The problem is the tube is a custom design commissioned by Glowforge. Unless we can buy that tube, or an equivalent to the same specification, the machine won’t work as well after a DIY replacement. If it used a standard tube it wouldn’t be an issue at all as we can buy those for £100 from China.
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For the technically savvy it all depends on whether the tubes will be available from a reputable third source. These are custom tubes. GF could conceivably lock down the supply chain.
For the non technical it depends on whether a system of formal or informal repair locations are available. And of course repair people need to be paid too.
Everyone might have extended down times for repair. And the tube replacement costs even for U.S. customers may have just increased. The under $500 statement says nothing about domestic shipping one or both ways.
Too little info.
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No, it really doesn’t make sense. You can have a waiver or do it as an out of warranty item. This is not something any of the other laser manufacturers in the world have you do.
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You forget that this is a custom tube - Not something that you’ll find for other lasers out in the market and in a generic form. You assume that GF will actuall sell you that as a part, which based on the current discussions it does not look like it would be even available, so you are stuck with sending your machine back or buying something else when that tube expires.
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Exactly.
Software lock-in.
Hardware lock-in.
Land-locked in…
I need some milk.
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Giggle of the day, needed that.
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Outstanding!! Thanks for the exiting update!
I’ll throw out my view that even having “certified techs” or regional repair facilities is not a good option (only slightly better than shipping back to glowforge. Every extra person you put between the product and the end user increases the price. Sure Glowforge can provide the tube for sub $500, but how is the tech going to get paid for time, mileage and expertise? The price just went up dramatically. Hopefully, this is just a case of pre-launch jitters and something that sounded better in the boardroom than it does in real life and can be corrected (like say Xbox one’s original no-share, no used games stupidity). I know the main target demographic is the unskilled, untechnical, but I can say even my 70-year-old mother would balk at having to pack the thing up and send it back just to get a consumable replaced. She would much rather bug me and make me do it. If I wasn’t available and she had the choice of doing it herself or send it back then she would send it back, but don’t remove options just because of feared liability when that liability is already an industry standard. As simple and user-friendly as you are making this wonderful product, in the end, it is still a laser and will have to be treated as one.
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The tube is estimated to last two year based on what? Heavy use, 10 hours a day? Light use and someone uses it 1-2 hours most days? Or it just dies at the end of two years?
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Please… Look at what everybody’s saying. Do your customers the small honor of addressing this as the top priority of the company.
Then just make it safe. “Hard” I can accept.
You don’t. Many, if not most, customers need to know this before their unit has shipped. I assure you, this not a trivial matter.
I suggest this is a higher priority. Everybody press pause. Spend the day discussing this issue and come up with answers.
Additional:
I’m a US user. I definitely feel badly for my international counterparts. But this is huge for US users as well. This thing is unwieldy and heavy. To even move it from one room to another will require quite an effort. To, what… save all of the boxes (in, I suppose, my unlimited storage facility where I can afford to store all of the empty boxes for everything I buy), prep my Glowforge for shipping, box it up, ship it (at my expense?!), be without it for weeks, and then receive and unbox all over again. Did I get it all?
This is HUGE for ALL OF US it seems.
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I agree 100%
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Seriously. From an earlier update:
“The Glowforge is 55 lbs, 70 lbs shippiing weight. The filter is 25/40.”
I have no problem with that weight, but I can guarantee many people here will struggle. The mind really boggles that you guys thought you could slip this into the misc section of an update and not give more focus. It’s insulting.
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I have to agree with Tom here. I’m not canceling right now, but more than any delay, or tweaked feature, this issue is the first thing that has made me hit pause and seriously consider it. When I read the update to my wife this morning, who has been nothing but supportive and optimistic through the whole thing her first response was, “Is it time to cancel?” I won’t make that decision until the last minute, and I’m betting a lot of other people won’t as well. I’m sure there are a good number here that this won’t be a major issue with because they were just buying a toy to begin with. I think there are a lot of others though that were looking at this as a potential tool and don’t view our investment as disposable.
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Delivery is going to be irrelevant if your international customers cancel because of this. This is a significant issue that can’t be resolved with a “Sorry we disappointed you” message. This is no different than the initial issues with shipping costs that were sloughed to the side.
Thus far I’ve been quite positive about the glowforge, I’m planning to build a business around it. Through every update and shift in schedule I’ve still held stead fast, until now, this is the first one that’s truly given me pause to say “Maybe the glowforge isn’t going to be as magical as promised, and if they’ve gone and changed this major functionality and tried to pass it off as minor, what else might we lose.”
Many good suggestions have been made, however they shouldn’t have been needed in the first place. User replaceable tubes have been in the specs since launch, pulling it out 5 months before shipment with a minor side note isn’t acceptable.
You go to a dealership and order a new 4x4 truck and a month before delivery they send you a text that says " Oh hey, we couldn’t get the right bolts in for the 4x4 option so you wont be getting that, but hey the price is the same and if you want to pay to regularly ship it back to us we can figure it out."
This seems like a business choice to try and make more money in the future by adding service as a requirement.
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No like they throw it on a pallet and send it out and give you another device or they handle the ship out to a local distribution. The point is we have no all we know is that they have to make a scalable support model for 10,000’s of thousands of people
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I’m alright with sending it in to get fixed. It’s disappointing… And inconvenient (means we’ll be without one while in repair) but alright.
If I were to make a guess a part of this decision has to do with liability. Would it be possible to make repair kits available for purchase but those who do will void their warranty and take any fault off of Glowforge? Just a thought. 
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I’m surprised, considering the cost for cross-border shipments. The tube shouldn’t die out before the warranty is over anyway.
Yeah, this still doesn’t cut the mustard for me.
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This could also be a observation from pre release when there was the bad tubes and they maybe sent out new tubes and some pre release people soaked or shorted there machines changing out. This observation over time may change and again 2 years really could be 5 years or 2 months all depends on your usage.
If you think of this as an appliance the general population will call in Service for a repair and have someone come buy or drop off at a repair shop
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Yeah, that would be the ideal situation I totally agree. I know that I feel confident enough that I wouldn’t have any worries about replacing it myself but the lawyers (I’m sure who are driving this) Have all their liability rules. I deal with a similar situation every day at work, and I’m not going to lie, giving up precious time doing stupid repairs is super frustrating. But it is what had to happen to protect the company. And yeah, it’s a custom tube but by the time tubes start going bad someone will have come out with a replacement. Hopefully glowforge will find a way to sell the tubes while still protecting themselves from lawsuits I am rooting for that option. I do understand how this is super frustrating for everyone, especially the out of country folk. All I am saying is that I deal with a similar situation and can empathize with the factors behind it.
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I’d be fine thinking of it like that if it were a toaster oven, or whatever, but since this company doesn’t have an extensive support network and has missed every single benchmark and deadline it has set for itself, I can’t rely on hope and sparkles to get the laser fixed.
Also I’m pretty sure no tester has replaced their tube. If so, it seems to have happened in beta and public talk was squashed.
There is no reason to expect this to be true.
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