Dec 2016 Glowforge Q&A

Dan does discuss this (quickly, in his fashion) in the Q&A session linked above…but…

Because Dan talks really fast, a lot of people can miss what he’s saying, so I’m going to take a shot at paraphrasing him a bit:

There have been a lot of individual customers concerned that if Glowforge loses too many people (from pulling out or getting tired of waiting, or whatever) that they will not be able to get their money back.

That isn’t something that you need to worry about. They can afford to give every one of us our money back, and still go on to create the machines.

  1. They are using Venture Capital to pay the salaries now, ramp up production and create units for testing.
  2. They have set our money aside to be used to actually build our machines when the time comes.

So when we get the letter notifying us that our machine is about to ship, that’s when they use our money to pay to have it manufactured.

If we tell them no, we don’t want it anymore, they just don’t build ours and send the money back.

They probably run a few units in advance of that, but they have enough to refund if we need it.

This product will still go to market whether they have our money or not. The units that come out later will cost more.

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This isn’t really a crowdfunded development. It is funded with venture capital, so until that runs out your money should be safe.

In my mind it is about 50/50 they will make the July date, I think Dec 17 is more realistic. If it goes past that I think most people will jump ship.

Given their past performance I wouldn’t rely on it arriving before July but with a good wind it may do.

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July? Sorry but I am lost in the dates… I thought I would get my Glowforge by the end of December if my order was placed before Oct 25… Please don’t tell me this changed again!!

Yes, it did @elyrada, I’m sorry.

A letter was mailed out a few days ago. If you didn’t get it…there is a link to it here in the Announcements section:

Sorry - It changed again :wink:

Nope, no longer relying on anything… but just want to make the best decision for us, based on what I feel in my gut. My gut tells me all will be well… my head and everyone around me tells me JUMP.
Now these two parts of my body will wrestle it out til one of them wins!!! :grin:

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Thanks, I better put some time aside to watch that ASAP! I get they are not USING our money… but that doesn’t mean that our money is not at risk or is 100% protected until that date, should the VC withdraw their support, or the company hit the skids in some other way… or does it mean our money is safe until at least mid year… so I could actually delay these thoughts/decision til then, with no adverse affect or loss whatsoever…?

Well there’s no way to be 100% sure of anything in life, but I’m not worried about this. I’ve seen the product and I want one. Other people are going to want one too.

I feel pretty damned smart for getting one of these things at so low a cost, even if I do have to wait for it for a while.

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This is so bad!! Cant believe it!! :rage: We have been waiting for too long now!! specially if we have to arrange International shipping (like me) it gets complicated to re arrange the dates and licenses with the logistics company here in South America… NOT HAPPY AT ALL!! :rage:

I know. We have all been heartbroken over it.

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Sorry for your troubles! :rose: The best way to keep up to date is checking in here for more frequent updates than we receive in our email.

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Yep I hear ya!!! :wink: I’m in love with it, and talk about it waaaay too often haha

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I’m not sure why you are arranging the shipping… I’m international and paid shipping, they arrange it.
but perhaps just leave it til closer to the time to avoid this issue again

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I’ve probably been a little too excited recently…hurts a lot worse when the delays happen. :smirk:

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What shipping and licensing are you arranging?

Well I live in Bolivia and it is quite a complicated Country hehe… I need a license If I want to bring something so big into the country and usually (sad to say) but things are mishandled or they get lost if I don’t arrange an expert to handle the case in my city… Not sure what Glowforge promises for international shipping, but I don’t want to risk it by getting something broken or mishandled… Still don’t know if its best for Glowforge to send it here or If i should get it shipped to the US and bring it home with a Bolivian company :disappointed_relieved:

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Oh man, that’s a really tough spot to be in. I don’t know if any @staff will be able to help you figure out which option is better, but I can imagine how frustrating that must be.

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@elyrada, Dan did discuss the complexities of the international shipping a little bit in his Q&A session here:

In brief: The current status of how to handle the international shipping problems is something that they are still working on, and they are handling it on a country by country basis, since some of them have more problems than others.

They will consider each country when they decide the best and cheapest way to ship to international customers, but they haven’t gotten to that point yet.

The product clearly already works well as a laser cutter and 3d engraver, so the major hurdles left are getting it reliable and regulatory approvals. Given the progress they have made so far I am sure they will get those done. I think the risk of not getting one eventually is very small, so I don’t think it is time to jump unless you need the money now. The problem with getting your money back is there is no equivalent machine on the market you can buy instead.

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Ha! Then I think this :smiling_imp: is the emoticon you are looking for.

In all seriousness, it could be helpful to take the advice you’ve given. Maybe “Hi, @rpegg. You kinda sounded condescending to me. Did you mean to? The kind of help I’m looking for is (see @Jules’s post)”

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