Round 4 / packing (99.8%) / shipping (99.7%)

[Thion]

Same here, have to wait to the end of the month to be able to pay my order.
Will i still be able to get my order then, or would my order be void if i don't pay by then?

[nntnam]

@7bit: Have all of the key been put into production? The longer this takes, the more I order .

[andrewjoy]

I have sent the funds for my keycaps however i have another invoice i am not sure what to do

[bebuxe]

>andrewjoy
That's the bot confirming your order. You should get one last one when you have paid. You can also spam it more to update it.

Going to bed.

[megnin]

Attention, everyone in this Group Buy.

This is in information update.

There has been a lot of guessing and speculating on the status of this Group Buy. I've communicated directly with Melissa at Signature Plastics and asked her for the actual status of where we are right now.

On 8/6/2012 I wired to Signature Plastics $10,025.00 USD of the approximately $10,400.00 USD that I have collected and continue to collect.

On 8/15/2012 9:38 PM Melissa informed me that production on the keycaps will begin when payment has bee made in full for the order. The current unpaid balance on the order is approximately $44K USD.

If you look at the list of caps and sets that 7bit posts regularly you'll see that there are a lot of caps that have not been ordered yet.

Above are the known facts. Everything following is my opinion or what I understand to be likely to be true based on my observations.

The group buy seems to be going fine, but because it is such a massive buy, it's going to take a long time to come to completion. Just look at the number of sets and options available. How long does it take just to read the entire wiki describing the sets available? How long does it take Signature Plastics to make a single blue and yellow "Geek Hack" cap?

This buy is not for putting a set of caps on your keyboard for work next Monday morning. This buy is to give us a set or two, depending on what we order, of custom, one of a kind key caps for our most awesome keyboards. You aren't going to throw these caps on a cheap mechanical keyboard. You're going to put them on your favorite, most expensive high end mechanical keyboard and you're going to want to show it off. At least I know that's that I'm going to do with my RETRO/STDRGBYSYM set. That was my favorite set, but the others are equally awesome and unique.

Yeah, it's going to take several months just to finish taking orders and collecting money to pay Signature Plastics, then it's going to take SP probably two to four months to manufacture them. I'm guessing about that figure based on the estimated 45 days for a small group buy. This buy is massive, so it's going to take a long time, but these sets will definitely be worth waiting for. Just order the caps you like and then be patient. Don't check the mailbox every day, you'll notice when they show up. You know the saying about the "watched pot."

[nomaddude]

Thanks for the info megnin! Really looking forward to getting these keys some day ^^

[blighty]

This buy is not for putting a set of caps on your keyboard for work next Monday morning. This buy is to give us a set or two, depending on what we order, of custom, one of a kind key caps for our most awesome keyboards. You aren't going to throw these caps on a cheap mechanical keyboard. You're going to put them on your favorite, most expensive high end mechanical keyboard and you're going to want to show it off. At least I know that's that I'm going to do with my RETRO/STDRGBYSYM set. That was my favorite set, but the others are equally awesome and unique.

That was well put! I actually want to put some of my caps (SPH maybe) on a cheap mechanical board though. Keycool's mini84 is a pretty bad ass little board once you ditch the stock keycaps with their odd legends and add o-rings (ninja caps are holding me over on both my boards until this buy eventually surfaces).

[grik]

- if theres still 44k to collect, how do i feel that there will always be 44k or more to collect if you continue to ask people to order more.

Do we have a goal of keycaps that need to be ordered? if yes we are screwed some can take forever to be taken. I paid mine months ago, and specially because we are putting this in the finest keyboard evah of ours, people really really want to have them and its by time now.
If you and 7bit dont close the ordering process of the bot, how do you expect that this comes to an end?

[pederlol]

What I don't understand is this: The group buy closed at march 1st according to the original post. I paid one month later. Now you are telling me, that orders are still going in?

Correct me if I'm wrong: In a groupbuy:

- someone makes a list of orders
- pleople pay what they ordered
- order is placed at manufacturer
- keys are sent to OP
- OP distributes keys

So why are we still taking orders?

I recon if pleople knew the implications of participating in this 95% would never have

[kint]

So why are we still taking orders?

#

just an educated guess:
Time to collect all the money of placed orders before the deadline ended is way bigger than a few incoming orders for the leftovers. Leaving the slot open for some last calls is reasonable because there's still so much money to be collected, which couldn't be done because people collecting money were missing.

[pederlol]

I guess you have to be american to understand why collecting money is a problem. Hell I can open an account that people can wire moey to with IBAN and everything - I understand the paypal issue, but why not have someone transfer money directly to a bank account?

[megnin]

What I don't understand is this: The group buy closed at march 1st according to the original post. I paid one month later. Now you are telling me, that orders are still going in?

Correct me if I'm wrong: In a groupbuy:

- someone makes a list of orders
- pleople pay what they ordered
- order is placed at manufacturer
- keys are sent to OP
- OP distributes keys

So why are we still taking orders?

I recon if pleople knew the implications of participating in this 95% would never have

I can't answer your question. I'm in the exact same boat as you. I just jumped in a couple of months ago when it looked like the GB was completely stalled because NO ONE was collecting money for the buy. So, I figured that if I was ever going to get my caps I would start helping out and help collect money.

Other than how much money I've collected and sent to SP and what I've reported in this thread I don't know any more about how this GB is being run than you or anyone else.

I don't know what our deal or obligation with SP is or why a bunch of sets of caps that haven't been manufactured yet have to be sold, or even IF they have to be sold.

I agree with you that we need some more transparency to what the status of this group buy is and what is the plan to complete it. I've posted what I know.

My question, which is similar to yours is, why can't we call it closed, collect payments for outstanding orders for, say two or three weeks, cancel the remaining orders and place the order with SP for the caps that are paid for?

Half way through that sentence I though of one possible reason and problem with that idea. If there are minimum quantities of these sets that must be ordered/produced in order to meet a reasonable price point, then I can understand why a certain number of them need to be ordered before production can begin.

If say, 100 sets were planned for at a price point of $75.00, but only two people have ordered that set, it's going to cost $800.00 each instead of $75.00 each. I made those figures up. They don't represent any actual sets, but the example is valid.

I would still have participated if I had known that it was going to take over a year to get these cap sets. A year is still sooner than never and that's when you'd get a set like these without this buy. Amazon.com doesn't won't be carrying them.

I'll continue to post any information about the status of this GB that I get from either 7bit, Signature Plastics or anyone who may be involved the the buy.

[pederlol]

Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate everything 7bit (and people like you) are doing to get us some awesome keycaps - I really do!

However, I feel that putting an actual deadline for payments and closing off extra orders at that point would be a good idea. I understand that some prices might go up - but I'd prefer paying 20% extra for everthing instead of having to wait another ½-1 year.

As for prices on sets, I thought that was why the prices kept changing over the last year - beacuse they were adjusted to the amounts ordered - not according to a guestimate.

Also, at some point, 7bit has to either

1) cancel evertything
2) adjust orders to what has actually been paid for
3) wait ∞ days until we can order our keys

[TDub]

Well my guess is that no one wants 1), 2) might not be possible due to the minimum quantities megnin suggested so waiting till most sets are sold is probably the only option. So waiting is the option we will have to take.

Another would be to front the money but my guess is that 7bit doesn't really want to front several K just to get this rolling (I wouldn't).

My take is similar to megnin, these are very unique keycap sets that are worth waiting for. There aren't many doubleshot sets you can just buy outside of groupbuys (which probably all take this long) and you may not find one you like in the ones you can just buy.

I just curse the fact that more sets are available now, i might end up ordering another.

[staffanu]

I too really appreciate the work involved in the group buy, and also, while I'm of course waiting for my key caps, continuing doing so for quite some time is not a real problem.

That being said, just like some others I think a bit more transparency would be good. If everyone knew exactly what we are waiting for and why, it might be easier to get help and ideas for moving forward.

Some obvious questions that have been on my mind for a while:

• How much money remains to be collected, and how does that compare to the amount that has already been collected?
  
  Out of the total order value, how much stuff remains unordered at the present? Why is there still stuff to order? As has been suggested before this could be due to minimum quantities for some key caps -- and in that case maybe some specific caps with little interest has to be canceled altogether? Or, is it due to cancelations / non-payment from people that have previously ordered?

I would hope, and also guess, that publishing some more information would reduce the number of complaints about this taking too long, and hopefully ideas could emerge to help speed things up.

Staffan

[blighty]

On a side note, does anyone know if the Phantom kits have a 1.75u shift key? I can't tell by the pic in the wiki.

[blighty]

Just a quick reminder for people paying via Paypal. Be sure to include your Order Number/Member Name in the subject and notes/message to seller areas (R4 0000 RandomPerson). There is no way of knowing what invoice to credit the payment to otherwise. Thanks!

Also, payment from namutable received.

[namutable]

Thanks. blighty.

[namutable]

Attention, everyone in this Group Buy.

This is in information update.

There has been a lot of guessing and speculating on the status of this Group Buy. I've communicated directly with Melissa at Signature Plastics and asked her for the actual status of where we are right now.

On 8/6/2012 I wired to Signature Plastics $10,025.00 USD of the approximately $10,400.00 USD that I have collected and continue to collect.

On 8/15/2012 9:38 PM Melissa informed me that production on the keycaps will begin when payment has bee made in full for the order. The current unpaid balance on the order is approximately $44K USD.

If you look at the list of caps and sets that 7bit posts regularly you'll see that there are a lot of caps that have not been ordered yet.

Above are the known facts. Everything following is my opinion or what I understand to be likely to be true based on my observations.

The group buy seems to be going fine, but because it is such a massive buy, it's going to take a long time to come to completion. Just look at the number of sets and options available. How long does it take just to read the entire wiki describing the sets available? How long does it take Signature Plastics to make a single blue and yellow "Geek Hack" cap?

This buy is not for putting a set of caps on your keyboard for work next Monday morning. This buy is to give us a set or two, depending on what we order, of custom, one of a kind key caps for our most awesome keyboards. You aren't going to throw these caps on a cheap mechanical keyboard. You're going to put them on your favorite, most expensive high end mechanical keyboard and you're going to want to show it off. At least I know that's that I'm going to do with my RETRO/STDRGBYSYM set. That was my favorite set, but the others are equally awesome and unique.

Yeah, it's going to take several months just to finish taking orders and collecting money to pay Signature Plastics, then it's going to take SP probably two to four months to manufacture them. I'm guessing about that figure based on the estimated 45 days for a small group buy. This buy is massive, so it's going to take a long time, but these sets will definitely be worth waiting for. Just order the caps you like and then be patient. Don't check the mailbox every day, you'll notice when they show up. You know the saying about the "watched pot."

megnin, do you mind if I report this news to KBDM/OTD?

[leavelost]

I have paid to blighty
please check it

[blighty]

Please edit my email address out of your post. I do receive notifications for payments in a more than timely manner. I'll update the bot with your payment over the weekend.

[defstar]

Well...put in an order, ensuring that I selected items that were "in stock" from the previous page.

I have all intents to pay, so I hope it goes through!

Expecting an invoice to be emailed to me.

[Soarer]

I recon if pleople knew the implications of participating in this 95% would never have

You were around when round 3 ended and this round started, so surely you know some of the stuff that was said around that time! I posted a prediction of 18 months for this round, simply guessing it would take twice as long as R3. I wasn't being totally serious about it, but it was intended to make people think about what they were getting into. 7bit's estimates of how long it would take were so obviously massively optimistic - I don't understand how anyone believed it would ship in January 2012

PS. Feel free to post any complaint in 7bit's "Fuck you, Soarer" thread Still waiting for my R3 replacements!!

[defstar]

After submitting my order and receiving the invoice, I followed the instructions in the invoice email which lead me to:
- PM my address to 7Bit-r4
- PP the money across
- Send a new PM with "PAYPALINT" (as I am international) to 7Bit-r4.

Now I have received another invoice including the international Paypal fee of $3.24. Um...how do I do this. Do I really send you an other Paypal request for $3.24?

Thanks

[Game Theory]

Just an FYI before my PayPal account was locked I wired $6k to Signature Plastics.

[blighty]

Just an FYI before my PayPal account was locked I wired $6k to Signature Plastics.

I'll be an unhappy camper if my PP account goes down. Bastards.

Anyway, payments from namutable and leavelost have been received and marked as shipped for Paypal purposes (to keep them from locking up the PP account, hopefully). Invoices may or may not reflect the payments yet. Keep checking this thread for the actual ship date.

[defstar]

After paying, are we meant to receive some sort of notice with % paid?

[Half-Saint]

Youtube tags are broken..........

http://youtu.be/DpGdLsG87qo

[Daniel]

Any chance to get a SPH/DE-Set even if it is sold out? Is there something like a wait list for sold out items which may become available again, if someone cancels his order?

[Djuzuh]

Any chance to get a SPH/DE-Set even if it is sold out? Is there something like a wait list for sold out items which may become available again, if someone cancels his order?

Be ready, no waiting list.

And yes, sets might become available again. There is one set for safety on every set I believe, and people might drop out.