It’s very sad to see your first experience appears a bit disappointing. I’ve received mine last week, and it wasn’t without hiccups either. Although no broken acrylic for me (luckily!), I had some similar issues: the milling carriage also didn’t move up/down at first, failing to home, and it was not until I tried to rotate the centre nut (on top of it; with a wrench, but without applying any force) for a few turns and tried multiple (4-5) times turn it on/off. Not sure what exactly fixed it, but it eventually worked. Secondly, I noticed a big discrepancy in the milling depth, and the reason for it is that Carvey thinks the carriage is higher by ~4.3mm than it actually is. Therefore, it’s always milling lower, down to the wasteboard unless I adjust the material thickness by that factor. Not a big deal for me, I was just lucky enough not to hit any metal screws in the wasteboard before I noticed that. If yours has the same issue you probably weren’t. Apart from that, I already carved a couple more fairly dimensional things and everything looks great.
Hear! Hear!
@KristianO_Gundersen and @nikodll it sounds like both of yours had some shipping damage. Did you contact Customer Success? We need to get this fixed for you or replace your Carvey entirely.
@Zach_Kaplan, The only issue I have right now is the discrepancies in material thickness. I did contact the customer service and they promised to release a software fix soon that could re-calibrate the machine. However, yesterday Carvey failed to home for some new reason: while it was pulling the wasteboard backward, it reached to back wall and stopped with an error message in Easel. I moved the wasteboard plate back and forth a bit and then tried to “home” a couple of more time until it eventually worked. Very strange. I will keep the customer service informed 
@Zach_Kaplan sure. Skype for example. You can search for “nikodll” to add me. I can do the chat any time between 5:00PM and 12:00PM GMT timezone. If Skype doesn’t work for you for any reason Hangouts or Firefox Hello is also fine, you can send me invitation to nikodll at gmail - com
Hi Carvey team! I’ve received a pre-shipment notification but will you send a notification or tracking number once shipped? My Carvey is being shipped to an address that is quite a drive away so I don’t check it often unless I know there is something there.
Can’t wait to get carving!
@SamyKamkar yes you will get a tracking number email the day it ships.
@nikodll do you have time at 4pm CST tomorrow? (Friday)
Are there any updates? I spoke with folks at Inventables couple of month ago(actually before x-mas) and they estimated to ship within around 10 weeks. Ordering page now says 10 weeks. Are the pre-ordered units shipping now ?
On January 18, you promised an update. Still waiting. I was an early Kickstarter investor, live in Berlin and haven’t heard a thing. I do understand that problems come up, but I do not understand the total lack of communication. How difficult can it be to send a note to people who sent money more than half a year ago? I trusted you, but you do not seem to appreciate that. And don’t send me one of those “we appreciate your support, love you, couldn’t do without you…” messages. Just a date.