I wanted to give avid forum readers the very first heads up: we’re going to be increasing prices on Dec 14 to $4,000 for Basic and $8,000 for Pro. We’ll also be removing the ability to upgrade your order, so if you want to go from basic to pro, now is the last chance. You can do so at glowforge.com/upgrades.
We do have a serious set of bugs that prevents some upgrades from processing, so if glowforge.com/upgrades gives you an error, contact support@glowforge.com and we’ll process it manually. (This is slower and not recommended if you can use the glowforge.com/upgrades page).
We’ll post this in a December update & in social media etc soon.
I see this as good news and maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it says to me that you as a company are confident that the software is going to make some quantum leaps over the next few months so people will say “sure, sorry I didn’t get in on the ground floor but this is still a good deal”.
Wow. That is a pretty big price hike. As the pass through slot is basically almost useless at this point I hope that means this is changing. Otherwise I guess it is still cheaper than a lot of the competition.
Will there be price changes for the consumable parts of GF? @dan
Not out of line with what they’ve been claiming the discount percentage to have been since the very beginning. I’d expect the software to have a pretty big bump sooner than “in the next few months” though if they think it’s a good plan to hike it in the next half month.
We are supposed to be able to choose an upgrade up until we get our shipping email. Given I have been waiting 2 years and am still 6 months away from getting it (I’m in Australia), this is a pretty pathetic slap in the face. (yes I ordered in the initial 30 days)
@dan what about @pmckee comments? I think he’s right.
Also Is the Pro that big compared to Basic that we need to pay full shipping again?
Finally, re int’l shipping orders of Basic. If we move to Pro, do we experience additional wait or are we moved ahead of shipping? Or… remains the same no matter if we choose Basic or Pro?
Yep. These price increases are right in line with the MSRP listed during the pre-order. That perceived discount was a big part of my motivation for cobbling the $$ together quickly in order to take advantage of the pre-order. I remember feeling a bit miffed when the price didn’t double after the pre-order cut off.
So they’re not pulling a fast one here - this is exactly what they said they’d do.
IMHO, this has nothing to do with when delayed functionality will be finished or bugs squashed. The driver for this is timing - they will finish up delivering initial domestic 30-day campaign Pro orders in about a month and basic orders about a month after that. International is probably just waiting on certifications. They have to start marketing GF to the masses now to keep the lines running and the company solvent, which means a paid marketing/sales campaign. Dremel will be selling Dremel-branded Muses in about a year and GF has to establish a broad GF Brand awareness before then. Dan has commented that he has been recently spending time on marketing issues. One of those issues is what they think the market will bear in terms of price, and then picking that price, and then marketing that price. And at this marketing point in time I’m pretty sure Dan would like, more than us, that all of the Pro-differentiating software was done.
If glowforge is ever going to sell through distribution (retail stores) they need to establish a MSRP. The retailer needs a markup and it seems unlikely glowforge could afford to sell to distributors for half of the pre-order price.
I’m surprised it took you this long to increase the prices.
My view on this is they are moving away from “Pre-Orders”. They are probably going to actually start marketing the Glowforge beyond just facebook. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if they make a deal with a retailer (it would be hilarious if it was Lowe’s). My $0.02 to @GlowforgeStaff, try to get into Michael’s!
The Pro comes with a filter and the Basic does not. The filter has its own shipping charge. When you upgrade the shipping charge for the filter will be added. If you do not want the filter you may upgrade and then contact support and have them remove the filter. This will remove the filter’s shipping charge. They have done this in the past so presumably they will still do it for you. Or just contact support directly and tell them this is what you want to do (unless you want the filter and are only wondering why the shipping charge.)
