@dan as I stated earlier I appreciate your communication, and your attempts to placate our valid dissatisfaction. However as an international backer that can’t make use of their APO address all but the extended warranty is somewhat pointless to me. I’ve already paid $954 in shipping, have another $959 to pay in import duty when my Pro and Airfilter get here, and will have to pay similarly inflated shipping prices and duty on any “discounted” materials I buy using the vouchers I accrue while waiting for my machine.
As I stated earlier I discovered yesterday that it would be cheaper for me to fly to the US to visit family, pick up my Pro and Air Filter (which I would have delivered to them), and then fly back with it and pay the excess baggage fee. That alone is a rather dismal realisation, but coupled with the fact that the compensation you have offered for these continual delays can hardly be counted as such for me makes it doubly so.
Have you made any attempts at considering how you could lower international shipping costs to a more reasonable rate (one that would cost less than an entire Air Filter?), or how you could perhaps offer a compensation package to international buyers that actually could be counted is such, or perhaps (for my own case) how you could find a way to make the packages deliverable through APO to those of us stationed abroad.
Perhaps you should consider seriously following through on this realization? Because there are other people in the forums who are taking steps to retrieve their units from US delivery points and importing them themselves. Just tell support@glowforge.com about your change of plans.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Glowforge to have a single set of consistent plans for each country if they are the ones put in charge of delivery logistics. Each country has a myriad of regulations. Those plans probably won’t work for everyone. They can’t make individual plans for each individual in each individual country. It’s not feasible.
Excited…Sad…Excited…Sad…Excited…Sad. Y’all making me feel quite rollercoaster-y this past 1+ years. Thank you very much @dan and crew for the update though. Super pumped about the warranty being extended. Any glimmer of hope would be good at this time. All y’all positive folk on here, can you carry me to the finish line? I ordered mine on Oct. 23 so I most likely won’t see mine until the very end of the shipping timeline for units. Danghole-Motherfather-Fudgelicking-Bastage-Peeperneepers! Needed to get that out. Keep rolling them out GF, keep rolling them out.
My wife and are frustrated by the wait, but instead of being mad, we’re slightly bummed but super excited! The things that the pre release and beta folks have made are amazing! The engrave quality is gorgeous.! When we bought back in September 2015, we knew it was going to be a “tool-toy” for us. We have no business riding on its delivery, and we’ve told very few people about it. So now we’re just anxiously awaiting a darn fine product.
It’s not the delay caused by regulations that is irking me. I understand that you can’t just ship something into a country that doesn’t meet its safety criteria and other such restrictions. It’s the fact that (and I may be mistaken) that there appears to have been very little effort to either mitigate the high shipping costs for international buyers, or to compensate them in a manner relative to that given to those within the mainland USA. All of discounts applied to anything physical are really not all that helpful to someone who then loses that discount in shipping and import duty.
I’d honestly be happy to be proven wrong and to be shown that the attempt has been made, or that there are underlying reasons to which I am not privvy that prevent either more affordable shipping (irrespective of delivery dates) or a compensatory system that actually works as compensation for us all rather than just those waiting for a mainland delivery.
i mean, i’m not sure what you expect them to do. the glowforge is a big friggin’ box. shipping costs are high and they’re probably not going to go down until and unless they ever get successful enough to start warehousing bulk shipments, and then they’ll probably be charging in local currencies and everyone will still complain about exchange rates.
they don’t actually owe us anything, as frustrating as the delays have been. but the gifts are nice. i don’t plan to order proofgrade anything, unless they’ve managed to overcome shipping rates, but i’m not ungrateful about the credit (which can also be used on the design catalog; i can’t say i won’t use that because who knows what people will submit).
what do you want from them, seek out local options in every country and offer credit? they’re not going to offer further discounts on the laser itself.
Anything shipped from the US is very expensive. It is cheaper for me to ship into the US. Shipping from China is peanuts and often free. I can buy things from China that are less than the cost of posting a letter in the UK. Not sure how that works, I think it must be government subsidised.
i mean part of the problem is that north and south america are a ways away from everywhere else, and those kinds of manufacturing exports just aren’t made to the same extent that they are in china (which is how some things, especially small things, are cheap and get free shipping - they’re tossed on top of a boat at essentially no cost relative to everything else).
but mostly it’s the shippers gouging people. they’re going out via common carrier, and not in the quantities that guarantee really good rates.
I’m confused!
Did you not know shipping and terrif costs when you ordered?
Why should you be compensated for those?
I live in the states but certainly don’t expect a discount on a fixed cost that really has nothing to do with the product I purchased, with exception to the packaging.
This should have been something you looked into before ordering.
