KBDfans Customer Support (non epic Epoch80)

Community General
#1

Ordered Epoch 80 in stock It arrived quickly.

Problem: Extra Machine marks in grooves on top

  • Me: I can live with this

Problem: Top Warped

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Contacted Customer Support on Discord

  • Support: "Please make a video and upload it to youtube to show us.
  • Me: done
  • Support: “my manager says it will be fine once you get it fully assembled”
  • Me: I can live with this. If you crank the corners down realllly hard it gets rid of all but 1-2 mm of wiggle

Problem: Plate is cut wrong.

I don’t know if the material expanded or kerfs were off or what, but I cannot get the switches in without a bow so strong it forces them out on the edges. It’s also just a bit too thick so the only switches I can get to snap in are Cherry. Okay… so I lube up and film a full set of blacks for this. No dice. Plate borked.

  • Customer support: “Solder in the 4 corners first and it should work”
  • Me: Yeah, I cannot even solder in the 4 corners. It’s that off. Stabilizers also making it so that the plate wont work. I can cut the plate, right? Wait. What the hell? I paid $300+ for this board.

Enough is enough

  • Me: I would like to return it. It’s faulty in many ways.
  • Customer support: “Can we send you a new plate?”
  • Me: I would like to return it.
  • Customer support: “Take this link”

RMA Link filled out. But… I have to pay shipping. So, thank God I have a 75% discount on FedEx. $70 is what it will cost me. Yeah… it’s arond $300 to send it with UPS or Fedex non-discounted.

Shipping to China

But here’s the thing… you can’t just send something to China. It’s rather hilarious all of the things you have to learn about to get this thing mailed. I’ve talked to 2 FedEx departments, the census bureau, and the Bureau of Industry and Security.

I think I’m ready for FedEx to be my AES/INT agent now. I’ve emailed back and forth about 7 times to get it straight. Waiting on a reply.

Anyway, I guess I never thought about returns to China before. I just assumed they would do a return label. But nope, I asked on discord and they said “sorry, we don’t have a return label.”

So… I’m off of KBDfans permanenetly. I never thought about the risk of not being able to return. The game has changed so much in the past few years that I should be more than capable of moving on and only dealing with non-Chinese vendors. The regulations for shipping to China reared their ugly heads.

I should have known this risk. It’s partly on me. But KBDFans is still in the wrong here.

23 Likes
#2

Dude, that was a tough read. You took one for the team today that’s for sure. Good to know about China’s one-way only mail system though. I’ll heed your warning.

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#3

Yeah, definitely a reason I’ve been hesitant to join kbdfans gbs for new items. Even with domestic gbs returns are still a mixed bag, the M65-A I got was a piece of **** and jchan refused to take it back/refund me, I actually looked into taking him to small claims court after how much of a jerk he was to me, but ended up deciding it wasnt worth it and selling it with a replacement pcb.

Absolutely, if they stood by their product they would definitely cover the return cost, even if it is very high to ship it back to china.

8 Likes
#4

This is terrible. I have always assumed this was a risk, even from reputable shops like KBDfans.

I recently got a case from KPRepublic with some bad anodization spots right on the front lip. I could have ignored them on the back or side. I didn’t even bother trying to send it back.

I was able to sell on the aftermarket it for 2/3 of what I paid.

I am really curious - did KBDFans refund the money right away or are they awaiting the package?

It is actually best that you used FedEx so you have tracking and can get your money back via Credit Card or PayPal depending on how you paid originally if they don’t pony up.

2 Likes
#5

I have to wait until they get it to get the refund.

1 Like
#6

Interesting read.

One time I ordered a PCB and plate from KBDFans. They shipped me an upgraded PCB (I think I got a dz65rgb, when I wanted a soldered version), another pcb, a tofu case, my brass plate, and an aluminum plate. So quite the upgrade.

KBDFans did not really care about getting me the PCB that I ordered, but they wanted their stuff back. They let me keep whatever PCB I wanted, but I hand to ship it back to a warehouse in Californina. It appeared to be like a UPS holding warehouse. I was under the assumption that it would just sit there, along with maybe other returns until it can be bundled and sent back to China. Really strange to hear the different workflow that you are going to have to go through. That is a pretty pricey return :eyes:

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#7

It ended up being $83 to ship. Had to pay an extra $10 for FedEx to be my filing agent. Crazy. Yeah I figured they would have a place in the US I could send it. Guess not.

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#8

This would have never occurred to me to consider. Well that’s one less vendor to order from I suppose.

Thanks for the insight.

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#9

this is why I always try to order in europe. plus the import fees which are super high here.

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#10

They got the package on Monday, and I recieve confirmation on discord that they have it on hand. They’re going to check in and issue a refund if they find everything is returned. I’ll keep a record here for how that goes.

By the way, if you ever have to send something to China, I recommend starting with calling Tech Support at Fedex for the Ship Manager portion of their site. My tech support agent was amazing, and I couldn’t have done it without her.

6 Likes
#11

Well, at least it has gotten closer to resolution! :crossed_fingers: you get that refund

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#12

Damn sorry to hear - what a massive headache… Thanks for sharing your experience with KBDFans.

I was really thinking about hopping on the KBD67 R2 GB, but now this has me second guessing things. Does anyone else have similar instances with their QA/QC?

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#13

Finally got a refund today. No taxes or shipping refunded, of course. So all in all I lost $107.

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#14

Glad you got a refund but yikes that bites.

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#15

holy sh…

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#16

My experience with KDBfans support with my Polaris order was equally disappointing.

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#17

Any chance you paid with PayPal? They cover return shipping up to $30 per claim on 12 purchases a year (so not the full amount, but it’ll soften the blow a bit).

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#18

I’ll give it a shot! Thanks.

1 Like