Senter, I am surprised to see you come out to defend not 1, but 3 issues in a single kit, as though this is solely my 'high' expectation. The mere idea that even 1 issue is passable is ludicrous. Whether the buyer accepts the defects is up to the buyer, but not to be a standard of delivering a finished product. You pride yourself with high quality but make an exception when it is not? I did pass on and accepted the defects albeit you only took responsibility for one, one that is dead in the middle in the front. I did it because there was no other option without returning the kit. I did it for simplicity sake.
The kit arrived during the holidays and I only tested the PCB after, and the picture clearly shows that the diode is damaged, not missing. In either case, why is it my fault that it is missing or damaged? Even now, you take absolutely no responsibility on why these defects were there in the first place. I didn't join the group buy, I bought this kit because you solicited to sell them. Why haven't you or your partner checked before selling them?
You have never been apologetic, not the slightest bit. You blame me for high standard, and somehow I didn't notice the damaged diode? As far as I can see, that was a bad diode soldered on the PCB from the start! And this is somehow my fault?
All my responses to you show that I have every intention to work this out and take the kits as it. But 3 issues in one order, and most importantly, your arrogant responses did it for me. Like you said, stop bothering me. The kit is going back to you and I want nothing to do with it.
For those who think this is acceptable and think that we should give GB runners a break, I think it's time to rethink what GB really is today. This is not what GB used to be, this is just selling direct masking as GB. It's keyboards after keyboards, GB after GB non-stop because this GB sale model is unbeatable. Where else can you ask people to put up with the production cost and profit upfront with no risk to themselves? I guess we need to be thankful that we actually receive the goods, sometimes?
I don't want this to be a spitting contest thus I never mentioned any detail and my Paypal action. I only thought that other members should be aware of the situation. Perhaps Senter would do better next time either with QC, or with treating the next customer who runs into issues.
Please know this - I wouldn't have bought this if I didn't like Senter's work. This is not a rejection of the design, it's a beautiful board. It's unfortunate that I won't have this or any future products under the circumstance.
I digress and won't add further.
i don't like commenting on issues between two individuals but the way you've come forward to present your thoughts on senter is unsettling. i'm going to avoid a point by point analysis of the logical errors and conclusory jumps you've made but i want to say a few things.
re: whether or not this is a gb, i think it pretty obviously is. a person is soliciting the public to determine the quantity and feasibility of producing an item. there isn't any guarantee that something by foxlabs is going to be made and this has been shown through a few group buys already performed/in the interest check phase by that group. i'm not sure what a group buy was to you in some undefined past but i don't see how this can reasonably be argued to not be a group buy. it seems like you're suggesting that a group buy done for some profit is not an actual group buy. i disagree with that idea, especially when it comes to manufacturing items that do not have 100% yield, require a sizable effort by the runner, and have serious cost implications because of the fact that the manufacturing yield is not 100%.
it seems to me you have this really high expectation of what the end product should be. admittedly, we are spending a good chunk of money on each of the keyboards that are bought through gbs on here and we should expect things to come close to what we envision when we decide to spend our money. however, that doesn't mean we can expect to treat each seller as if they are some large organization that can shift the costs of an unreasonably unhappy customer onto other customers and to other products over time in order to appease any small number of such customers. this line isn't to excuse total failures of gbs, just those that have minor hiccups like this gb with you.
i think once the pcb issue was identified and it was obvious that it would make little financial sense to swap pcbs, you and senter should've first considered a full refund of the entire kit for the sake of 'simplicity.' from what was presented, you seem to suggest that senter has been hostile to you re: and senter seems to think he has been neutral and adequately addressed your issues. i don't think it's unreasonable for senter to feel this way.
with the issues you've identified you seem to think that qc has failed here. re: the pcb, i think it's fair to see that issue overlooked by accident. it isn't the easiest thing to spot with an eye check. the only way to really ensure a 100% working pcb is to check each one before shipping, which would raise the price per board by some non-trivial amount just for that effort. whether or not that outlay by all the customers makes sense is something we can discuss at a different time but it isn't something i expected from this gb (or many others gbs) at the price we bought in for. for the case blemish, it seems to be pretty small and could've been overlooked as well. and since you bought this separate from the rest of the gb participants, that blemish could've been made at some later point after the initial qc was done for the boards by senter. it doesn't excuse the issue but a remedy was offered. i'm not going to say anything about the weight, lol.
in some ways, i've been repetitive to what senter has said but i just wanted to cast my lot with senter away from someone who has spent a lot of energy to publicly complain about him, without any good reason. from my experience in this gb and generally observing senter in this community, he has been a clear, effective, timely, and honest runner. i hope that this incident doesn't dissuade others from future foxlabs projects because i think that the group has put forward some cool and unique projects for the rest of us to enjoy.
