HMKB GB RECAPWhile this group buy has concluded some time ago, I never gotten around to writing a summary, something I felt is necessary but had pushed aside so far. Most of this has already been shared on the discord and some of it posted as updates in this thread. There are some additional things that went on that I had kept quiet about. The following text should give a recap of the whole HMKB group buy and tell about some previously undisclosed problems.
STARTINGAfter the group buy order phase in May of 2020 had ended, I realized that the studio space I had rented at the time simply wasn't big enough to receive, store and fulfill all the parts of the group buy. The order of all metal parts was theoretically ready to be placed. Discussing delivery with the manufacturer made me realize that I wouldn't just need a little bigger space, I would need something with truck access, space to offload from a truck ramp and room for several Euro pallets. This took time. By the end of that year, I finally had found a place in an industrial area near Frankfurt. The day after I signed the lease agreement, I placed the order for the metal parts. They arrived one month later.
I had shown this before, this is the storage room when the metal parts arrived. It was way more than I had anticipated, and that room was just big enough. I learned how to play Tetris with those pallets.
Luckily, I had already ordered the PCBs soon after the group buy had ended. Although it would be a lot of boxes, those wouldn't be a concern to store. If I had waited with the PCB order, I would have been in big trouble. COVID started and lead times for PCBs and its components went up, so did the prices and soon after, I wouldn't have been able to order at all. Problem avoided.
Getting all the metal parts unpacked, checked, then sorted and repacked for powder coating seemed like an overwhelming task. Of course, I got it done eventually but it wasn't easy. During that, I made the stupid decision to buy IKEA shelves for storage. Luckily that didn't cause any accident but I quickly realized, I had to replace those with load racks.
Here are some pictures from when I got the metal parts back from powder coating:
Then the stainless-steel cases and brass plates got bead blasted without issues. After that the brass plates and steel plates went to galvanization. This came with unexpected challenges but those got solved.
Mounting kits, TPU grommet packs and printed manual all took some dedicated time but went without issues.
There was also the EPDM plate foam. The group buy had started without any foam included and back then this was still a new thing. Already in delay, I thought it would be a good idea to have the foam produced and include it for free. The production of the foam went without issues.
Packaging was another huge animal that I had underestimated. I tried to figure out a one-size-fits-all solution for the many different case sizes but ultimately had to abandon this idea since it was taking too long and would be too expensive to make in Germany. Throughout the whole shipping process I used different packaging materials and learned a lot about what works well and what not.
Here are pictures of packaging material arriving. I had to reorder a few times.
BRASSShipping finally started in December 2021. After a few orders shipped I got the feedback that the brass plate was very tight - another nightmare started. I grabbed a brass plate and checked with the same switch I had always used for that - it was fine, a little tight but OK. Then I tried a different (new) switch and that wasn't OK at all. I checked other brass plates randomly and got cold sweat. Turned out the switch I had always used to test the plates with, was simply worn down. For new switches the brass plates were too tight. I hadn't identified this immediately after delivery because I had used that worn out switch for testing. Even worse was the fact that those brass plates - although they were scrap - went to bead blasting and after that they went on to get the galvanizing treatment which gave them the black zinc layer. I continued only fulfilling orders with steel plate and put off the problem until later.
Those of you who were affected know that I tackled this by offering the then newly produced inox plate with serpentine cut. Most went with that and those who insisted on a brass plate got a new and different "full mass brass plate" plate offered at the very end. Very few also declined that new brass plate and since I wasn't going to produce that exact brass plate with black zinc layer again, I had to refund those few. Sorry, I was simply not able to ship the brass plate exactly as planned.
Here are the original brass plates stored untreated, then after bead blasting and finally with the black zinc layer. They are sold as paperweight now.
Early in 2022 the shop got updated and the extras were made available for order. Shipping of the initial group buy orders continued slowly through the whole year of 2022. Early in 2023 it was finally done, and the extras started shipping. Some of the inox plates that were made available for the extra orders brought further challenges which is why some of the extra orders were only ready for shipping in the summer of 2023.
COMMUNICATIONI started this without knowing about how important communication and transparency is. Because production of the cases hadn't started during 2020, people became unhappy. Rightfully so but at the time I didn't understand why people got upset. From my point of view, it was simply a delay due to various challenges, nothing that I wouldn't be able to handle. Only slowly I learned that the people in the group buy simply don't know me and can't know for sure if the group buy goes south. They see a long delay and of course they get at least skeptical. Some wanted to drop out of the group buy in late 2020, that was fine with me, and I refunded those.
In early 2021, the metal parts arrived, and I shared pictures, which was a big relief for many of the participants, since for them this was basically the first actual proof that the cases were indeed getting made. I think this was a turning point, since by then I understood that I needed to communicate better and more frequently.
UNDISCLOSEDTo those of you who followed the updates on discord, this is all nothing new, I told about all of this in detail already. Though all that still doesn't explain why it took almost three years until the last last order was delivered. I had already hinted that I would provide further insight regarding another problem I had to face - that's what I want to share now.
Rewind all the way back to the group buy order phase in May of 2020. One of the payment providers was - of course - paypal. A lot of orders were paid through this service. About halfway through Mai paypal emailed me and told me they would do a standard check of my account, this would take a few days and I would not be able withdraw from it until then. I didn't think anything of it at the time but when they emailed again, I was pretty shocked. They said my account would from now on only be able to receive payments, but I would not be able to withdraw anything until I would make them a certain amount in sales and only then I would be able to access the account. I hadn't withdrawn anything from the group buy money so far, so all the paypal group buy payments weren't available to me. I immediately removed paypal from the Shopify payment options and from then on only the payment options provided by Shopify itself were left available. paypal didn't answer any emails regarding this matter and phone calls would end with the service person saying they were not authorized to talk about this. I thought - fine, I won't let this bother me since the amount that didn't go through paypal was enough to start production and I thought since there for sure can't be no legal ground for paypals actions, they will have to let me access the account again at some point.
In 2021 paypal still hadn't unblocked the account. When powder coating started, I knew I wouldn't be able to continue without the rest of the group buy funds from paypal, for much longer. I decided to go to a lawyer that had experience with this exact matter. I won't tell what was discussed but the result was that after some more time, my lawyer was able to make paypal unblock the account. Beginning of August of 2021, I had full access again. That was over 14 months after paypal had blocked it.
Sidenote: Further up, I mentioned that I had to refund quite a few who wanted out of the group buy in late 2020. The orders paid through paypal could not be refunded from the blocked account. paypal wouldn't even let me do refunds. I had to do those refunds from my private paypal account.
The whole 2020 delay was up to me but after I had the new space with storage room attached, everything could have gone much quicker if it hadn't been for paypal. To be fair, I should not have assumed that paypal would unblock the account by itself at some point. Instead, I should have involved the lawyer immediately when they blocked the account. For sure I won't ever offer paypal again and I'm avoiding paypal the best I can.
Just having access to the paypal funds again didn't completely solve the problems though. For some period of time I was then able to rush through what was left to do - bead blasting of the stainless-steel cases and brass plates, galvanizing of the steel and brass plates, epdm foam, packaging material and so on. Time is a factor though. This is what I had to learn the hard way throughout this journey. The group buy revenue covers production and shipping, of course. Beyond that it needs to cover for things like the rent of the rather large office space that is required. This would have worked out for about one year. Two years not so much though. I now know that a group buy must be concluded within a certain time frame before it becomes a financial loss.
I would have been able to manage the initial delay caused by the search for the new place, new production of brass plates and even the higher shipping prices could have just worked out but the additional delay due to paypal was just that one blow too much. As a result, I had to use personal funds to finish shipping the group buy and to have the inox plates and new brass plates made. I was only gradually able to do this, while always having to overcome the financial burden of the bigger space. I got there eventually but only by using personal finances. For me there was never any doubt that I would eventually get it done. I also understand that from the outside it is easy to be skeptical about this when the process keeps dragging on for so long.
I just mentioned higher shipping prices. That was one more bad thing I hadn't mentioned yet. The group buy shipping prices I had charged were pre COVID. When I started shipping, those prices had gone up substantially, double in some instances. Asking the group buy participants to pay an additional amount for the higher shipping cost was something I didn't want to do. It would have been difficult to manage and might have gotten more participants angered. I decided it was smarter to not make any fuss about it and simply cover the additional cost by myself.
RECENTLYWhile I'm pretty much out of the loop regarding other group buys and keyboard vendors, I did see the recent videos from Taeha Types about group buys that crashed. I think now that I have come forward with my group buy experience, I should also touch on those developments. As I understand there were vendors that piled up many group buys without fulfilling them, or even paying the manufacturer and eventually disappearing. I have zero insight regarding any other group buys and won't comment but I can say that throughout the whole time of my group buy, I didn't think I was "allowed" to start a new group buy while not having shipped the prior one completely. I had the impression that this was a no go in the community. I know it is the norm for keycap sets but for my area - keyboard cases - this would cause an immediate backlash. At least that's what I thought. Although I had more than one new project in the pipeline, I wouldn't even allow myself to at least show those in an interest check.
In hindsight I think I may have been too strict to myself. For example, if I had at some point offered the same HMKB with simply new colors and updated plate options and without setting an unrealistically optimistic shipping goal again, I think I could have collected much needed funds. Funds which would have enabled me to quickly get the rest of the original HMKB group buy shipped and then have a new production that I'm already familiar with. Though it could have also been a cause for more trouble, for example if new unexpected problems would have come up. I'm not sure if refraining myself from putting up a new pre-order in the shop, while not having shipped HMKB-V1 completely, was a good or a bad thing.
SORRYAlthough I had said sorry for the delays many times before, I'd like to emphasize one more time that I am truly sorry for my bad handling of the situation and communication during 2020 and sometimes after that.
I could and should have done a lot differently throughout this group buy that would have enabled me to get this done quicker. I've learned a lot from this and I think I'm now better prepared for future keyboard projects.
Also please excuse that I only posted updates but stopped maintaining the start post of this thread accordingly. I don't think it's necessary at this point any more.
LOVEI love keyboards, I love designing things, I love getting them manufactured and into the hands of people and I love it when they love it. So no matter how many problems any upcoming project will bring, I won't give up on it. It might come at my personal expense, it might take time but eventually I will always get it done, no matter what! Though let's hope that the next project will simply work out smoothly and without problems. I'd defiantly love that too.
THANKSThat said, I want to give a huge thanks to all those who kept calm until they got their HMKB. Your patience helped me to get through this. Including the extras I have shipped 1233 orders.
I hope you are happy with your HMKB.
I wanted to write this "little" recap already many months ago but I knew it would get uncomfortably long and so I pushed it aside until now. Thanks for reading.
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FORGOTTENCurrently there are seven orders left that I can't ship. I've been emailing the customers countless times over the past two years, for address confirmation and alternative plate choice but didn't get no answer. There are also five packages that DHL couldn't deliver and weren't picked up. They got returned to me eventually and I didn't hear back from those either. If you are one of those - please reach out to me via the contact form on the shop page.
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NOWI've just updated the shop. Might not look much different than before but you pick your variant differently now. Before I start a new project, I need to sell the current stock. Because of that the prices are now heavily reduced. You can now choose to get just the bare case, without pcb or plate plate. This is an option for those who might already have a spare plate and pcb. The old and faulty brass plates are sold as paperweight (buy three, get 30% off). There is a new FR4 plate option which also helps to reduce the entry level price. If you have bought an HMKB in the last two months, email me and you'll get 15% off for your next order.
After counting what's left, I noticed that my stock numbers weren't correct. Now some variants that were previously marked as out of stock are now available again.
I have some B-stock cases and plates available at further reduced prices. Just blemishes without affecting the functionality. I don't sell those through the store. If you are interested, please use the contact form on the store page.
FUTUREI had mentioned that I have new projects in the works. Next will be something not much different from what I offer now. The reason for that is to have something that won't cause me any surprises during manufacturing. This will also give me more time for prototyping of new designs that I'm working on.
