Bought Glowforge Basic in Aug. $3000 Bought extended warranty $600. Paid for Premium membership Monday $239. Started using the machine more extensively for the first time (after spending months learning software, watching videos, dealing with life, etc.) this week as I have a week long staycation to play. Nothing cutting past the few inches on left side of bed. Only using the proofgrade materials provided with the machine welcome package. Contacted support. Shared all the pictures of my pristine, nearly unused machine and the test cut of the Good Measure tool not cutting through. Support just told me to pay an additional $1250 to replace with a refurbished machine because they don’t do repairs?! To discover I paid nearly $4k for a paperweight is beyond disheartening. What was the point of the extended warranty? I called the Extend warranty company and they said that Glowforge personally handles all warranty claims and that I’d have to call them (although they said they’d send an email noting I called them as well). But…you can’t get anyone to answer a phone at Glowforge support! There is no way I am sending them more money for a refurbished one, when I’ve recently read how many people have gone through multiple refurbished ones that don’t work either. Fool me once, shame on you…fool me twice, shame on me!
The extended warranty is a new thing they just started offering. I suggest you bring up that you purchased one in your email support ticket. It seems like the support agent didn’t know. Their ticket system probably isn’t integrated with the 3rd party warranty company, so it doesn’t come up automatically. Work with them and I’m sure they’ll be able to put it in as a warranty claim so that the warranty company pays that $1250 instead of you.
I shared the fact that I had the warranty in my first email to support through chat. Kind of ridiculous that they wouldn’t have added some note to customer account info to know who purchased the extended warranties though.
I give 'em a lot of leeway because Glowforge is the kind of company I want to support… they’re US-based, support is all in-house not outsourced, a mix of in-office or remote work depending on each employee’s preference, with good salaries and benefits, etc. And my own experience is that they’re good people that want to make things right with every customer and will not stop until you’re satisfied with the outcome. So, give 'em another push, let them know you want the replacement machine to get back up and running (assuming you do) but that they need to put it in under your extended warranty to pay for it. I hope they make things right for you.
There is a window under the left side of the bed that points at a similar window on the moving head. if it is misaimed it will only work on the left side as it will be farther off the more the head moves to the right. As you might imagine getting that precisely aimed is a critical point and not something you can do yourself. If you had used the machine within the first six months the issue would have been discovered then and be under warranty.
With the extended warranty it should be able to be fixed the same now and if the support person you talked to misunderstood about that extended warranty, A reply to your earlier email wi;ll likely be picked up by a different person and probably a better outcome. 
Just received an email from Glowforge support apologizing for the error, said they found my warranty info, and are now offering to send refurbished machine without additional cost to me. Fingers crossed the refurb works…as I’ve seen many horror stories on Facebook groups of people going through multiple refurbished ones that didn’t work. We will see.
3/25 Update: So now there is a problem with the refurbished one…and they want to send me another (2nd) refurbished one. So the saga continues. 
It’s also really frustrating that you can’t speak to a live person on the phone (particularly based on cost of machine and extended warranty!!). In addition, it takes days of emailing back and forth. I’m starting to really regret this purchase.
There are indeed, especially on Facebook, many folk who continue to report the same problem with every machine they receive, while thousands of others do not have that problem. They seem not to notice that all their machines have one thing in common that is not the case with the machines that work well.
The Glowforge is not like a pickup truck that can be treated casually as you bounce it up and down rocky hillsides and then clean with a pressure washer. It is amazing how little knowledge it takes to operate, but even as there is much done automatically that you do not need to know, it is still as tricky to exist as it would be if you did know, but adjustments that you might make if you did know (like properly aiming the laser through that window) you cannot make yourself and it has to go back to the mothership to be done. That is the downside of having it done for you. You still need to treat it as the delicate machine it would still be if you had built it yourself, with that downside that, if at all like most of us, you could not manage to build such a machine yourself. The extended warranty is a very good price for that issue, as it has already saved you more than it cost.
That’s sadly the worst place to get reliable information.
Dont know about facebook groups but I’ve had 3 refurbished machines and none of them were up to par. My last one wouldn’t cut on right side with the very first cut. I got it Feb 22 and it still doesn’t work. They sent a new window and it scratched it in less than a minute so I’m guessing sometime in the next month, it will go back. I’ve had 5 machines since Oct 2020. My plus has a noisy fan this morning and it was new in December,
“It” scratched it? What’s “it”?
The laser beam melted the print head window.
Wow…that’s hardly a scratch. Something must have been installed incorrectly.
No the mirror needs adjusted in the laser arm and we can’t do that at home. I had a laser that you could so I am capable but it’s under warranty so they can fix it. It did that straight out of the box.
If the aim at the head from under the right side is not perfect the laser could be hitting the side of the head instead of going through that window and that can damage the window. Unfortunately, though it is an “uncomplicated” fix it has to be done back at the mothership. That is the downside of having a machine that you don’t need extreme levels of knowledge to use…
It should have been returned instead of a new window, but they tried a “Hail Mary” to possibly save you from that.
Im sure they were trying to find easy way being that ive already sent 3 in with issues. Just sucks this one had issues right out of box. Now my 3 mth old plus has a loud exhaust fan.
That can be as simple as a piece of something stuck to a blade. Many have experienced that and fixed it that way. Though for really silent running many use this…
https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-CLOUDLINE-S6-Controller/dp/B07FPFVZTZ?ref_=ast_sto_dp
I have a 4" Vivosun but need to have the machine’s exhaust fan assist if cutting anything extra smokey.
A loud exhaust fan is not really a warranty issue, it’s just dirty. Buildup on the fan blades makes it spin off-balance which can get really loud. Cleaning it is no fun since it’s hard to access, but it can be done. Replacing it with an external fan as @rbtdanforth suggested is the ultimate fix, since it allows you to turn off the internal fan entirely, making it silent. Just get the S6 not T6 fan. T6 is $40 more for a temperature sensor you won’t need.
I hate i hijacked this post but was really trying to say that my machine is doing the same as hers!
I didnt say anything about warranty with the fan. Im working with GF with the basic machine they just sent that wont cut on right side. 2 separate machines. I tried blowing some air in it and didnt help. Id imagine if you changed out fans though it would void a warranty on it. How are you bypassing the original fan?
Under the 3 dots icon in the app, flip the “Air filter is attached” toggle. Another way to read that setting is “an external fan is attached”. What it does is turn off the internal fan. It doesn’t actually matter what kind of external fan you attach – it doesn’t have to be Glowforge’s air filter.
But you actually take the original fan out?