Registered an account just now to express how completely frustrating this whole GB is. I first saw this project over on Reddit maybe 18-24 months ago and fell in love with the design. And I bought the whole enchilada: case, PCB, stabs, custom serial number, switches, assembly, the whole thing. I have asked for refunds on everything except for the case at this point but I haven't seen a dollar back.
At this point, I am just assuming I am out the entire bill. As much as I want to support small group buys from motivated community members, I am probably only buying finished goods or going through MD/Drop for anything I buy in the future. What a mess.
The first day of the GB was 29/06/18; so be real, you've only had money on the line for 13 months tops. You really can't complain about being invested for 18-24 months: some boards are in IC for years, but have a relatively short period between GB and fulfillment. Should people pledging to those complain that they saw the board 3 years ago when the GB was only 2 months ago?
That being said, the communication in this GB has been terrible, and I can't help but feel like the hype associated with this GB was urged on by a lot of people pointing out around the time of the GB that "big names in the community" vouched for and helped out with getting Desk Candy up (somewhat legitimizing it). That was used to dispel very real and serious concerns with a first time GB runner taking on such an ambitious project, but then these "big names" could disappear and/or claim ignorance because they aren't actually involved, letting a first-time GB runner flounder and deal with the fallout without any repercussions themselves. I know I'll be considering these red flags for GBs in the future. Anyways, just a rant, but I feel like if your name is prominently displayed (in any way other than a "thanks for helping me get this together") and used to market the product, then you bear some responsibility for the success/failure of the GB.
His last response was on July 10th, with one before that explaining that his time is packed with driving vendor to vendor to make ends meet and actually get the things made. He showed pictures of prototypes. Think about it, if he were scamming us, why would he bother spending more money to actually make prototypes to show us pictures of? We're all in past the point of return with any PayPal return window, so he should just run off with the money. We're all in the same boat here. Why choose to assume the worst and get upset, and in doing so cause yourself unnecessary headache and heartache, right now, for something that might not even be true? If you (and all of us) do get completely shafted, then yeah, then we'll feel bad together, if it happens. For me, I'm assuming the best, because if it works out, I didn't experience any headache or heartache through any of the process.
Being positive isn't what people are complaining about though. Expressing your disappointment with how this GB is being run has proven time and time again to be the only way to get any updates. As far as "running off with our money" I don't think anyone is suggesting that; it's that based on the progress seen so far, there is not much to suggest that we will get a product that is up to the quality of the product initially shown to us. I doubt anyone is thinking this GB was a "scam" or a money grab, it has just run into so many problems that getting the product we paid for seems like a slim possibility at this point even if it is fulfilled. Do I think that we will eventually get a board from this: yes, but will it be the board we were all hoping it would be? That's less certain to me, and discussing that isn't being negative for no reason, it's a legitimate criticism of the updates and work shown so far which I think is worth a discussion.
Registered an account just now to express how completely frustrating this whole GB is. I first saw this project over on Reddit maybe 18-24 months ago and fell in love with the design. And I bought the whole enchilada: case, PCB, stabs, custom serial number, switches, assembly, the whole thing. I have asked for refunds on everything except for the case at this point but I haven't seen a dollar back.
At this point, I am just assuming I am out the entire bill. As much as I want to support small group buys from motivated community members, I am probably only buying finished goods or going through MD/Drop for anything I buy in the future. What a mess.
Even worse for me, my order was over 1000 usd AND i shipped him blue alps, brown alps etc worth ovet 300 USD for assembly.
This GB, Alf x1.1 and xondat killed this hobby for me i have yo say, there's not much passion left.
Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk
That's a lot of cheddar on one GB... Maybe the takeaway here is not to throw too much money at someone who doesn't have a track record of successful GBs in the future. I'm sorry that these projects have left you feeling disillusioned with the hobby, but please don't let the few GBs that went under dampen your enthusiasm for keyboards as a whole! Hopefully you can at least ask for your switches to be shipped back to you in a timely manner.