I ordered two LW67 keyboards + extras during the original GB in 2021, totaling almost $1000. In 2022 when the GB was being fulfilled, Laneware couldn’t send me the keyboards because I lived in Russia and Australian post or any other services weren’t accepting deliveries there anymore. LW said he could hold on to my order for a while until something changes.

Since it seemed the war and sanctions in Russia wouldn’t change in a while, in September I asked for a refund, and in November received an answer that “Usually we can’t offer refunds for GBs”. I noticed Discord was working better than email for talking to LW so I stopped using email after that.

I moved to Kazakhstan in winter 2023 and reached out to LW so he can send the order here. About a month later (that’s gonna be a common theme here) he said that he’ll get it out asap. This was the first “parcel” that was “sent”. He couldn’t send me a tracking number or any other information, and he “couldn’t get this infomration from auspost” even though you get this information when you send the parcel, not when you call the post three months later. Unsurprisingly I never received the first parcel.

He said he’ll ship the second parcel. The parcel is still not tracking (been a month) and now I got the “shipping slip” that doesn’t mean anything since you can generate one without actually sending anything. This one has the wrong name and doesn’t have a phone number so it’s unlikely I’ll ever be able to receive this parcel or even know it came if it ever gets sent.

Full conversation: https://imgur.com/a/gzupQO6

Now regarding the wrong name on order: in the original order I put my father’s name as recipient name as that was more convenient at that time. Later in Feb 2022 I reached out to LW about changing the name to mine and he said he’ll put a note on my order. When the GB was being fulfilled and my order wasn’t being shipped I asked about this since the name still wasn’t changed on my order when I checked it online, but that question was ignored. Later when I sent him my new KZ address, I put in the full name and phone number as well. And after that I sent the same details before he “sent” the second parcel. But he still generated the shipping label with my father’s name who isn’t in Kazakhstan so I won’t be able to receive the parcel even if it gets sent. And I won’t be able to inquire anything about the parcel in the post office since it doesn’t have a phone number on it.

When people complain in discord about slow reply times or anything else, he usually deletes the messages after he logs on and replies to DMs. Some people who ordered in-stock items also had to wait several months until they heard anything from LW. So if you need a PCB or some other extra item for your LW products that are still listed as “in stock”, be prepared to waste your time and money.

TL;DR: Usually I get a single reply per month. And it’s usually just “I need to check with AusPost” and no other info, no solutions or anything. The parcel is still not handed over to post. Been waiting since March.

  • shinjikun10@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    First, it’s important to understand, as I’ve had this exact situation, that people are not able to ship to Russia. There are 3rd party places that will still ship there. So if you wanted your items while you were still in Russia, it would have been best to find a 3rd party that will ship to you.

    Next, please understand that vendors cannot return money to Russian credit cards. It just doesn’t work at all. This is important. It’s not even that vendors will have trouble sending it back, it just cannot be done. There are also sanctions which may or may not affect this.

    Moving to Kazakhstan is also a difficult situation. It’s not the easiest place to ship to. Shipping companies have limited delivery services. Now I can understand the frustration with the name and maybe it should have been updated. Please understand it’s also difficult for vendors as well.

    The best thing you could have done and ultimately what happened in my situation is to have a 3rd party or a place that will ship you the item. There are a few places that still ship to Russia.

    Please understand though, that people’s hands are really tied. Vendors can’t even return your money. Can’t even ship the item to its original destination. That makes it really difficult to take care of your Group Buy.