Banggood keycaps?

[Oobly]

Well, I tell myself it's because they're coming all the way up here in the north to Finland, so it's okay. But 5 weeks... If I don't get anything in next week I'll send them an email.

I am definitely going to include tracking if I ever order from them again, or even paid postage (shock, horror).

[kolonelkadat]

when ordering from china, I never expect to receive my item in under 8 weeks. I dont worry until about week 11.

[BakerMan1971]

Hmm, I see. It would be helpful if you could update us when the stuff comes in so we can have an idea of the shipping; I haven't actually heard of anyone taking longer than the stated methods, so hopefully your items will come in on time.

As for me, I need to make a correction, they processed and shipped on the 11th, two days after, so assuming that it'll be in today (it's in town), it will have been eleven business days shipping. Luckily my order was only a single item.

Hi Linkbane
still waiting on the other order I placed (both orders placed on 18th October FYI), so it is taking a while longer, the wrist rests were on backorder though but have been "shipped" for over a week now.

I have also just ordered another keyboard (I know right?) as the addiction takes hold, this one is a Backlit keycool ml-87 II with MX Browns, so I will review that when it gets in, not bad at £64 ish with $4 discount with the voucher system they had (I had built up a bunch of points from orders and an onsite review).

Anyway as many others continually state, its coming from China and can take a while.

Hope you guys get all your orders soon.

[gh_pp]

I just received an email from them saying this exact keycap that you reviewed is out of stock. They asked if I want a refund for wait. Not sure how long I have to wait, it's already almost 2 weeks since I ordered though

Just an update. It's been a week since then and the two sets of printed keycaps are still not restocked.

So I emailed them asking for a refund. They replied within 24 hours and said no problem. Please wait 48hrs for it to refund via paypal.

I'm amazed that they didn't automate these and actually a human is processing all these inquires. But I'm happy that they are responsive.


As for the keycool numpad, 4x RGBY, blank POM and blank PBT keycaps, they arrived yesterday at my mailing address. I'll go pick them up this weekend or next and I'll report back.

So here's the breakdown

Ordered Oct/19
Shipped Oct/26
Delivered Nov/4

So it's about 2 weeks from the time I ordered to deliver to the US.

It's not that bad considered these are shipped free with a very competitive price (in fact lowest I've seen).

Also not sure it's different if you are located elsewhere, but I didn't have to pay extra and it has tracking via 17track.net

Maybe if the total order is over certain amount they automatically added tracking.

Let's just hope this company is legit (in the long run). Their office is based in Hong Kong btw, not china. But their sourcing of goods are from china. Not sure if these are shipped from HK or CN but I'll check this week.

[Linkbane]

Good to see that they appear to be a straightforward company. I wouldn't distrust a company because they are from China (or HK, an SEZ), because if they are crooked, they usually go out of business pretty fast. The laws in China are not as lax as many make them out to be.

And I think you're probably right about the shipping, and my price wasn't much really, $1.70 is like sending a few letters.

I'm wondering still if people are willing to arrange a GB from them, given their fair bulk discounts.

[HPE1000]

I got a set of the white blank ones, they are pretty nice, it look around 3 weeks though, still okay with it though.

[BakerMan1971]

quick update, a parcel attempt was made yesterday, I will go to the post office and pick it up on Saturday, since I am not expecting anything else I reckon it's the banggood package, so ordered 18th Oct, arrived 5th Nov.

Now just waiting for my Keycool ML-87II Purple Backlit with MX browns , ordered Monday, shipped Tuesday (05Nov)

[synerr]

quick update, a parcel attempt was made yesterday, I will go to the post office and pick it up on Saturday, since I am not expecting anything else I reckon it's the banggood package, so ordered 18th Oct, arrived 5th Nov.

Now just waiting for my Keycool ML-87II Purple Backlit with MX browns , ordered Monday, shipped Tuesday (05Nov)

I'm from London.  Do you often get burnt by customs?  I generally try to keep my orders sub 15gbp as I got burnt ordering a replacement cup in a set of crockery for my parents from the US where I ended up paying as much in clearance fees and duty as I did for the item itself.

I ordered a single pretty keycap from banggood (What an odd perverted name I must say) and they claim it shipped the next day.  Fingers crossed.  There are a few items on there I would like buy over time but will thread slowly given the paranoia that has surrounded them here.  Having said that I always pay with paypal so there's a degree of protection there.

I've read some of the negative comments and I'm not trying to justify anyone's 'bad' behaviour.  I have worked a lot in 'dodgy' countries where if you manage to get a meeting with a manager at a company you are trying to sell into you are "expected" to give a thank you gift.   It is not so different in the US with lobby groups only they're moving oil, corn, guns and derivatives not pretty keycaps for mechanical keyboards.  So I wouldn't be surprised if some shops have questionable tactics because culturally that is the way 'the game is played'.

[BakerMan1971]

Hi Synerr, I am up in that Yorkshire

I was sceptical at first, especially since the prices are so near what you would consider wholesale, that the profit margin must be minimal.
The company name is rather strange, and their range of products even more so, however after having received two keyboards, I have not been asked to pay anything extra at point of delivery.
I have a feeling they split orders down into several separate deliveries to avoid anything when there are smaller items.

I am not sure about the limits, but I thought you could spend £150 without incurring anything but I may be wrong, in which case, only the more expensive items would fall into the pay VAT category.

In all my years ordering online, the only thing to come with a VAT charge was Kai's Power Goo bought from the US because it was less than half the UK price at the time, we are talking late 90's.

As with dealing with any company there is always a risk, Savastore went belly up in the UK a couple of years ago leaving orders unfulfilled, now they are owned by a Chinese company.  Not to mention what Blockbuster are doing to the poor souls pre-ordering new consoles. 

So with that in mind, I feel pretty confident buying from any overseas company.

[synerr]

I am not sure about the limits, but I thought you could spend £150 without incurring anything but I may be wrong, in which case, only the more expensive items would fall into the pay VAT category.

In all my years ordering online, the only thing to come with a VAT charge was Kai's Power Goo bought from the US because it was less than half the UK price at the time, we are talking late 90's.

Tried looking up hmrc and royal mail websites and got a massive headache.

https://www.gov.uk/importing-and-exporting-by-post

Technically one has to pay VAT on imports of value higher than 15, but no duty on orders under 135.  I haven't had to deal with this except that one time I was fleeced 8 quid by parcel force as a 'handling fee'.   Reading some blog posts this seems to be most 'enforced' with orders coming from the US.

[Oobly]

Yay! Look what arrived in the post yesterday! These were sent on 10th October and arrived yesterday (6th November). Not too bad. The Yinyang caps which were supposedly sent earlier have not yet arrived, though.



The PBT spacebar is a little curved, but not enough to be an issue. All other caps are great. Quality seems good, definitely worth the price and maybe even worth the wait.

Here is a little comparison shot, White PBT, Black POM, thin Black Ducky ABS from my G2 pro.

[Oobly]

And here is the underside of the caps. Same order, PBT, POM, ABS. You can see the material thickness here. The PBT and POM are both the same thickness, a good deal thicker than the stock ABS Ducky cap, but thinner than some "Thick" PBT caps by other vendors.

[Oobly]

The POM caps are tight on a stem when you put them on the first time. If you have a loose keyswitch, you can put them on and take them off a few times to loosen them up and after 4 or times or so they feel about the same as the PBT and only a little harder to remove than the ABS.

Overall I am very happy with them.

[BakerMan1971]

well Synerr looks like it's just a lottery then, although I suppose even with vat charges my purchases are still way cheaper than local vendors.
Again, Banggood say they have a UK warehouse, which could be used to filter out some of these import things, and would explain some of the longer delivery times.

Oobly, those caps looks great, now to see them arranged on your board please and of course a typing review

[Aliwia]

I am not sure about the limits, but I thought you could spend £150 without incurring anything but I may be wrong, in which case, only the more expensive items would fall into the pay VAT category.

In all my years ordering online, the only thing to come with a VAT charge was Kai's Power Goo bought from the US because it was less than half the UK price at the time, we are talking late 90's.

Tried looking up hmrc and royal mail websites and got a massive headache.

https://www.gov.uk/importing-and-exporting-by-post

Technically one has to pay VAT on imports of value higher than 15, but no duty on orders under 135.  I haven't had to deal with this except that one time I was fleeced 8 quid by parcel force as a 'handling fee'.   Reading some blog posts this seems to be most 'enforced' with orders coming from the US.

That handling fee was higher than the actual duty on one of my packages from MAXkeyboard.

[gh_pp]

As for the keycool numpad, 4x RGBY, blank POM and blank PBT keycaps, they arrived yesterday at my mailing address. I'll go pick them up this weekend or next and I'll report back.

So I finally picked up my package.

I ordered 4x rgby sets, 2x keycaps sets and a keycool numpad.

The only thing that is in the package is the numpad and the order is marked as shipped.

The package is shipped directly from shanghai

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1liJBDpYyzwY0xsOTNreHdKSkU/edit?usp=drive_web

I suspect that they don't have a central warehouse and instead acted as a broker.

So when they received orders online they have their sources shipped directly to customers.

Luckily the packing slip clearly indicates only the keycool is included, so I sent them an email to see what's going on.

I'm guessing that the keycaps are shipped from other sources and there is no tracking for those.

If any of you ordered keycaps from them and still have the original envelope, can you check what city they shipped it from?

Thanks

[Oobly]

Here is a pic of half my board done.



I am busy "trampoline" modding the right side switches so I can test the difference to orings.

The POM caps will go on my next board, it's still in the final design stages.

I really like both the POM and PBT caps. They feel very different to the thin ABS I was using before. They both feel more "professional" if that makes sense. Like going from a spanner you get free with an Ikea product to Snap-On. I think this is largely to do with the mass of the caps and a little to do with the texture.

Since they both seem to be the same thickness it's an ideal opportunity to compare the materials directly.

In terms of texture I prefer the PBT, but in terms of sound and weight I like the POM. I also really like the matte "stealth" look of the PBT. The PBT is a bit more "clacky" and the POM more "thocky". The texture of the PBT is almost ceramic-like whereas the POM is almost teflon-like. Kind of hard to describe.

The weight of the caps is slightly different, too. The POM is densest, PBT a little less, which I guess is also a factor in "thockiness" <- new word? ABS is a lot less dense, so even with the same thickness it won't be as heavy.

In short I like them both for subtly different reasons and prefer them both over ABS. PBT is going on my home board and when my next board is finished I will use it at work with the POM caps on

[Oobly]

I just realised something!

I thought the name Banggood was familiar for some reason. I used to hang around a lot in rcgroups, a radio control forum (still pop in there now and then) and remember now that some guys found some heli parts on a site called... Banggood. There seem to be mixed reviews. Most people are satisfied, some complain about the shipping time, a few got defective products.

So, they have actually been around a while (at least since 2011) and the products at least seem to be as advertised. Can't really go wrong with keycaps at least.

[BakerMan1971]

Well picked up my Parcel on Saturday and it was the majority of the bits order, keypullers, networking kit, the wrist rests were missing, and while despatched separately have still to arrive.

The keyboard is still in transit, but I expect it may be delivered in the next few days.

(just for those that wanted keeping updated of order progress)

[berrymxblue]

I have ordered a few times from them. The quality of most things have been questionable but they have sent them all as promised, albeit the shipping is super slow. These are Keycool keycaps, it's a little strange that people attribute its quality to banggood. I got a set of white blank 84 and they are thin but not enough for me to feel it too much. Possibly can discern the difference in sound. The keycaps are pretty decent for the price and it is heavily textured to have the grainy feel of pbt.

[BakerMan1971]

Keycool keyboard arrived Monday so 7 days for that, just a heads up for those wondering.

and berrymxblue, I don't think people are attributing the quality of keycool caps to banggood I think they are just pretty amazed that they can get them from there.

Here in EU there are limited sources for things like keycool, if I wanted an equivalent keyboard in the UK I would have to get a Ducky and pay twice the price. Keycaps are all but non-existent except for the vendors featured here on GH.

[Oobly]

Thanks for the update.

Yup, here in europe it's hard to find good keycap sets for a decent price. A bit odd considering both Cherry and GMK make caps in Germany.

I'm still waiting for my Yinyang caps (6 and a half weeks now). At least I got the main items, the PBT and POM sets! 

[thoere]

I really like those jelly POMs, but I heard the white PBT sets were really thin and not worth the purchase.

[Oobly]

I really like those jelly POMs, but I heard the white PBT sets were really thin and not worth the purchase.

Banggood doesn't sell Jelly POM sets or thin white PBT... Have you read the other posts in the thread? The white PBT's are medium thickness, AFAIK they are actually Keycool caps. Well worth the price IMHO.

[stancato9]

They're worth the price, like Oobly said. The only issue I had was a severely bent spacebar because of the caps being pbt. It's fixable if you do it right.

[gh_pp]

So finally everything is accounted for in my order

Ordered Oct/19
Keycool numpad Delivered Nov/4
keycaps delivered Nov/16

POM


keycool blank PBT


keycool pbt RGBY


comparison of rgby, white blank pbt, pom (bottom left 2), QFR abs (top right)


It appears that the qfr spacebar is thicker than the alpha keys, it's very similar to the thickness of the pom spacebar

qfr alpha keycap (left), qfr spacebar (top), pom space bar


as someone mentioned above, the pom set is super tight.

This is the first time I take apart keycaps of a costar keyboard and the stabilizer inserts seem to be rather fragile. So I didn't bother to use the POM stabilized keycaps as it's very very difficult to remove the inserts.

If anyone knows a place where I can get a bunch of stabilizer inserts please let me know.

pom + rbgy + qfr abs spacebar/enter/backspace



The POM keycaps are pretty nice to type on.

My realforce's PBT isn't thick so I'm still waiting for the vortex thick PBT to arrive so I can compare.

I'd rate my experience with banggood 4/5.

+ easy to use website with paypal checkout so I dont have to register account or give them my credit card info

+ excellent customer service
    * email replied within 24 hours by a human (rep's name is poppy the same guy/gal the few times I emailed them)
    * refund request processed quickly

+ very good price / quality ratio

+ free shipping world wide

- deduct one star for misleading shipping notification
  * got shipping and tracking for my numpad,
  * no tracking for my keycaps (expected since it's free) but also no shipped notification

next time I buy from them I'll definitely pay the extra few bucks to have tracking for all my items.

[rowdy]

If anyone knows a place where I can get a bunch of stabilizer inserts please let me know.

http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/cherry-mx-keycap-stabilizer-insert.html

[Oobly]

Update: My Yinyang caps have arrived! Took a while, 6.5 weeks or so, but they got here

Next time I will get tracked shipping. Will probably order from them again for items that aren't time critical since their prices are so good and it seems they do deliver eventually.

[lexroad]

Just wanted to drop by and say that I too have ordered the keycool 84 set of pom blacks and surprisingly they have arrived in 10 days.
The caps are really nice. they go really well on my keycool 84 and for the price there is no better option.
What I didn't like about them is that they were really hard to insert in the switch, so hard that they made a clack noise when they were fully in and surely they are really really hard to remove from the switch, so I'm a little worried now about removing my keycaps as I may damage the switches( I don't really now that will happen, I'm really scared though).

Compared to the original keycaps which just come lose after a gentle pull with the remover, these ones don't even budge.I have ordered a wire key puller maybe that will make it easier.

So did you guys experienced the same issue? how did you cope? Thanks!