Sending Glowforge back out of warranty

[theresa.meis]

UPDATE: First, thank you for giving me the grace to have a mini-tantrum here as I panicked about the expenses I could potentially be facing. Between your responses and additional communication with the help desk, I have a better idea of what to expect, and I’m feeling a lot better about the eventuality of sending my unit back for repairs. Part of the frustration I’ve been working through is that I didn’t send it back immediately because the technology was new to the world and new to me and I didn’t realize until far too late that the problem I was having was NOT user error after all.

So, final advice: As soon as you suspect something isn’t working, just ask for help and deal with it. This could have been resolved upwards of a year and a half ago, but I own that and it’s going to cost me.

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I had a problem arise with my Glowforge that I delayed reporting because a lot of life caused me to mothball the unit for a year (figuratively - it sat in one place that whole time).

Finally reported the problem - the unit won’t cut through proofgrade marterial. With all the updates being pushed through at the time I thought it was a bug from that, until I turned everything back on with all the past year of updates and the problem persisted. I cleaned everything correctly, sent photos of all the clean optics, and ultimately was told the machine had to be sent in for diagnosis, and also I’m now out of warranty.

Has anyone sent their unit in for repair? I can’t even afford to do that (slow season in our industry) until spring anyway.

Almost resigned to sign the deed over to someone else who wants to get the blasted thing fixed.

Clearly, I’m 80% crabby right now (and I waited three weeks from hearing the bad news, so it’s a persistent crabbiness). But, yeah, if anyone has had a good experience shipping and fixing outside of warranty, I really need some good news so I don’t give up entirely.

I was part of the big old launch order so I waited and waited and waited and now I’m just disappointed, in the way a mother tells you she’s not angry, just disappointed. So it’s intense.

[eflyguy]

Many have, as evidenced by posts in this forum. Posting here opens a technical support ticket, btw., so they’ll likely ask you to troubleshoot your machine to determine whether it needs to be sent in. You can get a start on that process by printing the Gift of Good Measure on the spare draftboard they sent with the machine, and posting pics here.

[jamesdhatch]

Lots of reports here from folks sending their GF back post-warranty. The costs are all over the map - from a couple of hundred bucks to more than a thousand. Unfortunately you won’t know where you’re going to end up until after they get it back and check it out so you’re in for $200 regardless.

Also the invoices do not seem to have much detail, nor are they able to provide the details. Apparently they contract out the repair work and say they don’t get detailed estimates or repair information from the sub-contractor - only “tiers” of repairs. So you may get an invoice to pay (before they do the repair) for $1,000 that won’t contain any details about the parts needed or the actual repairs made.

People who have had theirs fixed are almost universally happy with the repair, less so with the price or lack of information on just what was needed.

I don’t recall anyone reporting that they abandoned their unit in GF’s hands after getting the estimate. Not sure that’s possible or if you’ll need to pay for it to be shipped back to you to try to sell as a used & broken machine.

[evansd2]

@jamesdhatch

People who have had theirs fixed are almost universally happy with the repair, less so with the price or lack of information on just what was needed.

1000% accurate. It’s frustrating and potentially expensive, they could improve a lot on the process.

That being said they are really sincere in trying to help and have provided good service where they can.

[theresa.meis]

I already worked with them through that to the point where they asked me to send it back. The replies here are helping give perspective on what to expect, which helps.