poor PancakeGoon...
his post immediately prompted me to check out one more time my JTK Griseann set that I put away after my first on arrival examination.
And I also took out a GMK WoB set (Katakana WoB) for comparison.
Thanks bud... Yep. It's rough, it was avoidable, and in some cases drastic-enough that I don't believe it was just missed entirely by QC.
And mostly I'm left pretty damn frustrated for myself,
but straight up heavy-hearted for those of you who waited from GroupBuy-to-Fulfillment just to end up with any of these scuffed kits.
BUT, I specifically came here to let ya'll know about a curious development I noticed once I had 2 sets on-hand, and to give an update on my NovelKeys support situation:I finally got my replacement set, but it unfortunately STILL has many noticeable defects, and the same evidence of poor Quality Control with the new molds/tooling (some of the same defects, and one or two NEW ones - including a missing cap or two in the 2nd set!)... It "luckily" isn't quite as bad as the first, but once I laid out both sets next to each-other on my desk, I noticed some striking similarities between the two:
- First of all, BOTH sets have that strange Gray-colored Left Shift that's been shown on a few users' sets now. If you look at the pictures I posted on my last post, you'll see that my first "Gray Shift" also had a big, obvious scratch across the face, going from the end of the "Shift"-legend-down at an angle.
At FIRST, I was excited to see that–while my replacement came with another identical Gray Shift-key, at least it didn't look visibly injured... But then upon closer inspection, I realized it DID actually have the exact same scratch on the face, albeit just so-much shallower that I couldn't even see it without holding it to the light at certain angles! Which I then realized it wasn't a "scratch" in the classic sense, but an actual part of the tooling of the cap - It is "cut" into the surface (or a fold?), but on-purpose, maybe for stability during injection? - After this I started to compare more identical-pairs of keycaps from the two sets (both "H"-keys, both "J"-keys, etc.) and I noticed the same thing: that the defects on the first set that were ALSO found on the second; could be seen to be IDENTICAL in SHAPE, SIZE & POSITION. The only difference being in varying strengths of visibility & depth.
So it looks pretty clear to me now that these "Manufacturer Defects" that made it through QC were actually BUILT-IN to these new molds. Either way, this is problematic (for a few reasons): As I said, this appears as though everything in this whole run must be affected at some level. I doubt it's part of the
Masters, but it's clearly baked into something... It might not even be something that was
supposed to be visible - having some experience working with both pellet Injection Mold & rubber Press-Mold machinery in past employments, I'm thinking the wild variances in set-quality could be due to a number of things things like; the kits being made in different atmospheric temperatures & humidity-levels, calibrating or "seasoning" of this new tooling/molds or maybe trying to dial-in settings Live as production is underway, and even down to the Operators themselves if they don't utilize fully-automated Mold feeding system...
And then there's the questions like whether or not this was apparent during the proto/sampling stage with the tooling-adjustments Hoodrow had to do. (I'm also NOT blaming Thrilly here, btw... I dunno WHO to blame, and I'll let the leaders speak for themselves) But with brand new molds made from new Masters, there can be a range of initial output-quality.
And with the changes, legend/tooling-adjustments and pricing considerations, we don't know if the factory sent Hoodrow "the best of the bunch" on-purpose, or Hoodrow had to let the QC/production quality slide in order to keep his price window & hoped we didn't notice. It's possible he didn't find out until delivery too. But this was known at some point, somewhere along the chain, with no mention. And I noticed mine as SOON as I popped the JTK tray...)
Anyway... as for NovelKeys:
After relaying to my NK rep that the replacements were an improvement from the first, but still looking looked pretty booty (as well as my notes on defect cross-contamination),I received a response denying my request of even a partial-refund for my B-Stock set, on the grounds that "Support hasn't received enough direct complaints to believe it's a wide issue, or enough to justify a discount"-alone... Which is both disheartening & besides the point for MULTIPLE reasons.Sooo, I still feel like they refuse to believe or admit that any of this is actually the case, and left only able to accept something that I KNOW is not up-to-standard because it's Exclusive™ & I love the the actual set too much. So, I'm back to either nothing & a refund, or accepting this sub-par Dream Set for Extras-price.
*and maybe just not using it with glasses on...?