Hi gang,
Thought I'd drop in here since we've received a couple emails about this GB. While we have no obligation to say anything, we do have long connections to this community and I wanted to address some comments people have made as well.
I'll do this first:
TL,DR; We're getting a small shipment of FC660Cs in tomorrow and more in June, so they'll likely go on sale tomorrow or Saturday. The price will be slightly lower than what boost is offering, but you get our support.
The nitty gritty:
Of course you guys are free to do whatever you like, even though EK has exclusive distributorship of Leopold in the US, these GBs are not of any issue to us because they cannot match our price or service. I'm aware that the success of this group buy is probably two-fold; partly because boost has a good reputation here, but also because after EK has seemingly not taken the initiative to bring other recent Leopold products to the US; some people are understandably skeptical if any new Leopold products, like the FC660, will come at all and therefore take advantage of GBs instead of waiting for EK to deliver.
Aside: I want everyone to know that EK has very good reasons for what products we decided to carry. We want to fulfill customer expectations, but not at the cost of ruining our reputation with broken promises which would put the health of our business at risk. This is much easier said than done when it comes to niche products sourced from young companies on the other side of the planet, as we sorely found out with FILCO years ago, and while I wish I could share all the whys and whats, we unfortunately are not at liberty to discuss details of our suppliers' businesses and manufacturing. So I can only ask for your understanding; we do what we do in both our interests.
So, should you go through this GB or wait for EK to put these on sale?
Reasons to GB:
- Our supply this month is very limited; you might get lucky and get one sooner through the GB after EK sells out.
- EK does not ship to your country
- EK does not falsify customs value for foreign shipments
- You want to support boost
Reasons NOT to GB:
- If you're in the US or Canada and you fancy a warranty and support.
- If you're outside of the US or Canada and you fancy a liable seller and support; i.e. replacement parts, etc.
- You want to pay a lower retail price
- You're skeptical if boost can guarantee you get a working product and wonder if he will be liable if it is lost or damaged in transit (keep in mind that insurance for international packages cannot be higher than the customs value).
- These boards are in short supply this month. Unless boost has a direct line to Leopold and has already secured the stock for this groupbuy, then you may be disappointed with how long it takes to get your board...and end up paying more to boot.
Why might you want a warranty or to buy this board from EK?
- This is the first OEM Topre keyboard made in China. I'm under the impression that Topre is working very hard to make sure the factory is working to Topre standards, but the outcome is still unknown. We will not know for months.
- Even if you are in another country, we still offer support in the way of parts and troubleshooting and even the occasional replacement.
- Full liability for lost or damaged products.
I wanted to address this comment directly:
I'm pulling out of the group buy. If the rumors are true about EK carrying them, I would rather give my business to them. Brian's a good egg.
Couldn't care less if "Brian's" trying to supply it. I TRUST Boost 1000% more than Brian on any day of the week when it comes to delivery of any product(s).
Also about the so-called warranty on these, when was the last time a Realforce or HHKB was ever handed back within 1 year (that's the warranty period, please correct me if I'm wrong here) ?
If you're stupid enough to drive your Landcruiser over it, or use it as a boat paddle or even use it as a flame torch when you dip it in Kerosene, then maybe you can do an RMA (Brian would laugh in your face of course).
I'll correct you since you have no data from which to draw such a conclusion. Topre has a manufacturing goal of only 1 in 10,000 failure rate in the first year, and they are very close to living up to it, but Topre customers have very high standards (and they should for what these boards cost) so boards occasionally come back for fit and finish issues such as misaligned switch springs or cases, inconsistent key weighting, squeaking keys, or broken parts. Likelihood is you won't need the EK warranty, but buying from us, regardless of your location entitles you to parts and support for as long as you have the product.
BTW, someone did RMA a board to us that looked like it was dipped in Kerosene and used as a torch. I didn't laugh at him, but I did ignore him.
