Thank you sir, clear constructive advice is always well appreciated when it's not rude or insulting as is often the case
We aren't businessmen here, just keyboard fans with little or no experience doing the best we can, clearly that best sometimes falls short but we can only hope to improve
For what it's worth, I feel like the vast majority of people understood what they were getting into, but the idea of a "group buy" is still fairly new to many and people make different assumptions about what that entails.
Some people will put this transaction in the "amazon", or "etsy", or even "ebay" category and, clearly posted information warning them against that be damned, they thought they were going to get their sets in about 2 weeks and they will accuse you of bait and switch until they are blue in the face. Sam's Club and Costco and the international variety of those businesses has ruined the term "group buy". Many people see that and assume you mean that you are banding together with people to get a discount on an existing product. Flashing bright red text will not cure them of that assumption.
A better analogy for this kind of purchase is something akin to funding a kickstarter campaign.. and honestly, it might be worthwhile to consider running group buy's out of that market.. or at least, in some way, making a nod to it. I think there would be less confusion from the people that wander in here from the outside world about what they are signing up for.
When you fund a kickstarter, there is this optimistic promise that the person you are giving money to will create the thing they are claiming to be able to make. Maybe they'll get enough money to make it, and maybe they'll be able to build it, and maybe it'll actually work, and maybe you might end up with one some day, but there are a lot of steps along the way that things could go wrong.. and you are probably not going to get your money back in the majority of those cases. The flip side is that no one else is making this product, and if you want to get one, this is how you get it.
It's a completely different animal from typical e-commerce. This doesn't fit exactly what Bunny and Co are doing ( which is one of the many reasons they don't use kick starter ) but.. it seems like the group buys are reaching an audience that doesn't understand what they are signing up for.
In any case, I think the analogy holds. We gave Bunny our money because he has a track record of completing these kinds of group buys and there is a good chance that all of this will end well. I trust him ( and ctrl.alt ) more than another random guy on a forum.. and I think he will do his best to do right by us. But what if there were a fire at GMK before the sets shipped? Bunny is almost definitely the smallest purchaser from GMK. He has no power in that negotiation. If GMK has a fire, prints terrible keys, or just decides to be a **** ( which, welcome to the real world, happens ) , there is some non zero chance that none of us will get our money back. What if there were some kind of disaster at Cody's house before all the keys are sorted. **** happens. You keep doing this, and, at some point, something like this will happen. This isn't said explicitly, but the reality is that if your customers can't afford to throw 150 dollars down a well and be ok with that, they probably should not be participating in group buys.
I'm not really advocating the kickstarter thing.. which has it's own issues, but you are putting together awesome products. Rando's see your **** on forums and find there way here on the internet. They are starting to climb out of the woodwork. It's only going to get worse. The place to get help them understand how this works (and that there are many things outside of your control that will affect when and if they get their product ) is before they give you money, not while they are waiting for the sets. Maybe it's part of the checkout, maybe it's word choice ( marketing ) , I don't know. Good luck! Keep making awesome sets!
