I am just wondering if order fulfillment will go by date of order or by invoice numbers? Many people have speculated that the invoice number gives some understanding of our place in the order queue…and perhaps that is correct. If it IS correct, something is messed up because there are people who ordered way later than I did who received an invoice number of 1,000 or even 2,000 lower than mine. Just trying to make some sense of it.
Thank you for your time.
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They’ve already said they are first shipping units to high usage areas eg. Makerspaces and locally so they can get feedback on any fault that might happen after manufacturing in ~December. Then largely if they have no faults or solve them easily they will start to roll into full production and units will largely go in order number order. But I suspect US And or local location might be first especially based on legal things they need to iron out.
They want to ship all preorders by end of Aug. I was in the first <5% of orders but as I am in the UK I expect I won’t have mine for a while. Best for them to iron out quality and local legal/shipping hurdles.
I don’t know if invoice number correlates to ship date or not, although it seems reasonable it might. We have everyone’s order date, and that’s what we’ll use. Note that we’ve said “all things being equal” we’ll base things on order date - but as we’ve also said, high volume areas will get the first units for testing, and international may affect delivery dates too.
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Great. Thank you so much. That clears it up for me.
I don’t have an invoice number - just an ordinary email saying that I’ve paid! Should I have received a proper invoice? It would be useful for tax purposes.
Curious as to why being an International customer may affect delivery date. Thanks.
The two reasons that come to my mind are regulatory approvals and if there are hardware issues in the early units the closer those units are to Seattle (without crossing a border) the cheaper they are to fix. In addition to CE marking for Europe, because it has WiFi some countries will insist it pass their testing. That can be done in testing labs in the US, but it is extra time. And no, incorporating a WiFi chip/module from a global vendor that has its own approval does not automatically grant your device approval. It depends on the country.
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Excellent. Makes sense. I did think of approval for CE marking for Europe 10 minutes after I posted my question but I was not aware of the Wifi testing you mention. Thank you.
What @caribis2 said, plus if there are going to be problems, we’d rather have them be solved with $100 shipping costs than $1,000 shipping costs. We’ll make sure we’re humming along smoothly on domestic shipments before we start sending boxes overseas.
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Understood. Thanks for taking the time to reply…you must never sleep…lol.
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Dear Dan and all the other members of the discussion.
I understand your position and all the steps you will need to go through, but I wish to point out that International buyers are following the same purchasing order as the US based ones, but we get penalized for company procedures.
We will be placed in the “waiting room” for a while on the shipping order, even if we had to pay more for the delivery. I understand that shipping costs are higher internationally than nationally, but I believe it is unfair to be place in a “B List” due to company procedure.
It is not our responability for the CE approval or any other type of testing that the company has to go through, why should we pay more (I did my research, and the difference between East Coast US and International to EUROPE is not as great as ) and wait more, for something that should be solved by the company?
It is OK to be a little delayed do to the international procedures, but to be placed on hold for an “unknown” time it is unfair, especially when the price for pre-ordering is the same for all but the treatment is not.
Are you guys thinking of adding extra perks or extra warranty to international, since we will be penalized from the starting line?
I don’t want to come across as a…ole, but this information really affected me.
Thank you!
@Dan, I’m overseas and I agree with your strategy. If there are any bugs, solve them locally before overseas shipping. If there was any delay it could be looked at as “short term pain for long term gain”.
None of what Dan said implies that the International customers have to wait for the U.S. customers. Yes test shipments will occur first in the U.S., but will that be 50 or 500? I certainly don’t know. And CE certification would be occurring as soon as possible, independent of shipments. You certainly have not crossed any line with your concern. But I often wonder whether there might be a hidden list deep in the GF offices that rank test shipments according to how likely a person is to work with the company to address initial issues. Try to be at the top of that non-existent list.
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Dear rpegg.
Thank you for your comment. I really appreciate the fact that customers are helping eachother understanding the situation, but is this uncertain elements that worries me the most.
It is completelly understandable that testing should be done as close to the HQ as possible to reduce waste of time and resources. And, as you said, it could by 50 or 500. But this is exactly the situation that has lead my thoughts in the direction of my previous question.
The phrase that worried me is: “We’ll make sure we’re humming along smoothly on domestic shipments before we start sending boxes overseas.” writen by @dan. This is why I started thinking of a B-List for International buyers.
I believe that GF is a serius business and I would hope that they really don’t have a “Likable-first list”. I’ve worked in the Hospitalit Industry and I know how difficult customers are… I promise not to be one of them!!!
I just have a very important question to be answered and I’ll be a cooperative member of the GF society 
Thank you again
Didn’t take it any other way. Tried to honestly answer your question. Can’t offer anymore because I’m not sure which piece of the puzzle you are missing. On the other note and nothing to do with our conversation; I’m sure that GF doesn’t have any such list, but deep down inside I wish they did. My reasoning is that there will be inevitable minor problems with either shipping or function on the early units. I would rather not see a public airing of every little issue during that fine tuning period. It’s unnecessary and counter productive as long as GF is working to fix the problems for the rest of us. Not trying to protect GF the company, I’m thinking about our investment and the long term viability of future upgrades.
I would imagine that “humming along” would mean they have shipped enough units out WITHOUT being called up immediately about broken components due to poor packaging, that they are reasonably certain anything sent out international will arrive in perfect condition, rather than arriving broken and requiring an additional shipment of new parts or even a return and re-ship of a defective unit.
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@confezioni_clever: I’m sorry if the news that your location would be a factor in shipping came as a surprise. Unfortunately there are a number of things that we can’t do for our international customers, including free shipping on warranty repairs, detailed advice and compliance assistance with local regulations, and so on. If that means Glowforge isn’t right for you, let us know and we’ll get you a full and prompt refund.
Dear @rpegg,
Thank you again for your feed. It is completelly understandable that GF is working to fix all the problems and bugs, and it is admirable that they will test it with the public before going to mass shipping.
The piece of the puzzle that I’m still missing is how this issue will be handled. Is there really going to be in international B-List that will be shipped after the US Market, or is it going to be as @jacobturner stated that they will start shipping internationally as soon as the bugs and packaging issues are solved?
I believe inthe Glow Forge and this is why I decided to Invest in GF even if I’m not a wealthy person. I’ve personally decided to pay over 3000 USD to GF all completelly based on trust. I know that 3000 USD in comparison to 27 Mil is nothing, but I think I may have the right to expose an issue. I’m not try to talk bad about GF nor @dan (If that was the case I would have not pre-purchased the GF). All I’m try to do is UNDERSTAND how this will be handled.
I will keep following the developments and I will not cancel my order, because I believe in the GF, but in complete honesty, I’m afraid. I have the feeling that there is still a lot of shadowy parts in the international shipping procedure. But as I said I’ll keep myself updated to UNDERSTAND MORE.
Best to all!
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Dear @dan,
As I stated in the last comment, The GF is something that I have believed since I have first heard about. Giving us, common people, the opportunity to create new ideas is something that inspired me. Probably my bad english came across as rude, but I was just trying to clear some issues that came to my mind.
The most important thing is that we will receive the GlowForge with all the other pre-order buyers, and not months and months later (except for the test rinners, of course). My question for extra warranty or extra perks was due to the fact that we will have to deal with extra costs, and it could have been a solution to make it fair for US based user and international as well, but at the same time it is understandable that the GF company cannot offer a better solution for international users compair to US based ones.
So apologies if my concerns cretaed an issue, but I just have one last question: Could the International shipping be post-poned after June if the usability tests confirm th good quality of the GF?
Thank you for all the help,
Riccardo
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Your English seems to be better than mine and English is my primary language. But the final question was a little unclear. You can edit it. I think you are asking whether the International customers might see delays past June even if everything goes well. I doubt Dan will answer that question because even if testing goes well any number of other issues could push production back. He might answer what sort of delay they anticipate between initial U.S. production and the first International shipments.