With a Serial number and nearly a GPS trace as far as having a real address, it is safer than your car because your car does not (usually) report where it is and what it is doing. As the Internet gets more into everything , it is becoming easier to steal your identity than your stuff.
I would think about trying to track down the individual who sold it to you, perhaps Craigslist could supply the police with contact information that was used when the ad was posted?
Sorry man, Good Luck!
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But what advantage would a seller get out of doing something like that?
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none but neither since they got their money do they care. personally I tend to believe it would be done out of negligence, laziness, or incompetence of oh this button looks to be the first option to drop ownership of my glowforge so someone else might be able to take it. but I haven’t been through the process to find out how transfer or relinquishment of ownership would work.
Well in that case it would be easy to remedy on Glowforge’s part to reinstate the serial number after the original owner could not produce a police report.
You might have better luck purchasing a used machine from someone selling it here on the forum. There was a post this morning about one for sale - you would need to contact the seller in a Private Message and contact Glowforge Support to work out how the trransfer of ownership on the machine would take place. Once you hear back from them, you would be good to complete the transaction.
The criminal element is pretty rare, I’m sorry you ran across one the first time out. If you do decide to try again, i hope the next time goes perfectly.
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Waiting for personal verification from staff would have been better… but OP’s assumption that the new user experience would know about the blacklist was reasonable. That IS how it should work.
Or to put it another way, what is the benefit of allowing a permanently blacklisted unit to make it through initial setup without notifying the user? This sure seems like an oversight to me.
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easy but not quick. if you are on the expected usage paths glowforge has defined things happen pretty easily. this forum is full fo complaints of days if not weeks for customer service to be able to resolve the unexpected or edge cases.
We’ve dragged this discussion away from the originator a lot I suspect so I’m going to go ahead and drop this unless you think I have anymore than the wild conjectures I’ve already thrown to add.
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With a purchase this large, perhaps a contract would be wise. The owner would have to show proof of purchase and sign something that states that 1) it works to the best of their knowledge), 2) they will lay no claim to the device moving forward.
This wouldn’t necessarily help in a situation like this, but it would prevent someone claiming a stolen device after the fact.
It’s really a shame that people can be so crummy and the rest of us have to suffer the consequences.
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If the blacklist doesn’t prevent you from registering / using the Glowforge… then is it really a blacklist?
Does the Glowforge work now?
I wonder if something like this also exposes you to possible liability for “receiving stolen goods.”
Only if you knew they were stolen.
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It does not.
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Interestingly, Glowforge’s blacklist policy acts as a certification that the goods weren’t stolen.
If you setup a new printer and got the following email, do you think you’d question it?
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Ouch! That hurts. I appreciate your posting this to help others be aware.
I take comfort that having lost my iPhone, all the connected software does make it less desirable to steal. One consolation of having a device that never cuts the umbilical.
Maybe we can crowd source the solution to this situation or at least Glowforge and maybe Craigslist can assist and resolve it.
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Totally with you on that. I hope Glowforge will find a way to make it right for you and, that the scammer will get caught.
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on the bright side, you avoided a long stressful wait for snapmark / disappointment about lack of support for passthrough. 
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@joshua.lutz, I’m so sorry the Glowforge you purchased was stolen. As our team let you know in email, if we can be of any help in filing a report with the police, please let us know.
For anyone else attempting to buy a “used” Glowforge, please remember to follow the directions the original poster references:
Most importantly:
“To avoid this, buy only from someone who you know personally, and verify that the current owner can print on their Glowforge before they sell it to you.”
Unfortunately, the software alone cannot guarantee that the unit is “unstolen”, whether it prints or not, because we might receive proof of a stolen unit after the thief has resold it.
That is why our strong advice is to buy only from someone you know personally. That is the only way to be certain you don’t wind up possessing stolen goods, and a useless product.
Again, @joshua.lutz, I’m so sorry this happened.
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Hi Dan,
Frankly your apology (and Rita’s) is hollow.
As the person who sets policy, I find it interesting to watch you try to hide behind it.
First of all, I got a confirmation from your software that my printer was validly added to my account. I then received an email that said “Congratulations” “You’re ready to start printing.” If you were in my shoes, what would you think at that point?
Unfortunately, the software alone cannot guarantee that the unit is “unstolen”, whether it prints or not, because we might receive proof of a stolen unit after the thief has resold it.
Is that what you’re saying happened here? Did the seller contact support after taking my money?
The San Francisco PD has reviewed all my documentation and interaction with both Glowforge and the seller. Their recommendation was to take Glowforge to small claims court. You bricked this device. Your software told me I was good, and I relied on that advice.
You’re the reason I’m out $3k and holding a paperweight. You’re the reason an alleged criminal has my $3k.
If indeed your goal was to close the loop on theft, you’d share the police report or at least jurisdiction that this printer was stolen in. As it stands, I have no reason to believe that it’s even stolen as the printer worked until I asked support if it was stolen, at which point I received a “yeah, unfortunately it is” and that coincided with the last time the printer logged in.
If you’re going to brick expensive devices, I think at least a little transparency is in order. If you’re so concerned with the justice of it all, please tell me where to return this stolen device so the party who’s missing it can have it back.
-Josh
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