[GB] SA Polyclear Important Announcement (Leadtime delays)

[UgloBuglo]

This is the first GB I join, so sorry if I ask something stupid here...
What is the process now that the GB is closed?
Will there be no more updates here until suddenly one day next year I get a shipment with my caps, or will we get some updates on when production have started and such?
I'm just curious how these things are usually handled :-)

[Tsumi]

This is the first GB I join, so sorry if I ask something stupid here...
What is the process now that the GB is closed?
Will there be no more updates here until suddenly one day next year I get a shipment with my caps, or will we get some updates on when production have started and such?
I'm just curious how these things are usually handled :-)

It depends on the runner (some are more transparent than others), but ideally there should be updates based on specific milestones.

[Achromous]

This is the first GB I join, so sorry if I ask something stupid here...
What is the process now that the GB is closed?
Will there be no more updates here until suddenly one day next year I get a shipment with my caps, or will we get some updates on when production have started and such?
I'm just curious how these things are usually handled :-)

Updates will be given on final numbers, when they're in production when production is done and when they're being fulfilled.
That's the typical structure. I will give updates here and in discord when my server is finished.

[dvorcol]

More

<-- without extras

[Achromous]

Important Update - SA Polyclear's estimated fulfillment date is being moved to Q4 2022

After discussions with Signature Plastics, it has been determined that the prior-announced lead time of around 3 months after GB end is, unfortunately, unfeasible. The quote for a 3 month lead time was provided assuming a much smaller amount of units would be purchased , but due to the success of the Polyclear's GB means that estimate is no longer applicable. Sadly Signature Plastics did not communicate that the original lead time was contingent on order quantity and we failed to foresee that possibility. For this I take responsibility for the resulting situation.
Since the 3 month lead time was a large part of what was advertised we will be offering full refunds for anyone who no longer wishes to participate in the Polyclear GB, this is effective now until the end of this year. (11:59PM, Dec 31st)

If you wish to refund your order please contact your regional vendor and make a request, please be aware that refund policy differs between vendors.
If you purchased through me on NOESC and wish to refund your order please message me with your order number to support@noesc.co.uk.

Please accept my sincere apologies we appreciate your patience and understanding. If you have any further questions I will try and respond to them best I can in this thread.

[hottrout]

Considering the hobby we are in I don't think you need to worry too much about announcing a greater lead time and I for one don't 'blame' you for this.  Happy to wait and I suspect most others will be as well.

[HungHingDaiLo]

^

totally understandable

[TyPo.mk]

Good on you for even offering a refund, not something most vendors would do. Anyone who has dealt with manus in the hobby knows how hard getting straight accurate answers can be. 

[VellFlamm]

congrats on the huge success. No big deal. A delay of few months is a common thing in keycap GBs anyway.

[Zini.Ethan]

These are gunna be great accent keys, just pre-ordered! Thanks for the dedication getting this project going.

[Chrose]

Do you have any more protos besides the spacebar? The marks are concerning

[Puddsy]

Do you have any more protos besides the spacebar? The marks are concerning

consequence of the injection molding process, likely unavoidable

[Achromous]

Just a quick update to say that there's no real updates I spoke with SP recently and we're still on track for a Q4 delivery time though anything more specific hasn't been provided.

[dahun.kim@]

Just a quick update to say that there's no real updates I spoke with SP recently and we're still on track for a Q4 delivery time though anything more specific hasn't been provided.

It is possible to receive in the end of 2022? I'm really looking forward to it.

[MrDerrickC]

Got my SA Polyclear today. A little disappointed with the quality of the keycaps....

You can see much more of the moulding marks are much more visible than expected (didn't expect it to be perfect as that's how the process is). There are more visible marks on R2 and R4, whereas R3 look good.

Function row and mod set also is frosted and nothing like the alphas in terms of transparency, so inconsistencies in the plastic mix it appears.

[lakeboredom]

Those actually came out a lot better than I was expecting! The inconsistent transparency is unfortunate.

[ihalatch]

I got mine too. I'm disappointed too. There are visible  markings on some caps like small numbers and letters, they appear even on 1u keycaps, not to mention the spacebars. Some of the  keycaps look frosted. The difference in the thickness of the caps walls is also obvious and easy to see. The keycaps look nothing like the caps shown in the renders

[hottrout]

I have not received mine yet but going by the pictures they are nothing like the renders.  They were supposed to be clear, polished and glass like.  This is unfortunate.

[lakeboredom]

I have not received mine yet but going by the pictures they are nothing like the renders.  They were supposed to be clear, polished and glass like.  This is unfortunate.

Lol it was never gonna look like the render.

[MrDerrickC]

I was never expecting it to look like renders. I actually think R3 looked really nice, just a big shame around the inconsistencies in moulds between rows and also the mixing of plastics to have cloudiness in the F row.

[μ]

Honestly baffled how the end result is this far from original promises. I hope people manage to get the refunds they deserve.

[DaaDaa]

I’m glad that some are just a little disappointed Because to me it looks horrid and the Chinese ones on etsy definitely look better.

[ihalatch]

Is it possible to return the keycaps and get a refund? They are absolute crap. I can't put these ugly **** on my keyboards.

[lakeboredom]

You all should have known they'd look like this based on the sample spacebar. I literally told you in the interest check they would be full of lines. It's your fault for not reading every comment of the thread and getting an accurate estimate based on comments. Like how I mentioned the DCS version of this keyset is literally available right now, and looks exactly the same. You should have known. Or not bought. The renders should have been your first sign. The complete lack of 1u samples should have been the second thing that made you think twice. My comment saying the renders are bull**** should have solidified your opinion. But you purchased anyway. You don't get to complain.

[Nuap]

You all should have known they'd look like this based on the sample spacebar. I literally told you in the interest check they would be full of lines. It's your fault for not reading every comment of the thread and getting an accurate estimate based on comments. Like how I mentioned the DCS version of this keyset is literally available right now, and looks exactly the same. You should have known. Or not bought. The renders should have been your first sign. The complete lack of 1u samples should have been the second thing that made you think twice. My comment saying the renders are bull**** should have solidified your opinion. But you purchased anyway. You don't get to complain.

Please sir this is a Wendy's.

[lakeboredom]

You all should have known they'd look like this based on the sample spacebar. I literally told you in the interest check they would be full of lines. It's your fault for not reading every comment of the thread and getting an accurate estimate based on comments. Like how I mentioned the DCS version of this keyset is literally available right now, and looks exactly the same. You should have known. Or not bought. The renders should have been your first sign. The complete lack of 1u samples should have been the second thing that made you think twice. My comment saying the renders are bull**** should have solidified your opinion. But you purchased anyway. You don't get to complain.

Please sir this is a Wendy's.

Lol that's not how you use that saying.

[dantambok]

welp that looks horrible   
I expected the cloudiness but not inconsistent cloudiness  )

[Nuap]

You all should have known they'd look like this based on the sample spacebar. I literally told you in the interest check they would be full of lines. It's your fault for not reading every comment of the thread and getting an accurate estimate based on comments. Like how I mentioned the DCS version of this keyset is literally available right now, and looks exactly the same. You should have known. Or not bought. The renders should have been your first sign. The complete lack of 1u samples should have been the second thing that made you think twice. My comment saying the renders are bull**** should have solidified your opinion. But you purchased anyway. You don't get to complain.

Please sir this is a Wendy's.

Lol that's not how you use that saying.

I'm out of touch. It's unfortunate that the keycaps didn't meet people expectations. I think the cloudiness was obvious given the samples and other examples from Signature Plastics, however the numbers/letters on the underside of keys is kind of inexcusable.

[lakeboredom]

You all should have known they'd look like this based on the sample spacebar. I literally told you in the interest check they would be full of lines. It's your fault for not reading every comment of the thread and getting an accurate estimate based on comments. Like how I mentioned the DCS version of this keyset is literally available right now, and looks exactly the same. You should have known. Or not bought. The renders should have been your first sign. The complete lack of 1u samples should have been the second thing that made you think twice. My comment saying the renders are bull**** should have solidified your opinion. But you purchased anyway. You don't get to complain.

Please sir this is a Wendy's.

Lol that's not how you use that saying.

I'm out of touch. It's unfortunate that the keycaps didn't meet people expectations. I think the cloudiness was obvious given the samples and other examples from Signature Plastics, however the numbers/letters on the underside of keys is kind of inexcusable.

You got it backwards. The cloudiness is definitely something we can blame SP on, but the little numbers/letters are on all SP caps.

[VellFlamm]

There was no way SP was making new non-marked molds for this, so that we all (should have) expected.

But what is with that inconsistency between rows??

[MrDerrickC]

Yep, it's the inconsistency that annoys me.

You can see here the 1.5u are all messed up compared to the 1.25u. The 1u of the function row and numeric row are also super cloudy compared to the alphas.

Not even talking about the moulding marks, just the transparency. You can see in the line up of each row, R3 looks really nice.

[UgloBuglo]

Mine are still shipping so I haven't seen them myself yet, but judging by the pics here so far they looks to be a bit underwhelming unfortunately.
I will for sure try the same I did when I printed some DES in clear resin, I still think (hope) the Polyclear can look good with some work.
These are from the same batch, one is just dipped in 2-component clearcoat to look 10x better imo.

[.jan]

holy that looks absolutely terrible

[DaaDaa]

I can’t believe that they decided to move forward with the production and ship these to people and it makes it so much worse that the Chinese ones for 25 bucks have excellent tooling , clarity, and no nonsense.

 I originally bought the Chinese with legends and was put off by the not so nice legends but the clear one with no legends is just about perfect. Of course it doesn’t have 7u space bar 

[dededecline]

Not my correspondence but seemed worth posting here.

[Extra Fox]

Highly disappointing.

Shame on the vendors for not passing on reasonable expectations to the customers.

[Kokaloo]

Vala needs to offer refunds indefinitely. I haven't seen a clear cut example of renders misleading people this bad maybe ever. It's a shame they have to sit on thousand of caps that people aren't going to want and the runner should have done their due diligence in communicating what the final product was going to look like.

It was pretty apparent early too. The spacebar isn't Doubleshot do it doesn't have the shot lines around the keycap. The relegendables are single shot molds designed to be clear. When SP communicated all of these barriers with him it was his and Valas responsibility to communicate that with over 1000 customers.

Vala also has a dozen and a half Keysets and other projects to fulfill too. Good luck!

[Achromous]

Not my correspondence but seemed worth posting here.

Show Image

I haven't made a public statement yet as we have been waiting for more customers to receive their orders. I will make a brief statement about the current status of Polyclear.

At no point during our communication has tooling notation ever been discussed or mentioned.
In our messages there was one mention of mould markings the precise wording is as follows.
"One thing I should also note. The tooling for these clear keys is designed to run opaque plastic. There may be minor cosmetic things that show when we run the clear plastic."
This message was sent on the 25th of May 2021 after we had received the samples for the spacebar as photographed and shown in the first post of this thread.

I want to make this apparent, at no point has anyone been intentionally mislead by myself.
I have only operated within the information that SP has provided to me.
As I hope you can understand I won't be saying much more till a later date as I'm working with all the vendors and SP for it to come to the most satisfactory conclusion for all parties (Especially the consumers)

For now and going forward:
- We acknowledge that some customers have received a product that doesn't match their expectations.
- We are in the process of working with SP to understand why and what can be done.
- Vendors will be kept up to date as the process continues.

[Mr Chrome]

I have not received mine yet but going by the pictures they are nothing like the renders.  They were supposed to be clear, polished and glass like.  This is unfortunate.

Lol it was never gonna look like the render.

Here are some photos from a reddit post comparing the cheap Chinese caps to SA Polyclear. Everyone absolutely has a right to complain with this outcome, especially when keycaps that meet expectations already exist.

[Pandamom98]

I have not received mine yet but going by the pictures they are nothing like the renders.  They were supposed to be clear, polished and glass like.  This is unfortunate.

Lol it was never gonna look like the render.

Show Image

Show Image

Here are some photos from a reddit post comparing the cheap Chinese caps to SA Polyclear. Everyone absolutely has a right to complain with this outcome, especially when keycaps that meet expectations already exist.

Would it be rude of me to ask if you have the link for those caps >.>

[Mr Chrome]

I have not received mine yet but going by the pictures they are nothing like the renders.  They were supposed to be clear, polished and glass like.  This is unfortunate.

Lol it was never gonna look like the render.

Show Image

Show Image

Here are some photos from a reddit post comparing the cheap Chinese caps to SA Polyclear. Everyone absolutely has a right to complain with this outcome, especially when keycaps that meet expectations already exist.

Would it be rude of me to ask if you have the link for those caps >.>

Well probably, but... pm'ed :<

[norb]

well this is awkward. 

[dahun.kim@]

what the…

[mr_foggy]

dodged a bullet

[LexProf]

"Not my correspondence but seemed worth posting here."

I find it interesting that SP did not respond to the complaint (at least in the correspondence shown above) that the caps are not clear and that the clarity is inconsistent (with some being flat out frosted). One only needs to look through the posts in this GB thread early on, and the prototype, to see why folks would expect their caps to have excellent clarity across the board.

I was also disappointed recently with the SP tatooine caps I received. Lots of scuff marks. As much as I very much want to support caps made in the United States, the tatooine product, and what I see you all are suffering on this product, really bums me out.

[hottrout]

I think everyone would have accepted the top row of caps in that image from Mr Chrome.  That was the colour/look that I was expecting.

[brew]

Yikes. Just got the pre-shipping notification from Vala for mine. Got all excited and came to check the GB thread.  Worst kind of surprise.  I'll see how they look when they arrive, but the inconsistency is really unacceptable.  I expected a little cloudiness, but I expected it to be consistent.  That's nowhere near the ballpark of the early spacebar photo.  Also, what's with the text / codes on the caps!  "minor tool marks?".  Double yikes.  Seriously hope Achromous can work out a solution. 

[CodyMathis123]

Hmm, maybe a language barrier or something? I would expect 'minor tooling marks' to be some physical marring when handled by the machines and processing. Not the literal molding mark and symbols.

[CopticSaint]

Just got my set yesterday and put them on. The results are... disappointing to say the least.
https://imgur.com/a/JOzMre0

[lazaret]

Big ooof

If at least they all had the same degree of cloudiness...