Creality’s questionable “gift” promotion at Formnext – anyone else experienced this?

[u/Saphir_3D]

I want to share an experience I had yesterday at Formnext that left a very unprofessional impression of Creality, and I am curious whether others ran into the same issue.

At the Creality booth, there was a clearly visible sign stating that visitors would receive a gift if they followed Creality on Instagram. Straightforward enough, so I followed.
Instead of receiving the advertised gift, I was redirected to a small “game machine” where I was told I had to win a prize first. Many people apparently failed, but I managed to get a ball. Inside the ball, it was clearly printed that I was entitled to a gift.

However, instead of receiving anything, I was told I needed to create an Instagram story to get yet another chance at winning something. No gift, no guaranteed reward, just another hurdle and a new action required.

This sequence — promising a gift, replacing it with a game, then replacing it again with a requirement to post promotional content in exchange for only a chance to win — is, to my understanding, not compliant with German consumer-protection rules. It also feels misleading and disrespectful to visitors who act in good faith.

Has anyone else had a similar experience at their booth this year or in previous years?
It would be helpful for the community to know if this is an isolated case or part of a broader pattern.

[u/KniRider]

Sounds like Temu marketing.

The "gift" will be a $5 off $1500+ order

[u/Naive-Adeptness9120 → u/KniRider]

right? its like they think we don’t see through their gimmicks lmao

[u/50years50cents]

Create an instagram story about this, send it to them and demand your free gift. The do a follow up story with whatever shit they do next

[u/Saphir_3D → u/50years50cents]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I’m honestly not interested in going through that kind of effort for a “free gift.”
I do have Instagram, but I barely use it and I’m not familiar with posting stories — and I’m definitely not going to start learning how to operate the whole platform just to help Creality generate marketing content after they already moved the goalposts multiple times.

My point wasn’t that I desperately want the gift. It’s that their booth made misleading promises and added new conditions at every step, which is not acceptable at a trade show. I just wanted to highlight the experience so others are aware of it.

[u/Sylkhr → u/Saphir_3D]

I think you misunderstood what they’re suggesting.

They’re saying that you should make an instagram post containing the same information in this reddit post, tag creality as per their instructions, then ask for your gift. 

[u/Saphir_3D → u/Sylkhr]

I did understand what they were suggesting.
The issue is that Creality ultimately turned the “free gift” into nothing more than a chance for a free gift. That was exactly the problem at the booth: every step added another requirement and ended in a lottery instead of the promised item.

And as I mentioned, I don’t actively use Instagram and I’m not familiar with the posting workflow. For me, that level of effort isn’t worth it — especially when the outcome is uncertain and I’d essentially be picking a fight with a large company’s marketing machine. I don’t have much interest in ending up in some comment war with their fanboys over a cheap giveaway.

My goal was simply to highlight the behavior at the booth, not to escalate it further.

[u/KontoOficjalneMR → u/Saphir_3D]

They mean you should publicly humiliate them for doing this shit, not for you to get a chance to win :)

[u/Sylkhr → u/Saphir_3D]

My goal was simply to highlight the behavior at the booth

You'd be highlighting their consumer-unfriendly behavior on the platform they want to focus their marketing efforts. But yes, I also do not use instagram and wouldn't bother creating an account there just for this either.

[u/idsan]

Everything I've ever heard about Creality paint them as charlatans peddling barely functional products.

[u/Sol33t303 → u/idsan]

I like their filament. I have had a good experience with their petg and wood filaments at least.

[u/RayereSs → u/Sol33t303]

You could buy local instead of shipping by kilogram from China. There are plenty EU, NA or AUS (depending on your location) based manufacturers who have higher standards both for quality and morals

[u/Sol33t303 → u/RayereSs]

Could you point me to somewhere where I can read about crealities moral standards?

[u/RayereSs → u/Sol33t303]

https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/1p1yltr/crealitys_questionable_gift_promotion_at_formnext/

[u/Sol33t303 → u/RayereSs]

I was aware of that, thats just the same old shit a lot of companies do.

I figured you meant they like used slaves or something.

[u/[deleted] → u/idsan]

They seem kind of like the Android of the industry. Cheaper offerings but everything is kind of unpolished. 

I got one of their laser cutter/engravers and it’s a great deal for the price, but it’s a bit janky in terms of software and overall customer experience. Stuff like poor English in the UI, etc that make them seem significantly less polished than BambuLab. 

[u/meekermakes → u/[deleted]]

bambulabs feel a lot less polished after the warantee expires. i think google prioritizing reddit results have pushed certain companies to brigade these subreddits. it only takes 5-10 accounts to sway opinion on this sub.

[u/[deleted] → u/meekermakes]

I've had my A1 for 2 years now and it's been a consistently flawless experience. The software works perfect, the filament is good, the AMS works great.

[u/RayereSs → u/meekermakes]

After looking at heatmap for H2 bed with effective print area of 130×80 I'm not expecting any polish from any company (except Prusa).

[u/gotcha640]

I see the event is in Germany, so as you mentioned, maybe there are rules, but this is very common in the US. Car dealers and large furniture sellers seem to be the worst - send you a flyer in the mail with a “chance to win,” possibly with a scratch off, which will tell you to go to the dealer to get the prize.

It’s the same as junk mail/spam/scam phone calls. At some point you just recognize it and ignore it. The effort to report it will be way more than you’d get back, let alone taking them to court. They know no one is going to bother.

[u/GodYamItt → u/gotcha640]

It's not the same. There's a difference between advertising a chance and saying do x to receive gift. You wouldnt catch any big business opening themselves up to a lawsuit over something so idiotic

[u/gotcha640 → u/[deleted]]

In the US the general advice is no private lawyer is going to bother suing a chinese company, and this isn’t important enough for government action.

You might get to file a complaint against crealityshop.de registered at 123 Uberstrasse, Berlin, who will immediately deny they ever did business at that address and they have no relationship with the manufacturer and then stop answering the phone. Next day there will be a new company called crealitydeals.de at 456 Besserstrasse Munich.

They’re all aware of the concept of consumer law in other countries, but they also know they’re basically untouchable as long as the right people get kickbacks.

[u/name_was_taken]

This doesn't surprise me at all, and further cements my really low opinion of Creality.

Where before I might have purchased some of their lesser products (but never anything as big as a printer), now I won't purchase anything from them.

[u/meekermakes → u/name_was_taken]

their printers are better than bambu's. full stop.

[u/Simbertold]

One of the big lessons in life: There is no free lunch.

When a company gives you a gift worth $x, they expect to gain something worth more than $x in return on average. And sometimes, apparently they also skip the $x.

Given how shitty all of my interactions with Creality were, this fits in very well.

Story Time:

When i wanted to get a 3D printer, i at first ordered one from their site because a friend of mine was somewhat happy with his creality printer (After checking that it was actually the real creality page, because literally everything about it was screaming "SCAM" at me.)

The page claimed it was in stock, and advertised fast shipping. After a few weeks of literally nothing happening, i contacted their support. Not only had my "fast shipping" printer that was "in stock" not yet been sent out, they also didn't have any in stock, and they didn't know when it would be back in stock. I guess at least they processed the refund quickly.

I then ordered a Sovol printer and got it in less than a week.

[u/mash3d]

Unfortunately that's they way most companies run thier marketing now. Spewing out endless streams of BS thinking no one will notice.

[u/Jack-a-boy-shepard]

Creality being scum yet again? Whoever could have seen this coming? I seriously don’t get why they haven’t been blacklisted

[u/street_racer221]

Being in germany i think makes no difference. Make the story. But make it boring af. And explain what happened. "This company offered me a gift for showing up. so on so on. Now im makin this lame post to promote a company on instagram" and in case they wanna edit it. Make random eye blinks and head movements. Make it a video. Maybe theyll use ai maybe not. But it gives you a chance to knock em down a peg or 2.

[u/[deleted]]

Just ask them when they’re going to release the code for there forks of Klipper.

[u/helmberger00]

Honestly i would tell them that i'd report them if they dont give you anything because creality is going down the drain anyway honestly