So...is this article TRUE? Glowforge not shipping unitl Q2 2016 NOW?

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That’s the problem. Dan had said testing units would be shipping in December. He then explained that those that purchased before X date would start getting theirs in Q1, while those who purchased AFTER X date would like wait unit Q2.

Unfortunately, people link to the FAQ, and those dates are changed constantly. NOWHERE had I ever heard Q2 was a possibility for those of us who purchased at the beginning of their sale. Now it seems as though Q2 is what forum goers are expecting…which is incredibly odd to me.

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Not trying to be rude but this bone has been chewed with you over and over. I responded to you with the words, not a link, from the FAQ on Oct 15th. [quote=“rpegg, post:9, topic:605, full:true”]
I do wish the main site had been more clear to keep folks from misunderstanding. The order page does have smallish lawyer print that says: “You are pre-ordering a product that has not yet been manufactured. We’ve tried to accurately describe it, but we may make changes before it’s delivered.” The only place shipping dates were described was in the FAQ under “When will my Glowforge ship?” which states first units in December and rollout of the rest over the next few quarters. External site videos, interviews and reviews had that information upfront.
[/quote]
Dan’s Nov 15th topic explains the shipping schedule.

You could easily have mistaken the “first shipments in Dec 2015” like many did and that is fair. But nowhere, ever has there been anything that says Q1. Saying it doesn’t make it true. Sorry.

BTW: I’ve been very careful in all my responses that the “official” date has not changed. No one knows whether it will slide in the future.

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I have a saved mass email from Dan dated 11/23 saying the following:
“When we launched, we said “First units shipping December 2015”, and then went on to say that units purchased before October 23 would ship in the first half of 2016. Now the first shipments are about to happen! (Stay tuned for an email in a few days on how you can apply to get one of the first few beta units). However, we’ve heard from a few people who thought that all the shipments would happen in December. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. To make sure your final Glowforge is as good as it can possibly be, we’re going to start by shipping a small number of beta units starting in two weeks. We’ll build the next set of units on a small test line over the course of the month. Then, the majority of units will roll out in the first half of next year. The date that we ramp up our production and start shipping thousands of units will depend on your feedback and our quality testing, but we’re on schedule to have all units that were purchased before Oct 23 shipped in the first half of 2016. Units ordered after Oct 23 will ship in the summer of 2016.”

I also have an email from Lauren @ GF in regards to some pre-purchase questions that I had (dated 10/12) saying “The very first Glowforge units will start shipping in December 2015. Those are going to high-volume locations where they’ll get a ton of use and abuse, so we can see if we’re meeting our quality goals. From that point, we’ll know if we can ramp production immediately, or whether we need to fix any issues. Either way, our plan is to have all units shipped in the first half of 2016.”

Regardless, even if the dates do end up getting pushed, that would be for legit reasons. I want a unit I can use - not something I’d have to ship back. Though I do agree that if target “dates” ever change it should be announced here first - but clearly they’re not trying to sneak delay news out in articles since Q2 = first half of 2016 and that’s been the word since fairly early in the pre-order window.

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I preordered on October 10th and never expected it Q1 Because they never said that. Where did you see that???

I think you got it in your head they will ship Q1 but idk where

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When I read the cutoff date, I anxiously checked my order date…
The 22nd! Beat it by one day.
My universe is usually not so accommodating.

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IMHO I think some people seen, heard, fixated on Dec. I’ve bought a few kick starters, and the timeline is fluid, until they go hey we can do this. Now if you had a widget you were selling for half price, and you were going to be comfortable with making 100 widgets and being able to move forward and market and grow perhaps sells 1,000’s great.

Here is the rub we all have ventured down a path and been able to get something that @Dan or anyone at Glowforge never expected I’m sure it was wonderful for it to happen have the best ever kick starter. The reality sits in that they were looking at building supplying (x with $100,000) but due to the popularity and willingness of us they have to (supply x $21,000,000)

I can’t even imagine the oh shit we have to get this, this and, this and the suppliers we talked to only were expecting to have to do our projection, well that all went out the window their first couple of days and the demand I will surmise probably hasn’t lessened. As I’m sure for everyone who bails out there is another eager person wanting this.

So if you need to vent, vent, however when you invest in a company or a product that isn’t made yet it takes time. And if you want a good product that isn’t going to making you mad because it didn’t do A,B or C. I’d rather wait an extra month and get one that can do the whole alphabet. AN let me tell you Paying $4,000 on a maybe hurt, hurt a lot, However I will be happy when I have it, until then I’ll keep being Verruca Salt inside, and Charlie on the outside.

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I certainly thought they were a lot closer to a final design when I placed my order. It wasn’t until a while after placing the order when I came to realize that “December Shipping” meant “December Beta Testing”. As far as I know we have no confirmation that anything actually shipped to anyone who placed an order in the month of December. Has there been any official statement on shipping Beta units? Understandably anyone who received them won’t talk, but would it be great to hear, “Hey, great news folks! The first Beta units have shipped!”. I’m nervous about the ship dates, so far we haven’t seen one in production plastic or a finished print button. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very excited, and chat up the GF with everyone who will listen, I just hope this doesn’t go the way of Formlabs first crowdfunding project.

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Severe anticipation and anxiety are not emotions that I am cursed with. If another company develops a similar capability, for less cost, with an earlier delivery date, then I will pull my money. Until then it’s all kind of academic.

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Yea it’s nice you can get a refund up until your unit ships. That’s why I have no problem waiting

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What would be nice to alleviate some of the confusion would be to know if the beta units actually shipped out or not.

That at least would be an indicator of where the team is with the product, without having to go into the details of how its going, how many problems found ,etc.

Glowforge team, did the betas ship yet?

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If I could throw in a helpful summary, (and I may be wrong)I think it all came down to the goal was to sell between 25-50 units to raise the $100,000 the goal was. They probably had the intention to get those first few out and get some feedback, without necessarily calling it a formal beta.

Then the unexpected kicked in. They didn’t just get pre orders for 25 to 50 units, they got pre-orders that totaled up around 8000-10000 units within 30 days, and more after that! They probably had to take a moment to splash some water around and pinch themselves, but came to a conclusion: there’s a lot riding on this. A lot of people put down for a quality object. Sure, if the team was interested in a quick easy buck, they could have used all that money to get fast cheap parts, assemble a pile of crap and get it out the door and run. Not everyone who ordered one knows everything about lasers enough to tell the difference between a cheap flimsy product and a good quality product. Some people don’t know the same in thier break pads either, and I don’t know about you, but i know i can stick my head up a cow’s rear to get a good look at a t-bone steak, but I’d rather take the butcher’s word for it.

Now, some may have put the money down expecting a guarantee that they would get one right away, or within a couple months. But what good is a guarantee? You put it under your pillow to sleep a little better at night. But how do you know that the guarantee fairy isn’t some crazy glue sniffer? Model airplanes he says…yeah right. Then there’s money missing off the dresser, and your daughter is knocked up, I’ve seen it a hundred times.

The point? The point is, is that they care about quality. They did the best they could with the limited parts they had to assemble some great test machines, so they could research and make a more durable, more precise, feature enriched object. Then while that’s all being done, they can take the reasonable amount of time necessary to get the good quality parts together for that good quality product.

Tl:dr? Hey if you want them to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed… they could, you have spare time. But now, for your sake, for your daughter’s sake, ya might wanna think about letting them finish thier quality product.

/end tommy boy references

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Just to give you a hint on what another unit of this size costs. I was looking into getting a table top unit made by Universal. Looks close to the Glowforge in size. Has a Z axis for larger pieces with the same size cutting area. The cost was $13,999. So I will patiently wait for the Glowforge to ship and continue traveling to GRMakers to use their laser.

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I had originally thought the same thing about the $100,000 goal. It wasn’t a goal as much as a number that was a minimum. Dan corrected my assumption.

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My two cents: no news (from @dan) is good news. It means they are very busy getting all the ducks lined up. It’s about to get very busy on this forum I’m sure. I also would rather have the exact device (or better) I decided to throw money at than be worried about how it has been construed. I can live with another 5 months. I think. This is such a revolutionary promise I just have to trust it.

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And to hear it direct. . .

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Its not about the wait -everyone signed up knowing they were going to have to wait, and that delays were probably going to happen. I don’t think anyone would disagree that they want to receive it when its ready. What I think the glowforge team could do is provide is a high level update (its been 1 month since betas were supposed to ship).

I am sure the team is working very hard. It won’t take till end of May to find out that you can’t ship in June. The betas were announced in December. Was the team able to keep that first initial promised milestone? That is all I want to know (and I am sure a lot others here)

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Ordered on the 7th October. I don’t know where that puts me in the queue and in all honesty I don’t care. I do care about getting a quality product though, so I’ll wait as long as it takes.

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When I ordered mine in September the page I ordered it from is this one: Order - Glowforge - the 3D Laser Printer.

It says:

Preorder Your Glowforge at 50% Off
Early bird pricing available for a limited time only. Shipping December 2015.

That means order now get it in December, not order and now some local customers will get a secret beta version in December, you will get yours in Q2.

Anyway Q2 is now fast approaching and we don’t even have confirmation any beta units have shipped.

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Ait also states that “you are ordering a product that has not been manufactured yet.” on that page, which before dropping two thousand dollars on a blind date prompted me to further investigate the time frame. The vast majority of us understood there would be an undetermined period of development involved stretching into spring at the earliest.

You are not alone in your confusion, several have expressed disenchantment at realizing there would be a wait beyond December.
On a crowd funded project, there is nothing secret about a beta program. That is standard procedure to develop a new product and is to be expected, especially one that integrates innovative complicated systems.

Dan has been very open bout development, and made himself available to answer questions, which help all of us who are left tapping our foot in anticipation.
Personally, I can hardly imagine the pressure the team is under to deliver an amazing machine still under development with such an avalanche of orders.
I still have faith in the Glowforge team, but if that were to waiver, @dan stands ready to refund my money at my request.
At this point I couldn’t possibly ask for more, and based on previous performance, I know when there is a threshold that has been achieved, Dan will jump in here with both feet to announce it.

Hang in there, you are one of the privileged in line to have an amazing tool at a price unavailable to anyone else.

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I thought it might be worthwhile to provide the forum with an analytical tool for determining actual shipment dates. Now I personally believe the Glowforge team will be reasonably good at hitting their intended target. Still, the game is a combination of skill, experience, and chance. Some of my projects have missed the dart board completely. Give it your best shot.

942×530 52.8 KB

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