No itemized repair explanation

For those who have sent in their machine to be repaired, out of warranty, did you get an itemized breakdown of the fees to repair it? At least an explanation of what is bad and being replaced? I received an email today asking for money with no explanation of what is the issue and nothing explaining what the charges are.

All I got was: " We’ve received your Glowforge and our technicians have inspected it. I’m happy to share that we’re going to be able to repair your unit so you’ll be able to continue to create amazing things!

Our technicians will repair the laser system in your unit. They’ll also perform a full diagnostic test to confirm complete functionality. In addition, they’ll remove surface buildup in your unit and perform a 36-point quality and performance inspection. The repairs will cost $935.23 for parts and labor."

This can’t be the norm. I’m not blindly sending money without knowing what’s being fixed. Is it the tube? If so are you replacing my tube with a 45 watt one like what came with it? If not what is being replaced? Honestly, you might as well replace the tube since the machine is over a year old and I do not want to pay to send it back in 6 months or so to do so. Who wants to go through this all over again?? This is why a simple phone call would be so much easier for everyone. A phone call to go over the bill and discuss anything that should be done while it’s in the shop get’s it to me faster and out of your shop quicker so you can work on someone else’s machine. Your email system is extremely frustrating because your response time is not adequate in correlation with the product you are selling.

Nope, never, according to past reports from people who have had to have extensive repairs done.

They have a set fee schedule arrangement with a repair facility, who tells them what category a repair falls into based on how much damage they find. So they don’t actually get that information broken down.

If I had to guess, and it’s just a guess…anything over $500 is usually something like power supply, which requires a much more laborious and dangerous fix. If it had been in the $500 range I would have suspected the tube, since that is what it costs to replace that.

Sorry to hear that.

the repair black box is still a black eye for GF, as far as i’m concerned. something they need to rectify going forward as more machines come off of warranty and need repair.

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So GF farms out the repairs. Interesting. My thought is still that if the tube is not being replaced…they might as well since they don’t last but two years anyway if you are lucky.

Agree, maybe the changeover to the new repair facility will improve things.

there are plenty of people past two years now without replacing. we are at year 3 of the first people who received their crowdfunded machines.

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We did have one fellow who asked them to replace the tube when they were in there for something else…I think he just sent an email to support and asked to have it added on. (He did it for the same reason, to save having to have it shipped back again later if the tube failed.)

That might add a few hundred bucks to the repair (tubes are about $350 for just the tube I believe, then there’s labor) but it does make sense to me to do it that way.

On the other hand, your tube might last a while longer depending on how you use it. So no idea what to tell you on that. I’d probably tell them to replace it when mine needs to go in for anything.

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Thanks for writing in! I see that you have a support ticket already open on this issue, so I will respond there.

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