Really by offering it still for such a discount is total crap. We have paid you over 4000.00 and you still have it this cheap?
It really is a bit insulting, and trying to offer up some materials that cost you next to nothing as a way to hook us on spending more in the long term is more of a joke.
Why do you not end the cheap price and make it MSRP now or with a 10% discount?
I could have waited to buy this when you released it and made more money just leaving it in the bank for 14 months. Not a cool move at all.
A strange argument, though I sympathize with your frustration. It’s unlikely they’d take many orders by asking for $4000 and a several month wait. Prices have already risen once. They’re likely to rise again. It’s definitely not total crap. I don’t think it’s insulting - you were rewarded with your discount and earlier place in line. You might have made around $40 in 12 months by leaving it in the bank. If that is that important to you, perhaps you should consider cancelling and re-ordering later on.
Something to keep in mind is that it’s pretty likely you’ll never have to pay the full MSRP for a Glowforge. You might pay something much closer but it’ll probably never be all the way there. If that’s what it takes for you to be satisfied, you’ll likely never be.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if it always sells for less than the MSRP - that seems to be a thing sometimes. A lot of times.
But I also feel like it makes sense that it’s still discounted because it’s still preorder. If they do sell for the MSRP, I doubt it will be before they have the finished product in hand and immediately available.
Well 8000 and yeah I agree but discount it 10 to 15% then. The way to offer us some cheap crap as a hey we are sorry, it just feels weak and having the cost for the unit only go up 10% after the preorder feels like a joke.
This unit was bought and paid for in full and now need to wait 14 months before we can even start to test it?
What about in December when they say they are having still yet another issue?
I feel like this is becoming a waste of time, many of us can use this tech to get a jump on the market for our businesses. Problem now is others are already making units like this and cheaper.
If we wait much longer we will become irrelevant.
Like when 3D printers came out if you owned one you could generate lots of business, now everyone has one and they are cheap enough for the normal person to buy.
This is already starting to happen and the longer it takes the less value it has.
As much as I hate hearing people recommend cancelling, it really seems like maybe this isn’t for you. Sorry, but this is the reality of crowdfunding. Delays suck, but they should be expected. I have a feeling that you’re not going to be happy no matter what solution the company comes up with, and you should perhaps consider
going after one of these instead. But I haven’t seen anyone doing quite what these guys are doing at this price. If you’re talking about the Mr. Beam II, that does some of the same things, but few of them as well.
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I can not for the life of me understand why people feel better when they get something others can’t have. Yes, fairness dictates that if the price was lowered before December shipping all of us should get that discount, but why do I care if everyone gets my discount for another six months or year? The price did go up after 30 days so the company was not being disingenuous. Even if they were, do you get angry at every mattress store that offers 50% off a new bed this weekend? I’ve never seen anyone pay full price for a mattress, ever. Then there are the people that get angry because it just seems to make them feel good. Anger only makes sense if it can effect some sort of change. I guess it’s because I am incapable of anger or even real sadness, I just don’t get it.
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I totally agree with this logic. To take it even further, the lower the price of the Glowforge the more they can sell and the larger the support/user community will be which benefits all of us.
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My credit union offers 2% on the first $15k of deposits and 0.25% after that, so best case scenario $80/yr on my $4,000. I’d like the money around too, but my lost interest was always at risk.
A quality grade plywood is not cheap. One guaranteed not to flame out on a knot is definitely not “cheap.” Same thing for the solid hardwood jkopel showed off today and presumably the leather. I have yet to find cheap acrylic or delrin. If you have no need for it, then worthless may be an appropriate descriptor.
As regards business I need a little help here. Say your option is between a $20k laser cutter (that has essentially been around for 30 years) and a $4k glowforge. What could a person possibly make that a $16k capital difference makes or breaks their plans? Even if you have to pay 9% on capital, that is $120/ mth difference between the two.
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I’ll buy anyone’s “worthless” material pack for $40 (shipped). Contact me when the Glowforges ship and I’ll PayPal you $40.
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I’ll offer $41. Maybe someone should set up an eBay auction for unwanted material.
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But… that’s what preordering is. You buy something before you can have it. The unknown is part of the risk.
Fortunately, glowforge is being quite generous with refunds. If you can’t wait – and I think quite a few reasonably can’t – then cancelling might be your best option.
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This is actually a really good point. Especially for anyone wanting to sell designs, like through the catalogue – you want the biggest customer base you can get.
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Thanks for your take on the free materials.
I myself think it is a fair enough compensation for my wait. The more I try to plan for using my Glowforge, the more I think I am going to have to buy some laser-ready stuff. At least at the beginning I can get a sense of the workflow with some quality material. I’m not quite understanding how the materials would cost next to nothing. To me it seems like a big expense for Glowforge.
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I’d still rather they cut the price by the equivalent of the shipped material cost.
If you want the material pack buy it with the savings on the machine, at the very least offer me the choice of how I want to be equally compensated.
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Before I received the email about the delay I had already purchased three boxes of 1/8" plywood. Add 16 sheets of cast acrylic, I can vouch the plywood for laser cutting is not cheap.
The acrylic is also not cheap.
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On another discussion I offered $50 for your materials. Not wanting to price you guys out - but seriously, if you don’t want those materials, I do, too.
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Ill have to say that im not sure how financially efficient small refunds would be. They probably have a certain amount of money that they could throw out for appeasement and Ive noticed that they have to put a fairly high premium for monetary transactions. For example, it cost them over $100 to refund my filter purchase. That is almost a 20% premium, and it may scale inversely. So by offering us materials it could be a much more meaningful gesture than giving us all $50.
This is all pure speculation of course, as they havent really spoken to their motivations. Just throwing the concept out there for consideration.
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What do you mean by Premium? Please explain.
They had to pay a $100 fee to the company handling their transactions in order to refund my filter purchase price.
No kidding? That much of a fee? Yikes.