[GB] GMK Triumph Adler. Pics posted...

[henz]

The funny thing about this is that we euro***s dont know when it shows up at our doorstep, as after dhl, they send it out by normal mail. and we dont get a tracking number.

[wlhlm]

The funny thing about this is that we euro***s dont know when it shows up at our doorstep, as after dhl, they send it out by normal mail. and we dont get a tracking number.

It will never arrive at my doorstep, only a letter telling me to go to customs.

At least in Germany you get precise tracking using DHL as they are part of DeutschePost.

[jackiecanev2]

So, my tray was placed into the shipping box FACE-EFFING-DOWN (assuming that the side with the shipping labels is up); the plastic carton has tape on it, but it isn't actually stuck to anything. Considering that the bottom tray contains the mold and the top tray is flat, I don't think they ever really had a chance.

Anyone else's ship facedown?



Sigh. Off to see if they're scratched after their face-down journey with UPS...

Edit: Damn. The first thing I grabbed were the spacebars and they're ALL scuffed to hell.

[jackiecanev2]

Most of the scratches/scuffs I felt rubbed off on my set, just a gentle rubbing with a fingernail took off the white marks from the other keys, but did anyone else get 1.5u Alt caps that look like there was a mold issue on the front side of the caps?  It is the same on both caps, so it appears like it was a mold problem (just looked through and it looks like beehatch had the same thing on the alt keys in her album).

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Also it is probably due to the way custom colors are mixed for injection molded plastics, but it seems some keys can have very uneven coloration that looks like color swirls or water damage, like my shift key:

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Yep same thing on my alt keys. Lovely.

The only one that super bothers me is the N key, because it's facing towards me.. and I can see it. Mind you it was worse (a straight white line through the legend), but you're seeing the after pictures where I rubbed it with my fingernail as you mentioned.

I'm not even bothering with the other keys.

I'm super pleased with the keyset itself, but at the same kinda sad, because I'm not the only one obviously who has beat up keys.

All of my R5 1.5u mods have really, really gnarly sprue marks on the... N-face(?), and the ALTs have the indentation across the upper margin of the S-facing side. Having a hard time getting a post that isn't extra-potato, though. I guess I'll break out the camera later.

Thanks, intelli, for all your work (scratches or not, this colorway is damn good IMO).

And thanks, MD, for giving me a serious case of TA blueballs.

[strict]

It seems to me that anytime MassDrop is involved we always see **** like this. I cant count how many threads turn into "look how ****ed up my **** is" that were handled by them. I really think we as a community need to re-evaluate our relationship with MD because this kind of non-sense just keeps happening.

[cjhard]

And thanks, MD, for giving me a serious case of TA tealballs.

FTFY

[njbair]

So, my tray was placed into the shipping box FACE-EFFING-DOWN (assuming that the side with the shipping labels is up); the plastic carton has tape on it, but it isn't actually stuck to anything. Considering that the bottom tray contains the mold and the top tray is flat, I don't think they ever really had a chance.

Anyone else's ship facedown?

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Sigh. Off to see if they're scratched after their face-down journey with UPS...

Edit: Damn. The first thing I grabbed were the spacebars and they're ALL scuffed to hell.

I believe face down would be the safer way to ship these, since the bottom tray has no bottom support and the weight of the keys would push it down if suspended over air.

Of course, that's all assuming the courier keeps the thing right-side-up the whole time, which they really can't be expected to do unless the package is clearly marked as "fragile, this side up."

I think the real fix would have been something like packing peanuts which are much more form-fitting and would have braced the bottom. This air packing stuff is cheaper, but it has limitations.

[jackiecanev2]

So, my tray was placed into the shipping box FACE-EFFING-DOWN (assuming that the side with the shipping labels is up); the plastic carton has tape on it, but it isn't actually stuck to anything. Considering that the bottom tray contains the mold and the top tray is flat, I don't think they ever really had a chance.

Anyone else's ship facedown?

Show Image

Sigh. Off to see if they're scratched after their face-down journey with UPS...

Edit: Damn. The first thing I grabbed were the spacebars and they're ALL scuffed to hell.

I believe face down would be the safer way to ship these, since the bottom tray has no bottom support and the weight of the keys would push it down if suspended over air.

Of course, that's all assuming the courier keeps the thing right-side-up the whole time, which they really can't be expected to do unless the package is clearly marked as "fragile, this side up."

I think the real fix would have been something like packing peanuts which are much more form-fitting and would have braced the bottom. This air packing stuff is cheaper, but it has limitations.

I was thinking the opposite: gravity would at least reduce lateral movement within the bottom tray during movement, whereas keys laying on the top of the tray would just leave them to slide around at will.

In the end, it doesn't appear that it makes much of a difference, after seeing how many people are opening their boxes with keys strewn about.

[LechnerDE]

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Tried to get a shot of one of the scratches... I guess I should feel lucky that the damage was minimized due to reduced travel since the keys never flew out of the case.  :blank:

I made an album of all my scratches!

http://imgur.com/a/G1LTL#0

lol

Wow that's awful!

I feel really sorry for you :(

I will pick up my set from the customs office next week. This is hoping I somehow got lucky and my keys aren't scratched...

[Polymer]

Wouldn't just a cardboard box be better?  Like how the Realforce keycaps come?  They have rows for the keys...two trays...fit perfectly in a box...you can shake that around all you want. 

Oh well...at least we all know...shipping tray = no bueno..

[ShardZer0]

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Tried to get a shot of one of the scratches... I guess I should feel lucky that the damage was minimized due to reduced travel since the keys never flew out of the case.  :blank:

I made an album of all my scratches!

http://imgur.com/a/G1LTL#0

lol

Damn, that's some gnarly scratches!

[azhdar]

You guys should seriously contact MD to complain about the damage on the caps, you paid for new caps not damaged one.

When on the Granite drop they messed up some of the international legends and forgot caps, we got them remade after a little while for no extra cost.

[trizkut]

You guys should seriously contact MD to complain about the damage on the caps, you bought new caps not damaged one.

When on the Granite drop they messed up some of the international legends and forgot caps, we got them remade after a little while for no extra cost.

Several of us have already emailed support, and posted horror stories in the discussion thread.  I haven't received any response from support yet, and they haven't made any public statement yet either in the discussion.

[azhdar]

You guys should seriously contact MD to complain about the damage on the caps, you bought new caps not damaged one.

When on the Granite drop they messed up some of the international legends and forgot caps, we got them remade after a little while for no extra cost.

Several of us have already emailed support, and posted horror stories in the discussion thread.  I haven't received any response from support yet, and they haven't made any public statement yet either in the discussion.

People that haven't send yet have to do, they are at the stage where they collect the complains and then will get back to everyone once they decide how to proceed, at least that's how they did it for Granites. It took a while but it was done.

GL.

[MythicalWagyu]

I think I got super lucky here after reading all these horror stories... my package arrived a day early, box is beat to hell but the tray is intact and no keycaps are loose. *Huge sigh of relief* Unlike the Elite Keyboard trays, these GMK trays have no nubs for the keycaps to snap onto so there's no much at all holding them in place. I think all MD would've had to do is tape a sheet of cardboard on top & bottom of the tray so it couldn't pop open and they would've saved a lot of people a lot heartache. 

[jbondeson]

It looks like someone got an enter key instead of a left shift.

More

That's the first report of a missing/incorrect set.

[beehatch]

It looks like someone got an enter key instead of a left shift.

More

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That's the first report of a missing/incorrect set.

Well that's an interesting one.

[Eziak]

Just got mine, they were all over the box and some are scratched. What can they even do to compensate us? They don't just have tons of these sets sitting around.

[asdfjkl36]

"We'll be in your area and will deliver your UPS SurePost package instead of the post office."

The moment of truth. Did my set make it? Will I cry from all the scratches? Is my set incomplete? Find out on the next episode of Dragon Ball Z.

[HoffmanMyster]

Wellp.  Mine are set to arrive at my parent's house today.  I won't be able to check the damage until Sunday, so it will be an agonizing weekend, to say the least.  :|

[nubbinator]

Just got mine, they were all over the box and some are scratched. What can they even do to compensate us? They don't just have tons of these sets sitting around.

Hopefully that's an exaggeration, but I'll be pissed if I decide I don't like the set and have to sell it at a loss because it's scratched to hell.

[Eziak]

Just got mine, they were all over the box and some are scratched. What can they even do to compensate us? They don't just have tons of these sets sitting around.

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Hopefully that's an exaggeration, but I'll be pissed if I decide I don't like the set and have to sell it at a loss because it's scratched to hell.

They're not all bad, but they are definitely some that have noticeable scratches if you look at them. Some of the extra caps that I'm not using have weird marks are the front of them that are consistent with some marks that other people have shown. There might have been something wrong with one of the molds for the bigger alt keys. It's just ridiculous that we spent so much on a set of keycaps and they show up scattered all over the box. My set even had air packets all around the clamshell case, and they still spilled everywhere. Which makes me lean to this being more of a GMK problem, as it was not a poorly packed package.

[henz]

oh man, i dont want my set now, im gong to cry...

[trizkut]

Just got mine, they were all over the box and some are scratched. What can they even do to compensate us? They don't just have tons of these sets sitting around.

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Hopefully that's an exaggeration, but I'll be pissed if I decide I don't like the set and have to sell it at a loss because it's scratched to hell.

They're not all bad, but they are definitely some that have noticeable scratches if you look at them. Some of the extra caps that I'm not using have weird marks are the front of them that are consistent with some marks that other people have shown. There might have been something wrong with one of the molds for the bigger alt keys. It's just ridiculous that we spent so much on a set of keycaps and they show up scattered all over the box. My set even had air packets all around the clamshell case, and they still spilled everywhere. Which makes me lean to this being more of a GMK problem, as it was not a poorly packed package.

Just because there were air packets in there doesn't mean it was well packed.  They don't impede movement, they just soften the blows of bouncing inside of the box.

[inanis]

.... My set even had air packets all around the clamshell case, and they still spilled everywhere. Which makes me lean to this being more of a GMK problem, as it was not a poorly packed package.

I seem to be in the minority in this, but I really believe this is a problem on Massdrop's side. GMK packaged up the sets exactly as they were asked, and they arrived at MD (presumably) correctly and without issue. That means GMK did their job. They were asked to put them in trays, and they did. It is MD's responsibility to then package up the sets per individual order. They picked a box that was too big, and didn't put in enough packaging material. The could have used peanuts, or foam or SOMETHING. They could have used more tape, or a smaller box. They could abandoned the trays all together once the realized it was going to be a problem. But they did none of those things.

Even though my keys were scattered all over the box, I can see only one visible scratch at this point. And really I can only see it if I'm looking for it. I'm not going to let that detract from a set that I really like. I do think MD should learn from this though...this stuff needed to be packed up better on their side.

[skycrimes]

mine get here today i'll try to add onto this if there are any issues

[radio_killah]

It seems to me that anytime MassDrop is involved we always see **** like this. I cant count how many threads turn into "look how ****ed up my **** is" that were handled by them. I really think we as a community need to re-evaluate our relationship with MD because this kind of non-sense just keeps happening.

Strict, I completely agree with what you said about the relationship being reevaluated. It seems like every time I use Massdrop they always manage to screw something up, whether it be poor estimations, poor shipping, poor communication, etc. I do not understand why the community trust them to run stuff for our community. The only positives I see are the larger audience enabling more things to hit MOQ and a warehouse for volume shipping. I really liked the idea of Massdrop initially. It seemed like a great way for others to get involved in the group buy running community. However because of poor execution and what seems like straight up greed, they have turned into a company I can no longer support. 90% of the stuff they run as drops is garbage. They are exploiting this niche hobby because of its popularity increase in the general population. I constantly ask myself who wants to buy this garbage.. I just don't understand why Geekhack as a community would want to allow Massdrop to infiltrate this wonderful niche hobby with low quality mass produced crap.

On a more positive note, from the pictures so far I think Intelli made a great choice in the colors. My set should arrive in the next day or two, hopefully in the case and scratch free... which I doubt.. I don't really buy into the whole "you need a color calibrated monitor" to understand the real color, but I will say that the amount and color of light shown on the keys really does change how it appears. In some pictures its a vibrant teal, in others a dull blue. Either way job well done and thank you.

[Zeal]

As an experienced shipper, both GMK and MD are at fault (more so MD).

GMK's trays should at least have the top overlap and seal all sides of the bottom tray. Tape that up on 2 or 4 sides, and you're good to go. It would be even better if the top tray had horizontal guiding rails to prevent keys from jumping around.

MD should not be using packed air as a "blanket" for the trays. I've seen them use it as filler space before on larger shipping boxes, but it doesn't help when your product punctures a packed air pocket. It just causes the item to freely bounce around inside the larger shipping box.
To properly use packed/sealed air, it should always be used as SIDE/WALL SUPPORT, and never placed on the top/bottom of the box. Sealed air is especially effective when double boxing, with sealed air placed densely around the perimeter of the smaller box inside. To properly re-ship those GMK trays, each tray would require tightly wrapped bubble wrap/foam. You would then need to find a proper sized box (would be best if low profile, almost the same size as the GMK trays, but MD isn't going to custom order boxes for that) and fill it densely with closed cell foam.

Alternatively, just ask GMK to remake the Cherry China trays...Problem solved. Pack them in small retail cardboard boxes, and none of this would have happened.

[jbondeson]

It seems to me that anytime MassDrop is involved we always see **** like this. I cant count how many threads turn into "look how ****ed up my **** is" that were handled by them. I really think we as a community need to re-evaluate our relationship with MD because this kind of non-sense just keeps happening.

Strict, I completely agree with what you said about the relationship being reevaluated. It seems like every time I use Massdrop they always manage to screw something up, whether it be poor estimations, poor shipping, poor communication, etc. I do not understand why the community trust them to run stuff for our community. The only positives I see are the larger audience enabling more things to hit MOQ and a warehouse for volume shipping. I really liked the idea of Massdrop initially. It seemed like a great way for others to get involved in the group buy running community. However because of poor execution and what seems like straight up greed, they have turned into a company I can no longer support. 90% of the stuff they run as drops is garbage. They are exploiting this niche hobby because of its popularity increase in the general population. I constantly ask myself who wants to buy this garbage.. I just don't understand why Geekhack as a community would want to allow Massdrop to infiltrate this wonderful niche hobby with low quality mass produced crap.

I think I've been fairly vocal in this thread an others about my love-hate relationship with MD. The issue is that Geekhack "the community" has a much worse GB track record than even MD. We have a couple of awesome GB organizers (off the top of my head: Ivan, Bunny and Shadovved) a bunch of mediocre ones, and a healthy dose of straight up horrific ones. The sad part is, outside the few established players you take a big risk with GBs on here, and as MD is an established company your overall risk is reduced.

I think Bunny is doing amazing things with [CTRL]ALT, but even he is beholden to his suppliers, and he's hampered by the lack of big capital.

Frankly I wish there was a way to capture all the good of a community-first company like [CTRL]ALT combined with the resources and buying power of a Massdrop.

[Spopepro]

Yeah, cash flow is why MD.

Also, I think MD might not be packing things themselves. Didn't the message from GMK say "ready for MD's agents to pick up the shipment"? Does MD run their own warehouse or do the contract logistics and fulfillment with a 3rd party? It might make reconciling the problems more difficult.

[Zeal]

Yeah, cash flow is why MD.

Also, I think MD might not be packing things themselves. Didn't the message from GMK say "ready for MD's agents to pick up the shipment"? Does MD run their own warehouse or do the contract logistics and fulfillment with a 3rd party? It might make reconciling the problems more difficult.

MD used to ship items themselves, but now it's all done in a 3rd party fulfillment center in NJ.

[beehatch]

As an experienced shipper, both GMK and MD are at fault (more so MD).

GMK's trays should at least have the top overlap and seal all sides of the bottom tray. Tape that up on 2 or 4 sides, and you're good to go. It would be even better if the top tray had horizontal guiding rails to prevent keys from jumping around.

MD should not be using packed air as a "blanket" for the trays. I've seen them use it as filler space before on larger shipping boxes, but it doesn't help when your product punctures a packed air pocket. It just causes the item to freely bounce around inside the larger shipping box.
To properly use packed/sealed air, it should always be used as SIDE/WALL SUPPORT, and never placed on the top/bottom of the box. Sealed air is especially effective when double boxing, with sealed air placed densely around the perimeter of the smaller box inside. To properly re-ship those GMK trays, each tray would require tightly wrapped bubble wrap/foam. You would then need to find a proper sized box (would be best if low profile, almost the same size as the GMK trays, but MD isn't going to custom order boxes for that) and fill it densely with closed cell foam.

Alternatively, just ask GMK to remake the Cherry China trays...Problem solved. Pack them in small retail cardboard boxes, and none of this would have happened.

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Those Cherry China trays are super cool...

[njbair]

Yeah, cash flow is why MD.

Also, I think MD might not be packing things themselves. Didn't the message from GMK say "ready for MD's agents to pick up the shipment"? Does MD run their own warehouse or do the contract logistics and fulfillment with a 3rd party? It might make reconciling the problems more difficult.

MD used to ship items themselves, but now it's all done in a 3rd party fulfillment center in NJ.

So GMK makes the caps, and another company actually ships them to the customer. So then, Massdrop, I have to ask...

[HoffmanMyster]

Yeah, cash flow is why MD.

Also, I think MD might not be packing things themselves. Didn't the message from GMK say "ready for MD's agents to pick up the shipment"? Does MD run their own warehouse or do the contract logistics and fulfillment with a 3rd party? It might make reconciling the problems more difficult.

MD used to ship items themselves, but now it's all done in a 3rd party fulfillment center in NJ.

So GMK makes the caps, and another company actually ships them to the customer. So then, Massdrop, I have to ask...

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Sales.

[inanis]

So GMK makes the caps, and another company actually ships them to the customer. So then, Massdrop, I have to ask...

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Don't you understand! They are good with people!

Only, really not so much.

[jbondeson]

MD used to ship items themselves, but now it's all done in a 3rd party fulfillment center in NJ.

I had wondered why everything was starting to ship out of NJ instead of the west coast...

With someone else doing all the packing and shipping it also explains why they're on this insane shoestring budget and their recent push to ratchet up the number of active group buys.

[njbair]

MD used to ship items themselves, but now it's all done in a 3rd party fulfillment center in NJ.

I had wondered why everything was starting to ship out of NJ instead of the west coast...

With someone else doing all the packing and shipping it also explains why they're on this insane shoestring budget and their recent push to ratchet up the number of active group buys.

Actually it was probably a cost-cutting measure. Using a fulfillment center means they're not paying for warehouse property or shipping staff salaries. They only pay for the warehouse time they use. The downside is, Massdrop presumably loses quality control, and I think that's what we saw here.

[jbondeson]

Actually it was probably a cost-cutting measure. Using a fulfillment center means they're not paying for warehouse property or shipping staff salaries. They only pay for the warehouse time they use. The downside is, Massdrop presumably loses quality control, and I think that's what we saw here.

Oh I'm sure that's they're looking at it. There's always that middle ground where outsourcing certain operations makes more sense until you're even larger. But the interesting thing is that they outsourced one of the least expensive things. They still have their 6+ person engineering staff (which baffles me) and a bevy of different "buyers". My personal monday morning qb take on it would have been to outsource the engineering and double down on logistics (and this from someone in the software industry).

I think Massdrop is seriously confused what their core competencies should be.

[HoffmanMyster]

Actually it was probably a cost-cutting measure. Using a fulfillment center means they're not paying for warehouse property or shipping staff salaries. They only pay for the warehouse time they use. The downside is, Massdrop presumably loses quality control, and I think that's what we saw here.

Oh I'm sure that's they're looking at it. There's always that middle ground where outsourcing certain operations makes more sense until you're even larger. But the interesting thing is that they outsourced one of the least expensive things. They still have their 6+ person engineering staff (which baffles me) and a bevy of different "buyers". My personal monday morning qb take on it would have been to outsource the engineering and double down on logistics (and this from someone in the software industry).

I think Massdrop is seriously confused what their core competencies should be.

What sort of engineering do they have?  Presumably just software for the website, but I'm curious if there are others as well (maybe they're attempting to bridge into the design world?).

Outsourcing shipping makes sense until something like this happens.  I suspect the warehouse wasn't aware of the precautions needed, and Massdrop wasn't aware of the potential issue because it likely wasn't brought up.  One of the two corporations is going to take a big hit financially on this, and it will be interesting to see where things go moving forward.

[jbondeson]

What sort of engineering do they have?  Presumably just software for the website, but I'm curious if there are others as well (maybe they're attempting to bridge into the design world?).

I'm sure there's the website and an internal system for the buyers plus there's an analytics person on staff (all this is from linked in). And the fact that they're a SF company makes it worse as they have > $100k locked up in each and every one of them.

Not to mention the awkward fact that their website is a total **** show.

Outsourcing shipping makes sense until something like this happens.  I suspect the warehouse wasn't aware of the precautions needed, and Massdrop wasn't aware of the potential issue because it likely wasn't brought up.  One of the two corporations is going to take a big hit financially on this, and it will be interesting to see where things go moving forward.

Yeah, I really wish I could be a fly on the wall for these conversations. A whoooole lot of finger pointing is going be be going on. And I'm sure the 3PL company has an insurance policy in place so they're going to get involved... Oooooh the fireworks!

[digi]

So GMK makes the caps, and another company actually ships them to the customer. So then, Massdrop, I have to ask...

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[Air tree]

So GMK makes the caps, and another company actually ships them to the customer. So then, Massdrop, I have to ask...

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[MythicalWagyu]

In happier news, this set is really stunning in person - thank you so much for making it happen intelli78!

I might have to try this on a few different keyboards to figure out where I'm happiest with it, as I've been typing almost exclusively on SA since I got my Hack'd By Geeks & Penumbra sets;typing on Cherry profile feels really weird now - did not expect that 

[calmfries]

Haven't receive my set and I am already pissed, and sad. I will be using the 1.5u keys as I use wkl setup. Just hope that I get lucky, haven't get any update from dhl for few days already. 

[Den441]

Actually it was probably a cost-cutting measure. Using a fulfillment center means they're not paying for warehouse property or shipping staff salaries. They only pay for the warehouse time they use. The downside is, Massdrop presumably loses quality control, and I think that's what we saw here.

Oh I'm sure that's they're looking at it. There's always that middle ground where outsourcing certain operations makes more sense until you're even larger. But the interesting thing is that they outsourced one of the least expensive things. They still have their 6+ person engineering staff (which baffles me) and a bevy of different "buyers". My personal monday morning qb take on it would have been to outsource the engineering and double down on logistics (and this from someone in the software industry).

I think Massdrop is seriously confused what their core competencies should be.

Because they are trying too hard imo to fit the "start-up culture" mold when they are not like most other software based Start ups.

I received my set today. Everything was still in the case, but a few keys were out of place. The green bubble wrap was used for mine. I have two noticeable scratches on the keys I used. One is on the "PRT screen" key and the other is on the right windows key. There were a few more scratched keys, but I don't use those. Its not enough to go through the trouble of asking for an entire replacement set for me. I'm sure I'll get over it. It is just a little irritating when unboxing, setting up, and taking pics. I doubt I will notice much during normal use.

The set itself is glorious. I consider myself a huge TA fan. From the first time a saw a pic of it posted here on GH a few years ago, I have always wanted them and thought there was no better looking set. In my opinion, the teal could just be a tad greener, and the grey a tad darker. But that is just nitpicking. I still consider this set to be a perfect TA replica, and I doubt it could have came out better. Overall, I'm satisfied. Thanks again intelli! I hope everyone with serious damage can get some replacements.

[beehatch]

Hi Morgan,

Thanks for reaching out about this. I'd be happy to let you know that we'd be happy to offer you the following solutions:

A) If you're okay with keeping the set as is, we can partial $10 store credit

B) Otherwise, we can process a return for an exchange for you!

Let me know how you'd prefer to proceed.

Best,
Aaron

Oh boy, $10 credit!

I guess I'll do the return and exchange option then.

[jbondeson]

Uhhhh... how many extra sets did they buy. I sure hope it's a whole lot. 

[mason]

Here's how mine came

[beehatch]

Uhhhh... how many extra sets did they buy. I sure hope it's a whole lot. 

I'm wondering if the replacement set will come damaged

[Air tree]

Hi Morgan,

Thanks for reaching out about this. I'd be happy to let you know that we'd be happy to offer you the following solutions:

A) If you're okay with keeping the set as is, we can partial $10 store credit

B) Otherwise, we can process a return for an exchange for you!

Let me know how you'd prefer to proceed.

Best,
Aaron

Oh boy, $10 credit!

I guess I'll do the return and exchange option then.

Watch it be packed exactly the same and end up with scratches once more.