That’s going to be much easier to respond to…the problem with venting frustrations is that aside from temporarily making you feel better, it doesn’t always get what’s bothering you across very well.
You are concerned because you are trying to start a business with this thing, and the constantly shifting target arrival date makes it impossible to plan for. I agree, that would be a nightmare of epic proportions.
I’m going to say something that people on this forum tend to react to in a very negative way, but it is not intended as a disrespect…there are certain situations where it makes good business sense to look at alternatives. This is one of them… if you want to actually establish a business with it, and you are international, and you can’t get a fixed date, it makes sense in your case to consider maybe getting a cheap fill-in laser to use and get familiar with the workings of, while you wait for the Glowforge team to get the problems worked out with international shipments.
I’m not trying to put you off of eventually accepting delivery on the Glowforge, because it is a wonderful well-built laser with a world of nice features, but if your business relies on it, you might need an interim plan. You can probably get a cheap local laser that will likely get you some of what you want to accomplish for a few hundred bucks, and fairly quickly. That will let you get started on your business development, or at least help you to get started learning to use a laser. (There’s a learning curve, even with this one…it’s just significantly shorter if you’re already familiar with design.)
The other thing that you can do to prepare for it and save yourself time once it arrives is learn to use your design software of choice while you are waiting. If you’re already an Illustrator or Inkscape guru you can obviously skip this step. If you’re not, then now is a really good time to brush up on it and create some files to have ready for the delivery. You can do that ahead of the arrival by reading the tutorials in the Matrix ahead of time, and playing with the design software: The Matrix
I get it…there’s nothing worse than feeling helpless, and the truth of the matter is, we are completely helpless to impact the date of arrival on the machines. They are going as fast as they can with what they have to work with. But there aren’t any guarantees, and in your situation, that is problematic.
Maybe either of those alternatives will help you to get a little more control of the situation.
And best of luck with getting your business going. 