I recently had issues with my GF Pro, ending with a yellow light. GF support tried troubleshooting, but after a couple of back-and-forths, declared my machine was dead. Options were a discount on a new or refurb machine. I decided it was too much money to pour into a GF, especially when there are now alternatives with higher specs and lower price. One other option GF suggested was repair at Wiregrass Technologies. Since I am within driving distance to this company, I loaded up my machine and showed up at their door. Folks, they diagnosed the problem within about 30 seconds (white wire had chafed). I could have had them replace the wire and been out the door in less than 5 minutes, but took the opportunity to have them do some preventative mnx and cleaning. The next morning, I picked up a “new” machine. Tested, working perfectly, and as clean as the day I got it. Final cost was less than $400. Admittedly, I saved around $300 in shipping charges. I spoke to the people there at length and they KNOW the GF machine. I asked about a tube replacement if that ever becomes necessary for me and they said “no problem, we can handle it”. I don’t use my machine for business, but in the projects I do, there’s always a thought about not having a “backup” to complete large commitments. That issue is now gone since I know I can get just about anything fixed quickly! Wiregrass Technologies is in Dothan, AL. This isn’t the center of the universe, but if you live withing driving distance, it’s a real no-brainer! Even if you have to ship, it’s still a lot better than dumping your GF. This is a 5-star outfit!
They are “across town” for me and my experience is the same. I wish them all the success as it is another avenue for myself and others when we have trouble with our machines.
I had a similar experience with them a few months ago. They are great guys.
Great news to hear that. Unfortunately it’s an 8-hr drive one way for me, so I’d have to ship it. But still, the cost would definitely be worth it. I know there are less expensive units out there with even some better capabilities, but I am kinda attached to my GF and would hate to get rid of it. I’m just sentimental that way. 
Could you please share their phone, address and contact name for the rest of us? Thanks in advance @shollg.
Wiregrass Technologies
955 Tate Drive
Dothan, AL 36301
334-699-5500
Thank you again @shollg, this info is good to have just in case.
Awesome to read another fantastic review of their services! Thank you!
They are about a 3.5 hour drive for me, but it might be worth it at some point. Does anyone know of other service centers?
This is the only one outside of Glowforge themselves.
Anyone who drives in, get up with me, and we’ll argue kirf compensation styles over lunch. 
Love this. What a great write up thanks for sharing.
That almost makes it worth the ~13 hour drive. I hope I never need them, but I do like road trips!
While Wiregrass made may be great, I find it insane that nobody is calling out the absolute crap support provided by Glowforge.
Glowforge does not quote or offer a REPAIR. They are committed to pushing a NEW or REFURB for almost every issue that arises.
Glowforge breaks. Spend days to weeks chatting with Glowforge support. Pay like $1200 for a refurb.
Now, glowforge gets your broken machine, does a cheap and minor repair, then flips it for another $1200. WHY would glowforge not inspect the broken machine, and offer the repair like Wiregrass does? Because they want all that extra profit from flipping $1200 machines.
Imagine your car dealer not offering tires or a new starter, and instead doing you the FAVOR of selling you a repaired vehicle for only $15,000 instead of $30,000, Then, they put $500 parts and labor in your broken car, and flip that one for $15,000 to the next person.
AND, the customers are HAPPY about it? Insane.
This is why I dumped Glowforge in 2021 and got a REAL laser,100 Watt, 24x35 bed, almost 3 FEET of Z height, Air, water cooling, spare parts, and $4500 total. Standard off the shelf parts mean this situation will NEVER happen to me again.
And LIGHTBURN for $130 the first year, and $30 a year after IF I need the new features.
Glowforge thinks functions like making a SQUARE, Adding MOM, or mirroring a cut are PREMIUM features demanding hundreds of dollars a year. And, they think A.I. image creation is more important than having actual VECTOR tools built into their app is more important.
Glowforge is dying for a reason.
Glowforge is trying to offer discounts on additional machines for a reason.
Glowforge had it’s day in the Sun, and is now left in the dust, and it is all their fault.
Dude. You seem to have a lot of anger over a laser company you haven’t had any dealings with in ~4 years. Why are you here if you hate every decision this company has made?
I love my Glowforge. Tech support has helped me via email, and very early on when I was still under warranty, shipped me a replacement unit at no cost. Now that I’m no longer under warranty I’ve had to replace one part in coming on 8 years.
Partnering with Wiregrass as a repair center is a good decision. I see no reason for them to reinvent the wheel when there was a company already all set up, who only needed the training on these machines.
Anyway.
Enjoy your other laser.
See this is where nuance comes in. I can tell that you’re emotional about this and I don’t blame you, but you’re not seeing this clearly. Your dealer does not do the repairs, they have a separate business under the same roof that they may also own but is wholly different from the car dealership.
If we follow this analogy the car dealership is an exact parallel to what Glowforge does except their repair partners didn’t live under the same roof (or historically in the same state), all Glowforge repairs have been handled by third-party repair companies from either very early on or even day one.
So while you have legitimate gripes and I can understand how you would want it to be different, comparing it to the car industry is more parallel than you might think. The big difference is the car industry has distributed repair service centers all over the place whereas Glowforge doesn’t have nearly the scale to be able to support that.
I think this is a common thing, to believe that Glowforge should operate similarly to other industries that have a much larger footprint. You frequently hear them compared to car manufacturers or their logistics compared to some big company like Amazon; it’s just not feasible, the playing field is not level when you start comparing them.
I agree with you on a lot of levels, I do think that Glowforge could greatly improve their support and at home repair options, but it’s simply not their business model at this time. Who knows if they’ll adjust going forward but we have about seven years of history to look at now that seems to indicate that they are not going to significantly change in that regard.
“Why are you commenting?” Because Glowforge insists on sending me these updates, and focused on this thread.
Glowforge also NEVER advertised Wiregrass as a repair partner, and in all my tech support emails with them, Wiregrass was NEVER mentioned.
The difference is that I did not buy my Glowforge from a dealer.
I bought it direct. From a company that artificially prices it higher, to make you feel like you got a deal if you happen to find someones referral code, and if you don’t…. Awesome, more money for them.
Early on, Glowforge DID offer repairs. I have emails where they offered this, but REALLY pushed away from that with scare tactics like “We don’t know whats wrong and what the repair cost could be, it could be thousands, it is soo much easier if you just pay for a refurb”
Yes, I had an issue once, and they sold me a new laser head because they thought mine was faulty.
That head did not fit.
https:// youtu.be/1-nvsMHlU2c?si=3HETMiSilmi0oqkb
https:// youtu.be/QIpU9Fy0sTs?si=ZlD3ktyp16-Q-9Zj
Then, as soon as they sent another new one, Yellow light of death
https:// youtu.be/1Zej2cUIJB4?si=wi2rhK-Nuyi6FBoa
They did send a free refurb at that point, but it was then too little to late.
In addition, GLOWFORGE had an issue, where if you used a custom setting, and found that to work, then saved it as a custom preset, it would use 1/2 the power.
So, do you tests on your material and find that 168 speed and full power cut your material great.
Save this 25 speed and full power as a custom preset.
Not Select that preset to do your next cut, and find it does NOT cut through. Why, because the preset says 168 Full but it is actually running 168 50%
https:// youtu.be/rBtRBE4aXWw?si=Qpj3idfbbJviS5JW
I Discovered this issue. Glowforge tested and verified this issue, and sent me t $75 gift card for my assistance. During this time, I asked that they alert the public, because people were wasting thousands of dollars in material due the their tried and tested settings no longer working. They refused, and instead said something in a monthly newsletter about “Fixed an issue with glowforge not focusing properly” BS This was a HUGE dis-service to their customers.
Also, Glowforge will NOT assist with helping you discover the right speed and power for your materials. They would rather tell you to BUY PROOFGRADE materials so you don’t have to work about settings. But at the same time, they have no problem in their live stream demos telling you to TRY PROOFGRADE MEDIUM DRAFTBOARD for some non-proofgrade material. Sure, try it, does not matter if is does not work, it;s not their wood wasted.
They never advertised any of their other partners either – in fact, they wouldn’t reveal their partners’ names even if asked directly. To my knowledge, it’s not entirely confirmed that wiregrass is their official – or sole – repair partner now, there was a social media post by wiregrass that implied that was going to be the arrangement.
I got my tube replaced early on right around August 2019. They were using an [unnamed] repair partner at the time, even though my machine shipped back to Seattle, got repaired, and shipped back. Even then they were using a separate vendor and had very little information about the actual repairs being done [no itemized receipt was possible, and it got escalated internally at Glowforge to executive levels]. It was also very time consuming, the “new” mode of cross shipping refurbished machines is preferable in terms of getting you back up and running in a timely fashion.
So, no their support isn’t perfect by a long shot, and it’s better in some ways than it used to be. Given that you’ve moved onto a new machine from a different manufacturer I would imagine you’re glad to have this behind you – I doubt I’d come back here to spend time ranting about issues that aren’t my problem anymore if I were in your shoes.
This forum runs on Discourse.
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Et voila! Unsubscribed.
BTW @evansd2 - the official announcement of the Wiregrass partnership:
I wouldn’t put it that way. Nor would Dan, it seems, in that update: