Manufacturing is complete on the GOCF Norbaforces and we actually have the housings on hand right now—and have for a while—but we’re just now waiting on retail boxes to put them in. It’s honestly somewhat maddening to have everything but this relatively trivial final component, but sea shipments have been crazy slow this year and sadly there isn’t anything we can do to speed things up once the parts are en route. 
If anybody is in a rush (for a gift or whatever) and wants to forgo getting a retail box, just shoot us an email and we can send yours right away.
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Thanks for the update Ryan! I’m happy to wait for the box, those boxes are really nice
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Same. I actually finally wrote their customer service just few weeks back, as it started going beyond your standard, round-the-mill unprofessional at some point. Zero updates or replies to queries for months on end, descriptions (still now) stating that images are mockups subject’ to change. A bit silly. Own their BIIP extended and the quality left something to be desired; hoping this one will be an improvement.
I have ordered from KBDFans numerous times in the past and always get my stuff, but as with sadly a lot of keyboard companies, I’ve not heard great things about their customer service. Some of this might be language or cultural issues, but I think it’s also they seek to aim to be more a high-volume, mass-market seller, and when you’re in that market it’s hard to afford take a lot of time engaging with clients by email. (Companies like Novelkeys are shining counter-examples.) They might just make a conscious calculation that some emails that aren’t related directly to making a new sale aren’t worth answering, especially if it’s a question they have answered on Discord or elsewhere and assume you should somehow magically know where to look (which isn’t really reasonable, especially for us Discord non-users). It’s unfortunate, but maybe understandable at some level given the volume of emails they and similar sellers must get, even if not quite excusable. I always just like to remind people that, even for the biggest sellers (not me), keyboard stuff is always super niche and low-volume from the perspective of most factories we have to work with, so the end result is that the business is very high-complexity and low-margin. So, I don’t know, I guess I’m feeling a sort of empathy from the perspective of someone who tries to do this kind of stuff myself why a company like that might be a little curt or non-responsive, even though we try to handle things differently.
Not that we don’t sometimes take a couple of days to respond to emails when we’re inundated (we suck sometimes!), but that’s also why I never want to be in a market where I might need to be making those kinds of difficult calculations intentionally. 
Here’s to the excellent customer service that comes with failure. Haha.
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Does this apply to the Norbatouch as well? I really love the packaging, but I have plenty of other Norbauer boxes in my closet already 
Sure! We just got those in today, actually.
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The Grail has been so good, that in 2 weeks flat, I felt compelled to buy a K2 Norbaforce from r/mm.
I’ve caught the bug.
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really well said here Ryan
Your empathy towards such challenges and extrapolation of reasons behind similar issues is entirely fair and sensible – I get it and share it. The problem, in my experience at least, has arisen not by lack of replies to any individual queries (of which there were none on my part till that single one a few weeks back) but lack of any form of basic updates on the very page of the product in question for something like 5 months; as mentioned, the page still describes images of the now-finished product as mockups subject to change. It just comes across as a little careless. To that also, one might argue that simply providing a few words on the current state of affairs on the page itself once a month or so would automatically null a need for any number of direct queries in the first place. But all that a by the by really – not a big deal, an observation at the most.
Hey y’all, I think we’re getting a bit off topic (again) here. I’d just like to add that while this particular (hipro caps) GB was frustrating for me, all of my (many) previous experiences with kbdfans have been positive including working with their support.
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I once had a colleague with many years in the field describe customer service as a public restroom. If it’s well maintained and clean people just use it and go on about their day, you rarely ever hear people recommend a gas station or a coffee shop for its excellent restroom. When things are bad though, even if its just for one day, people will remember it forever. I am sure that nearly all of you have had the misfortune of opening the door to a restroom that you didn’t dare fully enter.
With that said and with an eye at keeping this at least tangentially topical I think that one of the things that makes my Grail so special (aside from the improved aesthetics, acoustics, “key feel”, heft and desk presence) is the amount of customer service involved in the making of the thing. Past the average response time of Ryan and his team to any inquiry, the whole heavy thing (and this could extend to all of the Norbauer housings) is made in the service of those of us weirdos that can’t live without functional piece of art to put our favorite, but niche keyboard in.
It always makes me confused/sad that there aren’t millions of people lining up to buy these things (based on how much I personally wanted it.) Knowing that though, and knowing that knowing that the project was still pursued at great expense so that the few of us who truly “get it” can achieve our own platonic ideal keyboard makes the thing that much more special.
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oh also this madlad got a LiPo battery into a heavy grail Pro 3
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@louuuuuuuu This has been a rough week for my motivation in the world of keyboards (the puerile toxicity of some folks in this hobby, while rare, can challenge even my Stoic sensibilities when it shows up), so this was a much needed salve for my soul this Friday. Thank you so much for those enormously kind words. It’s people like you who keep me going in what often feels like an uphill struggle to figure out this whole keyboard business thing. 
Like all earthly primates, we definitely fuck stuff up sometimes. (Little problems escape our best multi-tiered efforts at QC, etc.) But we’re always committed to making sure that what results from an interaction with us is more than just a physical object but a positive emotional experience, which means we always work hard to fix any problems either with replacements, assembly help (I’ve even done video calls to walk people through builds), or a return and full refund if we can’t get something the client is genuinely delighted with. There isn’t enough money in the keyboard business to do it in a way other than one that makes us all feel good about it.
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You’re right and this wasn’t really my intention either. Also on point about the KBD customer support - once contacted they were very helpful and civil.
Indeed I was over the moon when I found this - suggested he should mention his discovery here, I’d imagine a lot of people would find this very useful.
Love the smoothness of the Heavy Grail Veracity Steel…Thank you Ryan for putting so much effort on making it happen!!
HHKB Pro 2 55gr in Heavy Grail Veracity Steel.
Lubed Tribosys 3204 on Sliders, Krytox 205g0 on Stabs.
Silenced with Deskeys Silencing Ring No.5
Swapped controller board to Yang’s HHKB-BLE (ydkb.io)
Li-polymer battery 3.7V 5000mAh
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Lovely build! Good to know that there’s Bluetooth compatibility in the Veracity Steel models; I suppose the Heavy Grail is helped particularly by the non-metal plate.
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Love it. Well, except for that space bar 
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