'Fulfilled'?

Everything Else
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Feeling sad that my wonderful ‘Glowfinger’ is getting, what I consider, to be poor support from it’s manufacturers.

I posted a topic on December 6th, detailing my lack of contact from Support, re a problem with receiving my order for Draftboard. This post can be viewed, though closed, in Problems & Support, entitled ‘Lack of Support - December 6th 2021’.

As I noted in my post, the possibility of delays due to vacations were understandable, but I fail to understand why no information regarding this is neither posted generally, nor communicated to me as a customer, who has paid up front.

To find a notice on their site ‘Order Fulfilled’, when it hasn’t been collected by the carrier, is stretching my understanding of the language too far. How is the order ‘fulfilled’ if it is still on your property ? As a layman, I would assume that ‘fulfilled’ means not only carried out, but completed, ie I have received it, not that you have raised a collection request to your carrier ?

According to my FedEx history for this package, it wasn’t picked up from Glowforge’s distributor in Kentucky till midday, Tuesday December 7th. At no time was I given any warning of possible delays until I created a New Topic on the community pages.

While the FedEx delays have only compounded the original problem of lack of communication (please read carefully my original post), and that the packaging did nothing to prevent damage to one corner of the draftboard, which I am ignoring, having the community posting closed, preventing any open discussion of this problem in general, suggests a ‘head in the sand’ attitude that doesn’t fit well with this company, nor the community.

Regards to all,

John

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Just curious, what is your goal with this post?

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On the business side that is generally exactly what fulfilled means.

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I would rather like Glowforge to improve their communications with their customers. These sort of problems are recurring, and perhaps Glowforge could improve matters in this regard.
A community discussion might give them some new ideas.
John

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All good ideas, this is valuable feedback. The unfortunate thing is that Glowforge staff only reads the problems and support category. If you really want them to see this you should repost there, moving this topic won’t alert them, it has to be a new discussion to create a ticket.

Alternately you can email support@glowforge.com but that won’t have any opportunity for discussion with the community.

The thing that strikes me here is that these problems are well known to Glowforge, they’ve heard time and again about how their communication is not all that we hope for. They’ve made some improvements over the years but it’s still an overall laggy inconsistent experience.

While I think it’s good for them to hear about it when it happens, at this point I’m not sure where improving this issue sits on their priority list — the most recent thing they did was offer phone support. I’ve not tried it, but I hear it’s good. Maybe that’s your best course?

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What triggered my original post in Problems & Support was that the phone call produced no result. When I phoned, the response was an automated reply, suggesting that I should provide my email address or a phone number for a return call, whichever was preferred. I gave them both, but stated phone was my preferred choice.
I had no response by either method.
Yes, the phone response is good in principle, but reading through other peoples problems seems to point to a need to develop the phone messaging further, perhaps stating how many calls were in the queue.
This would be a first step towards improving this particular link.
Then an auto email response, with something similar.
I’m aware of the policy of only reading threads on the P&S category, though understandable from an efficient use of staff time is concerned, adding to that the closure of the topic when they have responded is, to my mind, a bad policy.
It gives a feeling of censuring, or stifling public debate.

Delays in getting materials from the distributor are a separate issue, but communications really are a fundamental problem that needs to be addressed.
John

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i’m not saying i agree with the policy of closing threads, but i think they do it because for them, it’s essentially an open ticket in their tracking of issues.

sometimes you’ll see staff move a topic to everything else or beyond the manual so the conversation can continue. but i don’t know that there’s a rhyme or reason to when they do that.

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Not something I’ve noticed, but obviously a good point.
Perhaps if they did that every time it might improve matters.

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Not high based on their actions. Even phone support isn’t being managed well. Follow-up counts regardless of the initiating reporting method. That’s still not a strong suit. And Chat appears to have been discontinued as well.

None of their support problems are complex mysteries that require a lot of innovation to resolve. It’s pretty much settled science as it were. They just need to put a priority on hiring someone with experience to implement the same program used by just about anyone in the industry.

I would suggest they’d get more lift from hiring someone with experience doing this and charging them with correcting the issues than by hiring another support tech. One will make systemic change that will improve the experience for everyone, the other option simply supports answering some more issues from a never-ending ocean of issues.

Because they don’t do the obvious, it’s apparent that they aren’t prioritizing it.

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That jumps out at me James, as exactly the sort of idea that I was hoping this thread might produce.

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i think we’d all love to see that.

unfortunately, we’ve been harping on this for nearly 4 years without much change.

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Yeah it’s definitely not a new thing but it’s still good for them to hear it occasionally.

It’s such a mixed bag, some people get really prompt service and others struggle. Credit where it’s due, the one thing that is consistent — the level of service they provide once you do get their attention is great. Professional staff who really seem invested in helping you.

Cold comfort when you’re going through it but when it comes to support most tunnels do have a nice light at the end.

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I have had some crazy issues from a warehouse that must have stacks of mislabeled goods, and at least one worker that never thinks beyond achieving their goal of getting it out the door no matter if the material is mislabeled or three pieces of wood flopping loose in the far corner of a box you could ship a Glowforge in.

I called this AM and got a person in a couple of minutes and they will try to send me what I ordered for the third time. For the difference between issues getting a call through and not a chance of calling, I will put up with some issues.

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