Broken on arrival- Broken lid - weak addeshisive

I received my broken glow forge pro after waiting over a month and am very upset. I contacted customer support via email less than 30mins after it got here 2 days ago and have received zero response. This is absolutely nuts for $5000+ machine. Lets hope this post finally gets me a response. I almost dont even want it anymore but id never be able to return it due to the lack of instructions customer support. The lid handle broke off as soon as I tried to open the lid. It seems the glue(on a 5k machine) failed. Normally I would not come to the forms but 2+ days of zero response for a machine I paid over $5000 for and waited over a month to get should have much better CS.

Pic below for refrence.

Support no longer works thru the forum, phone and email are you only options.

They are taking several business days to respond lately.

4 Likes

Hi Justin, that’s a buzz kill.
You should have received an automated response to your email, if you didn’t check your promotions and spam folders.

That’s too bad, this community is the best accessory for your laser, years of experience here with the machines and support.
This has happened before, and there are threads about getting a replacement for machines in warranty, and how people have fixed it when out of warranty.
Blaming the company is a natural response, but we have seen numerous examples of abuse by delivery companies, and we have no idea what trauma yours had during shipping.

It likely won’t happen as quickly as you’d like, but the company will make it right.
Wish it had been a better experience for you, but welcome to the forum!

4 Likes

This is still really bad CS in general. At this price point this should not be a thing. I have a new 5k paper weight that I cant contact anyone about for a response. its been over 2 days and we are going into the weekend so at this point it will probably be 5+ days. That’s not cool at all.

I went with affrim for payment and am making loan + interest payments on this thing lol. I cant feel ok or good about this at all. I regret my decision to get this now TBH. Maybe in like 3 months when I finally get a new machine I will feel better but re-read that and tell me if you think that is ok?

I don’t think any would try to convince you it’s acceptable. It’s just the current reality.

We usually only hear the negatives, but one member recently shared their very positive experience here. They do what they can to help.

Be prepared for a wait. As evidenced by it taking a month to get your machine, there is no warehouse stacked full of them waiting to be shipped.

5 Likes

I think that if you used some CA glue at the bottom of the slot the glass fits into and very gingerly put it back in place, you might be able to continue to set up and likely get it running and useful for the time it takes for them to replace it. My machine had issues that I was able to work around till after Christmas (several years ago) and it was still covered by the warranty.

As long as you do not do something crazy you will still be able to get a warranty replacement over the lid as soon as they have one available. At least you will not be dead in the water until then, and as you know of the glass/glue issue treat it carefully. Even if they send it out next week you will be more familiar with all the setup routine, and the other one will be easier.

1 Like

What about the 2 soldered connectors that were pulled off? What do they do and are they needed?

I didn’t say anything about it being ok, I was trying to help, and see if you had gotten an automated response - and welcome you to the community. OK? My mistake.

3 Likes

Sorry. It looked like they were still connected. As long as the wiring is still connected and they can get back where they were they would still work. I think they are the sensors for the magnets that are near where the sensors would land when the lid was closed, thus telling you the lid was closed and the machine not working if they did not detect the magnets. Looking closely at the photo the wires look still connected.

2 Likes

They plug into the end of the LED strips down each side of the lid. Check the pins on the strips, they might have gotten bent.

As stated, they are for the lid-open sensors that are down inside the front panel below the handle, magnets are in the lower door.

4 Likes

The company should hire all of you! Much more responsive and helpful. Ill check it out shortly. Thanks so much!

3 Likes

Ill use this info and try to trouble shoot. thanks for the help.

2 Likes

Im not mad at you. I was just saying not to defend them. I am very thankful for the help and suggestions. I just want new folks to be fully aware of a very real issue I am experiencing and the only ones here to help are the community. Glowforge is off doing something else more important than taking care of its brand new customers. They already got my 5k so they only care as much as they legally have to or so it seems.

1 Like

Some context - and read the first sentence in the last paragraph. Just explaining the situation.

The reason response from the folks dedicated to customer support is so poor is that they are understaffed. Only a handful of staff supporting over 100,000 machines (a number that’s been thrown around a bit recently,) It’s gotten a lot worse lately, but it used to be even worse than it is now. My last account-related query a few years back took 11 days to get a response.

The apparent reason it takes so long to get parts or machines is both supply-chain and resource related (and Glowforge doesn’t build or ship them, it’s all outsourced, and communication between them has also always been an issue.) It appears they changed that company not too far back, but things did not improve.

Both of these could (and should) be addressed with more investment - except for parts availability, which affects every industry. If you think the chip shortage that has impacted every sector that uses complex electronics was bad before, wait until the fallout of what’s going on in Europe takes effect. 90% of the world’s Neon - used in the lasers that cut the silicon wafers into chips - is produced by Ukraine and Russia.

6 Likes

Yikes!

The number of people registered here owning one or more machines 47,344 so that is the absolute bottom number.

2 Likes

Yeah, I have no idea where the 100,000 came from but several people quoted it so I’m sure it has some substance. Hopefully not fake news. :rofl:

The 100,000+ figure was in one of Dan’s announcements.

1 Like

I saw where he said 100,000 people “are printing” in the January announcement. That’s users, not machines. Still, there are over 47,000 owners (those accounts are created automatically) and quite a few have multiple machines.

1 Like

I thought so but apparently many do not sign up as several have said that they had machines for a while but only signed up in the forum when they had a problem :dotted_line_face:

Somewhere between 47,000 and 100,000… :rofl:

4 Likes