Account page shows filter ship date, but not glowforge itself

My situation is the same as yours. Day four Pro order U.S. Golden email Oct 2nd, proofgrade delivered Oct 16th, waiting on Glowforge ship notification, filter pushed to March 18th. So you are not alone. :slight_smile:

Purchase history page does not have any shipping info, either estimated future date or past ‘shipped on’ date. The page doesn’t even have a field where a ship date would be listed, and does not indicate that the proofgrade materials have shipped (even though we have them).

I’m seeing other users posting that they have shipping estimates for their glowforge unit as well as their air filters - ours does not list the unit, I’m deeply concerned that after two years of waiting the order is getting bungled or lost in the shuffle.

But, you got the email from them starting the process or you wouldn’t have gotten your Proofgrade package so you don’t need either the email telling you when to expect your shipping email or a date in your account page for when to expect that email. You’re in the system but you’re 2 weeks into a potentially 6 week wait for the actual machine.

GF “here’s your UPS tracking number” emails are not reliably being sent before the units show up on people’s doorsteps. That’s why everyone is signing up for UPS alerts directly with UPS.

Oh I see, I’m mistaking shipment notification emails for shipment notification emails, and estimated ship dates as being estimates of when something would ship, not when the next stage of email delay tactic would take place.

I can appreciate that @dan and company value marketing spin above all else, but really those messages should be renamed for clarity. Instead of calling them shipment notification emails (because they absolutely are not), they should be referred to as “order status update” or something.

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No, I meant to check to make sure it accurately shows what you purchased.

Yep, you’re singing to the choir on that one. :smile: Enormous amounts of discussion about that.

The only thing with more is why it takes up to 6 weeks to actually show up on your doorstep.

For GF the shipping process gets started when you get what they term the “shipping email”. When you respond you get assigned to a machine that is scheduled to be built by Flex (and if you decline, that machine gets assigned to someone else). They stop sending emails when they reach the number of machines projected to be produced that week.

Then the machine that you’ve been assigned rolls off the assembly line and goes into the calibration & testing line where they have all sorts of stuff they do to it to make sure it’s aligned correctly, they map the machine’s specific head & laser characteristics, etc. That’s a non-trivial process. It sounds from what they’ve said that takes as long or longer as the build itself.

Then it goes and gets packaged up, stuck in its foam and box and your label gets generated and applied - that’s when UPS gets notified that you’re getting a package from GF and updates their systems and will send you a message if you’re setup for those with UPS.

Then it actually gets picked up by a truck and begins its trek across the country. That’s the time most people think it’s actually shipped. Up until then, most folks would say it’s being prepared for shipment. :slight_smile:

Now other companies would send you an email when they stuck that label on your box but GF doesn’t seem to have an automated way to do that. After some process that information gets to them and someone apparently sends it manually. Since the trip to your house could be anywhere from 1 day to a week, it doesn’t take too much delay in them getting the info from Flex to where they can send you the email for it to arrive pretty close to when the actual unit shows up.

That’s another mystery - why does it take almost as long for the notice from Flex to GF and then GF’s email to you as it takes to drive the box across the country :smile:

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It seems that whoever has the key responsibility of delivering Glowforges from the factory does not seem to be in control of the whole notification system. Something seems to be out of whack with the chain of custody and communication. I don’t doubt that they are aware that there is many a slip between the glass and the lip, but have not been able to coordinate logistics software with communication platforms. I’m just guessing here, with no real world logistics experience but with an insatiable desire to demystify opaque systems. Maybe its supposed to work this way and was intended?

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If you look at the spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sKxFMLH6gyAxQdp4bcRFGdX-v6vkoYAju1g-H2dr-ls/edit#gid=0 you can see they simply aren’t dispatching day 4 pros yet.

I think they are maximising the six week play at the moment to try to claim as many as possible where “shipped” in October. Dispatches are lagging well behind.

You’re a few hours out of date. The update below was posted about 8 hours prior to your comment above. This is a Day 4 Pro, email date (from top of thread) was October 2, so dispatch at just under 3 weeks.

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A hilarious update…

This morning, we received a shipment notification email with a tracking number for the crumb tray/accessory box, but the page on UPS was blank. We assumed that meant that the label had been printed, but that it had not yet been picked up. There was no info about the Glowforge Pro box, and we hoped and guessed that it would follow in the next couple days.

And then our Glowforge Pro just turned up half an hour ago. The UPS driver brought the crumb tray/accessory box and had us sign for it, and then she said “I’ll go get the other box and be back in a minute.” Sure enough, she’s bringing the big laser box off the truck and putting it on the dolly. The box was sideways, which caused us to freak out a bit (since it’s clearly marked fragile and this end up pointing in another direction).

I’m happy to report that our Glowforge Pro arrived intact, all 4 handles were still properly inserted in the box (I’ve seen reports of some missing on arrival) and there was no damage to the cardboard boxes at all. Inside, the laser was beautifully and perfectly packed. The setup instructions explain the process clearly, and everything appears to be a go. We won’t be able to actually test the unit until a little later, since we need to make a hardware store run to sort out the window venting we’ll need to do for the next 5+ months.

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Congrats on your new Pro :glowforge: !

First and most importantly, congrats!

^ Ugh, the possibility of this terrifies me. I mean, fortunately in this case you were home, but UPS failing to notify could have some dire consequences :frowning:

Yeah absolutely - the last thing we would have wanted would have been to get loaded onto the truck, bounce around on surface streets all day, then get off-loaded, rinse and repeat. That said, I was really impressed with the packaging. Heavy grade cardboard, very sturdy foam, it should withstand reasonable handling.

We’ve finally gotten the chance to plug it in and set it up. Hooray, it’s working, though the calibration process seemed to take a while (and with no progress bar). We’re currently a little worried about the cooldown period, our first print took 9ish minutes to do, but it says not to open the lid until the cooldown process has completed… and so far it’s been in cooldown mode for 15 minutes (and with no progress bar).

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Okay, that’s not normal. Usually that message is about the fans spinning down after the print. They spin for a bit longer after the print finishes so it can suck out more of the remaining smoke. You can open it before that message goes away but you may get a puff of smoke or two.

If the light is yellow (or orange - depends on your color perception) then that’s the unit being over temp. Check to make sure you’re within the operating temps (81F?) and if so, try turning off & then back on. If it happens again, that’d be time to call Support.

Figuratively speaking, email support@glowforge.com (Bada boom)

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Thinking they are talking about the standard “Cool down” status that happens at the end of every print. Should only take about 5 seconds. Might just be loss of connection somewhere before the “Ready” status change. Seen it before but rarely. If that is what they are seeing just ignore it unless it happens often.

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Did the fan continue to run or did it turn off 10 seconds after the build?

I’m so glad you received your Glowforge!

Does the long cool down happen after every print? Unless your machine is warmer than it should be and the button is yellow, the cool down period shouldn’t last more than a minute.

It’s been a little while since I’ve seen any replies on this thread so I’m going to close it. If you still need help with this please either start a new thread or email support@glowforge.com.