While the post I deleted made points that I feel everyone should be aware of, it shines a bit of negative light on the whole “First Units Shipping December” marketing tactic that I don’t think would be very productive. As I believe in what the folks at Glowforge are doing, I don’t want to see a dishonest/misleading marketing move hurt a hard working team or a ground breaking product that I believe in. I chose to remove the post rather than risk fanning the flames.
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I really dislike all the focus on the shipping in December bit. I can see where people completely new to the concept of crowdfunding or even small businesses in general might be deceived by that.
But at what point is it that we can assume people in general understand how crowdfunding works? The concept has been around a fair while now. You pre-order, and then what is often a very small and brand new company figures out a lot of things about manufacturing that you really cannot learn without doing it. Chances are real good they miss their initial timelines.
But further… when crowdfunding blows their goal out of the water, anyone familiar with the idea of crowdfunding should immediately understand that there will be massive backorder issues. The higher the intake of orders before you arrive, the longer until you personally see a unit.
Anyway… it isn’t a very worthwhile discussion IMO, because people on one side of the issue came in naive about how this sort of a transaction works. And telling people that they were naive unfortunately never sits well with them, but there is little else which can be said here. There is nobody “in the wrong” in any way. There is just a completely understandable miscommunication issue.
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Well don’t get me wrong either, here.
Im not new to crowdfunding.
I’ve backed this project as well.
I admire what Dan and his team is doing.
But I find totally unfair, precisely compared to what they’re doing, this dark marketing maneuver of FIRST UNITS SHIPPING DECEMBER, MOST UNITS SHIPPING AUGUST 2016 thing… They’re not new to crowdfunding unlike most of the other companies that do start on kickstarter places and do find realistic unexpected nastiness that kick their projects back.
Ok I can take Dan is new to lasers as well, but if he is for one admitting he is new to this and at the same time admitting he does not see a problem in the marketing scheme when most of the units will ship on August next year, then I might be just an alien and I’ll have to swallow my decievement, shut up and wait.
Where did you read that most units are shipping in August? I’ve seen Dan post that they hope to get most out in the first 6 months of 2016.
I did expect things to be a bit further along since they raised 9 million before they started crowd funding. But I still feel it is going to be worth the wait.
I think you might have read that wrong. I believe Dan said that they were hoping to have all the units shipped by August. That doesn’t mean they won’t be shipping till then. Once they start producing them it’s going to take a long time to fulfill all of the pre-orders. So if you got in late then ya, you won’t see your unit till august. But I’m sure people will start getting their orders long before that.
Sorry it didn’t copy link, search “August”.
SO, basically, there are still a hundred ways all machines could have not shipped by August 2016…
If you’re not happy with the ship date you can always get a refund
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Of course, that’s not what matters here though.
Death rays from mars could throw this whole shipping schedule off too. Not sure if @Dan has planned for that.
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Yeah or Dan be the next Steve Jobs and me just surrounded of blind fan boys…
Yikes. I can’t figure out why you haven’t asked for your money back yet. You don’t seem to have any good feelings about ANYTHING regarding this prototype. The logic is sound here: A December ship date is probably unrealistic, but somewhere between then and August of next year might be. If that doesn’t work for you (and it really sounds like it doesn’t), cx your order. But you can stop trying to save us from ourselves now… I’m not a fanboy (girl) yet, but I plan on being one somewhere between December 2015 and August 2016. 
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Yeah, definetly, MY decision. I do have all the right to claim my money back anytime between now and august, agreed, indeed. I was just gauging just that. The amount of “idontcare” out there…
I personally care about these practices because I’ve been involved in shady stuff before and personally hate it, it’s just me,and again, MY decision, my right to stay or quit. Same as my right to complain.
True that… and at this point I am only contributing to your negativity, so I’ll bow out. Cheers!
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I know I’ll probably get slammed by many in writing this. I can write pages and pages but try to keep it basic. I’m not a engineer, I’m not a professional designer. I’m just a small business person who has big dreams. My career is based on manufacturing focused in the supply chain area. Producing a complex machine like this and with a basic understanding of the components inside this machine, it’s not as easy to buy the parts and build it. The raw parts needs to be manufactured and there’s a leadtime (time for parts manufacture raw components), manufacturing time and logistics of it all. I see that there are still design tweaks, which is common for first run units like this one. I’m personally not excited that it could take 4 to 6 or more months for the unit I pre-ordered but I realized this at time of order. It’s not surprising to see a August 2016 possible ship date. I really hope it’s sooner. Knowing that I can cancel prior to shipping has been comforting as at least for myself be monitoring status of the first shipments as people will review it when they get their hands on it. I’ll probably upgrade it actually if lucky enough to get referral buys (anyone?)
The person who reviewed it has a right to his opinion, and if you chose not to purchase based on that opinion it is okay. I’m just trying to shed light on how difficult it really is for get things from prototype to production ready.
I’ve been searching for a high powered laser for many months for my small business before I found this unit
Things to consider
Are you willing to spend $10,000 on a machine that may need a lot of trouble shooting?
There are US made laser machines already established in the market, I would have purchased, but for $15K-20K is completely out of most people’s price range.
Yes, it may take 6-12 months but remember, it’s half the cost of a unit already out there and made for small time makers (at least like me) and it’s safe to keep inside the home.
As with any start ups, there is always an inherit risk of not receiving the units. Research helps calm the risk nerves so you can make an informed decision to that risk. I read everything I could, what all the videos and read about the key team members and felt comfortable to pre-order
A key thing for me is I don’t have to learn new vector based software. I’m having enough trouble self teaching illustrator!
For a novice designer with big dreams like me, this unit is a strong fit. I hope I helped shed like on what I see during this pre-order stage
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@ Cindyhodesigns
I like your angle on this topic. I tend to see this time as a collection of designs and a set focus for when it is delivered. I, like many other people who ordered early, immediately thought that it would arrive sometime around December. Reading this article allowed me to understand more. I too am familiar with designing and offering things to the market. I have a board game that I am working on and it seems that there are always little or even major changes that can and do take place. Ok, so they might not have had a functioning air filter for the show, at least they have the proof of concept for what it needs. I too would like to see them make certain that the exhaust and fume pattern is kept as close to 100% as far from the optics as they can keep it. This machine is costly enough without having to deal with costly maintenance that could have been avoided. Bringing all these things up is good and I hope they are taking note and making the checks that they need to.
Dan and his team are amazing at responding and keeping us up to date. I wish them the best speed and success in this endeavor.
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@ kenclown I’m glad I can provide a different point of view. I rather have my unit come later with the bugs worked out and they rush it. Believe me, I had vendors to that to me and I had to explain to my customers why quality is down the hill. Glowforge doesn’t want massive warranty return in the 6 to 12 month period. It’ll probably bankrupt them and kill the reputation. The initial target of the funding was $100,000 which is only 50 basic model units and if there’s $9.5M backers now, it has to be a least 3000-3500 units (not sure if Glowforge thinks it that way but that’s how I think of it) How I look at it if they pipeline materials, it wouldn’t have been for 3000 machines as they themselves are astonished over the excitement of their products. I’ve worked with designers and engineers most of my career and one thing I can tell you is there are lazy ones who just do enough to get an mediocre or just acceptable product and good ones who work to produce and exceptional one. Now, I don’t know anyone personally at Glowforge and as far as I know, they could be on the negative end of the spectrum. However from what I read so far, I don’t see enough to form that opinion so I like to think of them as the ones who believe in their product.
Side now, now that I understand that the exhaust is close to the optics is a concern. I’m going to research that to see if that will adjust my decision.
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I want to buy you a beer
What we read from the material posted on the web site was that orders would begin to ship in December, and that it could take well into the first half of 2016 to ship all pre-orders. Given just how successful the pre-orders have been, it wouldn’t surprise us if some orders do not ship until summer of next year…
Before we placed our pre-order in September, we read the FAQ thoroughly and in particular the “When will my GlowForge ship?” question. The answer is the same today as it was last month…
We’ll ship the first units in December 2015 and roll out the rest of the units over the next few quarters as production ramps up. We can’t guarantee ship dates at this time or tell your spot in line, but it’s safe to say that the sooner the order is placed, the sooner it will ship.
That doesn’t seem like a dark marketing maneuver at all, in our opinion.
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