When they say full current value that is for an upgrade. Not a down grade. If you upgraded from Basic + Filter to Pro + Filter, the worth of your Basic and Filter is what they cost today. So you are getting more value than you paid. But if you remove the filter they won’t give you more for the filter than you paid. The original price of that was $500.
1 Like
Would’ve been a great moneymaking idea to just order a bunch of Glowforges at the pre-order price and then cancel them all to get the regular price back. 
2 Likes
Thanks for sharing this level of detail. I’ve been waiting since Friday for GlowForge support to provide this level of detail. They haven’t been very responsive and their only reply didn’t answer my questions regarding the price difference for this exact scenario.
Except the pro also comes with a filter included. So, working back, basic + filter was 2500$ in the initial campaign, pro was 4000$. Now a pro is 6000$. Without using current prices, the upgrade fee would be 3500$. Keep in mind, they ONLY offered the pro with a filter included.
However, since they use the current prices, a basic + filter costs 3750$, subtract that from the 6000$ pro price gets you a 2250$ cost. So the extra filter is already subtracted at the 750$ price. However, the pro price INCLUDES a filter, and they don’t list a price without one. So the answer Support gave meant if you want the pro without the filter, the price is 5500$.
The easy assumption here is they consider the pro+filter a bundled price and there’s a 250$ discount already lumped in. So telling them “I don’t want any filter with my pro” nets you an extra 500$ off, rather than the 750$ you might naturally expect.
I’m still confused by your math. He paid $500 over the price of the basic for the filter. So dropping the filter nets him his $500 back. And yes you could purchase the Pro without the filter during the Pre-order campaign. I did so. Unless something has changed since production started you can still do it, but the order page makes it a manual process.
You can delete the filter from your order today at any time. If you bought it at today’s prices you get $750 back. If you bought it at the Pre-Order Campaign price you get $500 back. The current price of the Pro without the filter is $5245. The filter today costs $750 more. All of this not including shipping, taxes or Tariffs.
1 Like
This is why I wanted clarification. I realize you view subtracting the filter as a downgrade, but Dan’s comment was specifically that an upgrade utilized current values ($3,750 for Basic+filter). Therefore, a reasonable interpretation was that would be the value used when determining the net cost to obtain (upgrade to) a “regular” Pro at $5,245. I understand now they’re not using that reasoning. I’m not trying to game the system, I just felt this was useful information to share. In reality, shipping cost for my filter is $76, so that actually takes care of almost 1/3 of that $250 “extra”. I’ll continue to contemplate the upgrade, but I maintain it’s not at “current value”.
- Upgrade Basic to Basic+Filter (Basic is worth current value)
- Upgrade Basic+Filter to Pro+Filter (Basic+Filter is worth current value)
- Upgrade Pro to Pro+Filter (Pro is worth current value)
- Downgrade Pro to Basic (you get credit for what the Pro originally cost and subtract current value of the Basic.
- Downgrade Pro+Filter to Pro (you get credit for what Filter originally cost)
Your Basic to Pro would be an upgrade, but your Basic+Filter to a Pro is not a straight upgrade in either my view or apparently the company’s view.
So we will just disagree.
I’m not sure where you found that price. I looked on the pre-ordering page and there is no listed price for a pro without filter. If they actually list a price of the pro without a filter or tell people that price if they request it without a filter, it makes your explanation more likely.
To clarify, my assumption(and I may be wrong) is since I don’t see any pro listing without a filter, the price is bundled, IE “discounted”, and they don’t(or didn’t) want to offer the pro without a filter. I suppose either way, the numbers work out the same. It’s still 250$ lower than one might normally expect.
Edit:
After doing some digging, the FAQ mentions you can get a pro without a filter by ordering a Basic, and then upgrading to a pro without a filter. So this being the case, I will take it as given that you can upgrade to a pro, no filter for the 5245$, and if you ordered a filter, you don’t get credited the 750$, only the 500$ you actually paid since you are cancelling the filter you ordered.
The order page only lists the Pro with the Filter. I assume it’s a marketing thing. But the company has always allowed you to upgrade from a Basic to a Pro without a filter. Unless things have changed what they will do is subtract the current value of the Filter from the price of the Pro+Filter. You can see value of the filter if you subtract Basic from the Basic+Filter. It is $750 today. At one point in time the option to go from Basic to Pro without filter would show up only after you had purchased a Basic. Not sure if it still does. But Support had also been allowing you to do it manually through email if the order page didn’t show it. I did it. I know lots of people that have done it.
Again I can’t know if the policy has changed but if it has they didn’t announce it.
I apologize, @CharlesDarwin. We usually turn things around in less than the 3 business days we say to expect, but support’s been busy over the weekend answering questions.
1 Like
We’re not really disagreeing on the facts of the pricing. I’m sure you won’t take offense that I go by the official word of Glowforge, not the conjecture often found here, which is why I asked Support directly. This is an old fashioned capitalistic transaction and the company can charge whatever they please - I don’t perceive the great cosmic misjustice that others seem to feel sometimes. However, I don’t think that the downgrade/upgrade path you reasoned out above was initially clear. Dan said, “full current value … to your upgrade”. So I saw the possibility that current value would be applied to the net difference in cost for the value of goods purchased in a linear fashion, not viewing a “downgrade” as part of the process. They made their position clear though, and promptly at that I may add (a few hours at most after my query to Support), so I shared for the benefit of others.
3 Likes
I am not sure what version of IE you are referring to, but IE 11 gets regular updates in Win 7, 8 and 10.
1 Like
There’s nothing about those statements that is true.
My mistake, I got my versions mixed up. 11 is still supported.
1 Like
well, the first part is true. No one should use IE for anything. 
<grumbles the web designer that has spent untold, countless hours trying to “fix” web pages and web apps just to make the god forsaken IE display things like every other modern browser does…>
9 Likes
Pretty much. I feel a bit dirty opening up IE, even to just download Chrome.
6 Likes
As you should, but those are the dirty necessities of live.
1 Like
@dan it has now been five days since I last heard from support. What is a reasonable expectation for response times?
I saw this morning that they have now repaired the Upgrade Pricing in the system. If you want to go check the prices there it should calculate the correct amounts now.
(As a side note: My attempt to upgrade to a Pro model a couple of months ago also got caught by that problem that they had when they switched to a different storefront. They just got it straightened out last night.)