Glowforge's Definition of Shipping

^^^THIS^^^ :+1:t3::+1:t3::metal:t3::vulcan_salute:t3:

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Seeing as how “the sheet” is totally voluntary, not official, and filled in by humans, I would not be surprised if someone simply wrote the wrong date.
Accidentally.
Or on purpose, for that matter. People do weird things.

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That was pretty much exactly my point. That question was rhetorical as part of a response to “what on the sheet doesn’t reflect reality?”

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8c41797007c393bbb8e6f01bfa0a7f7a

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On a semi-related topic, does anyone know how to get back that shipping not shipping banner? I was so glad that they reset it and it was back, but then today I accidentally smushed it closed instead of dropping my phone.

I dinnea think ya can.

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Join the forums without logging on and you can see it but there is no way to get it back once you click it away

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gah! thanks anyway

If we really want to get semantical, and we don’t, “we are shipping” is present continuous verb tense. It implies something is unfinished and is ongoing. They are currently shipping day 9 (and splitting verbs). That’s not wrong, assuming the shipping process starts with an email asking for your address. And it’s still not wrong even if day 9 orders don’t arrive for 3 months.

I think, if you want to be angry about anything, it’s that the shipping process takes up to 6 weeks, and not the language they’re using. Which is kind of a different issue.

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No it doesn’t. They only manufacture it after you return your email address then they ship it. You get notification when it actually ships. That is when UPS have been notified to pick it up and that is the definition of shipping that every other company uses.

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It depends if Dan used the form to order after it went live, when I placed my order total sales on the website was depicted as less than 10K USD. It is possible that the team was more worried checking if everything was working OK than ordering a Glowforge for themselves. Not that it matters :wink:

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If the word “shipping” can denote that any action that will eventually lead to a product being transported from one location to another is taking place, they are “shipping” all orders. By that incorrect, nonsensical definition, they’re even “shipping” orders that haven’t even been placed yet. Why limit it to orders placed before day 10?

Glowforge is intentionally deceiving their customers.

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This conjecture has been stated many times. I believe it to be incorrect.

In a lean manufacturing system, they would want to optimize for having as few built machines sitting in the factory warehouse as possible. But they are not going to unladylike bespoke machines, either as that would be a huge friction on manufacturing.

I think it is much more likely that they are building batches. The size of a batch is likely based on many factors.

When they confirm to the factory to build X pro or basic machines, they need to have destinations lined up for each of them by the time the unit is ready to put on a truck. So they would also send a batch of emails. They do not know before people respond exactly how many will say, “yes.” But running in parallel with the build process will allow them to send more emails to allocate machines that would have gone to those who said, “No.”

Furthermore, they probably have multiple batches in process at one time. There was a comment a couple of days ago that none of the basics who had accepted by somedate about 3 weeks ago had gotten a UPS notification even though some Pro units had taken less than three weeks. This would imply to me that the batch for those Basics was being slotted in between batches of Pros. This is exactly as @dan had stated in an earlier update (July?) that they were going to prioritize Pro units for a while.

The 6 weeks is not because it takes that long to build One. It is to help them be flexible in building thousands while still dealing with realities of supply chain and engineering changes.

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By all accounts, the Glowforges ordered on day 9, which may eventually be shipped, don’t exist. Claiming a good that has never existed is currently “shipping” is dishonest, at best.

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No I think Dan confirmed this the case. The machines are built after you reply. Why else would there be a variable delay of several weeks before dispatch? They won’t be keeping finished machines around.

You don’t need six weeks to ensure you have the emails back. You can get enough emails in a day or two because if anybody doesn’t reply in a day you just email the next person. If people reply later you put them back at the head of the queue.

It works exactly like we didn’t order two years ago. It is just as if we are placing a factory order when we say yes. The factory then takes a few weeks to make that batch and then they dispatch it.

How so? Even if you don’t want to argue semantics (like any reasonable person), the fact that people are mad about every aspect of what’s going on means we know a fair amount (or all, potentially) of what’s going on. Even if you don’t agree with their word choice, how is it intentionally deceiving when they’ve clarified it over and over?

If the intent is to mislead or deceive, why would you then go out of your way to ensure people aren’t?

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I don’t understand this. They wouldn’t be keeping finished machines around. There are literally thousands of people waiting. Every basic is the exact same, yeah? Even if days 5-10 all magically decided to defer shipping until later, there’s a huge backlog of people who would respond yes, and those machines could ship immediately.

Am I missing something obvious?

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Agreed, that is what I said. The only reason for not dispatching your machine must be that it isn’t ready yet. I.e. not built and tested.

They would be in a mass production system but it seems to be a batch build with continuous improvements from batch to batch. You have to agree to accept whatever defects that batch is likely to have.

You might have misunderstood me, I think. Probably because I’m not very good at all at explaining things. I wasn’t saying that my definition of a shipping process is correct. The shipping process might start with an order, or an email, or a warehouse siren, or a carrier pigeon, or a seance. I have no idea. I was saying that glowforge is saying they’re currently shipping - an ongoing process, an unfinished thing. What people seem to want it to mean is something finite and over. They want “we are shipping” to mean “we have shipped”. That probably seems like a difference without a distinction.

Glowforge is essentially saying “day x has begun the process.” People want to see “UPS is in possession of day x (and throwing it down the stairs)”.

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The deception is ongoing and is prominently displayed at the top of every page on the forum to every visitor, until the visitor is logged in to an account that has disabled the message, with absolutely no indication that Glowforge has taken the liberty of inventing new definitions for everyday language. Their attempt to absolve themselves of the deception is buried somewhere in the forum.

[edit]To put it succinctly, a clarified deception is still a deception, especially when the clarification is obfuscated.[/edit]

Coke can’t print “every can is equivalent to an hour at the gym” on all their marketing material and then try to disclaim that statement by placing a Post-it note on the back door of their corporate office saying that their definition of “equivalent to” is “nothing like”.

So far I’ve explained how it’s “deceiving”, if you’re asking how it’s “intentional” I will keep it simple and say that I’m assuming they have autonomy over the messages that are placed at the header of their forum. I don’t know, maybe they were hacked.

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