He sent an email today 12/28/2017
Hey all,
An update is long overdue. Sorry for being absent (after saying I wasn't going to do exactly that in the previous update). Personal reasons will just bore you and be a piss poor attempt to garner sympathy so let's move on to how the two buys will be concluded.
If this email has reached you in error, please feel free to ignore and delete it.
ZZ96:
Aluminum parts (case and plate) are complete, packed, and were shipped out and en route to me earlier today. It's coming from the southernmost region of China to the Northeast where I am (Changchun), so it will probably take 5-7 days to reach me. I have attached an image of the parts pre-shipment.
Acrylic parts (the central diffuser plate, possible triangular side diffusers) had to be pushed up the production pipeline since the place that works on them is also working to fulfill a Chinese group buy for acrylic keycap cases. This should not take long from now to complete.
PCBs had one issue after another with shipping and were supposed to be shipped out to me this time last month. They were finally shipped out tonight to me and should be here in a few days, earlier than the cases. I purchased a couple extras because some people were asking for extras a while back. A photo of the PCBs prior to shipping to me is also attached.
TriC75:
Due to multiple points of miscommunication, this buy is largely unable to be fulfilled. This is much more on me than TriC so please do not blame them (save for the production delays). I have 7 kits remaining with me that I will inspect and ship out to fulfill what outstanding orders I can, but the remainder will have to be refunded. The 180-day Paypal period has long since passed so verifying the orders and refunds may be a cumbersome process, but I will take care of them.
Other affairs:
Some disputes were opened during my absence (I don't blame anyone for doing so, I'd do the same in your shoes) and went through. If you want your spot back, I'd be happy to accommodate. Requests for refunds will also be honored, but the main issue is that I no longer have enough money in my Paypal account to handle the backlog of said requests in my inbox. Almost all of the GB money were transferred to China to pay for production and shipping, when the time comes. However, this can be resolved via the following methods:
Selling of unclaimed ZZ96 spots: I have over 10 spots available. If some of them are picked up by others, it would be easy for me to take care of the pending refund requests.
Selling of some TriC60 gen 3 cases and TriC80 kits that are in-stock and ready to ship from China. I have verified that they are indeed in stock and ready to ship, and will hopefully have a TriC80 kit arrive for inspection in a few days since I don't feel comfortable selling something I've not used before.
Please understand that refund requests will be honored to the best of my ability, but it will take time for me to gather the funds via the above methods.
I did make a video about this, but it seems to be impossible to upload from China. My VPN cuts off every 10 seconds or so when I attempt to upload to the usual sites (GDrive/YouTube). Uploading to YouTube just shows up as Upload Pending.
I hope to go through the messages in my inbox tomorrow. It's 11:37PM and I only got two hours of sleep the night before and a morning exam earlier today. I neither want nor deserve sympathy for how horribly I've ran these buys, and just want to wrap these up as quickly as possible for all our sakes.
Sincerely,
Jian