Who are you suggesting for? Glowforge? The customer?
I’d imagine they are all 3rd party insured rather than UPS insured. Quite likely a blanket policy purchased for X number of machines/shipments sold during the pre-order.
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If I were Glowforge, and the data supported it, I would insure it.
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Whrn I did shipping anything over 3 digits to the left of the decimal got insuance. Stingy boss always low balled it and didn’t like when I’d pick random numbers out my butt if I couldn’t get a hold of him and UPS was waiting.
…until the one day a package I’d insured for the full amount vanished in transit. I got an atta’boy that day.
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Maybe. If they do get to shipping a few thousand a month, it may be cheaper to self insure and just use insurance for losing a container full of them all at once (if they did that, which I don’t think they will).
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It never makes sense to insure something you can afford to replace. The insurer will charge more than the risk to make a profit.
I doubt Glowforges will ever by shipped in containers. There aren’t enough going to the same place to fill one. It would take about 1000.
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Agreed, and I generally take that approach, but there are exceptions. One is when your calculation of the risk is sufficiently greater than insurance company’s calculation. Extending beyond consumer objects, another is when their cost of replacement is lower than your cost of replacement, due to volume effects. For example, it’s been my experience that they generally get a better rate for body shop work on cars. A third goes beyond your original assumption and applies to liability. Beyond the cost, it’s that in some cases you make the problem the insurance company’s problem. For example I had a friend who was facing a bogus property damage lawsuit. He got the insurance company involved (since they were on the hook to pay damages) and their lawyers pretty quickly shut it down. (And then there’s the whole issue of health insurance in the US, but that goes even farther afield.)
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Please allow me to update everybody…
SUCCESS
They replaced my 'forge (again). This time we decided that Geordi was a cursed name. So we named this one Serenity Valley. AKA Serenity Valley Forge. I asked my Wife “So… Is the Glowforge a girl now? Is Serenity Valley a girl’s name?” She looked at me like I was completely insane and said “Yes.”
Please note that that’s 500% magnification! 
Here’s 100% for comparison…
I know they say they’re still improving accuracy but, honestly, at this time, I couldn’t ask for better!
SUPER-HAPPY!
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Happy for you man, glad to see you got an accurate unit!
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This makes me very happy. Happy for you, but also happy that accuracy in general is there and getting better. Some of what I want to do requires it.
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Congrats! Man, I hope you never have to ship a 
back to the mothership ever again. You’ve already surpassed your quota!
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It would be very interesting to know what caused the problems on the others but I expect GF will never tell US.
Thanks! Me, too!
Oh, yes. All owners should be very happy. The machine is part mechanics, part magic.
Ha! I was joking with my Wife tonight that I’ve done it so many times that I can unpack a Glowforge and have it up and running in less time than a NASCAR pit crew can change a tire.
No kidding. Even though I’ve had no control over it, I honestly feel a little bad about it. Like I’m wasting them or something. Which I know isn’t true, but still. My 9 year old son said “Daddy, there should be a rule that if you have to send your Glowforge back so many times it’s an automatic Pro.” I laughed… because I think he was kidding.
As a point of interest, sure it’d be nice to know what caused certain problems people have experienced. The fact that they’ll never tell us isn’t a sign of something negative. It’s got nothing to do with us, really. That’s internal Glowforge information. I like to think that every returned Glowforge gets a thorough autopsy and something is learned from every single one. This way, when you get yours the chances of those issues happening to your unit drops to a statistically-insignificant value.
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Ha! I like the way he thinks! 
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Get the kids involved, try and up your game to Formula 1 tire-change speeds!
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Please tell me that this is not directly in center.
It still rocks if this is a dead-under-the-camera alignment, especially compared to your earlier results.
But if this is from way off in a corner… then it is PHENOMENAL.
EDIT: Spoiled my own anticipation, noticed the rulers. That one is dead center under the camera. Still awesome. But makes me curious how well it aligns off-center
That’s looking way better! Glad they sorted it out for you.
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Me too. I guarantee it’ll be off the farther from center. But I expect it to be… reasonable. I’ll shove some cardboard in maybe Sunday and do a quick run. I’m not worried about it, but I probably should have a clear working knowledge of how the entire bed works out.
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Very, very true.
Glad we got you taken care of!
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My CNC vinyl cutter does not have a camera, but you can tell the software about the shape and location of the work piece anyway. The software will print out a copy of the project with with special registration marks. You put the print in the machine, drive the head around with direction buttons, and zap the marks with a visible laser pointer. Now the machine knows where everything is. (Of course you need to line up the work piece with the proxy, and your printer needs to print at actual size.)
Does the GF have a visible laser pointer? I can imagine a similar procedure for our needs.
I would rather have the camera work automagically, but people are already doing things like doing a quick score operation to mark the actual target area. If we end up needing to do some extra steps for good targeting, those extra steps, whatever they are, should be fully baked into the official workflow.
Anyway, glad to see Tom’s machine is working better.