Does anyone know how long it takes before they respond after you have replied to their email? I received an email asking if I’d like to pay for expedited shipping on Sunday morning for a part that’s still under warranty. I immediately wrote back, then wrote again Monday, and again Tuesday but I still haven’t heard anything. I originally opened the ticket Friday of last week. I’m in desperate need of the part and I was hoping to get it by this Friday which won’t happen even if I pay the shipping costs at this point. How can I get ahold of support to let them know that nobody is responding? Is this common for it to take so long after replying to an email from them? I totally get the original few days it took for them to respond to the ticket but they said to reply back to the email and they’d get back to me so I expected them to ship it fairly quickly after that.
You just got hold of them again. Posting here in P&S opens a new support ticket. They’ll need to reconcile it with your old one(s), and then they’ll get back to you, so hang tight. 
Funny you posted this. This is the EXACT issue I was just about to write a post about.
Got a quick reply on the original issue and they said they’d invoice me and ship the part. I responded with answers to the questions and that I’d pay whatever they require to get me the part overnight… Radio Silence now for 2 days WHAT THE HECK!?!
Thanks! I wish they had a phone number so that you could get in touch with someone quickly. I know they’re really busy and on the smaller side but for a lot of my CNC machines they have 2 or 3 office workers dedicated to easier calls like paying for shipping or parts. Anything more complicated and they open a ticket for the engineers but it’s nice to be able to call and get things handled immediately. I even stressed in the email how much I needed the part quickly so to just send me the invoice for the expedited shipping without telling me how much it would be first to avoid a lot of back and forth emailing.
Crazy, right? I hate to pay for the shipping but I said the same thing. I need the part so it is what it is. I can’t wait the ten business days. I thought by just telling them to bill me regardless of price they’d be able to ship it out the next day.
I’m sorry, its so frustrating. I’ve had to turn away orders at this point because I have no faith in GF to come through in a timely manner.
Let me know if you get a response and I’ll do the same. ( Going to email them yet again from my ticket. )
That’s what I’m trying to avoid. I’m supposed to get something shipped on Friday. It’s a little crazy that we pay thousands of dollars for a machine but can’t get in touch with the company in a timely matter especially when it’s regarding something as simple as shipping out a part. I would completely understand if it was something technical they had to troubleshoot but I’m just trying to give them money. 
I see a lot of owners posting here about losing customers. Please keep in mind that Glowforge is not responsible for your businesses. You are relying on an electro-mechanical device and they break down. You also made a trade off between price and a level of support. You purchased a unit that is targeted and supported to a consumer level, not a business level. This means you have to take the initiative to have a backup plan for when you can’t meet your customers expectations. This could be another unit, a service to outsource to, or simply being prepared to talk to your customers about what is happening and what solution you are expecting.
Glowforge is working as fast as they can to support all their customers. Phone support is extremely time consuming and expensive. Reps have to be trained and paid, you have to have the infrastructure to support multiple reps, and phone support on average takes 2-3 times as long as replying to an email or a post, so it is not efficient.
I realize that glowforge isn’t responsible for loss of business otherwise I’d be asking them to make up for it. I have several machines including CNCs, table saws, lathes, etc. some through very small local companies and some moderately sized like GF. All of them have a customer service number where you can at least reach someone in an office who assures you that someone will get back to you. With that said, even taking out the fact that you can’t get in touch with anyone immediately, I do think when paying thousands upon thousands of dollars for a machine a simple email back saying that the reply was received would be reassuring. I’m going on 4 days since the original email was sent to me asking if I’d like to expedite the shipping. I’ve sent emails back asking if they’ve gotten them, if there’s anything else I need to do, if I’m missing something, etc. and they go unanswered. The email they sent me from customer service said if I chose Sta͏n͏dard shipping I’d get it in ten business days or less from the email but if I don’t get a response back for 4 or 5 days, if that, it’s not true anyway. I don’t think anyone’s asking for anything unreasonable. Just to be assured that our reply was received and they’re working on it would suffice.
When you email are you replying to their original email or sending them a new one to support?
The email that I received asking for my address and if I wanted expedited shipping said to reply to her email so that’s what I did. That’s why I was confused when I didn’t get a response back to confirm it was received. I assumed if I open a support ticket and someone answered after the 3 days that when I reply they’d be working on my same support ticket so I wouldn’t have to wait again. 
Common Ben. The majority of their marketing revolves around buying a GF to start a business! Dont try to tell me they’re not selling to legitimate businesses. Im going out on a limb to say most owners didn’t spend $6k+ to make nifty crafts in their spare time. Maybe I’m wrong about that.
You’re correct, they’re not responsible for MY business, I am. I have fully explained to my customers why I’m not able to meet their request.
GF is responsible for their business though. There is a certain level of customer service to be expected. They are not meeting a standard in my opinion. I’m all good with the ticketing system as is and even the 1-3 initial response time. What I’m not okay with is once you get an initial response and instructions I reply immediately. Then, it takes days for the follow-up and solution. If I’m up to bat pitch me the ball. Finish the issue at hand before moving on. This is not a one time occurrence either.
Thank you for putting it more eloquently than I did. Now I’m worried if I pay for expedited shipping it won’t even get shipped out in a timely manner and I’ll have wasted a lot of money. I’m not asking for them to change their business model, although it would be nice, I’m just asking they follow up with me before moving on so that I’m not actually stuck waiting a week or more for my simple issue to be resolved and then another 7-10 days for shipping. Even if the response is just to tell me my email didn’t get lost in the mix. I don’t think it’s asking too much.
Replying to the email.
I didn’t say that GF isn’t selling to businesses. I said that they are selling a device and a level of support targeted to consumers. I also said that the level of support for a business class solution is high, and that everyone who bought a GF made a tradeoff between price and support.
Again, GF will get back to you if they haven’t already. Check your spam folders. I can’t count the number of topics like this I have read where Support responds that they had replied but haven’t heard back from the customer.
And honestly, I love my GF. I was planning on purchasing a second in a couple of months. I just don’t think it’s fair to ask someone to wait weeks for a part that’s covered under a warranty.
I got the original email so I doubt it would go to spam but I did check before posting here just in case.
Then you have done everything you can for now. Just keep in mind that two tickets are created now and they will have to figure out which of them is a duplicate before they can move forward with your issue.
That’s fine. I waited almost a week to avoid that but at this point I was just worried they weren’t getting my replies.
I’d suggest going to the Glowforge chat if it’s up and running (May have missed that you did?).