Thank you so much for the TLDR! I’m having to read tons of posts quite rapidly and I must admit I’m lightly scanning lengthy ones is not immediately relevant to my interests.
While I am glad that you have chosen to extend the warranty an additional 6 months, I’m curious—have you considered the possibility of offering any extended warranties for an additional cost? We can get a 3 or 5 year warranty from most businesses for things that cost only a few hundred dollars—since this is a very expensive, technical machine, I know I would certainly pay for an extended warranty on it. I’d hate to have spent all that money for a product which happens to break a few weeks after the warranty’s up and then not be able to afford another because the price is so much higher for them now than when I bought in.
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A couple of questions that come to mind, but first and foremost I have to say more than anything else I’d like to see real updates in a timely manner. By far the most annoying aspect of this whole process is the silence, followed by last minute updates, followed by yet another delay. If something has gone wrong, the current policy seems to be to say nothing until the last second. This is what I believe is the cause of all the “scam” weirdness that seems to be going around. The silence comes across as trying to hide something.
Anyway:
- Can you please clarify when you expect to be out of the pre-release stage?
- What is the biggest challenge that still needs to be overcome?
- With all the focus on getting the core product working, how is everything else doing? Lord knows the account management functionality is very bare bones right now. Will we be seeing updates to things like expected shipping dates, access to all the perks somewhere in the account, etc.
- When will we have access to the catalog?
- What kinds of issues are actually stopping the product from being shipped now? Lack of features? Poor final product? Breaking? All of the above?
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It’s times like these when I learn the time difference between US coasts.
Spoiler alter: it is not 2 hours.
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You are right, it is 3. 
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Since you cannot recommend using any materials that aren’t Proofgrade, have you considered providing something to help users like me (who know absolutely nothing about materials whatsoever) to educate us on what we need to be aware of so we don’t melt our faces off? I know there’s a lot of information in the forums, and elsewhere on the internet, but that takes an awful lot of work to find & research it, and most of the links don’t exactly speak in layman’s terms for the noob.
Something along the lines of a tutorial video/blog post series, infographic/quick-reference sheet, illustrated comic book, animated flip-book… I dunno. It seems like offering SOMETHING beyond a generic “be careful” warning or “Go look it up” would be incredibly beneficial—at the very least as a starting point. Something that would help me be able to run to Lowes or Hobby Lobby and walk out feeling fairly confident that I’ve chosen materials that won’t cause my family to disintegrate when I try to make them a thoughtful gift?
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I understand they chose Flex as the manufacturer over 12 months ago, but have only just announced who they are due to confidentiality reasons.
I’m excited about the new head etc. but disappointed on the delay. I know many will not stick around (I myself am in a juggling contest with unforeseen home repairs that make the refund a very tempting solution) but I think those that stay till the end should get the founders discount indefinitely. Whether or not I am able to stick it out due to financial obligation, I still think this is fair for those who do.
I’m sure the product will be as fantastic as promised upon delivery and should accumulate many new generations of glowforgers in the future. Said new arrivals will be happy to foot the full bill on items, but the true believers who stuck with it from the beginning ought to be acknowledged for more than just a year in my opinion.
Forgive me @dan if I sound snotty, unthankful, or arrogant as I don’t intend to be. I really love your company and intend to stick around as long as financially possible.
[EDIT] I also apologize for not putting this in the form of a question. Could you pretend I did any way?
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Its been mentioned a few times that the crowdfunding money is being kept separate and they are paying day-to-day costs out of the VC money. Hence no issue if people want a refund. They will only start using the crowdfunding money as they ramp up manufacturing (to pay for the build parts).
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I just looked in my inbox for my order confirmation and found this funny because a year later it is still true
“Take a look at your desk. We’re guessing it doesn’t have a laser on it…YET! That’s right, we’ve just received and processed your pre-order from Glowforge.”
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A bit of gallows humor? 
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Will there be any sort of SDK/File Format that will lets developers control or bypass the web app? The reason being the fewer apps in the DCC pipeline the easier/faster it is to make revision. Adding any sort of data in the web app is not ideal especially if you are you using another app to create your content. For instance if your pipeline is
Autocad : Create your drawing >> GF Web App : Add your engraving/cut data >> Print
so anytime you update your drawing most likely you will need to also recreate your engraving/cut data. Better would be
Autocad : Create your drawing >> GF Web App >> Print
Add your engraving/cut data
If you could add the GF engraving/cutting data in Autocad or whatever your app you use then you only need to update it once. Ideal would be
Autocad : Create your drawing >> Print
Add your engraving/cut data
This is all speculation since there has not been that much info on the software side.
PeterW
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I built a home like this once. The builder gave me a start date and a padded finish date. I paid according to the contract. My money was always good and on time. Then when we got close to the completion date I could tell it would not be finished but he just said be faithful you will be surprised. Sure enough I wasn’t surprised. On the date we were supposed to be closing he requested an extension. I asked why he waited that long to inform me. He said he didn’t know. The project continued and this happened more and more. I could not understand why the builder could not see what I could see. It turned out in the end that this was just how he did business. It was easier in his mind to over promise and ask for forgiveness than to be realistic.
Dan: Why wait until this close to the deadline to inform your customers? Where you hoping for a Christmas miracle?
Keeping educated customers informed is important. You started this venture with a ton of integrity and your past experiences and background created an opportunity for many people to show their trust in you by giving you a ton of money with an original promise for a few months.
Communication and transparency is more important than ever going forward.
I am with the many other people that are losing faith. Be prudent with your founders time as well as their money.
My hope and prayer is that you have learned from 3 over promises and that this time you are being honest with your timeline. I don’t see anyone allowing a 4th missed delivery date no matter how much swag you offer.
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I have a question. As of right now, how many months can you afford to be delayed?
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Seeing the 3d engraving curious as to depth of cut. What materials can be engraved like this, looking to fabricate stamps in silicone or a rigid non porous material
I ordered a glowforge pro before the Oct 25 2015 deadline. The delays definitely frustrate me and also make me nervous. I am trying to start a small business and the delays have put a lot of things on hold and make me wonder if by July we’ll be hit with another notice of delay. Don’t get me wrong, I want to have a functioning glowforge that does what it has been advertised to do but waiting this long makes me wonder if we’re going to get screwed over in the end. I paid over $6000 Canadian for this, which is a huge chunk of change for someone like myself.
I think more than anything else the reason I am most frustrated is that the announcement made a week ago said everything was on schedule and never even hinted that there would be a delay of this magnitude, and yet according to the announcement today, issues have been known for at least the last 6 weeks. Why didn’t this get mentioned 6 weeks ago? 4 weeks ago? Why wait until the month that these units were promised to be shipped out to make this announcement? With the amount of money that people have invested in your product I find that lack of transparency unacceptable. Please explain why this announcement wasn’t made sooner.
My questions regarding my own glowforge:
-
Will I receive the Pro edition I ordered by the July deadline? Or will I only have access to the basic edition and have to wait for the pro? I really don’t want to have to deal with waiting any longer for what I paid for. Please be transparent about what is happening regarding each edition and if we should be expecting additional delays etc. (especially due to shipping to Canada)
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If I am only able to receive the basic edition will I have to option to receive a refund for the difference in cost (including shipping costs) from the pro?
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Will we be able to decide what the extra materials, that were included due to the last delay, are and will they be shipped with the glowforge by the July deadline or will that be another thing that we have to wait for?
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What are the specific current issues with the glowforge regarding the lack of quality and what is being done to fix these problems?
If there are further delays after July 2017 I will be withdrawing my support.
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@Dan a big thing I would like to see is your website change or update absolutely nothing has changed since the first 30 day run its a small update but I feel it would be a great update needed it feels kind of like you abandoned it to me
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It may be semantics, but I am less concerned with when a bulk quantity will be “shipped by”. Declaring that all units ordered before Oct 25, by end of July doesn’t really give much of an idea. Especially when doing a slow ramp up of production.
If you had an order on the first day of sale, does that mean you really have to wait until the end of July? What would be the possibility of getting an idea of when first units will be delivered, when you’re producing few items a month? Then we can scale our expectations.
I am still hoping to get my Glowforge, despite production delays.
considering the EU standard warranty is 2 years minimum (I believe by law for any product) will you be adjusting the warranty for international customers?
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It’s frustrating, sure. But I haven’t lost faith. I haven’t planned to build a company around this purchase because reality is this is new ground for everyone involved. So again I understand. Just keep going @dan and I’m sure we’ll get it eventually.
The question I have is how are pre release candidates being chosen? It seems that the more vocal you are here in the forums, the more chance you have. I think I’ve made two posts? But I read everything everyday. I just don’t have anything post worthy and know next to nothing about this stuff. All I have is a graphic design degree and a will to create. If I was creating, I’d be vocal here in the forums. I’d have reason to be. Will you be choosing people at all that aren’t necessarily vocal right now?