I can only imagine

I need to master IFTTT better. I use it for some permanent recipes like muting my phone when I get to work and such but I see there is SO much more it can do to automate your life.

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I dont think so. It speaks to how the company handles customer interactions. If there were delays, if the reps werenā€™t courteous, if there was buggy or a lack of communication with the order. All of those are useful to hear for some interested buyers. I certainly enjoy knowing ahead of time. Saying it in a review isnā€™t saying that it necessarily will happen again but it is appropriate for ā€˜full disclosureā€™ as it did happen and may turn up again. I donā€™t think itā€™s inappropriate at all to dock points in a review for the things that occurred before I got the product as itā€™s all part of the purchase and customer interaction as a whole.

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If people could bifurcate properly that would work. In my experience when people start letting their frustrations into their opinions, the line between honest critique and vendetta starts to blur quickly.

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But their frustrations are part of their opinions. Iā€™m not sure what sort of buying experiences youā€™ve had in the past but I watch 3d printer reviews all the time on YouTube (because there is a ridiculous amount of different manufacturers of such) and they quite often detail the entire process. How long it took, if there were issues ordering, if there were delays etc. Itā€™s all part of the buying experience. Most of the reviewers do it tastefully (i.e. they arenā€™t attacking the company) but they still review their stumbling points (like delivery). I find it super useful as it allows me to avoid a distasteful buying experience. As far as Iā€™m concerned, full disclosure is the most ā€˜honestā€™ one can get in a review

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How many of those are startups still designing when bought versus a company already producing and just took forever anyway?

Some are, some arenā€™t. But to me, as far as this conversation goes, it doesnā€™t really matter. The way things transpired still amounts to the overall buying experience. Which is what is being reviewed. If they change their tactics and address the issues, than future reviews will likely reflect that. But a review is a current reflection of customer interactions. Which, at the time, may or may not me marred with mistakes. That bears mentioning in an ā€˜honestā€™ review.
Also, typically the maker community affords a generous bit of leeway for startups in their buying consideration. With that said, everything has a limit before it harms the overall experience

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What if the reviewer received a unit gratis? An apple to apples comparison would be much harder to do for a prospective buyer. I believe that a review of an object is different than a review of a crowdunded development cycle, and conflating the two in reviews does a disservice both to the confused audience and the reviewer, who now seems like thereā€™s some vindictive aspect to their review.

Thats simply my take on it though. Since Iā€™m not the one writing reviews, itā€™s worth the paper itā€™s printed on. :grin:

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Most of the reviewers I watch flat out say if they were given the machine to review or if they bought it themselves. They also tend to point out negatives in both cases. And startups usually get the ā€œitā€™s a new startup company and theyā€™re working on it, butā€¦ā€ treatment. So the cfā€™s and startups get extra leeway anyways, a lot of the time.
Also, a review isnā€™t an apples to apples comparison. Conceivably, itā€™s not a comparison at all. Itā€™s simply ā€œi acquired X,and here are the pros and cons I experienced.ā€ An honest review would just lay it all out for the viewer.

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Being that all Glowforges have been purchased directly from Glowforge, the ability for Glowforge to hold true to their word is important information for a prospective customer to consider. The validity of statements from Glowforge is extra important because the product is inextricably tied to the company - if the company goes down, everyone who owns a Glowforge at that point will own a large paperweight.

Yes, the company has said they will prevent the machines from becoming paperweights, but the company has said a lot of things and many of those things have not come to fruition. This kind of information is critical.

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Soā€¦ apparently you were able to create an account, and can use the GF? You would be the first 2nd-party purchaser (at least that I have heard of) to surface. Thatā€™s great news, as far as I am concerned!

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Yes, although had to go through Customer Service to do so and they needed to get all of the info from the seller, which he was happy to supply, luckily! Although, it seems like a bad system to me. The unit should be able to be registered to a specific user per user control IMHO. We had to wait 4 days to get it registered to us.

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Validating that itā€™s not stolen or something seems reasonable for something like this. Iā€™m okay with it taking a little time. May not be the best way, but I wouldnā€™t call it bad myself.

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Right now you have to contact customer service just to change the name. I suspect this sort of self-service administration is planned for but just not done yet.

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Thank you @john.ramminger for taking the time to share your feedback and ideas. Iā€™ll make sure theyā€™re heard, and Iā€™m very sorry for the impact of the delay on you (and everyone). Thanks all for the discussion ā€“ Iā€™ll leave this thread open for a few more days so it can continue.

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Me, a guy with apparently 19k posts read: the communication from Dan and the team is poor, even if they have a high word count and are relatively verbose when they do happen.

Or do I need to lurk more before I make a complaint.

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Thatā€™s about 10% of the posts here over the past couple of years. :smiling_face:

Itā€™s amazing how much has gone on here. Iā€™m always surprised by the amount of activity. Danā€™s posted over 6,000 comments himself. Heā€™s been on the forum almost every day over that time as well. Pretty good for a CEO.

The messages havenā€™t been what we wanted but itā€™s not been the radio silence Iā€™ve experienced with several of the more expensive crowdsourcing things Iā€™ve backed.

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I am pleased at his continued interactions, but I can also say that Iā€™ve purchased less expensive crowdsourced items that had better communication throughout their production and delivery. So. I donā€™t think it is really an apples to apples comparison. It all depends on what you are buying and what phase they are in when you buy it.

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I canā€™t believe Iā€™ve read 37.4K of posts. Yours is even crazier. Amazing how much time Iā€™ve spent on here since Dec 2015.

As a company forum, this is by far, the very best forum I have ever seen. Great people, great ideas and great support from the company and members.

No matter what else is said, Glowforge, Dan and his whole team have been amazing on here.

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Well I guess it is decision time. I got my email last night and my unit is not slated to until January 8th and the Air Filter is listed as June 9th. As I said at the beginning I can only imagine waiting 2 years. I quite frankly think that given the continual delays, they should stop taking orders with full payment if they canā€™t ship as promised. If I cancel and re-order when they can actually ship a working unit, I am only giving up about $300 worth of free stuff. I can buy a lot of other gear for $6k. I am using this post to think through the matter. I bought partially on the video put out by Bob Claggat and on a later podcast he made reference to not using lasers as much as he thought he would. I will take the weekend and think about it. I have to say I donā€™t think I have ever had this much emotion about a product before, or at least the swing from excitement to utter disappointment. Well maybe with the X-Carve. I hope your units live up to your expectations.

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Good point Tom, although Iā€™d like to have control over the equipment I purchase, from whatever source it came from. Imagine if we had to email customer support to get our TV or dishwasher to work.

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