Glowforge

[Jerome Stanek]

I just saw an ad on TV for glowforge

[Kev Williams]

yeah, I saw one the day after Xmas. I guess the ad rates are somewhat lower than they are before Xmas. What I found interesting about the ad, which is basically riding the razor's edge of 'truth in advertising', is that every frame of the ad showing the machine raster engraving was sped up by, in my estimation, from 300% to possibly more than 1000%... But, I only watched it once, didn't notice if there was any disclaimer listed about that. But I'm sure many people will be calling GF CS after noticing their machine running at a snails pace compared to the commercial(s), asking 'what's wrong with my machine, it's so slow?'...

[Jerome Stanek]

yeah, I saw one the day after Xmas. I guess the ad rates are somewhat lower than they are before Xmas. What I found interesting about the ad, which is basically riding the razor's edge of 'truth in advertising', is that every frame of the ad showing the machine raster engraving was sped up by, in my estimation, from 300% to possibly more than 1000%... But, I only watched it once, didn't notice if there was any disclaimer listed about that. But I'm sure many people will be calling GF CS after noticing their machine running at a snails pace compared to the commercial(s), asking 'what's wrong with my machine, it's so slow?'...

How can they call Glowforge doesn't have a phone line just E mail that they say 3 days to get back to you or their forum that if you complain to hard the fanboys jump all over you about as bad as Festool

[Bill George]

Was there a BOGO Free offer and an 800 number? I wonder if the ads show the machine stopping to cool off since its over 75F in the room?

[Ralph Undis]

Instead of spending dollars on advertising, why not hire a few Customer Support Reps to answer phones?

[Bert Kemp]

because they don't have the money to hire the thousands needed to answer all the complaint calls.

[Jerome Stanek]

And the majority of the complaints are the same

[Ralph Undis]

The Glowforge marketing scam of "Proofgrade Material" is the best:)

[Dave Sheldrake]

From the start it was always going to be a Pyramid laser system. Once the rush of new sales dies down the aftercare has to as well. Aftercare is the single most expensive part of retailing Laser equipment as there is no real return on investment.
Unless you can keep up the volume numbers for new sales then much like a "Ponzi" scheme it must eventually collapse.

Edit: I've just wandered into the GF forums...a lot of unhappy folks over there....I am so glad I never took up laser servicing and support for a job.

[AL Ursich]

A friend from my Craft Show days sent me a message asking if I had a Glowforge. Her friend has one and an order for 100 Xmas Ornaments. And her lens cracked... And Murphy Law is in effect.... NONE in stock...

So I do a little research and a guy on eBay sold 37 for about $75.00 each and I asked and he does not have any more.

They have a forum where customers can post the problem and get feedback. One guy bought a 500 foot roll of wire that gets melted when you have a FIRE... He sells it by 5 foot lengths...

They shut down threads quickly so they don't "Generate extra Repair Tickets"... Or let the Angry Mob post...

Some interesting posts.... https://community.glowforge.com/c/problems-and-support/7

I had forgot about the Fire Photo I collected a while back.

AL

[Kev Williams]

If the lens is still in one piece it is still possible to engrave with it!
I did the test on the right with these 2 lenses, I can't tell the difference and I'm not even sure which lens did which!

446649446650

The lens cracked when I was cutting a ton of white over red Rowmark; I wasn't checking the lens often enough, the smoke built up to the point the laser's incident beam heated it until it 'coked' it- the halo at the crack's intersection was like cooked tar. I was surprised I was able to chisel it off- That was several years ago, still have the lens, still works, go figure! :)

[Jerome Stanek]

A friend from my Craft Show days sent me a message asking if I had a Glowforge. Her friend has one and an order for 100 Xmas Ornaments. And her lens cracked... And Murphy Law is in effect.... NONE in stock...


They shut down threads quickly so they don't "Generate extra Repair Tickets"... Or let the Angry Mob post...

Some interesting posts.... https://community.glowforge.com/c/problems-and-support/7

I had forgot about the Fire Photo I collected a while back.

AL

Once someone posts you can reply and it will not create another repair ticket. They just close the thread so people can post and any help that someone would have will not be available. Pretty bad customer service also as you have to do everting through Email and sometimes it takes days to get a reply

[Bert Kemp]

I just went over to the Glowforge forum and looked at all the complaints pages of them just in the last 5 days. Theres o many complaints of machine failures and NO support to help these people. I wonder how many other laser companies have pages and pages of complaints .:rolleyes::confused:

[Matt Schrum]

... I wonder how many other laser companies have pages and pages of complaints .:rolleyes::confused:

I think part of it is also the crowd they market to. Their adverts show off the laser as a "pick a design, press a button, walk away" type process-- and I think this gives confidence to many folks that would never think of buying a "normal" laser with a steep learning curve. I know Glowforge certainly has their share of legitimate issues (we've seen plenty posted), but I also think a lot of the issues crop up due to the underprepared or undereducated (with regards to lasers, CNC, etc.) user base they market towards.

[Jerome Stanek]

Cheap rollers cheap fans cheap plastic case that flexes to short cables that have to be replaced. Have to wait long times for designs to render and have to have a good internet connection. Only able to use it when temp is perfect. No real person to person support

[Sarah Fischer]

I was surprised to see a Glowforge thread in here... and now it makes sense. My targeted ads keep telling me that I need to buy one. Someone in a Facebook thread said a watch band took them 40 minutes because it was "complicated".... 40 MINUTES! I knew they were slow, but at that rate, I might as well carve it out with a knife.

[Jerome Stanek]

What I like is I can go out to the shop and load a design in and hit start and it will start. Not having to worry about internet being down or slow.

[Sarah Fischer]

What I like is I can go out to the shop and load a design in and hit start and it will start. Not having to worry about internet being down or slow.

Oh man, same! We live in the country and my "high speed" internet is terrible. I couldn't imagine having to have uninterrupted WIFI. I was finishing up my last job the other night and closing everything down and panicked because I shut down the computer while the job was still running... then I remembered that doesn't matter. Whew..