Didn’t take it any other way. Tried to honestly answer your question. Can’t offer anymore because I’m not sure which piece of the puzzle you are missing. On the other note and nothing to do with our conversation; I’m sure that GF doesn’t have any such list, but deep down inside I wish they did. My reasoning is that there will be inevitable minor problems with either shipping or function on the early units. I would rather not see a public airing of every little issue during that fine tuning period. It’s unnecessary and counter productive as long as GF is working to fix the problems for the rest of us. Not trying to protect GF the company, I’m thinking about our investment and the long term viability of future upgrades.
I would imagine that “humming along” would mean they have shipped enough units out WITHOUT being called up immediately about broken components due to poor packaging, that they are reasonably certain anything sent out international will arrive in perfect condition, rather than arriving broken and requiring an additional shipment of new parts or even a return and re-ship of a defective unit.
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@confezioni_clever: I’m sorry if the news that your location would be a factor in shipping came as a surprise. Unfortunately there are a number of things that we can’t do for our international customers, including free shipping on warranty repairs, detailed advice and compliance assistance with local regulations, and so on. If that means Glowforge isn’t right for you, let us know and we’ll get you a full and prompt refund.
Dear @rpegg,
Thank you again for your feed. It is completelly understandable that GF is working to fix all the problems and bugs, and it is admirable that they will test it with the public before going to mass shipping.
The piece of the puzzle that I’m still missing is how this issue will be handled. Is there really going to be in international B-List that will be shipped after the US Market, or is it going to be as @jacobturner stated that they will start shipping internationally as soon as the bugs and packaging issues are solved?
I believe inthe Glow Forge and this is why I decided to Invest in GF even if I’m not a wealthy person. I’ve personally decided to pay over 3000 USD to GF all completelly based on trust. I know that 3000 USD in comparison to 27 Mil is nothing, but I think I may have the right to expose an issue. I’m not try to talk bad about GF nor @dan (If that was the case I would have not pre-purchased the GF). All I’m try to do is UNDERSTAND how this will be handled.
I will keep following the developments and I will not cancel my order, because I believe in the GF, but in complete honesty, I’m afraid. I have the feeling that there is still a lot of shadowy parts in the international shipping procedure. But as I said I’ll keep myself updated to UNDERSTAND MORE.
Best to all!
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Dear @dan,
As I stated in the last comment, The GF is something that I have believed since I have first heard about. Giving us, common people, the opportunity to create new ideas is something that inspired me. Probably my bad english came across as rude, but I was just trying to clear some issues that came to my mind.
The most important thing is that we will receive the GlowForge with all the other pre-order buyers, and not months and months later (except for the test rinners, of course). My question for extra warranty or extra perks was due to the fact that we will have to deal with extra costs, and it could have been a solution to make it fair for US based user and international as well, but at the same time it is understandable that the GF company cannot offer a better solution for international users compair to US based ones.
So apologies if my concerns cretaed an issue, but I just have one last question: Could the International shipping be post-poned after June if the usability tests confirm th good quality of the GF?
Thank you for all the help,
Riccardo
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Your English seems to be better than mine and English is my primary language. But the final question was a little unclear. You can edit it. I think you are asking whether the International customers might see delays past June even if everything goes well. I doubt Dan will answer that question because even if testing goes well any number of other issues could push production back. He might answer what sort of delay they anticipate between initial U.S. production and the first International shipments.
@confezioni_clever: I appreciate your support. Our goal is to deliver what we promised - a wonderful product that ships to you in the first half of next year. We’ll do everything we can to deliver on that.
Will everyone be getting an email about getting one shipped during the beta program in december? I don’t remember whether I indicated (or there was somewhere to indicate) that I would be using mine at a makerspace.
Look at the main Glowforge website FAQ “When will my Glowforge ship?” It was updated on Monday. It says “If you’re interested in getting an earlier, beta unit, keep an eye on your email. We’ll send an email when we’re ready for volunteers to try the first units.” (I probably shouldn’t post this because I would volunteer in a heartbeat).
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Oh, yes. I would be a test subject. I hadn’t noticed that. I keep going back to the main page and waiting for the catalog links to go live, but not much else.
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Haven’t seen anything about when the Catalog or GF provided materials would be available. I’m guessing that’s a lesser priority until the first units ship. Don’t know, it just makes sense to me.
Yes, my question was in response to that post (how would I have known about a beta program otherwise?). I was just asking for more details.
As i have mentioned before with another great technology, the Oculus Rift, a poorly handled release to its backers can lead to headaches.
Glowforge is mimicing the same style as Oculus with no clear order ‘position’ and an uncertain release date for Consumers. I am not saying that is a negative, not at all, if i were in your shoes i would advise the same but as @confezioni_clever has said it does lend itself to grumblings as non-US countries (who have paid a fortune for shipping fees) feel they are being treated second-class.
This was a HUGE issue for the Rift and all the time and effort they saved in NOT giving detailed shipping plans was eaten up dealing with irate O/S backers.
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You can’t know what you can’t know. I’m sure the company has an internal project plan hanging on the wall with development, test, production and shipping schedules broken down into a couple hundred steps. It would include a bunch of certification steps including CE and UL. It would have slop in the schedule for Beta test problems, and a gazillion other variables. But it’s still only a plan. Announcing an order sequence beyond what has already been stated would be commercial suicide. They can’t really know. I ran a $115,000,000 3 year project that was delivered on time and on budget, and another of equal complexity that was 18 months late with severe overruns. I developed a good plan for each but it’s always only an educated guess. Once production starts, and there are some successful shipments, they will have better confidence. The international customers are in no way second class. Just a few extra unknowns. My order is about ~#275 and the company plans to ship in sequence when possible. But the model I purchased could always have problems with Beta testing. It’s possible I could end up with #4000 waiting for the bugs to be worked out. No reason for me to complain about something out of the company’s control.
You are a smart man! Respect!
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As usual, rpegg’s got good insight. More generally: we tried to be very deliberate about promising things we think we can deliver on (shipping first half next year; all things being equal, first ordered first fulfilled) and not promising anything else. If you’re expecting something other than what we promised, you should definitely ask for a refund because we hate to disappoint people.
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This Tested article suggests that Makerspaces will be among the first to receive their glowforge laser cutters. Is there a mechainsm or process by which Makerspaces such as ours (Binghamton University Emerging Tech. Studio) can register or establish oursevles in that group? We have several hundred active students/faculty involved, and we’d be thrilled to provide usage feedback on a regular basis. Even if shipping order is not impacted as the Tested article suggests, we’d still like to help out however we can. 3D printers get all the hype, but I think that this will ultimately see more usage than any individual printer based on the type of objects being fabricated currently.
From a post 4 hours ago.
Sorry…operator error.
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