Not sure if this is the best place for this, but I see I can't post under the Vendor subforum and can't find a thread on Caps Unlocked vendor/store. If this is not the right place mods can lock it
I just went through my first GB and wanted to share what happened as a heads-up for others, but also to ask - how normal was this experience? Interested if similar things happen in every GB or this was just a fluke.
So back in, I believe it was December '19? So almost one exact year ago, I happened upon this GB by a UK vendor called Caps Unlocked. The board, CU65, is unique in that it's both ISO and ANSI compatible while also being hotswappable, for only 120GBP! (Later turned about 170GBP through surprise VAT and shipping, but still less than most customs). Just what I needed for my first foray into custom keebs, I thought.
The ETA was February. Here's a crucial bit though for later in the story: Before committing, I messaged the vendor and asked them what to do if I wanted an unusual layout pre-assembled (I like ISO enter with ANSI left shift, assembly was an option). He told me my layout is possible (joy) and that I should just leave a note describing the specifics. So I went ahead and entered the GB.
What followed was by far the most grueling and stressing purchasing experience of my life. Just when it seemed this thing was going to eventually ship there was just meaningless delay after meaningless delay (most of which were pretty lamely excused - "oh the factory turned out pricier than expected looking for a new factory", or "I thought I'd done this thing but I guess I didn't! Oops" etc).
So I just received mine today. Yep, a year of constant delays (granted, one month of that was due to Covid - but that was not the issue, really.) By the way, while we Round-1-ers were waiting, this vendor orchestrated Round 2, also a CU7 macro board, set up his shop... seemed weird to keep us waiting on hot coals while he ran other GB's. Maybe that's normal though, IDK.
But it doesn't end there. My board first arrived a week ago, wrongly assembled. I was forced to open it up (something I specifically wanted to avoid as I am super clumsy) and oh - the tolerances turned out wrong by the way, due to Chinese Factory Mistake (tm). So the switches, once in, were just shy of impossible to push out. So in my efforts I broke off one of the hotswap things.
To his credit, CU immediately said for me to send it back to him to fix. 72 hours wait max he said. So yeah, like I said, it arrived a week (and a half) later, today... with a couple of dents on one corner. I had scratched it up a little bit trying to get the switches out, but I can confidently say I didn't do the corner dents. He claims that's how it got to him. Maybe it did (though the week-long delay was constantly excused by a very suspicious "I might have an extra case! Just give me one more day..." until I was like "I don't care about a new case (thinking about the minor scratches), just send it already"). But of course, I can prove nothing and as such will give the benefit of the doubt here and blame DHL, I suppose. Still, all would have been avoided if he had simply bothered to read the note he told me to leave him.
So yeah, that was a wall of text. Sorry about that, just wanted to share this and get it off my chest.
TL;DR: Just avoid this person. Lame excuses that are probably lies for very, VERY unprofessional behaviour, resulting in a year-long wait for a sub-par end result.Picture of the board:
https://imgur.com/rqNG03rPicture of the corner damage:
https://imgur.com/HWe27nP
