I have had my first Glowforge for just over a year now. With in a few months, it stopped working and needed a replacement. I was backed up on projects with out being able to work for weeks. I decided to purchase a second Glowforge machine so I was never without a machine and never without an way of creating my jobs and losing income. I have had 3 replacement machines with in the first year… I am grateful that the Glowforge company replaces the machines, but what happens after a year? I have asked multiple times in email if there are extended warranties or if there is any compensation for all of this trouble. Each time a machine goes down, it means the supplies it was cutting on was ruined. Possibly multiple boards if you make multiple attempts trying to fix the issue. I am obviously concerned about how long the machine will last also. I just got the 3rd replacement. I did one test cut at about an inch size just to make sure it worked. It did. Second attempt, I did a full board design. It ran half of the job, engraving half of the board and then stopped mid job… Orange light… Another ruined board and only on the second job ever run on that machine. Another issue with a brand new replacement. I’m about to give up on these machines, which frustrates me after spending $10,000 on 2 machines and thousands of dollars on Glowforge supplies. Can someone please respond to me about any longer lasting warranties or reimbursement? I’m very tired of packing up machines to send back and unpacking machines and setting them up and ruining supplies and wasting so much time. The machines do great detail and again its great to have refurbished machines sent to replace the ones with issues, but what happens through out the years when there is no warranty and I have to replace my machine 3 times next year? And the following years? I’m losing hope with Glowforge.
No extended warranties (other than those available from your credit card company if you paid by CC and they offer an extended warranty program - although watch the fine print in case they exclude business use). You’ll have to ship your machine back to GF for most repairs (although there are some they’ve made user servicable like the black lid cable, pulley carriage, etc). They’ll diagnose and provide you with a repair estimate. Round-trip that’s about a month generally speaking. It’s good you have a backup machine.
If the materials you’re cutting are Proofgrade then they’ll replace them if the material doesn’t cut all the way through. But otherwise there is no compensation for non-PG materials that are damaged or fail to complete, much like Honda doesn’t compensate me for the tire if my CV joint goes and I need a new wheel and tire as a result.
Thank you for the info James. This is the first that I’ve heard about extended warranties through a credit card. Have you done this and is it only good until you pay it off?
It typically depends on the card, and the issuer. For example, Amex (their true cards, not the co-branded hotel versions) have, for years, had a clause where they would typically double the manufacturer’s warranty, up to an addtional year. For several years, some of the cards would double up to TWO additional years, but that benefit was scaled back to just one additional year as of Jan 1. 2020, I believe.
Typically, it is for the length of the extended warranty at the time the purchase was made, and most CC companies will honor it as long as you still have the card (or if you have switched to a similar version of the card - e.g. - Amex Green to Gold, Gold to Platinum, etc.)
I’ve NEVER had an issue with Amex honoring the warranty. If they can’t cover the repair (or a repair isn’t feasible, they reimburse your original payment amount (up to certain limits - which I think may be $10K per purchase, $50K per year, but this may vary by card / card level).
Back in the old days of Blackberrys instead of iPhones, the roller-ball reading mechanism would notoriously fail at about 19-21 months. As a result, since that was a one-year warranty, I quickly learned to make the Full Price (rather than subsidized) version of the Blackberry, and for about 6 years, I had them replaced and was able to upgrade to newer models. NOTE: They were all natural failures - I did NOT force any problems to occur. I don’t play those kind of games. 
I hope this helps you. I’d suggest looking at your card company’s website to see if they offer it, and how their program works.
Good luck.
I just purchased my Plus from Amazon a month ago. They offered to sell an extended warranty and since it is such an expensive machine, I thought it was worth it. They offered 3 years beyond the manufacturer warranty (for a total of 4 years). I don’t know the company or how they would handle something like that, but we will see.
Probably Asurion. It’s the big dog in the space and they don’t generally mess around, just pay it. Not worth arguing or trying to shortchange people. It’s the same reason casinos don’t run crooked games. 
Yep, Asurion (I looked it up). That is who I have my extended warranty through. It wasn’t that much extra. I thought it was a “no brainer”.
Oh no! How frustrating. Especially as the 2nd print on a new unit.
I checked the logs for the incident. (I’m glad it was only the one so far). The root cause was your Glowforge was having trouble communicating with the print head.
In this case, you can unplug and replug the connection at the print head:
The other end of that cable connects to the circuit board (in the rear-left near the exhaust).
Reach over the laser arm, and to the left of the inside of the unit and you’ll see the board.
Make sure the connection labeled here is fully plugged in and straight.
If you could send me a photo of it as well, I’d be happy to take a look.
It looks like it hasn’t happened since, so you may have already resolved the issue. If you see it again, please try the above troubleshooting and send us that photo.
Regarding Proofgrade Warranty
Proofgrade is covered by the Glowforge Warranty.
If you have prints that have problems and the material is wasted, please let us know the time/date of the print, send us some photos of the print results, and let us know that you’d like the Proofgrade replaced under the warranty.
We’ll double check the logs, and work with you to get it taken care of. We may also find an issue with your machine that we can resolve, or we may have some tips or tricks that can help prevent the issue… depending on the nature of the problem.
I’ll email you separately about the Proofgrade lost in this incident.
When a Glowforge is out of warranty, we’re still here to help
We also have a repair service to take care of units that need out of warranty repairs. I can provide more details about this if you’re interested.
Regarding extending a warranty
That’s a great idea for a feature - thanks for the suggestion! We haven’t announced anything like that yet, but I’m going to send it to our product team with a note that it came from a customer request.
Are they replacing with refurbished units each time or a brand new unit?
Each time I got a refurbished unit, which I don’t think is right. I originally purchased a unit at full price and soon after it had an issue and in exchange I receive a used, refurbished unit that already had issues before? That doesn’t seem right, does it? It seems like I should of just purchased a used unit in the first place for way cheaper.
I see that we’ve been in touch about this via email and worked through troubleshooting there, so I’m going to close this thread.