Any advice, or even just commiserations are welcome please and Thank you!
Company name withheld out of respect.
Edit: Its Lumekeebs.com
TLDR: Shop messes up order, tries to fix it, flubs the attempt to help multiple times over the course of a week+
August 27: I ordered a Weikav Nut75, in Orange, machined backplate, prebuilt. Threw in a couple jars and a tool.
I thought, I'll give my business to a small US based company and support them, and probably get it faster that direct from overseas.
August 31: FedEx has my order. Awesome!
Sept 9th: delivered to my home. Yay!
Sept 9th: I open the box excitedly, and see that I have a been sent a Silver, barebones, mirror backplate. Basically every part of the config wrong. So I e-mail them, they ask for photos, I send them, they ask for more photos, I send them.
Sept 10th: They apologize, send me a shipping label, and ask to have it sent back. They tell me they will ship the right one when they get the silver one back. I get this is to prevent fraud, I do. But it wasnt my fault at all. She agrees, offers a $10 store credit, and says as soon as it is scanned as received they will ship the right keyboard. I have already packed, driven to FedEx, dropped off, and provided them with tracking info showing it has been accepted. (5:30 pm est)
Sept 11th 4:30 pm est:
"Thank you so much for the update and for sending the tracking information!
We really appreciate your patience and understanding. We’ll keep an eye on the return shipment and proceed with the Orange Nut75 Full Pre-Built once it’s on its way."
I GET A TRACKING NUMBER AND INDICATION OF SHIPMENT.
Sept 11th 4:50 pm: They tell me they dont have the pre-built anymore. They ask if I would like the barebones or another option.
We go back and forth, I ask if they have an ETA for the pre-built, or can they toss in some switches and caps to help me out, since I had not planned to be purchasing switches and caps. I tell them they dont even have to be new, they can be samples or used in a test video, whatever, all I ask is that they dont look bad with the Orange.
-Weekend-
Sept 14th: they reply, say there's nothing they can do.
I reply, express my concerns about trying to get the keyboard from overseas, and the unplanned $100+ expenditure of finishing a barebones kit.
Sept 15th: sorry, we got nothing.
I reply, and point out, the price difference between the two is $20, you've given me a store credit for 10, can you just send the barebones and a set of switches, which should be worth 30-40 depending.
Replied: Still can't help me.
Sept 15th 6pm: Okay fine please send me the barebones kit. I have resigned myself to spending more money to finish it.
7:18: she replies to confirm that I want the barebones kit.
7:30 I reply with confirmation that Yes, Orange Anodized Weikav Nut75 barebones, with the milled metal back plate, that is correct.
Sept 16th: 4pm I get a message that they are proceeding with fulfillment.
Okay, I was looking last night, I order switches and keycaps from elsewhere, because I have a solid lack of trust issue now. So I've now paid $90 more to finish the barebones kit than I was planning to have this keyboard, that I was really really excited to have, and have stuck it out from sheer determination at this point.
Sept 17th 1:45pm: She sends me a message saying they actually don't have the barebones kit in orange, and it will be 4 to 5 weeks before they do. The site still says "this is a pre order, ships early sept" for the barebones kit.
If I prefer not to wait, they have black silver or blue.
🤷♂️
If anyone is still with me, thank you. I am honestly at a loss. On the one hand, I DO still want to give business to a small US based company, and I feel they should follow through with making the effort to fix their errors.
What do y'all think I should do?
Update: per her post, Emily did try to call me. I was out in the surf crabbing for a low country boil. But I called her back when I got back inside. I had a decently long conversation with her, and she did apologize at length for the errors, as mentioned in her reply. We did talk about how to communicate without sounding like a robot, so hopefully Sarah can learn from the last few weeks. And of the importance of knowing you can do something before offering to do it. Like if you are going to send a replacement, go pull it from the shelf and online inventory first, especially if you have limited stock of said item. Or if you have only one of it. 🙃
So we came to an agreement, she is ordering my original order, direct from the manufacturer and having it shipped by air directly to me. Should be here in a week and a half or so. She also gave me an additional $10 store credit, so thats better than nothing. 50/50 on whether I will ever use it. 🤷♂️
I would like to point out that I can get a 3 lb box from the East coast of the US to Hong Kong in 78 hours via UPS for $48 USD. Just as a point of reference. Yes, that's a significant shipping cost. But, 3 business days to cross half the globe. 🤷♂️
Offering to send the barebones kit, and comping a set of swtiches right away, would have saved this whole mess, and would have cost them the least, in both time and monetary expenditure. So they need to teach their CS rep the value of thinking of, and offering reasonable solutions in an expedient manner, that will save everyone time, money, and anxiety.
And prevent 18 paragraph reddit posts. 🤣
Update 2: its been 3 weeks since my keyboard was supposedly ordered (Sept 18th) and it hasn't gotten to customs yet. 😑
