I would say a closer analogy would be that you told people two years ago you had a recipe figured out, and could order a pie a few months in advance for a discount. Then you said it would be a few more months. Then a few more months … a few more times. You’re really sorry, and you promise to send some extra snacks with the pie to make up for it, though! Eventually you started telling people you’d shipped some pies when what you really meant was you’d started putting together the ingredients to make those pies and they’d really get them six weeks later. Then you start actually shipping pies, but didn’t tell people until then that over the past two years, you still hadn’t quite worked out the right recipe. It will taste pretty good, but might look way uglier than the picture they showed you. Some people are fine with that because they only care how it tastes, but some people expected the pretty pie they were promised when they ordered. But they can wait an additional undetermined period of time, and you promise the quality might improve.
Haven’t posted much lately. Kind of hoping folks would get tired of saying the same thing over and over and over again. Enjoy reading every opinion, good and bad. But less than a hundred times for each person please.
Yeah, like my 3D printer, it is a shop tool. Door not closing is a usability problem, a blemish on the case not a concern per se
That was actually a post i was responding to. I want it to be completely functional but I also don’t think it’s much of an ask to have it not be damaged aesthetically when it first arrives. If I bought a car and it came to me scratched I’d be mad. I don’t really care that the scratch doesn’t affect how it drives. I prefer to scratch my things myself.
And again, I’m not so upset by the damage as I am that they see the damage and send it anyways.
From the post I saw it had glue across the glass top, a BIG crack (or scratch? hard to tell) on the corner of the case, chipped glass, non-closing lid, and debris in the water jacket of the laser tube.
All of those except maybe the glue would be a no-go for me, as they would most definitely effect functionality, and it just looks bad. its sloppy. Are they glueing the foam braces at the time of packing?
And they’re replacing that one, it’s obviously beyond the standard for what they consider an acceptable cosmetic defect.
My real concern is not that my glowforge be pretty. My concern is that shipping obviously flawed cases has a very “meh, good enough for a first run” feel to it. And that spools up my anxiety because that attitude on the blemished plastic housing may not be a big issue, but I’m forced to wonder what else under the hood is only in “meh, good enough” condition.
Quite frankly, I’m lucky if I believe maybe half of what I read on the Internet. That doesn’t mean that I don’t believe these pictures, etc. but I have to believe that this package went through utter hell.
I’d say that the lid in particular is significantly out of spec from what everyone else’s experiences and my experience has been. The pictures show how misaligned some of the graphic elements are and how misaligned the graphic is that runs along the lid camera cable in conjunction with the body (cable runs across the lid and has a corresponding black graphic “hiding it”, that graphic continues to the body of the Glowforge). This Glowforge, in my opinion, got wrecked big time in shipping. When you have misalignments that significant, and that differ from everyone else’s experience that significantly, how can you not consider (or even expect) that whatever you see cosmetically wrong wasn’t a result of whatever caused the Glowforge to arrive in that condition mechanically.
Again - all we are seeing here is the reply to an email that we don’t know what was said. Perhaps the email was actually saying, hey this stuff doesn’t line up. It looks horrible. And it was perceived as, hey, this thing has major cosmetic issues… not, hey - this thing has been tweaked hardcore. Nothing lines up. It’s like a car wreck.
It wasn’t helped by the fact that he has been angry about Glowforge for quite some time. I sympathise with him, I would not have liked to have received that unit but man… talk about psyching yourself up for a negative experience.
The malfunctioning and cosmetically damaged Glowforge fell into very fertile negative ground.
JFC, you’ve gotta be kidding me. The iPhone of laser cutters is being shipped out with known blemishes and damage. What’s next? A rootkit disseminated by the GFUI?
The conversation may have changed to a different example but the first unit referenced is only being replaced because of the door issue. Not the scratches etc. And the email wording seems to suggest that the cosmetic damage may still be present on his replacement unit.
I think he canceled
I may be wrong but he said his boss was sticking it out and he was moving on. Also said he wouldn’t post anymore. Not a happy camper
Can’t disagree with that either. At this price should not be arriving with those defects…
I found the pics from the Facebook post showing the damage. Since most people here aren’t in the private group I will repost them. The pics were posted Sept 9th 2017. This is a lot more than some small scratch problems.
Must have been put together on a Friday. 
With photos like that, you can understand why they were not happy.
Makes me question the GF final inspection process before shipping…
We are told that Flex is one of the best in the business. Assuming the photos are real, I am beginning to have doubts on that claim.
Good point, they are from a random group on Facebook. But I would think @dan would jump in and let us know if they were fake.
No one is saying they are fake.