I get where you’re coming from as far as value.
The $499 price is committed to in the FAQ - not an estimate.
If it cost more, as a customer paying for repairs, we should know what is being paid for - whether it’s disposal fees, coolant refills, something they found while they were in there - or whatever.
I 100% agree that you should have a break-down of repair costs, at the very least parts vs. labor. And, ideally, on a rough idea how long to expect a tube to last.
As for the rest, this is not the norm when you buy something. If you buy a coffee pot, there is no document that suggests the life of the carafe, even though they have decades more experience than GF. And even if you had that information, it would not be helpful because it always varies significantly based on use.
I think your main point is valid, but I think you’re diluting your complaint with requests for things that are neither available nor practically useful. I hope you’re able to get the answers you need, though.
Except you’d never know because you don’t know what you paid for, which is I think where the OP holds frustration. [I mean, given that my machine cost $2500, I don’t think I’d ever consider a $1000 repair bill a “deal,” but that’s not really the point. They could send back an entirely new machine and how would you know?]
Yeah, not cool at all. It may be legal, but at minimum it’s a shady business practice. Not providing an invoice showing the repairs is a system that allows for abuse and fraud. (To b clear, I DO NOT think that’s what’s happening as Dan and company have proven to be very ethical, but the system itself is flawed.) The consumer has a right to know what they are paying for.
They need to update that. Pronto. They’ve probably forgotten all about it in light of the other things they’ve got going on.
By sharing the research that I did earlier, I hoped to point out to other customers who are new to lasers that replacement of the tube is a costly and time consuming process. For all lasers. Something that they might not have considered before purchasing. But it seems to be a normal cost of doing business with a laser.
Can’t assist with getting Glowforge to give more information when they do a repair. They don’t tell me anything either. I had to look it up. 
Why? Is that not the price?
Don’t know. I’d be shocked if it was. I think it costs more than that to fix one of these things.
Dan reaffirmed that price a month or so ago in a response to someone asking for the info. They’ve not “forgotten”.
Your math was interesting but a bit flawed - it’s based on retail rates. Someone making 10,000+ of anything gets a quantity deal on all the parts that go into it. If standard retail pricing algorithms apply, their tube probably costs them in the 100-150 range. (& I’d be closer to the lower end) Labor is probably in the $20 range as it’s not a highly complex skill - just needs training so they can have minimum wage+ folks doing the work. The alignment of the GF is easier than the standard laser machine due to the simplified light path and the mounting of the tube on the gantry. Total time to replace and realign/run calibration is probably under 90 minutes (I’d suggest an hour might do it but am being conservative). Overall it’s not likely to be costing anything near $1000. Now it might be worth that to an individual since they would have to get parts at retail but then they’re paying themselves…
Regardless, an advertised $499 tube replacement shouldn’t come back at anything other than $499 unless there’s an invoice for the other services and parts required.
My repair was $578.62 + $200 shopping for a total of $778.62, the only thing I can tell is that the lip of the bed lid had started to lose it’s adhesive and was wobbly, I had taped it down and it seems that part was replaced without addressing that or even asking if I wanted it replaced, I was just planning to glue it back, especially if they were gonna charge an additional $278 for that if that’s what they did, seems similar to the $100 windshield wiper replacement job auto shops try to stick ya with when you’re completely capable of handing this yourself, I’m afraid that may have been what the extra charge was for, would be really nice to see this in a breakdown instead of blindly signing off on getting superfluous repairs I wasn’t made privy of.
Your math is also a bit flawed. 
Or not the whole picture, at least.
But, in the end, it doesn’t really matter because it’s a $499 service. It doesn’t matter to me what the tube costs them, or what they retail it for, or what they charge as a labor rate, or what they pay the employee doing it.
In the end, @metaldrummer13 paid $278 extra and he doesn’t know for what. This isn’t right. It also prevents him from knowing the history of his machine.
I don’t have the warranty pulled up at the moment / but there should be a warranty for repairs also (not sure if it just states spare parts, replacement parts, etc.) - but if he has an issue in 2 months: let’s say it was the lid that was the extra repair dollars, and the lid started coming unglued again in 2 months, if the warranty guarantees repairs for 3 months, he would be covered, but he doesn’t actually know what was repaired - so he’s left in a complete position of ignorance because he wasn’t provided the original repair details.
Wasn’t the $499 tube replacement supposed to include shipping? It seems to be $478 extra.
Your point about not knowing what else was done and whether it might break again and ought to be warrantied is a good one (I don’t recall reading anything where they warranty repairs after the initial machine warranty period). It’s one reason auto repair processes are so highly regulated.
He paid $778 total. I assume the $200 shipping was a line item: $299 tube replacement, $200 shipping, and then the extra $279 dollars to fix something.
I don’t know for sure how to interpret the warranty:
Glowforge warrants Proofgrade materials and spare parts against defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 3 months when used as instructed in conjunction with a Glowforge product.
Perhaps, since “spare parts” is a section of the Shop - and its lumped in with mention of Proofgrade, it only applies to what is sold in the shop as spare parts (lens, mirror, etc.)
You’re right. Reading comprehension just isn’t my thing today. I should get back to deck building Although I won’t be able to use any new tools or I’ll likely cut some body part off by misreading the instructions 
While we have but one data point here, if it is glowforge policy to not properly invoice I have to jump on and say that this has to change. They can charge what they will but we deserve to know what we paid for.
He was originally quoted $300 for the tube repair (or maybe $299), plus shipping. [His original post is here.]
The situation isn’t that he sent it back without knowing the cost. He was quoted a cost and given a bill for more after the fact with no explanation of what the extra costs were. I can’t imagine any consumer being OK with this. Now, obviously we are only getting one side of the story, but it’s at the very least past the part where we debate what it should cost.
Out of everything I’m more concerned that it’s been over a month and they are still holding his money hostage. Has this really gone unresolved this long?
edit: It may be worth contacting PayPal about this. Companies tend to respond when their payment processor threatens them.
While I fully agree that GF should supply some information as to what was done, did he really just send a ‘blank check’ amount that GF filled in and took out of his PayPal account?
I was under the impression GF sent an invoice for a solid known dollar amount, this amount was not questioned at the time and paid knowing the amount being sent to GF. I see the frustration in this but what can PayPal threaten GF with?
Having a company dispute a charge on your behalf can usually help speed up the process of getting an invoice. Which I know PayPal can do, they are also known to be a huge pain if you annoy them enough or violate any of their TOS and may freeze your accounts.
Regardless, neither your comment nor this one help at all with the situation. I noticed that it had been what I would consider an unreasonable amount of time without a response and suggested a known solution to speed up finding an answer.
@metaldrummer13, I’m sorry for the failure. I’ve taken the feedback from this thread.
No, there is not.
Our repairs are done in a separate facility by another company with training, parts, and support from our team. The repair facility categorizes problems and charges based on the problem category. I don’t have the actual modifications and/or parts that were done for your repair.
I really appreciate your feedback on this and I’m going to share it with the team to see what more we can do.