Totally agree with you. Multiple times I’ve waited days without a response, even had my query overlooked while others were receiving answers rather frequently. Their customer service excels at some things, especially when it comes to getting a warranty out, but when it comes to general questions and responses, they tend to fall short. Hang in there, hope it was worth the wait when you do receive it! 
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this seems to be the best way to get notified. GF seems to miss on sending out shipment notifications sometimes, which is a little annoying. but if you’re having it delivered to a residential address (UPS at least doesn’t work with business addresses, not sure about Fedex), as soon as someone fills out a shipment ticket, it shows up in your account. often before any company tells you. i have an ikea shipment (more shelves for my ivar to hold more laserable material!) that showed up in fedex before i heard from ikea. we’ll see if fedex still delivers it today (out for delivery on the truck, but i have 3-4 in of snow and now a wintery mix falling on top of that).
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i think that’s my biggest worry. with all the snow in Wisconsin i want someone to be at home for this so its not just sitting outside. I can take off of work but i don’t just want to ASSUME it will be here on that date. i just wanted confirmation. Just wanted to know others experiences since i feel like i’m not the only one with this issue
In the same boat… says 22nd but nothing on shipping yet. I figured perhaps they use expidited shipping and subsequently that I might not receive the notice until today or tomorrow. If I don’t receive some update by EOD tomorrow I will start ringing alarm bells.
Having been on the other side and worked with delivery of expensive and hotly awaited - oft delayed consumer technology products I sympathize with the folks at Glowforge and can imagine things are insane on their end. That said…
I would like to say out loud that the customer support and pre-delivery process could be improved here and doing so would be of long-term strategic benefit. I’m still a bit uneasy about the fact that there is no way to contact a real live human at glowforge, even via chat. For all you people that say “that’s just how they do business” - I don’t think that’s a legitimate round of logic. Again I’ve worked in bleeding edge tech, never have I heard of total abandonment of human contacts, maybe at the sales but not at the support level - at least not in a product so expensive. From experience, providing basic proactive support on the front end can build excitement and can go a long way towards improving brand loyalty - even with faces with the occasional production delay or product issue.
I probably would have already spent more money on accessories and proofgrade stock if I wasn’t a little sketched by pre-delivery. If nothing else, by providing a more detailed “pizza tracker” type pre-delivery that provides incremental (sometimes even superficial) progress updates to placate the curious waiting customer. This would likely drastically reduce their inbound “where is my machine” tickets.
Anyhow I’m optimistic shipping details will come soon, the machine will arrive on time, and that this hiccup will be quickly forgotten once awesome things start coming out of the Glowforge.
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Okay. this makes me feel better and that I’m not alone in this 22nd delivery date.
I legit sent an email in this morning in response to the one guy that acknowledged my existence last week saying “blink twice if you still exist, email back if you know my tracking info” I feel that after spending $2500 I shouldn’t have to send out signal flares…but here we are.
I just wanna know if it will be at my door on Friday and if I can start cutting things or not! I have so many projects and I know I will forget about delivery issues once it’s here…
just throw me a bone @dan and blink twice if you’re alive!
They really do need to explain this a little bit better somewhere, because we frequently have to explain that the date that you see on the web site is a target date for your units to ship out. It’s not set it stone, it’s an estimate based on a computer algorithm that calculates when your unit is likely to be ready to ship, based on a lot of variables going on at the factory and with the supply chain.
Having said that, if you are getting close to the date and it hasn’t shifted, Congratulations! You will probably be hearing from them soon! 
When your unit has been built and is ready to go, you should receive an email from Glowforge verifying your address information along with instructions first…(I think…keep in mind we didn’t do it this way.) Then your unit will ship and you will receive it depending on how far away you are from the factory in California where they make them, what the weather conditions look like across the country, and whatnot. New units ship via UPS ground…you will definitely want to sign up for UPS MyChoice if you want to track the actual arrival. (Sometimes Glowforge gets the arrival notice out to you after it has already arrived, which is kind of amusing. Given the excitement of arrival, no one really cares by that point.) 
Anyway, now is a really good time to prep your area for it’s arrival. Get the table ready. Get your vent port set up if you are doing one so that you can set it up and go.
Also a good time to read through the “Getting Started” training here so you can hit the ground running.
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I did finally get a message back about 5 minutes ago:
I am terribly sorry for the delayed response.
Unfortunately, your order has not yet shipped. I have followed up with our logistics team for an update, and we will send you tracking information immediately when your order ships.
More soon,
Ryan
@hunterjhnstn so your aware, I bet you are in the same boat.
thank you Jules. its hard to order something this expensive and just wait with no feedback from the company other than the charge to my card lol at this point anything is better than nothing!
Yeah, i know. I waited a couple of years.
(Go do some reading…it will speed things up for you dramatically when the machine arrives, and it will take your mind off the waiting.)
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hahahahhahahaha i can only imagine. I remember seeing this come out a few years back before i had money to just throw at it. If your from the original kickstarter group, i’m proud you survived! That must of been exhausting!! I can barely complain seeing I ordered mine a little over a month ago. I have read a ton and have a lot of stuff just ready to start printing to test.
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Well good! You’re gonna love it…hope you get it quickly! 
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they SHOULDN’T be leaving it at your door w/o a signature. it’s a signature required shipment.
personally, both shipments (the original 15 months ago and the repair arriving back tomorrow) i have had held at the shipment company. UPS originally (more of a pain, further drive) and Fedex tomorrow (only 3-4 miles away). that means i don’t have to be home all day waiting to sign for it. i just pick it up on my way home from work.
it also means it doesn’t ride around in the back of a last-mile delivery truck all day and get manhandled 1-2 more times before i get it.
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I would suggest you pick it up from the depot. in the past most damage occured in that “last mile” to the door.
to be fair, we don’t really KNOW it was in the last mile. it just seems most likely. and removing one leg of the trip seems prudent.
Eh. As someone who has traveled down some pretty bad roads with the Glowforge in tow, I don’t know…
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yeah, but the last mile truck wasn’t the only truck that GF rode on over the 3-5 days before it got delivered. and it wasn’t the only time it was loaded on/off a vehicle.
i do believe it’s more likely, obviously, because i have picked mine up personally both times. one less time being handled by people who don’t care as much as i do means one less chance to break it. but it could just as easily get bashed up being shifted in/out of a semi as it could in/out of a box truck. hell, UPS lost my first one for a day after it made it to the depot, so who knows what they were doing w/it then.
well many people reported leaking coolant in teh truck when tehy got the delivery. that’s what I remember.
but it really boils down to “why take the chance?”
obliviously i agree, because i don’t take the chance. no need to add one more person handling it. just saying it could easily break in the semi or in the depot before it made it to the last mile truck. we wouldn’t know where that coolant leak started.
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Guys, guess what…IT SHIPPED. all is well in the world. I am happy and I will have my GF on Monday!
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In general I would have it delivered unless you have a decent SUV and even then it is still better as the box is bigger than you think and takes two reasonably strong people to move it about, or even get it out of the box safely.
Better also to have the Onus on them to get jt to the door in one piece, than having it bounce about in the back of a pickup in weather that can freeze the coolant.