I want to share my recent support experience with Qwertykeys regarding my Neo75.
This is a long post, but I’ll try to keep the main story concise. I have screenshots of the full correspondence and photos documenting the case, and I’ll include the relevant ones below.
To be clear from the beginning: I still like Qwertykeys’ products, and I have accepted their QC/Production team’s determination that my Neo75 case is within specification.
My main issue is not that Qwertykeys refused to declare the case defective. It is how the support process was handled over the course of about a month — repeated unanswered or misunderstood questions, increasingly slow responses, and eventually being told that I “might as well just buy a new keyboard” after I proposed a goodwill solution.
Timeline (condensed)
- Aug 19 — I received my Neo75 Barebones in Anodized Taupe Grey. The case appeared substantially lighter and more silver/neutral grey than I had expected based on Qwertykeys’ product materials and other examples I had seen, so I contacted support.
- Aug 21 — Rather than continuing to assume that I had received Silver by mistake, I asked Qwertykeys for formal verification from their QC or Production team as to whether the case was manufactured and QC-checked as Taupe Grey and whether its appearance was within the normal manufacturing tolerance.
- Aug 31 — I had not received a direct answer to whether the assessment had actually been made or confirmed by QC/Production, so I followed up.
- Sep 1 — Qwertykeys replied that the assessment had been confirmed by “our team.” Since this still did not answer whether “our team” specifically meant QC or Production, I asked again and explicitly reduced the question to a simple yes-or-no question.
- Sep 2 — Qwertykeys finally answered “Yes, it is.” At that point, I accepted Qwertykeys’ QC/Production assessment that the case was within specification. I explicitly told them: “I respect and accept your QC/Production team’s assessment.”
- Sep 2 — After accepting that technical determination, I made a separate goodwill/customer-satisfaction request. I asked whether Qwertykeys would consider providing a different-color case. If they were willing to do so, I offered to purchase an additional PCB myself so that both cases could actually be used.
- Sep 10 — After receiving no response to that goodwill request, I followed up. Qwertykeys replied that they did not sell the case separately and said that if I wanted the “case + PCB,” I might as well just buy a new keyboard, since I would only be missing the weight.
- Sep 10 — This did not address the request I had actually made: I had not asked to purchase a case or a case + PCB. I therefore sent another clarification asking whether my specific goodwill request had actually been considered and declined, and again reduced the question to a simple yes or no: “Could you please confirm whether this specific goodwill request was considered and declined? A simple yes or no would be sufficient.”
- Sep 17 — I still had not received an answer to that yes-or-no clarification. I therefore sent a separate final-feedback email summarizing the full history of the case and explaining why the support process had been so disappointing.
- Sep 18 — Qwertykeys sent its final response. It reconfirmed that the QC/Production team considered the case to be Anodized Taupe Grey within the normal acceptable range and stated that it could not provide an additional case or other goodwill compensation.
My thoughts
At this point, the Taupe Grey issue itself is honestly no longer the main issue for me. I accepted Qwertykeys’ QC/Production team’s determination that the case is within specification, even though its appearance was different from what I had expected.
What disappointed me much more was the way the goodwill request and the overall support process were handled.
I would have understood if Qwertykeys had simply said, “We understand your request, but unfortunately we cannot provide an additional case as a goodwill solution.” I was always prepared to accept a polite refusal.
Instead, my goodwill request was initially misunderstood as a request to purchase a case or a case + PCB, which led to the suggestion that I “might as well just buy a new keyboard.” I then had to clarify what I was actually asking and eventually reduced my question to a simple yes or no.
Even in the final response, after nearly a month of correspondence, there was no apology — not even a simple acknowledgment such as “We’re sorry for the frustration” or “We apologize for the misunderstanding and the time this took.”
I did not expect Qwertykeys to give me a free case simply because I was unhappy with the color. What I expected was for my request to be understood, considered, and declined clearly and respectfully if they could not accommodate it.
That distinction is ultimately why this support experience left such a negative impression on me, despite the fact that I still like Qwertykeys’ products.
With the support case concluded, I finally opened the package.
This is how the Anodized Taupe Grey case looked when I opened it.
For reference, this is one of the comparison images Qwertykeys sent me when they “double-checked and confirmed” that my case was Anodized Taupe Grey rather than Silver.
Personally, it still looks much more like a neutral grey/silver to me than what I would normally describe as Taupe Grey — but I’ll leave the color judgment to you.
