I don’t know about crowfounders in particular. I’m talking about early users in general, and I believe they had a better deal than new owners. Just a few examples below:
Older users had the chance to interact with GF ppl, not generic emails that always change the name. rbtdanforth mentions that he had Zoom interactions in this very post, above. Alas, you guys could interact with Dan Shapiro, the CEO (Watch Brad Feld & Dan Shapiro print something).
Or when ppl from GF picked up issues posted in the forum?, as Rita did in this post? (Another Print load error).
As per replacement and upgrades for little money or free, as I understand, they have a discounted price for Premium access. Isn’t that correct?
Also, if you got an early basic machine for $1,995, that worked great for three years (some even 5?) then you need to replace the tube, for only $499 you will get a refurbished Plus as the basic is discontinued. That is a great deal!
Not saying it is unfair; old users made an early bet, GF was a new company, and the risks were high.
My conclusions could be biased, and may be wrong, but my info is not.
In the end, I’m just trying to make sense of why it seems to be two types of users in the forum: those super happy and loyal to GF (they all seem to be always the same GF veterans). On the other hand, those (like me) have had several repeated issues with the machine.
It has been a rollercoaster; while it works, I’m happy with GF, but that lasts just a few months, then it breaks, I need a replacement, and the cycle starts again. 4 machines in 2 years is, in my book, too much for such an expensive machine.
BTW, all refurbished machines I have gotten are old machines. I have NEVER had a new machine. An old user certainly got a new machine, and if it lasted 3 or 5 years with no issue, it was of better quality than all I have gotten. That is totally anecdotal, but I understand they changed manufacturing companies (as per old posts in the forum), which may have affected the quality. I don’t know what it is, but I know my machines have been unreliable. I know @Deleted did great work documenting issues; that’s how I found my issues were already known.