It has been 2 days since i’ve received any further response from support. At this point I am prepared to buy another laser but it will not be a glowforge for this very reason. I am looking at the beambox pro, makeblock or fslmuse 50w. Anyone have a good comparison of the 3?
where do you live, do you want to sell your Glowforge?
Jonathan
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This might not be the place to get an unbiased opinion.
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SHHHHH!! I can get this for a good price!!! since its a POS (cough, cough)
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I did not say I was selling mine. I will get it fixed. I spent way too much $ on it to toss it. However, I need a second laser and need one while I’m waiting for the GF to get fixed. So again, I am looking for alternatives.
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If GF support is an issue for you, I’d look elsewhere.
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If you’re unhappy with GF support, just wait until you try FSL. 
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haha!! thanks. that is exactly what i was worried about with those guys
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I absolutely applaud you for being a smart business owner and know that you need a backup plan. Machines with 24 hour customer support are at least 20K and even they fail the customer from time to time (note that a company that can afford that would absolutely not have a board that would be okay with “well maintenance”…"). The smart thing is to have a backup plan, which I see you are searching for.
For my backup plan I choose another glowforge. Simply because, its not like other machines wont have MTBR (that is just a characteristic of technology). The reason why I choose a second glowforge was as simple as the frustration I feel when I go from driving my car (which is a manual) to my husbands car (which is an automatic). Keeping management of two different interfaces is simply out of my bandwidth.
I do know the muse is also a good machine but it still will need support help and you have to decide if you want to keep up with switching back and forth between the two interfaces. I own two glowforges and they are harmonious together. If both are down at the same time, then I feel that would be a failure on my part. I bought two machines that are characteristic of machines and I plan for that.
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Spoken like a true IT person… redundancy!!!
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Thanks for the message. I appreciate the insight!
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Lol, more like an electrical engineer that was curious as to why I have to do certain programatic stuff and so I went onto do a SE degree as well and learned this is all actually a thing where people have to actually plan for technology to be technology lol.
No problem! Also keep in mind that no other CO2 laser company actually sanctions a support thread. Glowforge is actually really transparent about things by having one. Therefore, the user can know exactly what they are signing up for. When you go with other companies you are not able to easily investigate the reality of their support and you have no community to leverage.
If you do try another machine then please let us know how it goes.
By the way, did you resolve the current issue you are needing support on?
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Issue not resolved unfortunately. It sounds like a ton of people had the same issue at the same time and all with machines approx 2 1/2 years old. I find that very interesting. I did understand at the time of purchase that the warranty expired after a year and the tube had an approx life of 2 years, but I did not understand / expect the machine simply would stop working all together after 2 1/2 yrs. Very unfortunate. A machine at this price, even an entry level one, should last for many years with regular and proper maintenance.
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buying the broken machine is still of interest to me, $ toward a new one.
Jonathan
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And it does. There are many people whose machines were delivered in 2017, over 4 years ago, that are still working perfectly. With so many tens of thousands of machines out there, you’re going to be able to find others whose Glowforges coincidentally had issues around the same time at any given time. Beware the tendency of the human mind to see patterns in everything even when there are none.
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They can and do. I just finished out my 4th year with my basic…no issues at all.
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It was designed with a 2-year life expectancy.
This is not super-secret knowledge.
Happy to report mine is coming up on 4 yrs with no issues.
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All machines have a service life. For example, if you read the Trotec literature, they give a 10-year service life estimate. That amounts to basically a Glowforge per year.
Yes, many of them run longer than that. As well as other brands. But it’s kind of like having a fleet of cars for your business - when that odometer turns over X, those vehicles are no longer in service even if it’s Joe’s favorite car. At a certain point, it’s not economical to keep the vehicle in the fleet.
As for 24/7 support, I’d be incredibly surprised if you found that with any system. I haven’t with either Universal or Trotec. And I’m pretty positive Epilog doesn’t offer it. Pretty sure Kern and the other big names really don’t either. You can sign up for Trocare if you buy a Trotec though and it will give you guaranteed response times (X number of business hours).
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Planned obsolesce is built into many systems. Typical COTS are designs for a 2 year life expectancy. Try and get a design approved with components that have a longer lifespan and you will get railed on why you are designing a system that is holding back capability to the point where it will be far from relevant when it fails.
Components technically are “designed to fail” but it is really small minded to leave it as simple as that. They really are designed to last long enough to no longer be relevant. You have to keep in mind how rapidly technology is changing. I bought 2 GF a year apart from each other and I was blown away by the difference in development. I know my tube will eventually need replacement and I also planned for that and set aside the cost for the time to time.
If you look into other machines then I suggest you ask them for their BOM and pull the data sheets for each part.
If you want to get hyped about something when it comes to additional costs for technology then lets talk about e-waste…
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