My opinion - and it’s just that, an opinion - is that the reason GF staff no longer respond to issues on the forum is that it publicly exposed just how bad/slow their support is.
There were certainly exceptions, but the only time I had question for them, it took 11 days for them to respond. It was a simple account-related question.
Thanks @dan ! It seems like a lot of changes have been implemented. I hope the changes result in improved customer experiences for everyone. And I hope people don’t stay bitter and keep complaining even after significant improvements are observed.
It takes a while before customers feel the impact of change. Hopefully soon we will all “feel” the improvements.
(And BTW, an average is just that, an average. It does not reflect the outliers. So yes, one issue may have taken 3 days to resolve but the average can still be < 24 hrs.)
“And I hope people don’t stay bitter and keep complaining even after significant improvements are observed.”
If you are referring to us UK commenters raising our concerns, I think that’s a little unfair. There are a number of disadvantages to being a Glowforge owner in the UK compared to the US, and where improvements have been made, there are often caveats for us.
We no longer have dedicated UK support team members. Now support is based in a different time zone when most of us are asleep. It’s all fine and well saying that queries are answered in around 12 hours but that doesn’t mean they are resolved in 12 hours, as noted in the comments above - there will typically need to be some back and forth conversation which will likely span days for us here due to the time difference.
We get emails about proofgrade sales and discounts but we cannot take advantage of them
Referral code discounts can no longer be redeemed by UK customers. UK owners can only refer US customers.
At this time, it is no longer possible to purchase the Glowforge Basic in the UK
We are unable to take out extended warranty on our machines
I’ve read way too many accounts of machines arriving damaged or from users who are on their 3rd replacement…
We can no longer buy direct from the Glowforge website; a decision made after just a couple of weeks selling in Hobbycraft…
As a UK Premium user, you can no longer get discount on Proofgrade material.
Rather than asking for our subscription to be cancelled, wouldn’t it be better to offer UK customers a discounted rate on Premium? Or adopt a tiered membership, with a more affordable basic option (unlock shapes, type etc).
A lot of us are uncomfortable with some of the changes and anxious about the future of Glowforge in the UK. Having spent a considerable amount of money on our machines - will there be support in the future if something goes wrong? What happens if we need a replacement or repair? Teaming up with a UK retailer sounds promising but a lot of other areas sound like they’re winding down rather than expanding (UK direct sales and technical support).
I wasn’t talking about anything related to the UK at all.
In that case, sorry for the misunderstanding. 
No worries.
I understand.
Not just in the UK. As my machine is starting to fail after 5 years, I don’t have much concern, but the decline in support (which was never that good anyway) and machine quality is indicative of a failing company to me.
Glowforge Inc just raised another $43 million investment round from multiple investors two months ago, lead by a growth-stage venture capital firm. All of these investors would have done their due diligence before putting in tens of millions of dollars of their own money – they believe the company is healthy and will return multiples of their investment some day.
Well aware of that and wonder what might be coming up, because it’s certainly not based on current product and service.
That’s not evident to me. The current hardware product is the same one they’ve been selling since 2017, with plenty of clear sales growth. The software product has fleshed out sufficiently (1000+ “free with premium” designs) that subscriber growth is probably looking awesome. The service, according to the CEO, is also recently much improved, perhaps even thanks to that cash injection – he says in this very thread that their response time is now averaging less than 12 hours. The support sub-forum here hasn’t been this quiet in years.
I think the point may be that it’s kinda the CEOs job to up sell the company and while support we could see was clearly getting faster year over year(point to the first holiday season’s 3 week log, then the next year 2 week log, then 5 day log all while having more tickets to process), it seemed to suddenly tank out of no where and a few months later, the portion we could track was concealed.
Maybe they never should have used forums integration but they did and it gives an unsettling feeling to not be able to track regardless if doing so actually meant anything meaningful or not. It felt like we had meaningful tracking.
We don’t know, we won’t know until they say.
We old hands know this is how GF, for better or worse has been, is, and for the time being will be run.
I also know we old hands were promised 500$ tube changes. Waiting to see how that squares away with the latest refurb exchange program they’ve been running.
Like most things internet, visible complaints vastly outnumber visible positive stories.
There’s really no point to speculating with any authority as GF doesn’t release the numbers.
Maybe that’s because there’s zero support offered there now. The only people reaching out here are the ones who missed the notice or who are getting nothing from GF and are looking for help anywhere they can get it.
It’s not because suddenly there’s no support issues.
I am curious, how are people submitting designs for the catalogue? I’d love to submit some but I didn’t know that was a thing till reading this update.
They do not accept designs from basic owners, unless something changed and they never announced it.
Wow that sucks, so they limit their catalogue of sales based on machine? I’ve bought 2 basics, and use it daily so thats very disappointing.
No, not “basic” machine owners, just not a higher level participant here.
ohhh, that makes much more sense then lol
I’d recommend reaching out to support@glowforge.com and simply ask. I know for a fact that there are designs for sale by owners that are not forum members, nor GF staff. The worst thing that could happen is they say no.
Could be.
I linked to the public site where they stated they would announce when people could sign up. Never seen it here.