Friday I received my Golden Ticket for my Glowforge Pro that I ordered on 10/20/15, very excited that its finally coming to reality.
To be honest after 2 years I almost hit the “wait” button once again. After reading the email the 2nd to last section where Dan talks about sourcing new partners, improving process over time, etc. (which is all both expected and fantastic) it really made me pause and say "Crap I’ve waited 2 years whats another 4-6 months, but the Holiday Season and all the wonderful ideas’s I have overrode my sense to wait.
I really hope that if they do come up with parts or systems that are “materially better” that they retroactively send them to us early adopters. I don’t care if they polish an edge better or make a door .001mm tighter etc, but if they find a way to enhance the performance/reliability of the GF then I would expect (especially after how good the GF team has been) that they will take care of us as, and do the right thing.
Either way, the button has been pushed (not the one I’m really waiting to push) but at least the first one which gets my baby in UPS. Not sure how long it takes from here but I’m anxiously awaiting a Shipping Conformation from UPS.
Thanks to the GF team for making sure we crossed the finish line and making so many enhancements/improvements along the way. I know this is going to be a fantastic product and the community is been nothing sort of incredible.
Congrats! I’m just a touch ahead of you, hoping to see a shipment notice this week. I think you made the right move in not waiting. It sounds like a lot of folks are already doing some great stuff. Let’s join them!
@alexmcclure: I ordered a pro unit on 10/16/15, got my Golden ticket email ~11pm 10/25/17, responded early the next day and made an order on the proofgrade store for some more materials. UPS sent me tracking for the proof grade order on 10/30 with that order showing up on 10/31. Got another email from Glowforge on 11/4 saying the proof grade care package that comes standard is being expedited to arrive ahead of the main unit and tracking shortly after with a delivery ETA for tomorrow (11/7). Still haven’t gotten any word on the laser/main unit shipping from Glowforge or UPS mychoice. In a different thread after saying the same, someone suggested contacting support if it was after the estimated ship date with no notice, and @Dan seconded that. Because that thread moved quickly, >1000 posts, it wasn’t totally clear to me in hindsight whether the notice that proof grade materials were being sent counted as reason not to contact support but wait longer, but I’ve contacted support before and they were pretty quick and helpful so probably better to err on that side in this case. The past couple of years I ran a ~50 staff organization that routinely deals with very grumpy customers and I would have loved for us to have been as responsive/patient as Dan is on the forum and the GF team was by email. I can’t imagine what it takes energetically not to disconnect from the forum altogether, let alone to triage the flow of angrier ones on the scale they had to deal with every time there was a delay (assuming one doesn’t just build a callous to it).
On your other but related point, I’ve not worried about issues with the parts so much because of the approach Dan is taking, not half-arsing it even if it causes delays. You can get some leadership insight from those emails and they engender a confidence I wouldn’t normally put into something like this (have done many other kickstarter/crowdfunded preorders). Walking that line between taking responsibility and remaining enthusiastic without seeming cynical and false is tough, if it weren’t you’d see better crisis response from the Wells Fargos or Equifaxes of the world. My worry would be if Dan decides he wants to see his kids again before college and GF sells to a company that doesn’t care and somehow breaks or tapers out support for the online portion of how the unit works. I know there is probably a robust discussion of this elsewhere on the forums, will have to go looking.
Given how close they are to meeting orders and breaking through to the other side, that danger might be lessening for long enough to equate to the useful life of a unit, but again - would love to be a fly on the wall to know what’s next down the road. If I didn’t live on the other side of the country I probably would have tried going down there in the hopes of meeting the team and learning something about how these things come together.
Anyway, 8-9 days was what it took me after answering the golden ticket email before the first indication of something shipping, obviously more before the laser. Queried support day 11. I will update here when I get word of update.
FYI: The Proofgrade shipment and the GF actual shipment are totally divorced from each other. The Proofgrade comes from Tennessee and the GF directly from the factory in California. The Proofgrade shipping notice does give you peace of mind that the process has started but doesn’t in anyway indicate how much longer the unit will take. Units have arrived anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks after the original email as has been described in that email.
Typically about a week to get your Proofgrade and about three weeks for your Glowforge, but it can be up to six weeks. (It’s very, very rare for it to take that long though!)
I think the bulk of the machines (ie custom fabricated out of aluminum, the circuit boards, the tube, the cases themselves) are likely to be stable and not be significantly improved. More likely that there would be little things like the V-bearings or tiny plastic parts which might be made more (or even less!) rigid, depending on the conditions. I think most people accepting their machines at this stage in the game should do pretty well for themselves.
Yeah, just got the word from support that one should contact them if they go 5 weeks or more from when they provided address without hearing about the laser shipping. For me that would be the start of December unless it ships before then. This is like the adult version of advent.
