I’m all with you except this. The OP got an official email from glowforge saying the machine was up and running. That doesn’t speak of jumping the gun on a blacklisted machine.
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I emailed support and asked “is there a way to verify for certain?” And they said “reply with the serial number and we’ll look it up.”
So I meet them at a Starbucks, first thing I do is email the serial number to support and then very awkwardly unpack a brand new in box Glowforge Pro. I used my wifi hotspot and laptop to get it online, logged into my account, completed setup of the Glowforge and got my “Congratulations” “Your Glowforge Pro is up and running, and you’re ready for your very first prints.”
So I hand over $3k and very happily head home.
About 15 minutes from home, I get a reply from support: “I’ve been able to track down the unit and look up details. Unfortunately, this unit was reported as lost or stolen to us. The replacement unit we sent out received the software and warranty for this unit. This unit was permanently disabled when it was reported as lost or stolen.”
———
I mean, maybe an official automated email since the device didn’t automatically say, this is a stolen device.
But jumped the gun a bit on waiting for the actual verification from support that all was good with the provided serial number.
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Which was not true. It connected and did the confetti thing.
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Semantics.
Waiting for actual SN verification that was requested by support would mean this thread wouldn’t even exist.
And checking the blacklist before sending a “Congratulations!” email would mean the same thing.
Especially considering the support response about checking with them on the serial number is actually against their own policy. Based on what I know now, their response should have been something to the effect of: “There’s no way to verify 100%, please see the support document about buying a used Glowforge.”
Shoulda, coulda, woulda. I prefer to deal not in IF’s, but in reality.
Things change over time, but that doesn’t change how things were at the time of an event.
At that moment in time, waiting for support to get back to you, would have saved you 3k and a lot of stress. Fact.
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Luckily this thread does exist and now many of us know that there is fairly significant risk in purchasing a used Glowforge without a verified (and probably notarized) response from Glowforge themselves.
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which, unfortunately, can be quite a while for turn around time in my experience
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If you wait for a response from GF, draft a contract transferring ownership from the seller to you, and transfer ownership on site, your risk will drop significantly. Also, some basic Spidey-sense which we should all now have thanks to this situation - a brand new, unboxed GF is suspicious. Who would buy a $6K machine, never even remove it from the box and sell it for half as much?
I feel really bad for the OP, but I still think this is a personal responsibility situation. He did not wait for the reply he was told to wait for. I understand why, but that doesn’t change his responsibility. Could GF have had a different process in place? Yep. But they didn’t.
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While that’s true - shame on him for jumping the gun. But it’s not semantics to say it was permanently disabled “when it was reported stolen” when they also said “The replacement unit we sent out received the software and warranty for this unit.”
While the net effect is the same, both cannot be true unless the sent out the replacement at the same time they got the report (all past tense). Unless what they meant by “permanently disabled” meant “we flagged it somewhere here but did not update the connection setup utility so it can’t actually connect.”
They have (had) a significant issue in that their “permanently disabled” unit could be setup & connected successfully. That would save the appearance of a valid transfer.
But it’s a moot point because Dan said last week that any unit could be bricked at any time due to the timing of a theft report so that’s what you should hear when asking Support.
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And this is the scariest part, because they can also update their EULA at any time potentially changing the rules for disabling (bricking) a device whenever it suits their needs.
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I can’t think of a single scenario in which they would “need” to disable a legitimate device (and thereby alienate a paying customer).
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What if the photo taken after the print showed something untoward? Or that conflicted with their values? Or revealed a crime? None of which changes the legitimacy of the device or even maybe the owner (although it would reflect on the user).
Long ago when cameras still used film, we would sometimes print racy photos and sometimes not - depended on who was manning the machine and how extreme they thought the photos were. (Of course, chances were regardless of whether the customer got prints, there were copies being floated amongst the processing staff.) Same concept, different technologies but the more things change the more they stay the same.
Or maybe simply if you don’t order enough PG 
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Thanks for replying. You are a stand up guy.
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@jamesdhatch is spot on, just take a look at recent news with tech companies. Salesforce banned customers that use their software to legally sell certain types of guns, they are making a point and restricting their users’ capabilities. Similarly, I can imagine a world where one gets too many DMCAs and Glowforge bans the device and/or user.
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Meh. I’ve got enough REAL stuff to worry about, I’m not gonna try to make up more. 
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