Glowforge Pro "Stops Firing" After year mark

I have had my glowforge pro since September 2019.
Never any issues, its cleaned regularly, and we live in a warm climate where it doesnt typically get under 40 degrees.
I had taken a two week break and went to turn my laser on. We had a few power outages from storms but that had never caused issue before however the day i turned my laser on to run an engrave project, it started fine but then the fan kicked off, back on, and then a bright light shown through my laser head onto the workspace from the black laser head. My laser wouldnt stop when i opened the top for the emergency shut off method. When i did the gift of good measure test run for support it stopped running and threw an amber light on the push to start button and gave me a “bumped” error. The laser is super clean, all mirrors and lenses checked etc.

after a week of back and forth and multiple people on an email thread, they said:
**I sincerely apologize for the delay in response, but I appreciate you taking the time to work through the instructions my colleague David provided, and for sending over all of these amazing details. I’ve extracted the log files from your Glowforge to review your most recent prints and connections, and compared it with the information you’ve sent over. *

After reviewing all the information about your Glowforge, we’ve determined that your printer needs a repair, as it has a problem that we can’t solve remotely. Unfortunately, that can take a long time. Fortunately, we have a better solution."
Marc (Glowforge)

Feb 15, 2021, 3:42 PM PST

Hello Gillian,

I sincerely apologize for the delay in response, but I appreciate you taking the time to work through the instructions my colleague David provided, and for sending over all of these amazing details. I’ve extracted the log files from your Glowforge to review your most recent prints and connections, and compared it with the information you’ve sent over.

After reviewing all the information about your Glowforge, we’ve determined that your printer needs a repair, as it has a problem that we can’t solve remotely. Unfortunately, that can take a long time. Fortunately, we have a better solution.

A speedy solution
Rather than waiting for repairs, we’d like to send you a newly refurbished Glowforge as soon as possible for just the cost of what the repair would have been.

Why the free upgrade?
We are upgrading to an expanded repair facility. That transition will take a while, and so rather than make you wait, we’re providing newly refurbished replacement printers.
Our main goal is taking care of you with a Glowforge that you can use and enjoy as soon as possible.

With the refurbished printer, you’ll get

*** Back to printing quickly – I’ll put in the order for your replacement printer as soon as you say “yes, please,” so you can get back to printing your designs.**
*** Inspected and tested for quality and function – Your Glowforge will pass the same tests that a brand-new printer passes to make sure that it will print well and live up to your needs and expectations. Our technicians take lightly used printers and replace worn parts, perform a 36-point quality inspection, and do full diagnostic testing to confirm complete functionality.**
*** Great value - Refurbished printers cost more than this repair. If that sounds like a really good deal, and that it must be expensive for us, you’re right, but we think you’re worth it!**
*** 90-day guarantee - You’ll get a 90-day guarantee on your new printer.**

How much does it cost?
I’ve inspected all the information and error messages that we have about your Glowforge and it appears that there’s an issue in the Printer Head system. Repairing this requires systems diagnostics, disassembly, testing, parts replacement, quality verification, and labor, and costs typically range from $788 to $1299, plus shipping. To get the replacement printer, we’ll invoice you the estimated repair cost, plus round-trip shipping - and I’m able to discount the shipping charges by half.

Summary of costs

*** Newly refurbished Glowforge: $788 (based on the estimated cost for repair of your current printer)**
*** Shipping for the replacement printer to you, and your original Glowforge back to us: $200 (discounted from the standard $498).**
*** Taxes will be added to both shipping and the replacement cost."**

So it has been 2 weeks since my payment posted, i have had no further correspondence with support, no update, no tracking, no error report to explain why im having these issue, just a vague “its your printer head” which doesnt seem like it should cost that much or seem necessary to send a referb laser when i know my laser is like new with no previous owner. I have since seen numerous cases being posted on multiple glowforge groups with similar problems which leads me to theorize that perhaps they arent being entirely honest with me. A friend was quoted $300 plus shipping for the same sort of laser head problem I wondered if anyone else has seen this sort of error on a seemingly perfect machine or can add insight as to why were being charged for what they guess is the problem but also being told i wouldnt be refunded if it was something simple like a new cord or ribbon. It isnt easy to just spend a grand especially when i am not privy to an error report?

Is the lens in the head? It looks like it’s missing. Nothing to focus the laser beam.

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I tried to upload a better video but its not letting me, i hadnt messed with the lens at first, i have since taken it out and cleaned it. I dont believe it was upside down or installed incorrectly (but how amazing would it be if it were just a lens issue!)

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I’m not exactly sure what you’re looking for - you’ve posted here which opened a new ticket, which they will close as soon as they realize it’s connected to an already open ticket. Generally they don’t continue sending emails until they have information for you - in this case confirmation that they have a unit to ship you. Opening this will cause them to send you an email - but so would have responding to your ongoing email thread.

As far as what’s up with your machine - you received the error report. They don’t fix their own machines (currently), they send them to a repair facility which provides the information they sent you. That “your friend” got an estimate of $300 sounds like the issue that machine had was different.
They’re doing these upgrades until their new " expanded repair facility is up and running, at that point the hope is that the repair turnaround time won’t be much different than the replacement turnaround time so you can get your own machine back.

I have since sent another reply to the original email thread this morning after waiting the two weeks they said would be my allotted time frame to have recieved my machine. Just trying to get some other insight from them but also seeing if anyone else has had similar problems. The friend had the same issue as i described. It just seems very strange overall given my situation and the overall care we have with this laser. We have never pushed it or let it get extremely dirty which could result in other problems caused by lack or care on the buyers end. I just felt it a bit strange that others are also experiencing these similar problems with year old pro lasers.

I also have not recieved any error report outside of this basic email message they sent. It doesn’t give me any errors or insight as to what the laser is throwing out or explain what this amber light means.

Hi @wrighthousedesigns -

Thank you for contacting us. I’ve received an update about your replacement printer, and I’ve just followed up with you directly over email with more details about how we calculated the price for your replacement. Since we’re chatting over email, I’m going to close this thread.