International shipping on Proofgrade and other GF shop items

So, now that us international folks are getting our glorious machines and having fun with them, there’s still the question of how we can use our store credit. Having now played with the samples a fair bit and seen how beautifully they behave, I would personally be more than happy to pay the import taxes and shipping fees on Proofgrade to use up my credit, but for the moment it is not possible to choose international shipping in the store (you can select a country but it won’t let you order).

Are there any plans to add this, now that riddle of international shipping of the machines and samples seems to have been solved?

If not, as discussed elsewhere, are there any options to let international folks give or sell their store credit to US Glowfolk who can actually use it? I checked on the original thread but I couldn’t see any official answer, just plenty of theories.

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Yep, still waiting for an answer. Personally I would be very happy to sell all my vouchers and credits at a discount to whoever wanted them. The import shipping and fees based on the proofgrade pack that came with the GF means it will be prohibitive.

I still don’t see the issue with the Catalog though, as it does not require any physical shipping, just purchase and add to our glowforge catalog.

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There might be tax issues. Do you need to pay import VAT on buying a digital design coming from outside the EU?

There are no technical or financial issues buying from the catalogue, but as nice as the designs are, I’m really more interested in making my own designs from scratch, and even if I did want to buy a few it would hardly make a dent in almost $300 of credit.

For the box of samples that came with the GF, I didn’t pay a huge amount in taxes, so depending on the shipping fees (and shipping some wood and acrylic shouldn’t need all the packing and precautions required for shipping the machine) I would still rather pay a bit and get my « gift ». As I said it’s really nice stuff to work with so I’d love to get more of it.

If not, I’d be happy to sell mine at a discount and spend that on materials from more local sources but it would really suck for all that credit to just go to waste.

I know they’re working on it, but the Catalog designs are set up to work with Proofgrade materials - they might be waiting until it is possible for international customers to access them before opening the catalog up to them as well.

Slots and tabs will not fit correctly if non-Proofgrade materials are used to try to build the designs.

Hopefully they’ll get to it soon so you can play too. Fingers crossed. :slightly_smiling_face:

The designs in the Catalog are available to all of us, no issues there :wink:

That’s the inherent danger with typing responses at the same time. Chuckle! Glad you’ve got access to them.

Carry on. :smile:

Sorry, still the same for me in the UK for Catalog items.

We are unable to calculate shipping rates for the selected items.

Hi there, another UK based new owner here.
I also can’t buy designs and met with the message:
We are unable to calculate shipping rates for the selected items.

Surely as with the designs which are free the process grants you online library access to the purchased design either once or in perpetuity and postage is irrelevant?

I suspect VAT is due if it supplied to an EU state. When it is a physical object that passes through customs they hold it to ransom to collect the VAT. When it is a service that comes via the internet how does the VAT get collected?

Possibly GF has to become VAT registered in each EU state and charge it at source at the appropriate rate for the country and add that complication to their shop software.

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That could certainly be the problem.
I’ve bought digital files before where VAT was added.

I stand corrected indeed, I had tried putting one in my basket but hadn’t gone as far as checkout as I didn’t actually want to buy anything yet. True indeed, I can’t buy them either. So yeah, still stuck for spending store credit…

I have the same problem.

Can’t buy any designs from the catalog as I get the same error on the checkout page.
(We are unable to calculate shipping rates for the selected items.)

I’m so sorry for the frustration, everyone. The team is working hard to enable the shop for International Proofgrade and Catalog purchases. Unfortunately, it’s not available yet.

However, we want you printing right away!

There are a wide variety of materials that are laser compatible, including many (but not all) woods, plastics, leathers, and papers. Like a microwave, though, you have to be careful what you put inside. Using the wrong materials can cause damage to your Glowforge or harm to you or others. For that reason, we recommend purchasing from suppliers who can guarantee that their materials are CO2 laser-compatible. I believe both Trotec and Inventables guarantee laser compatibility and ship to your region, although I’m not an expert in other companies’ products.

If you want to see if the community has suggestions about materials and/or material settings from other sources, you can search in Beyond the Manual. Please note that advice in this section of the community is unsupported and not reviewed by Glowforge as we can’t give authoritative advice for other companies’ products.

If you have any other questions, please create a new post in Problems and Support and we’ll help you right away!