International Customers - I think we got scammed to be honest

#1

To any international costumers reading this:

1.- Do you HONESTLY think you’ll be getting your machine after the US costumers have?
2.- Whats the use of an extended warranty for us, since if the machine breaks or is just plain wrong, we will have to get it shipped back to the US… and im sure the whole story with this will start again… mails , delays and excuses.
3.- We should start some sort of contest to see where and when does the first intl unit gets delivered… I say somewhere mid june 2018 ( just 3 years after you probably bought it) and it will be CANADA… since its like the US… but not within its borders.
4.- Do you actually think Glowforge considers us important costumers or just some dumb people who just gave away their money?

Please let me know your thoughts, since it’s very possible we will ALL be getting AGAIN some fake and dodgy news regarding our shipments… excuses like : your country is far, or Fedex is not willing to ship it there or some stuff like that…

Is Glowforge a con?
#2

Just today a Canadian customer received the email. So they should be sending out the first international shipment soon.

#3

TBH, Canada is like an extension of the US… everything you can buy online from US stores, gets shipped to Canada… so that doesn’t REALLY make them intl. costumers.

#4

I don’t think any of this is particularly helpful. It seems pretty clear that Glowforge are not running a scam since they are actually delivering units, and everybody who has received theirs is really happy with the quality.

I am an international customer and I understand that it’s disappointing not to be at the front of the queue, but I don’t see how else it could have played out. Glowforge have to get lots of things ready before they can ship finished units anywhere, and then a bunch of other things to get ready before they can ship internationally. Unless they artificially held back domestic orders to make it “fair” (yeah right) on international buyers, then domestic orders will always ship first. There’s no point being negative about it.

#5

#6

It’s not being negative… it just making things fair for all… and it really pisses me off to be on the line of having the unit shipped almost 2 years later after. It just feels WRONG in so many levels. … but then again to each its own…

#7

But what would you do to make things fair? They simply can’t ship internationally until they’ve sorted the process out. They aren’t holding our units back out of spite. It just takes a lot more work to sort out international shipping. To hold back domestic orders in the mean time would be unfair

#8

@soytroquel, I understand you are ticked and you have every right to be. If you really feel that way why not back out and buy something more European-centric? If you really think you got scammed, take your money and run. I’ve been there, wouldn’t blame you in the least.

#9

We’re not delivering to Canada yet, I’m afraid.

#10

Ah, sorry. Must have misunderstood another post. Perhaps someone from Canada was having it shipped somewhere in the US.

#11

I don’t seriously know what would be fair. It just seems we always have to settle with the short end of the stick

#12

Funny thing is when anyone on Kickstarter limits sale to US only, a bunch of bitching and whining ensues as to why no international shipments are done… if international orders are allowed people complain that they take longer for delivery…
Considering this is a rather complex machine and there are a bunch of national and international regulations/certifications to be done prior to shipment (and many countries have significantly more stringent requirements ), it would be nice if folks would actually inform themselves a bit before making blanket statements. …
Did the GF team have plenty ty of time to investigate what’s needed for all the different countires? Sure. Did they work on it, pretty likely. Is certification done for all…probably not…in many cases you need a final production unit (or you have to do iterative re-certs)…
Don’t like it? Talk to your government officials and request to make the laser/electrical/safety certs etc simpler an cheaper.

I don’t think there are any surprises on shipping order in this update, if anything the oversea shipments seem better/earlier vs previous updates.

Keep calm and soon laser on
Pew pew pew :wink:

#13

I believe it is @SunnyStarbucks who is using her US shipping address and plans to drive it back to Canada (paying customs and such herself (as long as she can fit it into her car).

#14

Yeah, I read further down that thread and saw that. I stand corrected.

#15

I can understand that its frustrating @soytroquel, however this is an American Company. That was clear from the start. When things are made here in the US, shipping domestically is pretty simple. But there are codes and ratings to be figured out when exporting to the different countries. Lasers are not just a simple trinkets…

#16

The amount of effort that goes into importing anything electronic into Europe (or most other countries) is staggering.

#17

(I’ll crosspost this from the other international thread. Normally I’d just move this one there, but people are frustrated - and I understand, and don’t blame them - so for the time being I’ll leave it be)

For what it’s worth, we spend more per international customer than we do per domestic customer, even after taking the different shipping costs into account. International legal compliance, for example, is extremely expensive. International deliveries are hard on our customers, and on us as well.

So while it’s fair to say you’re being punished, please know that we are too, and that the punishment isn’t coming from us - we’re just trying to deal with legal and logistical costs as best we can and as quickly as we can. That means that we give you more attention (and more dollars) than our local customers… and yet you still get later service.

I’m sorry.

#18

I know that of course but I’m writing from Mexico… we have tons of intl commerce agreements with the Us which include laser regulations. Our electric appliance normative is based off of the one in the US. So it’s not that hard… to get hat sorted out

#19

Well then you just may get yours sooner than those across the pond…

#20

I’m also doing this too. A Canadian shipping to a USA mailbox. I anticipated US addresses would be filled ahead of Canadian