@Dan I have to say I appreciate the candor as to specifics as to what was wrong. A questionable PSU is worth a delay for. I don’t know if it was just unreliable or far worse a safety issue, but either way would be unacceptable (if safety) or super annoying (if unreliable) and would crush you with warranty work. So while it is somewhat disappointing, but with a high powered laser safety always comes first, reliability second and getting it on your desk is third…
6 Likes
Oh, believe you me, you have no idea how ecstatic I am that the bad news is “we’re making you wait a little longer for a completely awesome unit” as opposed to “were sending you a unit now that doesn’t work… btw, no refunds”
16 Likes
Hooray for stop-light charts!
4 Likes
We wish you the best of luck Brandon!
3 Likes
The transparency would have been nice a lot sooner. So now I’m a year away from receiving my $5k unit… Oh, oh, oh, but my beta access will be granted any day now. I’m sure of it. If not, GF won’t even reject me as a beta customer with an automated email anyway, so I’ll always just hold on to that false hope. They’ll just ignore me like I don’t exist and I will remain a blissful idiot who awaits the splendor of having what was promised, just not as promised and not when promised.
I just had an idea. I am going to start my own new business. I will advertise a product, collect millions in revenue, make lots of big promises, dangle early access and early shipping for early adopters, threaten future price increases, and send out lots of pointless communications talking about progress and excitement and whatever else I can think of. Then, if I’m bored or have the time in general, I’ll see if I can deliver on any of that later. Then everyone can thank me for my honesty and transparency and I, too, shall become a crowd-funding folk hero for whom songs will be written.
4 Likes
You can still apply to the Beta. If you put in the application what you want to do with it, they may be all on board for it.
I’m as disheartened as anyone else about the delay but I honestly can’t understand why everyone was making business decisions on the arrival of a crowdfunded product. Some of you guys are new to business decisions, some of you clearly aren’t - but if you need a product this year for your livelihood, this is a terrible way to go about it - once they’re shipping GF lasers left and right, go hog wild.
12 Likes
I’m so sorry, Kyle. We did our best for you, and I apologize for letting you down.
Orders placed during the 30-day campaign (before Oct 25) are scheduled for December, and orders placed after (including now) are scheduled for March. All things being equal, we’ll ship based on order date.
Whenever we talk about shipping, we are referring to the “last mile” from a US warehouse to you. The shipment from the factory to the distribution warehouse is internal logistics that we manage as a part of the production process. Which is a long way of saying: no, it doesn’t change your shipping costs.
Zach’s a friend and Xcarve is a really solid machine from what I’ve heard - we have a Carvey in the office, actually. (And an Othermill, which is also great).
Ian, you’ve been an amazing supporter and resource here, and I personally am going to miss talking to you here. And that awesome Peanuts avatar. I’m sorry we let you down. Please have a safe and wonderful move.
My experience is that actual international shipping times can stretch (deliveries that were supposed to take one week can take four) so there’s a little more risk to it slipping into January if you’re overseas, due to delayed delivery times. But our plan is for everyone’s delivery dates to be December.
The $150 value of materials excludes the shipping cost, which we will bear.
We’re not announcing future pricing, but I would definitely not count on the price being the same when we have units available for immediate delivery.
Sorry - the operative word here was “campaign”. The campaign was the 30-day period from September 24 to October 24.
Thank you - we really struggled to figure out what was the right way to express our gratitude and thanks for your support.
More to come.
14 Likes
This x1000
I will never understand investing in a first-gen pre-developed product to be used for business. There are risks you take in every business, but there are also risks you should avoid at all costs…
Common sense in my opinion.
8 Likes
If I may, I don’t think anyone was “rejected” as a beta user, and not really ignored. I applied knowing I wouldn’t be considered as a beta user until later anyway because of my distance to GF HQ (opposite end of the country) I think how the program works is that user get chosen for a number of reasons, and the rest of the applicants stay on as Glowforge’s testing needs change. Transparency can only be transparent when you know what the decision is going to be. sometime in the last week or two I’m sure it became clear that they were nowhere near meeting an effective goal, and then had to plan how they were going to console all of us upset customers. believe me, I would not have parted with 2 Mil worth of gifts to say sorry easily if I were in their shoes
5 Likes
I hear ya. A lot if “guesses” being thrown around ha. If I can order it in December for 2400 I’ll gladly get my money back and eat the 400. I don’t know if I’ll be able to eat $2000 though if it goes up…
I am surprised that anyone went into this project expecting the unit to be shipped by the estimated shipping date. I was super-happy when the June date was posted, because it was far before what I expected, but I didn’t expect that date to hold, and it didn’t.
To base a business on something as fluid as a crowd-funded project seems like a bad idea.
5 Likes
Made in USA: Awesome. That is something I have been waiting to hear. Reinforces my faith in the company again.
Free Materials and Designs: sweet. I wonder if we will have any choices here, or if it will be a sampler-surprise.
Competitive pricing for the materials: I really hope it can be competitive to the wholesale market and not just competitive to, say, laserbits.
Founder Status: that’ll be a badge for the forum, right?
A 6-month delay is WAY better than a series of one-month delay announcements.
20 Likes
I know you guys are working hard to get these made.
Thanks for the update and I will gladly wait for a perfected* product.
This gives me more time to experiment with all that I want to make before it shows up!
*as perfect as you can make it 
1 Like
Count me among the folks who are disappointed but would rather have a unit that works well and are, therefore, glad that you’re doing things the right way. The freebies definitely help soften the blow so thanks for that.
Any chance you’d consider having a opt-in for the bonus materials? I’m envisioning a checklist – presumably you’ll want to confirm shipping addresses when you send out the units so you’ll already have a need to reach out for updated info. I’d love to have pretty much all of them but, being vegan, would rather not receive any leather and would probably choose to opt out entirely if it can’t be removed.
4 Likes
I’m glad i am not the only one happy about the announcement! 
3 Likes
right?! get em all out of the way in one rip of the band-aid. I would like your post, but I ran out of likes lol
6 Likes
Agreed on all–especially made in the USA.
6 Likes
While I am disappointed at the delay my primary interest is to receive a stable, functioning prototype. Please do not rush. I understood when I backed the project that there was some uncertainty involved. Take the time to get it right.
1 Like
I wish i could do an extra like for you. 