I was so excited to pre order a glowforge. When it took much longer than expected I was patient. When I got it I was really disappointed. The placement and speed was terrible. But, we were told that would get better over time, and it is… if you’re will to pay a fee. I can accept a fee for design tools but speed and alignment was promised to us. So basically, we have subpar lasers or we have a descent product for an annual fee.
Thanks for nothing. I wish I never got involved with glowforge.
enzo, you where using a Glowforge for three years now, surely it has served you well.
I have a feeling its like when you buy a new computer when you first get it its ‘wicked fast’ but after awhile its a ‘slow piece of $*^@’ 
maybe its time to ‘up your game’ since three years they have made major speed improvements.
Jonathan
Not sure what your talking about here. Unless there has been some announcement made in the last few days I haven’t seen. There is no additional placement accuracy for subscribers verses non subscribers. The machine speeds are the same for subscribers vs. non subscribers. The only speed difference (and it is really not much of a difference) is the amount of time that you have to wait in the cloud for the file to be processed (only a difference of seconds). Non subscribers have to wait less time than they ever did so there is still an improvement over what was originally delivered.
You are under the impression that the premium subscription changes the speed of the machine
The premium subscription only speeds the file preparation, (I hardly notice any difference) the operational speed of the laser itself is the same for everyone, just as it ever was.
Let me guess, someone in the FB users group is bellowing about how unfair it all is.
There has been significant improvements in accuracy of placement, do you know about the calibration tool?
It improved placement by eyeball so we’ll on mine I can drop a file on material with millimeter accuracy.
After 6 years on the forum and 4 years with a machine, I don’t recall any promises of speed improvement.
You should verify any information about your laser you get elsewhere online by checking here for accuracy, this is the official glowforge site.
A lot of the early subscribers who didn’t keep up with the forum announcements missed the Set Focus tool and Re-Calibration program. If you did not run those yet, they dramatically improve placement accuracy, so be sure to do that if you haven’t.
The Premium Subscription adds a lot of new functionality that goes beyond what the original design entailed, so it’s definitely worth checking out if you haven’t yet. The annual subscription is 60% less than the cost of the monthly use subscription, and very reasonable…it funds future development and improvements. (And ongoing use of the existing machines.)
But it is optional. You don’t have to subscribe if you don’t want to, your machine will still work just the way it did before. (And it will work quite well once you run the Re-Calibration program…free to everyone, even those who do not subscribe.) 
Accuracy is not different for subscribers but it was promised at the same time as better speed.
With my “Free Trial” I was running a plaque for a customer and it took 15 min when my trial ended this morning it took 47 min to cut the same plaque.
It absolutely changes the speed of the machine. about a third of the time.
No. It doesn’t. You’ll need to provide evidence to back that up because the machine speed does NOT change without changing the settings.
Holding a customer hostage to a subscription is a terrible way to do business. Extra added features for a price is understandable.
Fixing the super slow speed ()as promised) but then charging for it is shiesty!
This.this.this.
This is absolutely wrong.
What did you change? I get you’re upset because you think someone is wronging you - let someone else (either here or via a support email) check your file, your settings, and see how they run. I literally have Premium on one account, and Print on the other - the runs are identical.
Are you aware that rotating a piece of art can significantly change run times since the head has to move along a longer path?
The subscription trial is not the issue. Something else in your print changed. I’m willing to bet you have somehow got different engrave settings.
Could be you have positioned your print in a different location, but I would not expect to see that much difference in speed.
Could be a rotation of the file - that can make a big difference.
But I guarantee in this case it has nothing to do with your subscription. As many others have said print speed is not affected by your subscription.
Dude, EXACT SAME FILE, MATERIAL AND SETTINGS.
I didn’t realize you can have 2 accounts on the same machine with one premium and the other not. I think you can fix that, having 2 accounts with the same premium, but I’m not 100% sure.
100% noting has changed other than the run time.
And yes, I feel like they are wronging me. They promised to fix these problems and while they did for the alignment and shared it for free they are charging for the speed and that to me is the same as being cheated.
For a couple of grand more I could have bought a traditional laser that is faster and more accurate without a subscription. I do wish I had done that now knowing that they want to squeeze me for more money.
At the risk of upsetting you further, please consider that the speed that the Glowforge motors move the printhead is a constant. My 1000 speed is exactly the same as every other 1000 pro owner. The premium features only influence the process time. Something else is going on if the exact same item is taking different times to produce (not process, produce). Also, most of the people you are interacting with in this forum were also presale customers with over three years of machine experience so have the same usage experiences as you.
You can - I have no interest in doing so. I literally keep the account so that when people have questions about how things work in Print vs Premium I can answer them.
As this is not a thing they are doing, then clearly you have not been cheated.
We can only inform you of the truth, you have to either accept it or move on.
Thank you for you sensitivity. I understand how defensive and often pretentious many glowforge owners are. That is why I so rarely post anything.
You seem both knowledgeable and reasonable. Please accept that I have a great deal of experience with lasers extending to many brands and techniques and I’m fully aware of the mechanics involved.
That all said, can you please point me to an official statement from glowforge that says premium does not make the machine preform faster?
Thanks