50$ a month for premium?

Also everyone wants to use a car as an example to compare the glowforge to, but the economics of those two products are so different that comparison is virtually nonsense.

This is the one time that the “printer” in their name makes sense. The economics of ongoing support and the underlying business and revenue models are much more like a printer than a car. A high end printer yes, but a printer nonetheless. Service contracts, short expected EOL, expensive proprietary consumables… very printer-like.

So in this case, if you buy a printer with no duplex printing, and the new models get duplex, do you complain that yours doesn’t have it? OK, actually judging by this thread, yes of course many of you will complain, but do you really think they’ll give it to you for free just because you want them to?

They will not.

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You’ve lost me! I think you assume I thought the features were limited when I bought it, which isn’t the case, I expected them there and then discovered they weren’t. To stay with the analogy, if I’d bought the car knowing basic features weren’t there then had been offered them for extra, fine, but I bought the Glowforge expecting the capability and not finding it, finding it added, then being asked to pay for it. Which obviously I’d rather not do.

So… you should be mad at yourself for expecting something that wasn’t offered? Implicitly or explicitly?

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Couple of points here…

Per your point, ‘This is the one time that the “printer” in their name makes sense’ it’s actually a cutter/engraver, printers use ink.

Per your point ‘ Service contracts, short expected EOL, expensive proprietary consumables… very printer-like.’ aren’t all those the exact things we hate about printers and shouldn’t modern companies like Dan’s strive to be disrupters to that?

Per your point ‘ yes of course many of you will complain, but do you really think they’ll give it to you for free just because you want them to?
They will not.’ I don’t disagree and I don’t expect this to even be responded to, but it’s a perspective that should at least be considered. Forums represent customers, as my tag shows I’m a customer and customers represent revenue and marketing and that’s a commodity way too many companies ignore at their cost.

How many times have you switched your ISP because new customers get a better deal than your loyalty. Just saying.

Ok!

Oh is it? I hadn’t noticed.

As I said: This is the one time that the “printer” in their name makes sense.

We’re a bit off topic here but why not:

quote=“mdurbs, post:110, topic:73757”]
printers use ink
[/quote]

Dye sublimation printers would like a word.

Laser printers sent you a DM.

Thermal printers sent you a friend request.

3D printers reacted to your post: :see_no_evil:

Braille printers cough quietly as they raise their hands.

Companies exist to make money. There’s no “should” in this. You may want them to behave that way, but there’s certainly no obligation.

Well I am pretty sure this does not reflect not a flaw in Glowforge’s business plan.

I’m a pretty open critic of some of GF’s decisions and processes, and this subscription thing is no exception. I have a take on it that would probably be even less popular: it should be mandatory and cheaper. I think it’d be better for everyone.

However, I’m a rando on the Internet with no access to GF’s internal customer data, usage information, or their doubtlessly deep roster of contacts, investors, and advisors. I’m sure many options were considered and that my half-blindfolded analysis is no match for the amount of thought they put into this. It’s not likely that any of this entire thread was terribly surprising to them.

That being said, your position is valid, and it’s cool that you have a forum in which to express it.

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I bought a 3D Printer thinking it had WiFi. It doesn’t, and now It is dead in the water till I can find a way to make it useful. That company is a good example of what you accuse Glowforge of when it is not, The 3D Printer is very much an “in my face” example I see setting next to my Glowforge every time I walk in the room.

It’s definitely cool we can debate it. The discussions here will also help the Glowforge team form their decisions and opinions on how to treat and support their customers and I appreciate and welcome the discussions and debate. All opinions welcome and equally valid.

I hear you that’s a good example of tech that should have more OOTB but you can fix that with a Pi and Octoprint for $25 and you’re done. Also most respectable 3D printers now realize this gap and come with network capabilities.

What we have here is an $179.88 at best upgrade at worst a $600 feature which is seriously excessive.

Here’s an option I would consider though.
A one off annual payment of $150 maybe $180 without subscription. (At least monthly).
Would other people prefer that?
i’d be interested to know.

Not to speak for Dan but he addressed this and said they’d considered it but they wanted the feedback of monthly subscriber numbers so they’d know how it was all going. They didn’t want to get blindsided by a massive die-off after the first year, it wouldn’t be possible to correct course at that point.

I’m sure there are other reasons too, these things are complicated to be sure, but that’s the one stated (slightly paraphrased probably) reason.

I think the idea has some merit too, but they made their choice for now.

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Hey all! So being a middle of the road Glowjobber with the middle of the road design talent. I see the benefits of the program. I suggest you try it. It’s more than circles and squares. I tire of searching for clip art that I have to pay for and might be licensed. I find that Etsy files I pay for can easily be made with the Premium software. Sorry Etsy file makers who make the simple files. Now mind you the more complicated files I will continue to buy from designers.
Now the cost! NO WAY would I pay $50 bucks a month for this service. $14.99 sounds about right. I hope Glowforge Central keeps good faith and doesn’t get greedy. I already have enough confidence now to purchase a bigger and competitive laser without the need for Big Bro controlling my files and cutting times.
Just my two cents.

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I get that model, however if they truly want to put a finger on it and feel a pulse then they should have picked a mid price point and just offered it, maybe at a discount for a few months, etc… As it stands now people will be afraid to lose the deep discount they may keep the monthly even if they are considering stopping for fear of losing a 70% discount.

The discount may be out of the kindness of their heart or an offering to early adopters and they may not have considered the fear factor, but I doubt it…

At the end of the day it winds down to: is what they are offering for the premium worth $50 a month? The answer is tricky because in the laser cut/engrave genre they offer something no one else does so yeah in that sense it is worth it. However when compared to value against other subscription models in other genres (such as adobe creative cloud) its value dwarfs in comparison.

Btw, now that my machine says its “in the fast lane” all of my prints are not printing correctly. They’re shifting all over the place. I don’t get it.

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True story…

The last time I bought a brand new vehicle it was 2005. I was working at RealNetworks, which was just a few miles from my house. My wife and I were doing a full, top-to-bottom remodel of our house, ourselves. (We had contractors refinish the hardwood flooring we found under the carpets). We were lucky to have a woodworker and a city inspector for neighbors who would pitch in with help and advice.

The rear wheel steering gave out on my Nissan 240SX, so I started looking at options. I was planning on a car, but my wife pointed out that our truck rentals were adding up, there were only two of us, and it would be a huge convenience to haul anything, any time.

At the time, long bed pickups started at about $16,000. But I was delighted to discover that I could get a brand new white Ford F-150 for $12,000. The catch was that literally the only option was floor mats. Want power mirrors? That’s only in the $16,000 trim. CD player? Same deal. Oh, and if you wanted any other color than white?.. also $16,000.

So I rolled out of there with a brand new white F-150 long bed pickup with no power mirrors or windows or anything else, and I was pretty darn tickled about it.

And in that vein: I’m not making any analogy here. We don’t sell bare bones products to contractors. The base model Glowforge is more like a luxury car, and Premium is more like the sports package. I just like that story and any excuse to tell it. :slight_smile:

I’m probably not helping.

I’ve read every one of the >300 responses in the update thread and responded to as many questions as I could. This one I’ve had to wait till the weekend to catch up on. :slight_smile: I’m here because I absolutely care, I’m listening carefully, and I’m always looking to learn what people think so I can incorporate that knowledge for the future. So I appreciate anyone who takes the time to let me know.

Thank you.

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Octoprint/Octopi

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I suggest opening a new thread in Problems and Support to get help with your unrelated problem.

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Hey @dan the fact that you read my diatribe is great, the fact that you thought and responded is above and beyond, business leaders rarely do that today, it reflects your willing to listen, so I really appreciate that and I’m sure others on the forum do too.

Know that I love my Glowforge, it has given myself and my son a lovely little Etsy business and way more importantly a reason to bond (FYI, have you guys ever thought about selling direct from glowforge) and it’s been a blast. My point on another subscription is absolutely real though. If I took your subscription I’d have to drop another (and I don’t think my wife’s ready to drop her Netflix fix yet) so all I’m saying is consider options, strangely a one time annual fee (at the reduced rate) seems more palatable cause you pay it when you have it. It’s the continual financial bleed that hurts the most. (Horrible analogy, sorry).

Anyway, I’m one opinion on the pack, take it or leave it, keep on developing and disrupting you’ve got a great community of makers behind you.

Best
Mark

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We sent ear savers all over the country, advertising for glowforge. I made 16,000 and I don’t want anything for that, but glowforge certainly benefitted from our generosity.

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Im not concerned about server speeds, I’ve been satisfied with it until now.
But my concern is that gf seem to have pivoted from a hardware company to a saas company.
And i dont think they want to charge for it. They certainly dont really believe that 50$/month is reasonable. But i guess they figured that that is the target if they want to keep the lights on. And that concerns me

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I remember how long my designs I use the most took to process before. I did feel like they rendered / processed slightly faster after the upgrade in August. Today I logged in though and was told “I was in the fast lane” and the corresponding update about premium. Being that my designs aren’t processing faster now than they were after the upgrade - I think it is safe to say if you don’t subscribe then you will be put on the old servers. We are already on the new ones because we are all in a premium trial.

$50/m does seem steep to me - I understand why the arrived at that # though. I realize some of you are really successful and really making money with your Glowforge. I admittedly am only making a few hundred a month off it so the $50 tag is definitely too much for me. I will be subscribing now to save my self $34/m.

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