I feel compelled to share my experience with the community regarding MyKeyboard.eu. I am Manoli Visuals/CallMeManoli, the creator of the keycap set GMK Evil Eye. MyKeyboard.eu was my EU vendor for the set, and despite several emails and discord messages over the last four months, mykeyboard.eu owes me several hundred dollars in payment. Initially, communication was sporadic, but now they have gone completely silent for over two months, ignoring my emails and Discord messages.
To add on to this, mykeyboard.eu sponsored a prize on my twitch stream featuring a Evil Eye hibi keycap, but they have failed to send the prize to the winner, despite multiple requests. At this point, it seems unlikely that I will ever receive the owed payment and the winner will not be receiving their prize.
Consider this a cautionary tale for people who are considering collaborating or giving them service. I am happy to answer any questions on this matter to make sure no one else is taken advantage of in the future.
They owe Ty.Po and I payment for GMK Orange Boi as well. Lots of emails and nothing. Seeing what issues they’re having with paying manufacturer invoices, delivering goods to customers, etc., it’s honestly not a surprise and, like you, I doubt we will ever get paid.
They currently have quite the suspicious 70% off black friday sale going on right now, which a few days prior was less extreme (something like 30% off). Seems to me like an exit scam before inevitable bankruptcy…
you had a verbal 50/50 and no actual signed contract? Expect nothing and level up your game.
Mykeyboard should be competely avoided at this point. Unfortunately they really went down hill in the past year or so. Just take 5 minutes to read their support channel in discord and you’ll immediately get a good picture of how they do business.
Ended up having to solve a dispute with them through PayPal. Never ordered anything else from that place anymore. The 50% and 70% last effort sales says enough that the company is on the verge of going bankrupt.
Sadly, I had the same experience earlier this year with another EU vendor. MKEU has issues for SURE. But The other one just fills GB orders at random, and then settles on shipping out incomplete or clearly not A stock products after weeks and weeks of delay. Selling and shipping extras before all GB orders have gone out?
Keygem is the only one so far that just has been quick. I guess them being smaller really helps. But I really just don’t dare to make statements on good experiences any more with vendors given how often I’ve been burned by previously good vendors.
And well… as a designer… All vendors have been ‘hesitant’ to pay anyone at all for more than a year now. Really made me not want to use quite a lot of vendors for future projects. Not that I think it makes sense to develop any product in this market…
FWIW, I needed some child kits and those shipped out really rather fast this time during this sale. Fast being 3 days after purchase, which is really bad by modern standards, but splendid when it comes to keeb vendors…
Gotta ask, have you had issues with candykeys? They had some issues for me regarding shipping (seemingly on the shipping company), but they fixed it and it was no issue otherwise than it coming late since shipping issues.
Multiple times now. Including two cases where extras were sold, product was sold out, and that would have been the end of my GB order if I didn’t contact them. Occasionally days would go by without reply.
Heard the same thing happened to others. GB orders shipped out, but their order was forgotten. Extras were sold at the same time. You’d have to contact support and then they had to scrape by or get a board / set from one of the other vendors.
And in one case, after 3 weeks delay, I get a board with external scratches on case and weight. No extras on hand anymore. 14 emails to even get it.
Friend of mine. No DB and extra plate included. Took 2 months to get them. Nice paper weight on the shelves all that time…
No idea if they improved since. I don’t want to babysit my orders like that for multiple years.
That sucks
Seen people posting about grabbing all they can for their 70% off in-stock sale (a totally healthy thing for a vendor to do and definitely not a last breath for some quick cash). This is the company you’re giving your money to.
I ordered from them during the 50% sale and have received my order. The products that were for sale were also for sale on others vendors. It’s is because the market is very saturated with in-stock products now due to build op of group buys that are now fulfilling (after significant delay).
A lot of vendors now have too much stock of relatively expensive group buy products. Especially now that the hobby is becoming more budget friendly and focussing on in stock.
Sue them collectively
Rama works owes me hundreds too
Hey this is a club we can join! We haven’t seen a dime for Soyamilk from MyKB, and they’re not the only ones dodging payments.
I wish they would at least double check their orders before sending it to customers because I’ve had to make a ticket for every single order during these sales.
Damn honestly it probably was for the best that I took a break from this hobby, it’s getting to the point that a lot of these vendors that were once good are now falling apart and it sucks to see it.
I joined a gmk group buy with them and have been waiting for more than 2 years, on their discord they said they’d send it q4 this year a few months ago, but we’re already in q4 so Idk. They also seem to be really slow at paying for sets and oay them day by day? I have no idea why that is and it scares me a little, the gb set I ordered is already in the hands of those from the us, they’d had them since summer. At this point I just hope I get the keycaps, I won’t ever buy anything from them ever again and I don’t think I’ll ever join another group buy, clones are good enough for me.
As a business owner def work on vetting in the future. This distributors reputation is trash and there are more than 10 creators also leveling similar accusations.
Is it just me or had the mech keyboard scene gotten shadier lately?
You mean the hobby where you pay one year in advance in a group buy to get anything maybe in the next millennium?
It always was, but now especially in Europe all of the shops are collapsing making it even worse.
Group buys are a tricky thing to get right, and I say that as a vendor. Much respect to the companies who are able to do it right, but personally, I’ll try to keep them to a minimum. Much easier to sell from stock!
I think the rapid improvement of in stock options has hit some vendors who didnt forsee the impact a lot harder than expected. The big ticket group buys just arent having the same reach they once did. This sucks for designers in particular both from them now taking extra risks and potential sets not selling as well
Not really. Some vendors and independent makers are just struggling because business has slowed down substantially since covid, during which they bought/produced ridiculous amount of products that shipped to them after most short-time hobbyists have already moved on.
Reliable vendors and makers are still around. You just can’t trust someone you’ve never heard of with hundreds of dollars with a promise of delivering your product in 2 or so years, this was never the case and the community has only recently seen the consequences of it.
No, it’s not shadier. It just became clear to everyone that many vendors ran their business like a ponzi scheme and used new money to pay for old orders… The issue is that the hobby contracted quite a bit and new orders are much smaller than old orders, so now those vendors can’t pay their invoices any more. Like any ponzi scheme, the houses of cards are collapsing.
I was wondering if it got shadier lately or simply people outing them and coming here to (rightfully) point and shame, as there’s been several similar new posts the last few days.
I was always lukewarm when it came to GBs but the more I read the less I could trust any of them no matter who is behind.
Although most of us know they are having financial issues, they are actively working on fixing it. Anytime I’ve bought anything in the recent sales it has arrived quickly and they have responded to my support mails promptly and have all been resolved. For my outstanding GroupBuy orders I’m still waiting patiently. Part of the reason why they are in financial issues is because they even offer refunds to consumers. Most Vendors don’t do that and they only lose money when they do, since they don’t get the PayPal costs back. Now that everyone is panic refunding their orders, it’s a downward spiral. I believe best thing to do is wait patiently and only order in-stock products for the future.
Just because you had a good experience it won’t discredit how the vast majority of their customers had a bad one. They say they’re working on things but still not being transparent about anything. Their discord is full of people complaining about tickets, refunds, being ignored, wrong items delivered to them and the only thing they post is about their sales or “we will give you an update soon” but soon is either months later or never
They offer refund because of EU law, doesn’t matter if they are good people or not they are required by law to accept refunds