Fears and Problems
A) What I am afraid of is receiving a lemon/broken keyboard from PCHome and being unable to return or it not being worth it to return
B) Paying huge duty taxes on both keyboards upping the price of a mechanical in Canada even more
C) This is my first keyboard and I have limited cash, I want it to be the best experience.
So tell me geekhackers, should I play it safe and get a US Filco, or play a game of chance and go with a PCHome filco/ducky. From the people who have already ordered from PChome. How was it? Did you pay duties? I understand they label it as a sample?
Find a friend as crazy as you are for spending $120+ on a non-bling non-gaming-specialized keyboad and split shipping. I ordered 3 Filcos from EliteKeyboards back in February and split the shipment with a friend. I was dinged for GST+PST+$5 Canada Post collection fee. There is no extra duty on top of that. I was also concerned about a DoA board as it would have been kind of expensive to ship it back (~$25+) for RMA so I asked him to test the boards before shipping just in case since it would have been a hassle for me to ship it back. He said that he already checks them before shipping them out. I don't know if he does this for all boards or just the cross-border ones but I'm glad he does. Also, he ships USPS Global Priority Mail, not UPS/FedEx so you won't get raped for "brokerage" fees.
The reason I suggest trying to find someone to split the order is try adding a few keyboards to your order, the shipping cost only goes up incrementally. e.g. 1 kb=$29, 2 kb=$31, 3 kb=$33. My shipping cost was $33 for 2x tenkeyless Filcos, 1x 104key Filco, 2x 22-key numpads, 2x WASD keys.
I looked at the Ducky tenkeyless and was tempted to get one because I like the Win-key lockout as well as the Alt-Numpad function, but WhiteRice's 1087 cracked on the inside, some plastic frame piece. And apparently he isn't alone with that part cracking. I don't know about you, but when I pay $100+ for a new mechanical keyboard, I want something well made and warrantied. To me, it's worth the extra added cost. Getting 2 keyboards in case 1 breaks from PCHome just does not sit well with me. You can probably get warranty work from them, but unless you can communicate with them effectively, that may be hard. Maybe I'm just getting old but I'd rather pay extra for less hassle in case I run into trouble, but that's me. You may have a different opinion and perspective.
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