I can’t accept delivery if it doesn’t have a user replaceable tube by a technically competent user like myself. That basically means specifying where we can buy the tube. It simply isn’t practical to ship it back to the US due to he cost, downtime, risk of damage and the hassle getting it through customs without paying import duty and brokerage again.
The warranty is also useless for overseas customers for the same reasons and losing our place in the queue for delivery is another blow. If I was being cynical I might think it was a way to shed all the pesky international customers that need extra approvals.
It’s a massive issue for me too and I’m perfectly capable of putting my own tube into the machine. I never would have purchased if this was the case and I bought asap on day 1.
It’s really upsetting to get this news and like I saw elsewhere it’s actually a bigger kicker than all of the delays so far.
Wow. Yeah, I would never have purchased one of these lasers if I’d known I’d have to ship this back. I’m gonna have to think hard about cancelling, now.
Yeah I ordered the basic to use for hobby purposes that might generate a little income… but only being able to use it for 2ish years (maybe more since it won’t be full time) after the investment of not just $$ but also two years time waiting… it’s a pretty strong blow.
I can’t afford a different laser at the moment, so I’m willing to wait around a bit to see if GF comes up with a solution, even if it’s something like local or semi-local techs. I’m willing to drag the machine from the south of France up to Amsterdam if that’s what it takes to not have to ship it back to the US!
But I also don’t understand why replacing the tube is so difficult if GF staff can do it in just a few minutes?
It’s a guess but I’m assuming they’re having technical people replace the tubes and not, like, customer support staff. It seems like they don’t trust end users to be capable enough to do it themselves.
Which is fine, if that’s the case. It’s a completely reasonable stance. I suspect a lot of customers will actually prefer this. But there’s no excuse for not making the parts available with the understanding that this isn’t really supported under warranty.
I really feel like they dropped the ball with this.
I suspect it’s more about the chance of electric shock when disconnecting and reconnecting the tubes. I’ve been a zapped a few times and it’s quite painful. If you’re advocating someone else does it and they have a weak heart then you’re in all sorts of trouble.
It’s less of an issue with generic laser cutters because they have generic tubes and you can get them from anywhere. I get the feeling you’ll need a special GF tube for these machines and by supplying them GF has to take responsibility for what happens when people change the tubes.
[quote=“m_raynsford, post:13, topic:6372”]I get the feeling you’ll need a special GF tube for these machines and by supplying them GF has to take responsibility for what happens when people change the tubes.
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Sure, it ties into technical knowledge, although there are always precautions you can take. And I think it would be reasonably easy to put up some boilerplate about risk and absolving the company - honestly I can do it myself and so I only care about getting access to the tube.
If they can set something up with whoever makes their tube so that verified customers can buy from them and thus absolve the company of guilt, or whatever, fine.
Honestly, there’s all kinds of risk when my fridge compressor goes out but that doesn’t stop the company from selling me a replacement part.
I have mentioned elsewhere this was the first question i asked of Dan back on the very first day of the crowd-fund. It is an amazing turn-around on a Core Function.
If i was being cynical i would be deeply questioning how no-one has taken the time to think through the design of the system… or why it has not been mentioned until now?
Massive game-changer for me. I simply cannot justify the cost of buying the machine knowing that every 2 years I’ll need to spend a ton of money to keep it working.
Tube replacements are bad enough, but that’s the current state of the technology, no-one to blame there. But spending thousands of dollars/euro/pounds shipping the device across the Atlantic every two years, not to mention the customs headaches? Simply not feasible.
I really will have to cancel my order unless we get a guarantee that replacement tubes will be available for sale, even if replacement is at our own responsibility.
If would suspect all things that are not important for the initial shipment (especially concerning international buyers) have a low/close to zero priority. Not that I advocate this kind of shortsightedness.
I absolutely agree with you! As a machine engineer it must be possible for me to change the tube by myself, anything else is not acceptable!
For me, I would be absolutely fine, if it is not easy and takes it’s Time to alinge it, but it must be possible!
Depending on further details of this I may have to cancel.
Please understand… this is heart breaking. I’ve made so many plans, business and otherwise based on this machine. I have waited patiently through delays, sticking with it because I believed in the machine, the company and most of all I believed in @dan. If I have to cancel now, well, I feel like I have wasted a lot of time, effort, money and emotion.
Please understand @dan how badly this is being received by your customers. I really feel that you owe us more details.
@bdm, I am US based, and its insane that we need to ship the unit back to get the tube replaced. Outside of the costs of shipping back and forth (which I am sure GF will not assume), there is either the space necessary to keep the original packaging to safely ship it back (which is not small), or the costs of re-packaging the item too.
This is make or break for me. Living in Malta, I need to know whether I can get a tube in the future that I (or a nearby technician) can fit, before shipping otherwise I will have to seriously consider cancelling!
If I read it correctly @dan 's update indicated that the total cost (shipping plus tube would still be sub $500–US only I’m sure. What I think is going on is here at the end the lawers are taking over and trying to reduce liability. I think we can asssume this is not an engineering g problem because it was part of the original design parameters and Dan was still talking to us about some of the neat tech they had developed to make it easy and precise. If this is true then I hope saner heads take back over soon. This is just an industry standard, tubes are a consumable. I sure wouldn’t buy a copier if I was told I had to ship it back or even let a tech replace the toner. Even for me this is a real potential deal breaker. My intended use was a home based business, and loosing a few weeks every time the tube needs to be replaced is unacceptable. Just going to sit and listen for a while.
Absolutely, but if it’s truly a technical issue and not a lawyer one, it’s something that would have been known much sooner than a couple months before their again-confirmed shipping date.