Once Kailh fixes their whole BOX switch issue, would it be possible to open the switch-tops and replace the stems only?
If so, any idea where we might be able to buy the stems only?
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There won’t be an option to only buy stems, only the whole switches.
If that is possible, I could save my hundres of Box switches to be thrown away.
Kalih should offer corrected stems at cost, so those with the old stems can replace them.
They lack conscience if they try to sell the new version, pretending nothing happened.
I don’t expect them to compensate for damaged keycaps, but they should at least provide a way to right their defective products.
That makes two of us.
Pretty sure they won’t be selling stems only, sadly.
I would really like to just replace the stems myself, but I’m pretty sure I saw @mgsickler (Mike from Novelkeys) write somewhere that Kailh won’t be offering just stems.
They provided switches that were conforming to the spec they listed. The products are not defective and conscience is completely irrelevant.
Sucks that nobody spotted the problem before they went on sale, but there are no wrongdoing here (nothing that will stand up in a court of law anyway)
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Have you considered for a moment that the spec was defective?
We should all suck it up eh?
I’m boycotting KBS unless Kalih does something about this mess.
I’m sure many others are in the same boat.
I’m not going to pay them to be their beta testers.
Added:
Just submitted a ticket on Massdrop to cancel my outstanding KBS order.
Kalih and distributors are mistaken if they think this will just go away.
It’s mind boggling how much property damage KBS has caused.
Oh I am indeed aware that the spec was larger than Cherry’s equivalent. That’s not the definition of defective though. They’re probably the perfect size for the caps they were originally catering to. The problem arises later on when vendors marketed them to the enthusiast market and people started using them with GMK caps (though I’ve heard some reports that some. SA caps are also affected)
However the due diligence for making sure they operate well with GMK/SA caps specifically (GMK are the caps people report the most issues with) that probably doesn’t lie with Kailh, they provided their spec sheet, and makes the products to spec.
Sucking up is probably the wrong phrase to use, but that’s not far off my sentiment. Voting with your wallet by not buying their products anymore is a sound decision though.
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It’s strange how you are interpreting the events and building to your opinion based on little information that has been released from Kalih and their vendors.
On the seller website where I bought KBS, it’s stated: “Utilizing the already popular Cherry MX form, Kailh BOX switches provide an easy transition so you don’t have to let go of your existing keycap collection.” The spec you are referring to is not provided anywhere.
I wonder where your so called due diligence lies. Are you saying that each buyer should have searched for the spec and done due diligence?
The damage is already done to Kalih and KBS brands. People are not going to overlook this since their precious collector keycap sets are ruined. In the best case, say following your storyline of no one being responsible, Kalih looks incompetent and ignorant of the market they are catering to.
Kalih should be proactive with crisis management in order to prevent further damage. Pretending as if nothing happened will only frustrate people who lost $$$$.
As someone who spent a lot of money on these box switches as well as having key sets damaged having to “suck it up” is something a consumer will not want to hear. I hope Kalih will find a way to compensate those that were affected. Even something as simple as selling us the corrected stems. Until then, I am not buying anything from Kalih.
Companies will make mistakes. How they handle/resolve it will be very telling of what kind of company they are.
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That applies to most every comment made about the Kailh stem issue.
Kailh/Kaihua did publish their specs as well as NovelKeys and other vendors: http://www.kailh.com/en/Products/Mechanical_keyboard_switch/165.html
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/3099/8088/files/BOX_Navy.pdf?5816470357010718290
That being said, the damage has been done to Kaihua’s reputation. I’m not going to buy new box switches and I won’t trust the new stems until others have beta tested them for a while.
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I’m a big fan of the idea of Kailh offering stems at cost for a period of time. Or even at a reasonable cost. I don’t know what the big deal would be they wouldn’t be losing money on the stems. Thay would be losing money in the sense that people wouldn’t have to buy new switches. But something tells me the people having to buy new switches wouldn’t be rushing back to box switches anytime soon.
As for the argument that the switches were within the specs kailh provided ignores what the intent of the design of the product is.
In construction surveying you won’t get in trouble setting construction steaks to the approved engineering plan. Even if that approved plan would mean that when it rains water might flow into somebody’s house. So you can manipulate grades based on the engineers intent so that the water flows down the street into the storm drain instead. Everybody makes mistakes. I think kailh`s intent was for the boxs switches to work with keycaps without damaging them. Just because the switches were manufactured to the design specs doesn’t mean there wasn’t something wrong with those design specs.
I probably won’t be buying box switches anytime soon until I feel like there is more resolution. I am also worried about some vendors having bulk quantities of old box switches and not pulling them. I noticed Kona.Store is still selling there hako switches and when I pre-ordered my Kira with hako trues I can only assume it won’t be coming with stems with the New tooling since they never pulled them from their store.
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