[SPRiT] R1 R2 (Shipping 92% Completed)

[munch]

I don't think Zeal is actually getting any money from the products that haven't been delivered. he received products from SPRiT (which he did ship out to paying customers from his website. plenty of build logs can be found all over the Internet) but then SPRiT went missing and he is just as upset with it as some of you guys are, as he was paying for those to stock on his website as well.
it's NOT some sort of weird collaboration scam, but I can't really answer for SPRiT at all - I'd guess something came up and he's choosing the weak route for dealing with it (hiding until things are sorted).

tl;dr: don't give Zeal crap for this, he's not receiving any of the production money for SPRiT's buy.

[exitfire401]

I don't think Zeal is actually getting any money from the products that haven't been delivered. he received products from SPRiT (which he did ship out to paying customers from his website. plenty of build logs can be found all over the Internet) but then SPRiT went missing and he is just as upset with it as some of you guys are, as he was paying for those to stock on his website as well.
it's NOT some sort of weird collaboration scam, but I can't really answer for SPRiT at all - I'd guess something came up and he's choosing the weak route for dealing with it (hiding until things are sorted).

tl;dr: don't give Zeal crap for this, he's not receiving any of the production money for SPRiT's buy.

To clear this up one more time:

Zeal has nothing to do with this group buy. The Simply 60 buy consisted of a batch order that he placed with sprit. Once that was fulfilled, he put the GB up on his own site. Do NOT PM/e-mail Zeal for inquiries about this GB.

[Synjin]

Just because Zeal decided to order some as well and sell some of the gold kits does not mean he is aware or even a part of what sprit is doing here.....

[ideus]

Reading about these very sad comments I realized I may be of the few lucky ones that get his stuff from Sprit's GB with no issues whatsoever. 

[fatchoi]

I don't think Zeal is actually getting any money from the products that haven't been delivered. he received products from SPRiT (which he did ship out to paying customers from his website. plenty of build logs can be found all over the Internet) but then SPRiT went missing and he is just as upset with it as some of you guys are, as he was paying for those to stock on his website as well.
it's NOT some sort of weird collaboration scam, but I can't really answer for SPRiT at all - I'd guess something came up and he's choosing the weak route for dealing with it (hiding until things are sorted).

tl;dr: don't give Zeal crap for this, he's not receiving any of the production money for SPRiT's buy.

To clear this up one more time:

Zeal has nothing to do with this group buy. The Simply 60 buy consisted of a batch order that he placed with sprit. Once that was fulfilled, he put the GB up on his own site. Do NOT PM/e-mail Zeal for inquiries about this GB.

I'm not saying Zeal has a responsibility but I'd appreciate he could contact Sprit to bring up the situation, as he appears to be the only contact now.

Or if he doesn't want to do us a small favor, we have to do something more. As there is other member having his contact, how about we mail or even call him?

[munch]

I'm not saying Zeal has a responsibility but I'd appreciate he could contact Sprit to bring up the situation, as he appears to be the only contact now.

Or if he doesn't want to do us a small favor, we have to do something more. As there is other member having his contact, how about we mail or even call him?

trust me, he has tried. and he's not the only one. no one knows what SPRiT is doing right now and it's frustrating to everyone.

he's also a paying customer, he is not receiving any money from this Group Buy.

[byker]

Zeal has to contact Sprit the same way you guys do.. Trust me, he has tried.

[Karura]

If it makes you all feel better, I hit up Zeal just the other day, and tried to get more Sprit springs; he wasn't able to get any, and hasn't been able to get in touch with Sprit.

In other words, Zeal is just Sprit's biggest CUSTOMER, and is in the same boat as the rest of you.

[fatchoi]

That kinda take away my last hope. Thanks for sharing the news.

[whentheclouds]

didn't read this thread before - hope Zeal isn't mad at me for asking about restocks in PMs i ordered an extra batch of brown Gaterons and will harvest the springs from there. anyone else needing 62g springs should look into doing the same

[taylordcraig]

I don't think Zeal is actually getting any money from the products that haven't been delivered. he received products from SPRiT (which he did ship out to paying customers from his website. plenty of build logs can be found all over the Internet) but then SPRiT went missing and he is just as upset with it as some of you guys are, as he was paying for those to stock on his website as well.
it's NOT some sort of weird collaboration scam, but I can't really answer for SPRiT at all - I'd guess something came up and he's choosing the weak route for dealing with it (hiding until things are sorted).

tl;dr: don't give Zeal crap for this, he's not receiving any of the production money for SPRiT's buy.

To clear this up one more time:

Zeal has nothing to do with this group buy. The Simply 60 buy consisted of a batch order that he placed with sprit. Once that was fulfilled, he put the GB up on his own site. Do NOT PM/e-mail Zeal for inquiries about this GB.

I'm not saying Zeal has a responsibility but I'd appreciate he could contact Sprit to bring up the situation, as he appears to be the only contact now.

Or if he doesn't want to do us a small favor, we have to do something more. As there is other member having his contact, how about we mail or even call him?

Just going to be the broken record here. Zeal has bought from Sprit but currently is NOT IN CONTACT WITH HIM. I want more springs like the rest of you.

[Karura]

Give me more springs.

[tbc]

Give me more springs.

[John Venture]

Guys this is a bit of a longshot but I'd like to gauge interest, would you be willing to partake in a kickstarter to fund a flight to Seoul in order to meet with Sprit in person and shed some light on the situation and see how we can come up with a solution about this mess?

As it happen I am involved in another order from Seoul as well regarding a leather jacket. A lot of people have been waiting for their jackets for over 18 months with little or no communication from the guy - a situation very similar to what we are experiencing here. Maybe by combining the resources of both communities I could gather the 1k$ necessary to meet both persons. What do you think?

Here's a link to the thread: http://www.styleforum.net/t/217855/the-new-official-toj-thread-updates-complaints-etc
It has a spreadsheet too: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MRajBxbJDZa1RPNwtqhDHhkxLBkQAnakmRRRH74cKNM/edit#gid=0

[bueller]

Guys this is a bit of a longshot but I'd like to gauge interest, would you be willing to partake in a kickstarter to fund a flight to Seoul in order to meet with Sprit in person and shed some light on the situation and see how we can come up with a solution about this mess?

As it happen I am involved in another order from Seoul as well regarding a leather jacket. A lot of people have been waiting for their jackets for over 18 months with little or no communication from the guy - a situation very similar to what we are experiencing here. Maybe by combining the resources of both communities I could gather the 1k$ necessary to meet both persons. What do you think?

Here's a link to the thread: http://www.styleforum.net/t/217855/the-new-official-toj-thread-updates-complaints-etc
It has a spreadsheet too: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MRajBxbJDZa1RPNwtqhDHhkxLBkQAnakmRRRH74cKNM/edit#gid=0

Doubt that would happen man. What happens when you get there? Having an address doesn't mean you'll be able to meet with him.

[John Venture]

Well obviously there is no guarantee this would work, but what alternatives are there?

[FrostyToast]

Well obviously there is no guarantee this would work, but what alternatives are there?

Deal with it?
I mean, seriously how butt hurt are you over this ****?
You guys are just frantically trying to find some way to get your stuff without even stopping to think rationally.
If sprit doesn't show up then you won't get ****. End of story.
All you can do is hope that he does show up.
Also, before you tell me that I probably didn't have any involvement in this buy, I will say that **** currently has yet to give me $400 worth of items I have purchased.

[cookiesowns]

Well obviously there is no guarantee this would work, but what alternatives are there?

Deal with it?
I mean, seriously how butt hurt are you over this ****?
You guys are just frantically trying to find some way to get your stuff without even stopping to think rationally.
If sprit doesn't show up then you won't get ****. End of story.
All you can do is hope that he does show up.
Also, before you tell me that I probably didn't have any involvement in this buy, I will say that **** currently has yet to give me $400 worth of items I have purchased.

I guess it's my own fault for dropping $1100+ on a group buy the first time around. Frankly, I'm disappointed. Nothing I can do I guess than to learn from this. I'm more pissed off about the cases & switches than the PCB's tbh. Didn't need 4 different boards either.. my fault.

Most likely should have just disputed when days kept dragging on.

[FrostyToast]

Well obviously there is no guarantee this would work, but what alternatives are there?

Deal with it?
I mean, seriously how butt hurt are you over this ****?
You guys are just frantically trying to find some way to get your stuff without even stopping to think rationally.
If sprit doesn't show up then you won't get ****. End of story.
All you can do is hope that he does show up.
Also, before you tell me that I probably didn't have any involvement in this buy, I will say that **** currently has yet to give me $400 worth of items I have purchased.

I guess it's my own fault for dropping $1100+ on a group buy the first time around. Frankly, I'm disappointed. Nothing I can do I guess than to learn from this. I'm more pissed off about the cases & switches than the PCB's tbh. Didn't need 4 different boards either.. my fault.

Most likely should have just disputed when days kept dragging on.

Disputing probably wouldn't have been within reason either.
Most group buys run far past the limit for when one can open a dispute, at least for what the limit was before.
You couldn't have possibly known a group buy would go this route 45 days in.

[fatchoi]

Well obviously there is no guarantee this would work, but what alternatives are there?

Deal with it?
I mean, seriously how butt hurt are you over this ****?
You guys are just frantically trying to find some way to get your stuff without even stopping to think rationally.
If sprit doesn't show up then you won't get ****. End of story.
All you can do is hope that he does show up.
Also, before you tell me that I probably didn't have any involvement in this buy, I will say that **** currently has yet to give me $400 worth of items I have purchased.

I guess it's my own fault for dropping $1100+ on a group buy the first time around. Frankly, I'm disappointed. Nothing I can do I guess than to learn from this. I'm more pissed off about the cases & switches than the PCB's tbh. Didn't need 4 different boards either.. my fault.

Most likely should have just disputed when days kept dragging on.

At least you have his address and phone number, which can then be used to find out something more.

[limitz]

I think talking about it here is useless.

This issue needs to be brought to the Korean boards for more resolution, or if they have more information about Sprit. Another thing to inquire about is if he ran the same GB over there, and if he did, then what that GB current status is. . Only there can people give advice about how to contact the relevant Korean authorities. For example. If someone scammed me in the US and I had their name, number, and address. I would contact their local sheriff's department for more information on how to best follow up.

So now let's get a list of who has access to what board. The major Korean boards are OTD, KBDMania, KBDLabs, and Winkeyless. I'll start, I have access to KBDLabs.

If you have an account on any of these boards, or if you are fluent in Korean please let everyone know. That way we can at least make a forum post, in Korean, inquiring about the whereabouts of Sprit, and ask if any members there have more information regarding him.

[demik]

how many scambuys are we at now?

[limitz]

After chatting a bit with the members at KBDLabs.

It seems that Sprit has been blackballed by most of the Korean keyboard communities, and that KBDLab members already recognize him as a scammer. They also provided links to both Korean police cybercrime division, and the Cyber bureau:

http://www.netan.go.kr/eng/index.do

http://cyberbureau.police.go.kr/eng/index.do

[yuiop]

I don't think I've ever seen Sprit on kbdlab.   As far as I know he was never a member there, unless he's posing under different name etc.

He stopped posting on kbdmania around late 2013~early 2014.  Someone told me he got banned from there after being accused of scamming someone.  I'm not 100% sure if that's true or not.  I couldn't find any admin post stating his ban.  But he hasn't been active for more than a year.

[twiddle]

So we are thinking he fulfilled enough orders to appear legitimate, while pocketing the money from the ones unfulfilled?

[tjweir]

What an unfortunate turn of events. 

I guess it's time to strike a better balance of enthusiasm and skepticism when I join another GB. 

Writing this up as a loss. 

[Eszett]

Guys. I’m sick of reading things like “we have to deal with it”. We don’t have to deal with it. We are just incompetent to organize ourselves as group, enganging  a private inspector, or file a lawsuit, or taking measures. It is your own incompetence, including my incompetence. Organization needs a leader. We don’t have one. Organization needs willpower and diligence. We are lazy. But with the right amount of effort you can track everyone down.

[sethk_]

Guys. I’m sick of reading things like “we have to deal with it”. We don’t have to deal with it. We are just incompetent to organize ourselves as group, enganging  a private inspector, or file a lawsuit, or taking measures. It is your own incompetence, including my incompetence. Organization needs a leader. We don’t have one. Organization needs willpower and diligence. We are lazy. But with the right amount of effort you can track everyone down.

You really are going to fund a flight to South Korea, find out where he lives, and call and use a private investigator?

[Eszett]

No. Reasonable would be to find a scammed Person who is Korean, who as an interest for himself to investigate. And we as group support him. And yes, I would pay him for information.

[TheMoonUnderWater]

Am I right in thinking that Sprit designed the PCB? (As well as the cases and plates.)

[twiddle]

I believe "Beast_Mask" was credited with the design. Thinking of that, if he has had dealings with Sprit maybe he is a good one to contact...

[pasph]

He claimed to be a friend of Beastmask
http://blog.winkeyless.kr/ and http://winkeyless.kr/en/
who designed the pcbs.

Lies? Ask hojin.yi?
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67600.msg1590071#msg1590071

[sethk_]

Maybe have 1 person message him, and deal with the information given, and please don't harass him if you do message him...

[cookiesowns]

 

Wishful thinking in me says that there would at least be some sort of resolution in this, the other side of me just wants to forget about my order. Even if I just got one full set and my damn switches, I would be entirely happy. I made alot of purchases based upon this group buy, now I'm out...

Anyone know where I can find similar 110% and 87% PCB's + cases?

[pasph]

http://winkeyless.kr/en/

[hojin.yi]

Hi All.
I'm a manager of Winkeyless.kr which is launched by me and "Hyodong(nicked Beastmask)".
As you know, lots of PCB circulated here in GH were designed by Beastmask.(faceW, a-series, b-series etc)
So he personally knows Sprit who wanted to buy the PCB in a bulk  and we ordered Sprit's gold springs a few years ago. Current contacts doesn't work. Recently his trace cannot be found in Korean KB communities.
But we know you all are much damaged and angry. In addition to that , I'm worried that Korean Custom Mechanical Keyboard engineers lose the reputation and faith.
If I get any helpful info, I'll let you know.
Hojin.Yi

[hojin.yi]

Maybe have 1 person message him, and deal with the information given, and please don't harass him if you do message him...

If "him" means me,
Anybody and any question is OK. I prefer email(flashteker@gmail.com)

[sethk_]

Maybe have 1 person message him, and deal with the information given, and please don't harass him if you do message him...

If "him" means me,
Anybody and any question is OK. I prefer email(flashteker@gmail.com)

Yep! And the boards are very nice!

[mashby]

Thank you hojin.yi for offering your assistance in this matter. I hope Sprit is OK and that things get resolved quickly.

[keymaster]

I've pretty much written off this group buy.

I forget the other group buy, but this seems to be similar -- where one person starts a GB, something goes wrong, gets overwhelmed, stops responding, disappears from previously visited forums, and people who bought into the GB are out of thousands, tens of thousands of dollars.

[fatchoi]

Thanks hojin.yi for helping. I've just left an email to you.

[xandr]

I've pretty much written off this group buy.

I forget the other group buy, but this seems to be similar -- where one person starts a GB, something goes wrong, gets overwhelmed, stops responding, disappears from previously visited forums, and people who bought into the GB are out of thousands, tens of thousands of dollars.

Yeah, it smells a lot like Ali's 60% alu case group buy. Good intentions at the start and then becoming overwhelmed and just hiding instead of trying to get it sorted.

[pasph]

The most important infomation we need is: where are our money? Has he paid for all those 110% TKL and mxmini pcbs we've ordered a year ago?

[Jixr]

moneys gone. Sucks to suck, but I figure one of 3 things happened.
1. Something physically  happened to him,
2. he got too big for his britches and production cost more than he thought and he can't get it going.
3. he saw all the money people were willingly throwing at him, and cashed out.

[kakakowie]

moneys gone. Sucks to suck, but I figure one of 3 things happened.
1. Something physically  happened to him,
2. he got too big for his britches and production cost more than he thought and he can't get it going.
3. he saw all the money people were willingly throwing at him, and cashed out.

Should that be a GB requirement? Proof of quote from supplier?

[tbc]

moneys gone. Sucks to suck, but I figure one of 3 things happened.
1. Something physically  happened to him,
2. he got too big for his britches and production cost more than he thought and he can't get it going.
3. he saw all the money people were willingly throwing at him, and cashed out.

Should that be a GB requirement? Proof of quote from supplier?

companies don't give out details about other customers' transactions.

as far as the company is concerned, the gbo is the only customer and everyone is the gb is just a nobody.  this is completely the right course of action, otherwise, we'd have random scammers calling the companies and refunding all the money back to themselves.

[demik]

moneys gone. Sucks to suck, but I figure one of 3 things happened.
1. Something physically  happened to him,
2. he got too big for his britches and production cost more than he thought and he can't get it going.
3. he saw all the money people were willingly throwing at him, and cashed out.

Should that be a GB requirement? Proof of quote from supplier?

companies don't give out details about other customers' transactions.

as far as the company is concerned, the gbo is the only customer and everyone is the gb is just a nobody.  this is completely the right course of action, otherwise, we'd have random scammers calling the companies and refunding all the money back to themselves.

pretty sure he means that OP posts proof of quote

[tbc]

moneys gone. Sucks to suck, but I figure one of 3 things happened.
1. Something physically  happened to him,
2. he got too big for his britches and production cost more than he thought and he can't get it going.
3. he saw all the money people were willingly throwing at him, and cashed out.

Should that be a GB requirement? Proof of quote from supplier?

companies don't give out details about other customers' transactions.

as far as the company is concerned, the gbo is the only customer and everyone is the gb is just a nobody.  this is completely the right course of action, otherwise, we'd have random scammers calling the companies and refunding all the money back to themselves.

pretty sure he means that OP posts proof of quote

sure...but how do we make sure it's legit?

[demik]

good question

DTA!

dont trust anybody!

[tbc]

good question

DTA!

dont trust anybody!

exactly!

if we trusted them.  we wouldn't even bother asking them for proof!