@dan I purchased the forge on Oct 25 and got the earlybird (not pre order) pricing. But my delivery email states March 2017 as the delivery date. Should it be the December date? Or am I missing something? Thanks!
@tedv, I’m so sorry to hear of the terrible predicament that we’ve put you in. This is entirely my fault, and I feel terrible to hear of the repercussions.
While anything is possible, I don’t want to fail you a second time. A beta unit isn’t suitable, since it can only be used by the approved beta owners and cannot be used with children. I must regretfully recommend that you plan for a December delivery. If that means you need to cancel your order, then I understand, and I am truly sorry.
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Well at least now I can stop worrying about how I was going to juggle a vacation and a new toy in June and keep up with my business!
Excited to get some materials to play with right away, been having a hard time figuring out what to buy first.
I’ll admit I did cry a little about the delay. Dang makes me feel like I’m a kid again wanting that new toy so bad! 
Well back to Pinterest for my nightly hunt of all things laser cut! Night!
Marie
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Regrettable; I was hoping for a referral to this magical savings account. 
Hand Dremeling their names on things makes it more personable. Yeah, that’s the ticket! 
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To pollyanna this - Woo Hoo more time to hoard wood, cardboard, leather (aka “death-fabric”) and annondized metal samples !!
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hahaha! this sounds like a great idea! My handwriting is so terrible, which is why Ive always leaned towards computers. ill just make a little plaque to engrave and do it by hand and not tell them the back side was done with a computer and see what they say.
As a tangent, when I was little my grandfather had a football signed by the entire team. It was one of the white signature footballs. I was too young to understand what it was, but I saw people signed their names on it and what I assumed was their age (jersey number). I had just learned to write my name, so i was excited to put my name on there. I signed that football every year for 3 or 4 years, and even got my brothers in on it. He still has it, and to this day I dont think anyone has told him there are about 14 extra signatures on there!
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I have so many now that Ive had to start recycling. Every time I get a new box I look to see if there is a smaller one, and I take that one out back to be put down… into the recycling bin. I think about all the small prototypes it could have been
When I preordered I expected to get it in October (my siblings Kickstarted a sup board -they bought four- and it was a mess that dragged out for years, so I’m probably more cautious in my expectations). Personally, I’m pretty glad it’s not getting rushed. I’m not the kind of person who really excels at troubleshooting problems with electronics, so the more tested it is, the better. I get the situation sucks, for some more than others, but I appreciate how this is being handled.
Uninteresting post script to that story, but I didn’t get the email. I think I might not be getting any emails except the forum digest ones. When I ordered, I stupidly put my email address in wrong (autocorrect has it out for me) and I contacted support to get it corrected, but I think it might still be input incorrectly for some things. Should I contact support again? I don’t want to bug them if this is something that’s already getting sorted - saw some other people mention missing emails.
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Dan,
I’m truly saddened, was hoping for some last minute miracle.
Being a self funded non-profit we have no choice but to cancel our order and use the refund to try to identify an alternative solution for use in the upcoming youth technology classes.
We’ll need the funds to make a purchase. When may we expect the funds to be returned to us?
Best wishes to the Glowforge team.
Thanks for the clear update @dan
The quality of the first generation Glowforge will become part of a lasting legacy and getting it right is important. Changing the schedule is the right thing to do and I don’t personally expect any apology for “failing”
Burn out is terrible and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody. Once you’ve hit the threshold it can be extremely difficult to come back from and can destroy your career or put it on a long hiatus
I sincerely hope nobody burns out building the Glowforge. Don’t feel like there’s any pressure from me!
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Lol thanks for your vote 
but seriously, I run both the lasers at work 6-8 hours a day…I might not do a bunch of fancy shmancy artsy stuff but I could certainly give the GF power supply a work out…thats whats needed right @dan
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Yes! They’re busy but will get you set straight.
I’m so very sorry. We’ll process it immediately. We suggest waiting 10 days, but it’s usually just a few.
Well this was really disappointing to read in my email inbox today 
I of course respect the delay to ensure product integrity, but this is on top of the previous delay already…have been telling people “when the laser cutter arrives” for so long and now this 
The materials are a nice thing to offer but for overseas users such as myself in New Zealand, the discount on future materials are meaningless as I highly doubt it would be affordable to get materials sent here.
Will hang in for now, but considering it’s time to upgrade my aging macpro, and the window for possible competition it’s hard call. Late december (which, with xmas and holidays, means not till 2017) that’s a long, long wait.
PLEASE don’t! Nothing in the world is worth burning your self out - nor your fellow workers!
As much I would have loved to receive the Glowfrog sooner then later but to be burned out should NOT be an option at all!
Please take care!
And thank you and your team for your openness and all the other things!
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Disappointed? Yeah, a bit, the antici-------------------------------------------pation, has been building. Truthfully, though, I still haven’t managed to find or design the table that the GF will live on.
Thank you @dan for the update, and the gifts, I’ve never had another crowdfunding project give me anything but silence, or the runaround, concerning schedule slips. I still think the GF will be an amazing product, made even better by the extra time to insure quality.
(Talk about timing, just found a new email update from a project I backed in 2013, they’re still trying to get it to production 
)
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@dan I had to take a loan out to buy my Pro, it was a big and difficult decision but knowing the risks of backing a campaign like this I committed to it and regardless of the delays and upset remain faithful and will no be cancelling.
You keep saying it is YOUR fault, I don’t know if that’s totally fair on you to take that burden solely on but seeing you put that enough times shows you really do feel it.
My only two real questions right now are with the Pro is the pass through function working as planned/will it be on the final units as originally stated.
Second…and I expect to know this answer already…is there any scope in releasing a shipping list to show peoples actual place in line, maybe just using user name and date ordered? I expect it to be a no and with the people backing out it would soon be outdated but understanding if you’re in the first or last 10% would be interesting.
Alas this is only a minor point. I’m UK based and expect to have to wait until Jan 2017 due to delayed shipping but I continue to wait faithfully and look forward to applying the GF to my business.
We are not going to cancel because, frankly we believe in the product. This means we remain invested to the tune of $5,680 and I think that buys us the right to vent (without a filter) a little here. I am expressing from the heart here so please see it for what it is and try and kerb the “I shall defend Dan with my life” rhetoric. I like Dan too for the record.
The following comes from a place where I share the concern of some others regarding transparency. This is based on a few half baked, unhelpful and sometimes dismissive responses from Dan in the past.
Here’s my take on things from Dan’s notice of delay email for whomever cares:
- My first thought was, ‘welcome to crowdfunding…’ But then I thought, this is not your average crowd funding campaign. These guys got something like $9M in funding in addition to our $30M.
- They knew that the power supply unit was late 5 months ago and up to about a month ago (?) we were told all is dandy with the June 2016 delivery schedule. I was impressed. Now all of a sudden the PSU gets the blame for everything? I am tempted to quote Churchill here.
- The ‘free materials’ is a paltry compensation in my view. Here’s why: It does not cost GF $150 for the Proof Grade materials. And for those who live in other countries, we have to pay import duties (and shipping?) for those materials. The interest alone on our $5680 for 6 months is probably significantly more than $150.
- Finally, we actually planned on both prototyping and some production on the Glowforge in Q’s 3&4. So we’re gonna have to pay third parties for that service now. That is another cost.
It all adds up to not an insignificant impact. But here’s the kicker. I can live with all of that if we have confidence in the company’s transparency. And I am not at all convinced we have that. My biggest issue is that we’re forced to use the cloud software. So whatever we create is always subject to the risk of prying eyes. We are not going create anything that is illegal so I am not worried from that perspective but we’re going innovate a lot here and any user’s IP may be at risk. The point is if we felt there was a greater value placed on transparency, this would concern us less.
Some suggestions to the GF folk which would help soften the blow a little:
- Give users the option of a $200 cash-back instead of the ‘free materials’ and models.
- Give users the option of choosing the materials they want instead of giving everyone your choice of ‘assorted’ materials - I get that the assortment would probably give a sense of what cuts how but you should really include a small sample pack of all your materials anyhow - is that not what you planned all along?
- Pay the import duty and shipping cost of the materials for overseas customers so that they are not left at a disadvantage compared to US buyers - we’re already paying a massive transport cost.
- Finally, be vigilant about transparency. Answer questions with respect and honesty and perhaps try not to focus so much on the appearance of respect and honesty. We all do that sometimes. But we don’t all have $30M of someone else’s money.
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Personally, I’m pretty satisfied with the materials, though I get not everyone might be. I can pretty much guarantee that they’re not going to give everyone $200 off of their machines; I don’t even think that that is reasonable. Crowdfunded campaigns are almost never guaranteed to ship on time, though admittedly I think a lot of people came to the GF who haven’t typically dipped their toes in the crowdfunding waters. They really didn’t have to offer anything and the project would be fine (a few more might have cancelled, but not a greater enough number to materially affect things).
You probably missed it because this thread was pretty much impossible to keep up with, but Dan mentioned a couple of times that they’d cover shipping on the items. I don’t necessarily think it’s fair to ask them for import fees (they might, on sait jamais), though I sympathize with you as another non-U.S. resident.
My singular concern about materials is that they might have trouble shipping unsealed wood to certain places.
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