Why doesn't GF share the hour cycles on our machines and details of failures when "Gift of Good Measure" is ran?

In 2.5 years we’ve purchased (2) Pro’s - one has been replaced with refurbished units twice, the other is about to have it’s second replacement. That’s two Pro’s and 4 refurbs in approx 30 months… When is GF going to become more transparent on hours clocked on our machines or once you run background diagnostic scripts - what the errors showing are? You need to better your warranty periods on refurbs - stand by your product + get a lot more transparent on available data. Refurbs have been anywhere from $534 to $1200.94 - but zero explanation or details to compare performance. < End Rant >

They simply don’t expose that number. It is what it is.

If you want commercial quality data, buy a commercial machine. The GF is a hobby machine,

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Thanks for your input - we have an industrial machine. Aware these are desktop / hobby units. Even still, at $6k a pop for PRO- I have higher reliability expectations.

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That’s the misconception many have. $6k is nothing in the laser cutting world. It’s a starter point.

It’s somewhat analogous to expecting to buy a supercar for racing, just because it’s more than you’d spend on a grocery-getter.

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Thank you - dismiss price - average life has been 5 months per machine. Point still remains, it’s unacceptable and disappointing performance.

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5 years here

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Sounds like you need a different vendor.

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Money does not buy or guarantee reliability expectations. However, research will help in providing a reliable view. I have had my pro for 2 years now. It has been reliable for me. It was even reliable last month why I made 8 outfits with it for New York Fashion Week.

I would recommend a different vendor. One that entices higher level of research.

Not trying to be harsh in response. This forum section is not managed by glowforge staff anymore. It is just those who try and help everyone get running on their machines. A rant might be a little misplaced…The rant is only going to those who are just trying to help…

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Not exactly - I’m 25+ yr aerospace eng and quite familiar with reliability. The more robust a design the more I’ll charge you for the original purchase because I know I won’t have many opportunities to sell you spare parts or repair related labor costs. When you buy a “top-shelf” hobbyist desktop machine, paying a premium - there is an expectation on robustness / reliability. Of course never a guarantee as there’s always some degree of failure modes that could arise. The pain point here is lack of transparency. After running backend diagnostics - GF refuses to provide any information on what error codes are thrown. They throw you a number for a refurbed unit - convincing you that’s the best way to go.

I found a GF employee message (Dan_H / April’18) who stated that the “GF Tube is rated by the mfg for 2 years and they were conducting lifetime testing to dial that in…out of warranty, we’ll replace it and realign it for you for $499, including round trip shipping int he US. We’ll also have a replacement tube part available for purchase.”

That’s the sort of information I’d like to see - tell me what’s wrong with the machine and lay out my options. The lack of transparency makes the whole situation suspicious.

My rant is correctly placed, this is also my community - seeking if anyone else is going thru the same situation as me. By the number of BBB complaints filed, I would suspect the answer is yes.

The tube replacement offer was recently withdrawn.

There are no diagnostics you can run, and you have full access to your Glowforge’s logs if you’d like to see any errors. They’re locally stored on the machine and accessible over the setup wifi network.

Approximately one BBB complaint per 1000 owners. If you read the complaints, more than half are frivolous, just using BBB as a place to vent frustration. It is just the boomer-era Yelp after all.

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Work history does not guarantee knowledge of reliability pertaining to glowforge. It also does not guarantee understanding of glowforges product development and lice cycle management decisions.

I would recommend being part of the change if you would like. There are many efforts out there to require more transparency from tech companies. If you want recommendation on what groups to reach out to, I can help provide my suggestions.

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