I just spoke to someone who didn’t buy a Glowforge because their web site hid all the contact info. No forums. Basically nothing buy a buy now button. I didn’t understand but it turned out they went to
So Glowforge lost at least one sale because of this.
if GF wants to know who’s referral code it is, this is it.
glowforge.us / PYMZZPAO
they try to make you jump through hoops to get it. throwaway emails fix that.
Yeah, that site is not an official Glowforge site, just somebody trying to get you to use their referral code. Hopefully they will get shut down pretty quick—I’m pretty sure this is not allowed in the referral program.
Thank you for pointing this out.
Looks like it has been registered for a while:
Domain Name: GLOWFORGEDISCOUNT.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2269036326_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.google.com
Registrar URL: http://domains.google.com
Updated Date: 2018-05-29T02:07:40Z
Creation Date: 2018-05-29T02:07:40Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2019-05-29T02:07:40Z
Registrar: Google Inc.
Registrar IANA ID: 895
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: registrar-abuse@google.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.8772376466
Domain Status: ok https://icann.org/epp#ok
Name Server: NS-CLOUD-B1.GOOGLEDOMAINS.COM
Name Server: NS-CLOUD-B2.GOOGLEDOMAINS.COM
Name Server: NS-CLOUD-B3.GOOGLEDOMAINS.COM
Name Server: NS-CLOUD-B4.GOOGLEDOMAINS.COM
The buyer gets a discounted laser, the referral code owner gets his bonus, Glowforge sells more units. What’s the problem?
Pretending to be an official Glowforge site. The OP complained about no contact info, no forums, causes confusion for the customer.
Plus there’s the whole thing where it at least pushes the boundary of the rules of the referral system.
I don’t see where the site owner is presenting AS Glowforge. But certainly makes no effort to say they’re not Glowforge. And they may be using copyrighted images illegally.
Going 55 MPH in a 55 MPH zone “pushes the boundary,” but it isn’t illegal.
i think you could easily interpret it to be over the line, if you want. but, more importantly, the impression that it gives by looking similar to the site, including using the GF images right from their home page, definitely seems over the line.
I don’t think that the website strategy is necessarily breaking the rules, but the fact they used an image from the Glowforge website to make it look officially Glowforge. That is copyright infringement at the very least. Trolling for referrals is shady, but the unauthorized use of Glowforge IP is the problem, IMHO.
Absolutely. Just saying that, aside from the illegal use of a couple of images, there’s nothing I can think of that’s wrong conceptually with what this person’s done.
conceptually it’s much easier than literally.
the terms say you can put the link on your site. i’m not sure they imagined you creating a domain purely to harvest referrals.
and if you type glowforge and discount in google, guess what site comes up first?
even if it falls within the literal rules, it’s truly a bit skeevy and sketchy.
The eBay stuff is probably a greater violation. This, at least, is attempting to stay somewhat within the guidelines of the program by having people basically sign up for a mailing list, creating a connection.
I call it smart and innovative.
Tomato, Tomahto… Either way, it’s got Tom in it, so it’s good.
i definitely agree with ebay being way worse.
same as the people who are spamming folks DMs in facebook when they post interest in the facebook group.
this is less in your face.
IMHO, this person is blatantly claiming that his site is the Glowforge site by visually duplicating the official site. There’s no other way to interpret it. Even his URL is similar. Glowforge should stipulate that referral codes cannot be sold and/or advertised via dedicated web site.
Thanks all! Since this problem isn’t one we’ll resolve as part of Problems & Support, I’m going to close this thread and we’ll follow up offline.
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