Things that make us go... hmmm šŸ¤”

Ha yep. At first I thought a ton of mail had gone missing when I signed up for that - no, just still on the truck :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes

Wish this were an April foolā€™s joke rather than an extended hmmm;

Thatā€™s me reaching out to RAMA on Instagram to ask about CAPS status:

A reddit thread more than 2 years old and 1 year cold about radio-silence from RAMA about the second set of CAPS:

The manufacturer, Mastars:

Confirming they produce for RAMA (maybe a year ago):

Pretty sure this is KATE / CAPS tooling:

These are definitely production samples:

Kinda goofers I found more info about these on a Chinese employeeā€™s instagram account than on RAMAā€™s dust-collecting updates page. I get heā€™sā€¦ had his hands fullā€¦ but an update or a refund would be pretty cool at this point. :neutral_face:

9 Likes

Negative percent chance for a refund. Best you can hope for is some kind of update about being sent into the shadows and a meager apology shifting blame to someone else.

:rofl:

4 Likes

Iā€™ve honestly seen it enough at this point that Itā€™s not surprising. To get this bad, there was a complete breakdown by the buy owner (in this case RAMA). It piles up liked up like a mountain of despair until they give up.

This is when they make the long-winded apology after months or years of silence. Usually itā€™s over at this point. There may be plans to move forward, but this is the point at which theyā€™ve faced the fear and come to terms.

The decision to disassociate with the bad feelings leaves them no longer feeling the need to deal with it. Itā€™s a failure that has been overcome and theyā€™ve made their peace at last.

Iā€™ve seen it at least 5 times now. And interestingly, I see the same thing with my son when he procrastinates his schoolwork. Itā€™s definitely human nature.

We need to normalize group buy struggles. Make people know itā€™s normal to have issues, even MAJOR issues. But weā€™re a a large community with a lot of understanding and willingness to give immense amount of slack as well support.

5 Likes

Yeah, this is all true. Iā€™m less sympathetic with RAMA than with others:

  • CAPS SEQ1 and 2 are both proudly listed on the website to this day

  • He took the money and the producer is good to go

  • Clearly is not strapped for cash like some other overwhelmed small vendors

  • Heā€™s still making and selling products about how cool RAMA is supposed to be (wolf-money deskmat)

  • Has promised to move forward productively as recently as January

4 Likes

I know this is not a political forum and should not be. Iā€™m not suggesting collective action. But I really appreciate it when people post bad experiences both to know we have a place to be heard and also personally to be made aware of producers or suppliers to avoid. Thanks for letting us know.

5 Likes

A positive hmm I found while sticker-bombing my new keeb oven; shoutout to mekibo for using the more expensive ā€œair channel releaseā€ vinyl on this old sticker. Basically, it has a grid of notches in the adhesive that allow air to escape, preventing bubbles during simple application.

4 Likes

Waitā€¦ doesnā€™t the oven surface get hot? I remember an older version my in-laws had that got toasty, especially up top. Guess these new-fangled ones are insulated?

1 Like

It does get pretty hot, but not hot enough to damage stickers like these, mostly made of vinyl with a couple paper ones in the mix. That mekibo one specifically is the stuff used on vehicle wraps, and will stand up to the baking sun for years.

I also never plan to use the oven much past its minimum temp, anyway, which even if they were in the oven wouldnā€™t be enough to ignite the paper ones or melt the vinyl ones - though the odd rando-plastic ones might curl.

3 Likes

Only somewhat related, but last year I learned that standard USPS tracking numbers are reused after 120 days, which can cause some really bizarre issues for package tracking apps. I reached out to the developer for the app I use, thinking it was a bug because I had received a tracking number that showed the item had been delivered to a different state about five months previously. Itā€™s truly bizarre (source):

I find Informed Delivery useful just for overall notifications on mail I wasnā€™t expecting (mostly greeting cards and the like) or important paper documents so I know to look out for them. But it definitely varies on which day I actually receive the items.

Itā€™s a bit of an older thread, but you may find this interesting/horrifying:

6 Likes

What is a keeb oven?

1 Like

Emphasis added;

7 Likes

This is pretty straightforward and I may have even mentioned this before but itā€™d be great if LEDs on keyboards would sleep by default after inactivity of a certain period. I am tired of getting up from bed to unplug my keyboards because theyā€™re blindingly bright.

3 Likes

After browsing that thread, I thought: there are enough interesting and beautiful things readily available that I donā€™t need to self-induce that level of frustration.

I guess the hobby has changed quite a bit. That said, I did buy some keycaps on pre-order before having read the thread and before understanding fully what pre-order really means. Iā€™m awaiting delivery. I wonā€™t do that again.

1 Like

oh I thought it might be for SMT solder reflow, but enamel coating is neat too (and harder to hide any, uh, signs of learning on the job)

1 Like

I feel like my role on this forum is often the oscar the grouch, but I was looking at the wednesday prebuilts from TKC that they use to offload stock that hasnā€™t moved and thought about buying a keyboard from them until I saw theyā€™re trying to upsell this scammy shipping insurance, on by default. Hereā€™s the scare-language it uses when you turn it off:

If I pay with a credit card and the product isnā€™t delivered for whatever reason, itā€™s up to the seller or I will do a chargeback. Just say ā€œnoā€ to this stuff, and pay with a credit card if you can.

8 Likes

Canā€™t refund customers if youā€™ve already spent all the moneyā€¦

5 Likes

To be fair, when companies use Route I tend to opt into it. Iā€™ve had to go through them a few times to get replacements / refunds and it was very hassle free (FedEx failed to deliver once and Route instantly got a replacement ordered and the other time FedEx left a box in the rain with a PCB in it that got soaked and they refunded that since that was what I chose). Never heard of this Navidium one, though.

Also, maybe the moral of this story is that companies should stop using FedEx.

2 Likes

Meh, itā€™s luck of the draw. My FedEx deliveries are usually fine unless they do that shit where they hand off to USPS. My USPS deliveries can get delayed weeks or sometimes just disappear. UPS on a few occasions delivered crushed boxes. DHL maybe has less issues? Dunno, maybe Iā€™ve just been lucky.

So many people are in the chain from warehouse to front door, and they all have to do a decent job for everything to work smoothly.

3 Likes

It is not much Fedex as a whole but who runs the Fedex office nearby.
It could be the same for all shipping companies, as it is mostly a matter of quality people working in the company or not (Fedex is perfectly fine in France, never had any trouble).

2 Likes