International shipping... arrival... receiving the much expected mail... don't know how to call this

Yeah, I missed the link in the email too. https://glowforge.com/warranty

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Whoa! Totally correct. That might change a few peoples minds. :neutral_face:

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International will start shipping after domestic but will end by the same date - the one on the (newly updated) schedule at the top.

You can email support@glowforge.com to change your shipping country.

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So, what you mean is that even if the unit is ordered outside of US before a domestically purchased unit, the international unit will still be in line behind the domestic?

I have been waiting and waiting ever since this product first launched and backed you. I, like many on here, chose to remain quiet to give you guys room to work. But now, after reading a lot of the comments from the forum, it is giving me a feeling that you do not care about your customer, especially international customers.

I have seen a few of the replies that say we could simply get a refund.

My feeling towards that comment is that you know you are now funded and now that the product is almost done, you don’t care about the customers that pre ordered anymore, because there would be plenty of people out there wanting your unit anyway. This is not a good feeling.(I am not sure if anyone else agrees with me on that too.

We, as customers, have put faith in your company to provide us with the best possible product that you could make in the timeframe that you promised. (which was 2 months 2 year ago)

We have been very loyal for 2 years now.

We are there to financially backed you up as you start.

We have been telling our love ones about you.

We have been taking heat for you from our love ones

You have even asked us to refer your machine to anyone that are close to us!

But you have disappointed us yet again.

Your ‘compensation’ means nothing. It feels like a sample pack from any printer that is showing us how good ‘proof grade’ material is. It feels to me like it is more of a marketing tool than a compensation.

This is not how we would like to be treated.

We just want to know when we will actually get the unit. Not a time frame of 5 months but WHEN exactly. A quick run of your database of the number of orders matched with the number of production per week should give us a pretty good idea of of when each batch could be shipped out.

We just want to be treated fairly.

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It’s really, really unfortunate that the international orders have to get moved back, and I know that the team at Glowforge hates it…

I think we all need to understand that it’s the problems associated with shipping to different countries that is causing the delay for the international shipments, and not any desire to boot the international customers to the back of the line or take advantage of them.

The Glowforge company is probably losing money on international customers, and they can’t service them as well as they can the customers in the US. That’s just logistics, pure and simple.

The international customers have a harder time ordering and getting this machine - it’s brand new, and Glowforge is a small company, not a well-established outfit selling lasers for a decade, with a steady income and a few years of dealing with international shipping. There are going to be delays and problems getting started.

It’s unfair, but it’s a function of where people reside, not whether they are more or less worthy of receiving the machine in the first batches out the door.

They are going to work out international shipping. But it takes longer to do it, and there are many different countries, all with different rules and needs for paperwork and certification.

If you ordered the machine, and you reside in a different country, you need to think about it this way… Your government has it’s own rules, that are different from those in the US. It’s just easier for them to ship the bulk of the units locally, where they are familiar with the rules and regulations, so they can clear the decks to tackle the international orders. There are fewer international orders, and each country is going to have a different set of problems to deal with.

I’m not making excuses for Glowforge. But what they are doing makes sense. They will be able to focus on the problems associated with international orders more clearly, if they get the bulk of the domestic orders out of the way.

I’m sorry about it though. It isn’t fair at all.

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And yet somehow European and Asian companies don’t have the same struggle to ship internationally…

I am not as burned as some… every time i sign up for a US product i know where i am on the pecking order but i don’t think it helps anyone to pretend that it is anything less that a USA #1 attitude.

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Hi Jules,

I don’t mean to be rude or anything with my message. But it is really frustrating to know that just because we are not living in the States, we are being punished for it.

I do understand what you say when there are difference in rules and regulations for international shipping. But I mean, they had 2 years to figure it out. It is not rocket science, it is about reading the rules and regulations on shipping. If they didn’t do their research in the beginning for international shipping, they should not have taken backing internationally.

We all love the product that GF is promising us. But sometimes, we are not helping them by making excuses for them.

G

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Agree.

Im sure the GF doesn’t really care AT ALL about intl. costumers…

It’s a brand new company guys. The last year and a half has been spent building the machines, working out problems that they weren’t expecting and trying to add the things that everyone was clamoring for. They only recently shifted to manufacturing and shipping, and there are other things that go wrong during those stages.

While it’s not fair to expect international customers to have to wait longer, it’s also not fair to expect Glowforge to be able to pull off what an established company can immediately. They are a start-up.

I’m not making excuses. But they can’t do anything they aren’t already doing. They’re not big enough yet.

A decade from now it will be a different story.

I’m not trying to cheer anyone up…you’ve got a right to be ticked off. The situation sucks.

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Then… all of the costumers should be getting their units within the same time frame… not just first the US, then the world… IMHO

My understanding is that some of the international countries will start receiving their units while the units are still being shipped domestically…it’s going to depend on the country and how hard it is to get the logistics worked out.

So it is not “first the US, then the rest of the world”. Shipping will start first in the US, it already has, but they will start to do international shipments before they finish here.

It’s listed in the recent letter:

“International shipments will start later but are scheduled to be completed at the same time as US shipments.”

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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.

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I’m just kind of confused at the moment. Are the international purchases just being postponed until you guys sort out a reasonable approach to get these babies world wide. Or are all international purchases being put at the end of the line to the US purchases?

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To be fair, part of the difference is the US has at times made it much easier for out-of-country companies to export and sell with the US. (Granted, that could be changing again.) the biggest hold-up I’ve encountered, especially trying to sell in Europe in the past is getting your government compliance requirements all sorted out. A majority of that process can’t take place until a finished production unit is provided for ceritificaton. I don’t know about the beaurocrats in other countries, but ours I the US like to take their sweet time and take great pleasure in being a huge PITA.

Not saying that I wouldn’t be upset if I was in your shoes, I would. But it would probably be at the last 3 delays, not so much this one.

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The former.

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For EU to EU shipments there are no border controls.

For outside the EU imported products need CE certification but Asian companies simply ignore it, or fake it. Most of the cheap Chinese lasers would not pass any safety approvals but people have no problem buying them on eBay importing them into the UK. That is because the customs people have limited resources, so they spend their time looking for drugs and counterfeit branded fashion items.

On the other hand if you send anything electrical to the US customs want FCC approval documentation.

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We have very very strict rules in Australia but i would also suggest that we have a much lower volume of high-end coming through than the EU, Asia (and now the UK since you guys are not part of the EU anymore :slight_smile:)

I love (not) that my tax dollars are being used to protect poor Rolex from the evil Balinese knockoff market!

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We still are for a couple of years. Not sure if I will get my Glowforge before we leave the EU though.

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Dont forget to vote!

Honestly the Brexit move might be enough to make Australia finally ditch the monarchy as the level of facepalm here was even more than we usually give you poms

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