I don’t know of too many decision makers that would approve a large purchases of big ticket items from a crowd sourced campaign.
If my department made a large order of these, expecting them to arrive by the end of 2015 (the original date stated during the campaign), and the order was delayed, I’d be cancelling that order.
Businesses, large and small, cannot sit around for 2 years waiting for an item like this. They would be purchased for the purposes of generating revenue, and not many businesses would be happy with their capital tied up for this long. Especially because they can’t begin to depreciate that expense until they have the units in hand. The accountants/auditors would have a field day.
And, I can’t imagine any educational institution that would gamble money on a crowd source item. At least, an item with this large of a price tag. And, certainly, not to likely to gamble it on multiple units.
Oh, I totally agree with this. But I was only really specifically responding to Palmercr’s assertion that a “large enough” organization couldn’t functionally get a purchase order completed in day.
DEFINITELY. Larger Companies usually have the capital available that they typically will order existing items (items that are a part of a current inventory) and not ones that are still being developed. There are too many things that can go wrong as we’ve seen during this ride.
Perhaps the company I worked for was dysfunctional but one always had to get a purchase order number from the purchasing department. For capital items one would also need to get a signature from a director. Then payment would need to be made via accounts. So it was never quick to get anything, no matter how urgent it was.
In my experience selling 3D printers around the world it always take much longer if it was an organisation as they needed pro-former invoices and took time to pay. Individuals and sole traders could buy quickly and get dispatch the next day but as soon as it was an organisation with an accounts department it would typically take days.
it really depends on the company and the level of the manager who’s doing the order. my individual office managing principal can order something on his credit card up to $5k w/o anyone questioning him about it (unless he makes a whole lot of $5k purchases all together, that might raise an eyebrow). and as long as it fits in his annual budget.
I’m thinking there are three possibilities that explain the single Pro email that went out.
It went out by accident.
They are hand building one, to say they met the Pro shipping goal.
A tiny number of people got the email, and only one reported it. (I find this unlikely.)
I heard a batch of shipping notices for Basics went out last night. Pros shipping enmasse is the second to the largest milestone they have. The largest being all Campaign orders shipped.
that’s MY company’s limit. and for our office. others in my company have much higher limits. other companies may have much higher limits. we could easily have ordered 2 basics at $5k.
While it is possible that there are a few large quantity orders, I find it unlikely.
It’s also possible that GF is trolling the forum participants and those that put their name on the spreadsheet, and quietly shipping them by hundreds each day to people who don’t speak up. I also find that unlikely.
just because the managing principal of my office could only have bought two on his credit card doesn’t mean another company couldn’t have done more. or that someone else in my company couldn’t have done more.
just as your anecdotal evidence that your company couldn’t have gotten an order done in a day doesn’t necessarily extrapolate, evidence the the guy who runs one office in my company could only do a couple doesn’t extrapolate. every company is different.
the point i was making is that not every company requires layers of documentation that take days/weeks to purchase at scale. what scale that happens at depends completely on the company and on the level it’s being purchased from at that company.
now, do i believe there were 20 companies purchasing 10-15 machines each on day one? nope. but i won’t just dismiss the overall idea that there were at least a few organizations that may have ordered multiple machines on day one. only GF knows if and how many that would account for.
As has been said before, we have limited data, glowforge isn’t interested in sharing more, so there’s little value in talking ourselves in circles about it. I just wanted to point out something Dan said in the past about PRU’s, that some had gone to companies and institutions that don’t post. This could also be true of some first day orders too or could be entirely irrelevant. None of this changes our current situation, so with that, I’m going to saunter over to some of the build threads. Cheers.
When I first started in the real world of work (insurance company) I had $2M of signing authority but could place hardware orders up to $10M and I was only 22 yrs old! Having worked stocking shelves at a supermarket as my only other real job before I was flabbergasted.
But I couldn’t buy a $5,000 laptop that wasn’t on the approved hardware list. (Got around that one by ordering the laptop as a whole pile of repair parts - probably cost the company twice as much & I had to put it together but it got me around what seemed to be a stupid rule.)
Hah, amusingly enough the company I work for is an Insurance company. I work in IT in the company headquarters.
Thankfully I keep myself a peon without any real responsibility. Much happier that way. =P
To my knowledge we don’t have any specific approved hardware lists, but we do have preferred vendors and standing contracts, so it amounts to a similar situation.
We did find out (through a long and humorous tale, which sadly would divulge too much information to tell) that the corporate account cards have no real limit on them. Or if there is it’s high enough that no one has ever hit it. That’s including managers who have booked hotel rooms for a team of people in Vegas for conferences.
According to the email I received from GF one week ago, if you upgrade. that does not affect your place in line. Your original order date has precedence.
You can check your purchase history online to see what your original order date was. Don’t need to look through emails.
I guess they just amend the data on the order. so mine says 10/20/2015 There isn’t an entry for the original basic order.
i ordered the basic then upgraded to the pro at a later date. so I’m still gonna be wating a bit. I am so glad I did the pro though. I have come up with so many long things I want to make.
