Now that the tube replacement has been addressed (yay!), I’ve had some time to think about the other news in the update.
If the air filters aren’t ready to ship when the units are, how will that work?
I wasn’t planning on buying or spending the time figuring out how to make/set up a vent because my pro is supposed to come with a filter and the location we have planned for it isn’t really convenient for a vent so we’ll have to come up with something else. Any chance we could get a vent kit or something included with the laser?
If we choose to get the laser when its ready and the air filter later (because who wants to wait even longer to play with their glowforge just because they have to figure out a vent), are we going to have to pay additional shipping for the filter later? Probably relatively negligible extra price, it would just kind of sting to have to pay an extra fee and figure out a new temporary setup situation because the filter is taking even longer.
Also, I know the design catalog is in beta, but I’d love to see an idea of what some designs might cost both for single and infinite uses.
Lots of great news in there though! It’s really nice to see some of the progress being made - I love the monthly updates!
I believe the vent kit is included whether you got the filter or not. If you don’t want to vent you can always delay your unit so it will ship when your filter is ready
The 4" vent hose will be included with all units according to the tech specs page and what I remember from discussion long, long ago when it was determined the filters would likely be shipping after the Glowforge.
Shipping should already be taken care of for each item (in that you paid for shipping on both items). I looked at my invoice the other day and have a separate line item for both filter and laser. If you log into your account on glowforge.com, you can pull up your invoice.
I, personally, flagged the post. It was, in fact, flagrantly offensive as it was solely a personal attack. Also every sentence managed to contain a small level of vulgarity. I have no problem with people offering an opposing viewpoint, even heatedly so. But I’m not going to tolerate personal attacks in my community. If the flag stays, that’s because the powers that be agree the post has no business being here. But I’m not changing my vote on it.
After reading that entire rollercoaster of emotions and ideas I either need a drink or a nap. I have a feeling we will be comparing a picture of @dan pre and post Glowforge as we do Presidents coming in and leaving office. lol
Well… I read a lot of the thread but not all of it. Several disappointments in the update - seems to be the way of updates on this device, isn’t it?
I’ll only post a short bit on the tubes here since it now has it’s own threads: Complexity of replacement has to be revealed before shipping the units. As others have said, this is a huge deal, or deal breaker, for international customers. Not interested in repair depots or certified techs coming around - part of the sell was user replaceable. The other half is custom tubes. There’s provisions for if Glowforge shuts down on the software side, on the hardware side if they do close down what do users do? Or years down the road when they announce “sorry we can no longer get the tubes”?
On the shipping of the units: Why even have an order queue? Arbitrarily shipping units to people that garner a lot of likes is hardly a fair thing to do. Sure, it’s a relatively small number, but it’s still putting people ahead of those that supported Glowforge by ordering early. I understand the shipping to US customers first to work out shipping kinks, but again, why bother with a queue? People that ordered first probably didn’t worry too much about shipping issues and wanted theirs asap. Maybe bump people that threatened to cancel up to the front so they have less time to cancel. All in all the order doesn’t affect me much because we pre-ordered late in the game - I just know if I’m in a line I don’t particularly like the idea of someone butting ahead because the cashier knows them.
I don’t think we’ll know that before shipping begins. It’d be nice, but I wouldn’t count on it. They say in-shop it takes minutes and doesn’t use any “exotic” tools. Take that for what it’s worth.
I, for the most part, agree with you. However, as you stated, it’s a relatively small number of people. I can assure you, it’s really a statistically insignificant number. Even if the number doubled or tripled in size before shipping begins, you wouldn’t notice a delay. We’re talking about a couple of hundred people at most versus the thousands and thousands of orders. I wouldn’t be concerned. Although, from a… morals and honors standpoint, let’s say? It’s not ideal. However there’s a plus side. The Regulars have proven to be true community members. As such, their adventures with their Glowforge early on is a good thing for the community. We’ll all learn from their successes and their failures. They’ll do all the dirty work for us! In the end, I suggest looking at this as a positive.
That’s right, not even noticable in the scope of mass production.
@StephAndJohn - I understand your perspective, but I have to disagree.
look back at the beginning of the forum. There were a handful of community members who were instrumental in support of the forum and spent many hours devoted to development of it. Others who joined later but made a significant contribution to the community with their time, and who displayed a sincere interest in the project’s success above and beyond the money they paid.
“because the cashier knows them” doesn’t fully describe their contributions. It’s not arbitrary.
In Dan’s position, I would have felt a desire to acknowledge their contribution also.
In the stream of mass producing thousands of units, we would be hard pressed to even discern the difference. It is really little more than a wink in the direction of those who did a lot more than just stand in line.
The March update came to the forum. There are something like 10,000 pre-orders that would be affected by the original announcement; but only those who use the forum read the update. As a collective, we protested clearly, vocally, and with lots of personal use cases and reasons. We provided lots of ideas. We asserted our tolerances and expectations. We motivated a change of policy in fewer than 24 hours.
We (collectively as the active forum readers) made a significant contribution for the benefit of every one of the 10,000 pre-orders.
We (collectively as the active forum readers) made a significant contribution to the success of the Glowforge company. How many would truly have cancelled over this? What revenue lost?
The numbers in this reward plan… Dan suggested that the first hundred or two hundred would go to significant contributors. He also said that they have moved to the full production lines, which means that they will be able to “scale up to thousands [of units per month] starting in April.” He’s planning on shipping several thousand by July-August. 200 out of 10000 is 2%.
He has promised that your place in line is yours, “All things being equal.” He and his team think that there is some extra merit worth rewarding. And he told you how to merit that reward.
BDM’s post was flagged because he misquoted someone in a way that could cause confusion, so it needed to be removed.
No, that’s not our community guidelines. Please review them and flag any post that doesn’t meet them.
Flags do not result in either hiding nor disciplinary action unless either many community members concur or I explicitly approve them.
Please flag posts freely. It helps me spot potential problems, even though I mostly dismiss them unless multiple users agree. It is actually vanishingly rare that flags are “upheld”. Yesterday, for example, was the most-flagged day in many months… with two out of nearly a thousand posts.
If, for example, your unit is ready in May but your filter won’t be ready until July, we’ll give you the option to receive the unit immediately, or wait and have them delivered closer together. We’ll include an flexible ventilation duct with every unit. Other components are inexpensive and widely available from Amazon and local stores - there have already been a few folks posting ways to adapt a window, if one is convenient.
No, it will be included in what you already paid regardless.
Noted! we’ve got some work to do on that before we roll it out, though.
Indeed, we don’t know yet - we’ll likely send some units, see how they fare in shipping, and iterate based on what we learn.
I would say more like “because they helped build the products they are trying to puchase” given the degree of commitment and value we’ve had.
I was thinking:
You open an art gallery, only you have no art yet. It’s just the gallery. People pay to get in on the promise of the art that will one day be there. Some of the people show up bringing chairs and tables and drinks to make the place better for both the wait and for when the art shows up. These people have shown an above and beyond commitment to the art gallery and so you offer them first dibs on the art in front of people who showed up in front of them but did nothing much but stand around or left and came back later.
Make it a grocery store, or a music shop, or a bar, or whatever; the principle is the same. Reward customers who make your business better, not just come and go.
