I would agree that the faith is just a sense of “fan boy” enthusiasm and blind faith… except there is a public beta tester now. Yes he is just one, but he is one. I would like to see more, but one member on the forums having a beta unit is enough to instill enough confidence to continue nursing my fan boy attitude for a while longer
4 Likes
Boom!..there you have my reason for purchase in one succinct sentence…I’d rather make the gifts because they have more meaning that way…
(…and by now my loving family already owns enough cheap junk from China.)
4 Likes
LOL!!! Someone understands me! 
and some people are really hard to shop for… oy
2 Likes
@dhanvinddvs : Yes, progress is being made. I still believe. I will continue to give GF my support by not cancelling my order. The confidence in the company is shattered. Build confidence in the schedule. GF has again asked us to “trust us, this time its real!. December we can make”. Empty promises without substance. The track record here is against them.
I continue to be excited. We all are. I hope @dan follows through and gives us all access to the beta forums. I hope he gets us better updates. There could be a lot that could be done to instill confidence in the new delivery date outside of a “trust me”
I continue to wait like everyone else, and excited about the possibilities once I have a GF.
Cheers
There is no beta forum that I am aware of. There are posts about the Beta unit. You can find them by searching for the beta tag.
1 Like
@Joe - I probably misunderstood what dan said in the big announcement - you are most likely correct, although I was still under the impression that it was something extra POST delay (since beta posts were done prior to the current announced delay).
I didn’t read this whole thread, just the initial post, so if this has been said before then…
I share your frustration, but there is also a reality to consider. Tech work is hot and competitive right now. I work in product development at a start-up (as a UX designer) and the hiring struggle is real. In UX in my city, unemployment is a negative percentage, there are literally more jobs than there are people to do them. Unemployment in tech jobs in my city is under 2%. Now consider that GOOD engineers, developers, and designers are even harder to find, and the better they are, the more in demand. I interviewed 35 candidates over 4 months before finding my most recent hire.
The point is throwing money at the problem only works if there’s something to throw money AT. Technology is growing faster than the talent pool, and building good products is HARD. So yes, it completely sucks that I’m waiting 6 more months for my laser. I hate that. But in the end GF has given every indication that they’re trying to build a good product. I’ve been in that situation where we had to delay for the greater good, and I’ve been in the situation where we had to release a sub-par product because of a deadline we couldn’t break. Delay is always the better option.
5 Likes
As far as hiring more people, I think some people are forgetting that this is an ongoing business for @Dan. Of course they are hiring more people, thus far has been R and D, this will continue for sure but will be more focused on development and basic daily operations.
3 Likes
Spot on, brother.
I also like the “9 women can’t make a baby in 1 month”…
And here’s another: “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch”
chris: ever stop to think that maybe you shouldn’t promise your customers something that depends on receiving something that the supplier can’t promise they will deliver to you in time, to begin with? Did you tell them about what you will be relying on in order to get the job done? Did you show them this site, and have them decide for themselves if they were willing to take the risk before signing on with you?
I can understand your frustration, but as with any business you need to be realistic about probable vs hopeful.
4 Likes
I am struggling to understand how people are so concerned about them not being able to meet their new December deadline. Watch the Q&A video if you haven’t already. Dan specifically stated there that they believe right now that the hardware is final as it is, but because they hadn’t been able to get sufficient QA and profiling (or likely the various certifications for that matter) done yet, they couldn’t justify the risk of assuming it was peachy without thorough testing, and shipping 10,000 of them all over the world.
Dan has stated that the power supply was originally expected to be completed last November, but that the top-tier, highly regarded 3rd party company designing and building it for them couldn’t deliver. However, that vendor probably already had 6 months or more in on the project at that time, so Glowforge bailing on them to start over from scratch with an entirely new vendor, with no guarantees they would even be able to do any better, would have been a much, much worse decision than continuing to work with the existing vendor.
Could they have admitted to themselves that they were not going to meet the June deadline earlier than they did? Certainly. That in my opinion was the single biggest ‘mistake’ they have made in this whole thing, and I can’t really fault them for succumbing to human nature - being reluctant to admit defeat is something we all suffer from.
I had postulated in another post on the day of the announcement that they were able to work on other things while they were waiting for the PS to come up to speed, so the new schedule probably had a lot of new slack built in, and Dan’s comment the next day about the hardware being believed final now clearly supports that hypothesis.
I am actually more confident they will begin shipping well before December now than I was when the announcement came out. Whether or not they succeed in a clean QA/profiling/certification cycle now is 100% a function of the quality of their vision and work to date. I have seen no indication yet that they aren’t qualified to be doing what they’re doing, so I kind of like their chances!
One other point that I am factoring in here: since they believe the hardware is good now, none of their hardware people are actively tied up working on unfinished components at this point, so all of them are testing like mad, and will be jumping all over - and quickly addressing - any quality problems that show up in QA over the coming weeks.
Quite frankly, if they are as good as us ‘fanboys’ think they are, then there may even still be a slim chance that @rpegg will get his Glowforge before the end of August! 
Oh, and @erin, thank you so much for stating what we are thinking in such an unbelievably perfect way!! That is quickly shaping up to be the most liked post in forum history!
7 Likes
Since I get a minimum of $100 per square foot for 1/4" clear acrylic signs with etched vinyl letters on it now, I better make $100 within the first hour of setting up the Glowforge.
I can’t believe how many people are relying on this crowdfunding project for a business or income from the very beginning. I understand it can be that once the units arrive but knowing the ship date from the beginning was a variable how can so many people get upset about this? Maybe you should start getting mad at yourself and not the glowforge team. Your the one who obviously has no business sense. Take the refund and go invest the money somewhere else if your that upset.
6 Likes
If you foresaw these delays you are wiser than me. Ive been on the forums since I purchased in october and never saw anyone saying “theres no way that it will be finished by then”. We all took them at their word.
I am certainly no savant, but I have worked in software for most of my career. I quickly became skeptical that they’d hit their date, but I kept my mouth shut, because… What’s the point? If I go on the forum and say, “I believe they will be delayed because reasons” it doesn’t actually help. I can’t help them get the work done faster (though I applied 
) and posting doubts in the forum just stirs the pot.
My skepticism derived from the very very light updates on the software features. It just takes time to do that right… especially when you are trying to be super innovative and do things in new ways, instead of just copying the industry standards.
Hephaestus himself could have delivered perfect Glowforge hardware to the team and they’d still have had a lot to do. And even allowing for their desire to keep things under wraps, we didn’t get updates that made me believe that work was happening on schedule. Beta needed to happen a long time ago, to give testers the means to offer feedback which there was time to implement.
At the end of the day, I am not angry, just disappointed.
I hope after release, @dan is able to share more development stories. I am sure they will be interesting.
2 Likes
I visited your business web site and saw superior vinyl graphics and acrylic signs. Don’t know specifically what etched vinyl refers to. Unless you have a PVC free source for sheet vinyl, don’t cut it in a laser. It will release gases that can be harmful to health and corrode the machine rather quickly. Continue to use your plotter for most vinyl and preserve the Laser for acrylic or wood cutting. Your decision, but just a heads up.
1 Like
same. once i heard the word beta thrown around shortly after purchase my hopes for delivery diminished and my expectations changed completely. shit happens. i have plenty of other toys to keep me busy.
1 Like
Yeah I know. I’ve already planned to letter the glass cover with a list of banned materials. I’m also putting it in a room that can only be accessed by walking past my desk because I know someone will still try to cut PVC foam with it. This cart had grease covered truck parts on it yesterday and the employee that did it said he didn’t know he couldn’t use it for that.
We use “etched glass” vinyl to look like laser etched acrylic. The Glowforge will replace the need for vinyl.
4 Likes
Ah, I mis-read. Makes more sense now. I didn’t put the words together properly. Didn’t think actually mechanically etching vinyl was possible even if it wasn’t harmful. I now see that the reference to “etching vinyl” refers to the material and not any kind of process. I’ve also used the frosted/etched vinyl on windows and a buddy’s back bar mirror. It will be nice for you to be able to avoid the extra material cost of the vinyl as well as the extra steps in cutting and applying.
This is my first post here and I couldn’t stay quiet because of this thread you started.
You certainly exaggerate with those adjectives like “profoundly” and “depressingly delayed”. Heck, it’s just a delay, you can get a refund and you don’t have to pile on the shame and pretend that this is curtailing your productivity. It’s a risk we all chose to share with this product.
Sure I’m disappointed but I still have faith in this endeavor. You grandstanding and puffing yourself up to attempt to place more pressure on it is rude in my opinion. It really doesn’t help in any way. Dan sent a very respectful update and explanation. It’s clean and takes responsibility for the process and that is how it should be done in business. When you can’t make your promised goal, you communicate. Period. Then you set another goal.
Don’t throw “ethics” into this. The world is full of people with few to none and this isn’t an illustration of that no matter how you want to describe it that way and how ‘wronged’ you feel personally.
Do you have a company that makes a complicated piece of equipment? Are you prepared to solve all the problems and challenges that crop up? What about the surprises? Are you even aware of what could arise and has? Have you ever needed to implement Plan B, C, D?
The delay is not taking “money out of my pocket”. That’s like saying stock is money which it isn’t. What you signed on to do is support this project so if you don’t support it go and get another machine and start making money man. This project is for people willing to go the distance.
How would you know that it’s not about shipping units until they are ready? I believe it. What they’re attempting to do is HUGE if you ask me. So please step of your rights and be patient or get another laser man.
25 Likes
Well said…
I LIKE YOU! Welcome.
3 Likes