]
Match description, sample, or demonstration model

(Taken/adapted from https://www.consumerprotection.govt.nz/general-help/consumer-laws/consumer-guarantees-act)

A forced update that removed those features could be potentially deemed a major failure when combined with the durability requirements. Not sure what case law there is for this, so you might need to fight for it.

Edit:

Looks like some sellers did advertise the A1 unit with the statement "Not only can you connect your A1 to any device you prefer through Bambu CloudService, but you can also do so through LAN-only mode." but not all (or they removed it from the description already), so you're going to need to check what was advertised at the time of purchase, if it was on info from Bambu directly at the time you should be covered

dimsim

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#3333461 20-Jan-2025 13:01

i liked Louis Rossmann's coverage of this and agree 100%

neb

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#3333623 20-Jan-2025 16:41

A lot of these things end up with third-party FW that's typically a lot better than the original, and/or third-party controller boards via places like Tindie and the usual crapvendors. If you're happy with the rest of the hardware you may want to check alternative sources for control software.

The same applies for drones, there are masses of third-party controllers and software out there, much of it open source.

In any case if you look at the comments in the linked post it seems to be a tempest in a teacup, Louis Rossman has got a few things wrong and it's probably not that bad. I'd at least wait a few days before passing judgement.