i dunno, with the (large) assumption that this is all shipping damage, i think it’s mostly a matter of finding the right way to package it. they can only make a limited spend on those sorts of packages, and i bet it’s already higher than they planned.
As an international customer myself I to worry another delay is imminent, and I am really starting to feel fatigued by the whole deal. I am starting to feel like its not worth the wait because what really is worth a two year wait with plenty of disappointments along the way? …Pfff I think for me personally the august update will make or break me, I’m just tired of waiting, tired of checking the forums for some indication if now is the time to get exited.
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I agree, if the packaging is the problem then it should be able to be fixed easily enough (although it might cause some delay to re-tool the foam insert cutters, etc.)
What has me worried is that there may be some type of inherent design flaw that makes these too fragile. Like a part that is susceptible to breaking when roughly handled during shipping,or something that no amount of foam or cardboard bracing could protect without sharply increasing shipping costs to the breaking point.
If that is the case the case we could be in for a much longer wait.
I ordered 4 days after the campaign and I am bracing myself for 2018 delivery.
i dunno, i figure they gotta scale soon. oh well we i’ll know we know when we know it!
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Two things: The packaging was designed down to a size that is economical to ship, so not enough room for shock absorbing foam.
Laser tubes are very fragile, some Chinese manufacturers ship an extra tube! Because the Glowforge has a moving tube it has to be rigidly mounted. I don’t think I have seen one mounted with metal brackets before. That means the machine cannot take a big shock. Also because it has a plastic shell it has less mass to dampen shock but more flex.
I don’t think wooden crates will help as the machines are not being damaged by things intruding into the box. I think they need more shock absorption, which would mean bigger packaging breaking the shipping budget.
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how many times have we seen a shipping damage issue that was the tube being damaged though?
I recall 2 tubes being commented/posted about cracked.
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Dang! Hadn’t heard about a second cracked tube.
I wish I could remember who, but they referred to it after they had gotten their working one.
OK… I totally missed it then. I knew about @Jerware, from Tested. He’s the one that received the cracked tube but he posted about it right away, then his replacement had the coolant leak.
They could send new tubes. They are supposedly user installable.
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That is the other issue.
I assume no business in their right mind would send a less than double-checked replacement machine, not when they are shipping so few units. So are these double failures showing particularly lax/vulnerable UPS routes or a weakness in manufacture?
From a Brand Building POV i could not think of a worse story to tell than “my replacement needed replacement”
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Unless there is a problem due to delivery… @Dan has said this (IIRC) and i will edit in the link when i find it.
Of course this begs the question, are we supposed to ask the delivery driver to wait whilst we open it up, set it up and check it was not damaged? Or do we have a day’s grace?
To be fair it seems that most machines are working fine IF they are not delivered damaged. Also factor in the (unknown) number of machines that have been delivered which we have not heard about because they were NOT damaged.
It is always the broken ones that we hear most of - nothing wrong with that, it is how it should be and i feel for the owners
In some ways i think an International Shipping will be easier.
- GF loads a container full of the, say, UK units.
- Said units are shipped, in container, to the Customs Port in the UK
- Couriers pick up and deliver from the Customs Port to owners.
In a Container i would expect the units would be fairly safe
I know i trust our Aussie Couriers a little more than i trust the US ones. We hear nothing like their stories over here.
All that being said i am not feeling so bad about being early in the order list but having to wait because I am not from the US. By the time ours are shipped one would hope most of these problems would be robustly resolved
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Well there’s also an issue with unseen damage… I’ve personally received items that were damaged due to shock in shipping but the box looked fine overall.
I do believe there’s been at least a handful of units that were DOA. May or may not have been due to shipping. I think in these cases where the owner isn’t even able to start using the machine from the get go, 
should be responsible for the exchange regardless if it’s international or not.
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According to @dan every unit rolling off the line is being calibrated and tested before shipping, so these are all functioning units as they roll out the door.
UPS is transporting them in every which orientation possible except for the orientation listed on the box.
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One would hope that if the Glowforge lawyers are hot on people posting non-Proofgrade settings in public then they are going to be incandescent on such a simple, tracable and solvable problem as these idiot delivery drivers then.
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It is kinda funny you say that Aussie carriers are good. I have a friend who is currently having ten kinds of trouble with getting computer parts shipped in one piece. (I am not disagreeing; my perspective is only anecdotal. )
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Always wondered(due to it coming up in various arguments): how many anecdotes/coincidences does/should it take to be able to say…I think there’s something up here? We can see 1 body do an “official” study and unless one has first hand experience, the study will trump evidence.
Just a wandering musing.(totally not derailing the thread 
)
That is actually a pretty complex topic. Trying to be succinct, a big difference between a study and an aggregate of anecdotal reports is standardization of information.
In the above topic, for example, I have no idea if my friend is operating with the same expectation as @bdm.
Some of that can be countered if there are enough people saying similar enough stuff, but then we are getting into different territory.
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Ah. And that was the crux of the matter I was pointing to asking what was the tipping point over the fulcrum. What constitutes “enough”? The problem being a completely personal answer leaving me with a cyclical anecdotal responses of when enough is enough to enough people. 