I took a loan to buy my glowforge, and while I’ve paid it off, I’ve also watched my referral credits dwindle not because of anything I did, but because of the inability of Glowforge to make the promised product in the promised time, followed by deliveries showing up looking like an elephant kicked them.

I’m mostly frustrated because the longer this goes on, the worse the deal gets.

I was supposed to be using this to build my small business. Now it’s $500 more expensive than expected, despite me working hours to convince people to also buy into it, (NO reward for selling the product for Glowforge if you can’t keep them on the hook for two years plus, or find additional rubes… heck. I can’t even get MY unit)

And it may show up someday… still.

And when it does, who knows if it’ll work or need to be sent back.

And if I don’t like it, Glowforge values my business such that they’ll be happy to give me my initial investment back (sans 2 years interest earned on it of course) and kick me to the curb. Keeping my five referrals who are still holding on, of course, with no referral “bonus” for them.

Sounds like a GREAT deal for Glowforge.

I still want the machine bc I still have a garage full of stuff to engrave with it. Hopefully sometime in 2018… or 2019… or maybe when my kid leaves middle school. But I am NOT pleased with the way the pre-sale was handled, and I sincerely hope this isn’t the business model we’ll see once it’s handled.

If I or most business owners treated OUR customers like this… well… we just… couldn’t. It feels very terrible to feel like really the only option is to shell out MORE money for a different laser or just accept being treated like this.