Discussion of October 2017 update

I think you will find that you are the one who is incorrect here. Should i flag you?

to which @dan replies: “Thanks @Jules - that is correct.”
Continuing the discussion from Original buyer benefits transferable if I give away or sell my Glowforge?:

The original post by @dan (which seems to have been deleted - but i am still searching for the original post though there are multiple references to it in replies) was:

"These units aren’t built until we confirm acceptance to the “Do you want your Glowforge?”

Those of us who were active on the forums at the time saw it and references to it in many threads including a specific one made for it (Units aren't built until shipping email?)
There has been no official announcement otherwise.

While i suspect that it is no longer the case… during the packaging shortage for instance machines were still being built despite not many e-mails going out… until there is an official announcement otherwise this is the only information we have from Dan on the matter

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I had this same problem. They had my email address in their list with a wrong character. I send them a private message and they updated their list.

You may flag me if you believe it to be the case.

Flagging the posts seems overboard. No one knows exactly how the shipping process goes so flagging these because they don’t match up with your understanding of it is abusing the flagging system IMO. If they were building machines as fast as they could and just matching them up with yes replies as they came in they wouldn’t take 4-6 weeks to fulfill. Which means a sizable chunk of the process on the production of your glowforge takes place after you say you want your glowforge.

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I believe Dan was only saying “That is Correct” to the first two sentences of the paragraph. I was arguing that the units weren’t built to order. That’s when Dan also responded to me. This all started when Jules made that comment and everyone has parsed it as Gospel.

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…sigh

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I looked back on a few posts, because I had believed time and again it was stated that units aren’t built until someone responds to the “Shipping” e-mail. This of course sounds absurd to most everyone. Especially when there are that many waiting for delivery. I can see this approach used later on, after they get through the pre-orders, and are partway through the post orders. They certainly don’t want to produce more than they need. They need spare parts on hand, and possibly a few whole unit swaps from production as spares and testing.

I can’t imagine the line getting held up for even 5-10 minutes if there was a pause in e-mails.

In the process of doing some research, I came across this little Gem. If you think you have been waiting a long time for your Glowforge, this may be why, We have been conditioned on delays for a long, long time.

I’m sure the product we will receive is quite a lot different from the one we thought we would get in Q1 2016. In many, many ways I’m sure we are all pretty happy we didn’t get what would have been produced Q1. Even with the delays and time to get stuff right, one of the biggest items, camera alignment, is by reports, not where I thought it would be, certainly by now.

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Flex doesn’t pay people to stand at the ready for the word another email was accepted to start building another machine, or bear the cost to retool/staff a production line on a model like that. That would kill them. They have parts for, and staff for X number of units in that production run. Common sense dictates the least expensive way to produce them is all at once. that’s not going to happen, but they will come as close to that as they can. So the most efficient method both economically and efficiently possible is where they land - that method is not based on waiting for an email confirmation.
They have thousands of customers tapping their foot who have been waiting for years. Neither Flex nor golwforge could afford to operate like that.

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I always appreciate a flag, as it draws my attention to something that may need attention. That’s all it’s for, and it’s a helpful tool so I don’t miss posts that cause people concern.

To answer the question causing confusion - construction of your machine does not begin until we receive your reply. If you don’t reply, we’ll build someone else’s instead. For obvious reasons we generally don’t share much about the production process, but I did say that - and not very clearly - so I hope that clarifies. The timeliness and frequency of responses can cause accelerations or slowdowns in delivery, since we may get few responses one week, then all those responses plus a bunch more the next week.

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I ordered mine way after the initial campaign. So I know I am not on deck for awhile, but should I expect an email update as well? I saw many are missing emails still and want to make sure my email address works since product of my machine depends on it. Thanks for all you do!

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Maybe not.

If you send 10 emails today do you wait until the responses start coming in to tell the factory to build one? And then when the second email comes in tell them to build another? Or wait until the end of the day where you have say 4 answers and 6 unreplied and release 4 to be built?

Or do you send 10 emails corresponding to the 10 machines you’re building and if I don’t reply “my” machine becomes number 11’s machine?

Does that translate into starts & stops of the build line? Some weeks they’re relatively idle and some weeks a bunch more makes them busy?

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So here’s my dilemma. I live in a building that has proven to be inhabited by very vocal very smell conscious folks. The filter is basically a must have. The trouble is that I cannot use a glowforge that makes a smell that the neighbors can smell. That includes upstairs and downstairs. I’ve been able to smell weed and cigarettes from my neighbors in those directions multiple times.

So. If the filter will take care of this, I’ll likely delay delivery until then. If this can’t be done, or if nobody at GF can assure me that this will be the case, I don’t want to end up with a very expensive paperweight.

Help!

So it’s okay for them to violate federal laws (regardless of your state’s position on legalized pot), but you’re not allowed to vent byproducts of legal cutting & engraving where it might offend their felonious little noses? Guess you couldn’t have one of those wood burning kits that were the rage when I was a kid eh?

Considering some of the cooking smells I’ve been forced to endure in apartments, this is the kind of attitude that makes me never want to live in congregate housing again. And my wife wonders why I keep pointing out houses on 10 acres on a mountaintop in the Smokey Mountains.

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Yes, before end of day Friday.

No, but it means suddenly a week’s output may be spoken for so we don’t send new emails. (I should have said “shipping emails” not “delivery”).

Neither of the things you mentioned is quite right - we get an email response before the build for that machine starts. We send emails till we get enough responses to keep the line full.

The filter reduces smells to a level that most people find between mild and unnoticeable. Unfortunately noses vary a lot, so it’s hard to make any definitive statements about smell.

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Are there any possibilities for returning the forge if it turns out to be an issue?

I know. It’s absurd. But I find it easier to be a good neighbor than to try and change their minds.

No, you can only cancel your order before delivery.

You flagged someone because you assumed that their assumption was less accurate than your assumption, I’m assuming.

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Ah ha! That’s now clear. (I bolded the key piece for others to see.)

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