Have you ever gotten scammed in a keyboard-related transaction?

[snacksthecat]

I was looking for one of my last remaining neon green Alps switches today in order to scan/3d model it. It got me wondering if counterfeit switches are an issue in the hobby. I was wondering if there was someone out there doing the same thing in order to 3D print and sell them as genuine switches (if I recall, they go for like ~$10 each). How pissed would you be if you thought you were buying the real switches and received a bunch of dummies?

So then I was thinking about other scams in the hobby and trying to remember if there were any times I've been scammed. Interested to hear from others. Feel free to withhold specifics if you don't want to give scammers ideas.

[PlacaFromHell]

I have been scammed by a guy who sold me a model M and an NMB 122 with black space invaders. He told me that both keyboards were tested and working, but they were in awful condition. He didn't let me check the keyboards much with the excuse that he was waiting for another customer in 10 minutes, so I took them and went away. At this point I already knew he lied to me because he has no way to test both keyboards in his house. In my house I found with a very broken model M that has literally no rivets and a piece of matrress foam pushing together the keyboard assembly inside the case, also glued keycaps. The NMB had a lot of bad disassembled switches with the contacts bended to death. It was obvious that he attempted to fix the two keyboards with zero knowledge on the matter. I still wanted to be good, so I qualified him in the web as "regular". The guy fucking exploded, instigating me to change my qualification and threating on me with his supposed lawyer for slander after calling him an idiot. During the rest of the week he called me through several phone numbers late at night. Seriously, WHAT THE FUCK WAS WRONG WITH HIM.
That's the price I had to pay for a 10 USD silver badge model M. I had to chop a big piece of the NMB and make a weird kind of unsaver with it.

[zrrion]

10usd for an M, even if it doesn't work is a good price imo

[bubblebobbler]

I bought green alps from itzmeluigi for ~$1/switch just before he got banned from mechmarket etc (though the transaction happened here)

[ZedTheMan]

Got scammed here by a scammer that was going around the communities with various alts. He was a real pain in mechmarket, apparently. Lost $150 that was supposed to be a 5140 with brown Alps. But, eventually he did contact me, under the guise of remorse, and sent me a 96kee with 55g "zinks" (zealios v2 stems in ink housing, actually quite pleasant), and GMK classic retro. Going back on the history of those items with his alts, he actually did purchase those legitimately. Ultimately I probably made out better than I had any right to having been scammed. Still wouldn't trust the person if I ever found one of their alts again. Some here will remember the search for them I did when it happened. I got some answers, and keep track of what I can.
Moral of the story, on the buyer end, make sure you use PayPal or some service that allows you to more easily make a claim against the seller if it's a scam, at least, with someone you haven't bought from before.

[PlacaFromHell]

There is your fault also. You should always check properly before buying something

"How broken can a model M be?" I was thinking. It was worth for the price, but what a pain in the ass of seller. I already knew he was a scammer, but I wanted the keyboard anyways.

[SneakyRobb]

I bought a white alps keyboard one time.

The seller must have had no idea how to remove keycaps without breaking the stem because a few of the stems were broken off inside the sliders.

Unfortunately the seller was quite good at liberally applying glue to the bottom of the broken off keycaps to make it appear as if nothing was wrong. Was quite annoying when quite a while later I decided to remove the keycaps to clean the board and discover several key caps were basically destroyed. They were from the middle of the alpha block as well.

[fohat]

The NMB had a lot of bad disassembled switches with the contacts bended to death.

Those "Space Invaders" are fragile and delicate. I have successfully removed and replaced them, but you must be very careful and patient. The "legs" are just wires and there is no strain relief!

Even pulling and replacing the key caps is tricky and risky.

[Redmaus]

I bought green alps from itzmeluigi for ~$1/switch just before he got banned from mechmarket etc (though the transaction happened here)

He got banned? What for?

[PlacaFromHell]

The NMB had a lot of bad disassembled switches with the contacts bended to death.

Those "Space Invaders" are fragile and delicate. I have successfully removed and replaced them, but you must be very careful and patient. The "legs" are just wires and there is no strain relief!

Even pulling and replacing the key caps is tricky and risky.

I had no trouble with the space invaders, you have to pull the keycaps from one side and they will come out without the slider. The pins are really thick and strong, easy to desolder.

[Polecat]

Yes, a couple times. There were the switches from abrahamstechnologies which never arrived, and were probably never shipped, for which I (finally) got a refund. No more group buys for me, ever, the whole idea rubs me as very wrong. The other was a sale for individual keycaps on ebay, which also never arrived. Lame excuses from the seller, no shipping record, and they tried to stall me until it was too late to get a refund. I had to file a claim through ebay, but I did get reimbursed. I didn't recognize the seller as someone from here, but of course that doesn't mean much. Stupid self-righteous kids expect everyone else to pay for your mistakes, but Karma will ultimately catch up with you!

[abrahamstechnology]

I never scammed you and you specifically declined a refund when I offered one. I only refunded you when you kept complaining about it.

[PlacaFromHell]

Here we go again

[snacksthecat]

Even though I'm not particularly responsible in my buying habbits, I can't really think of a time when I was "scammed". I bought a little IBM post-up flier on ebay for like $10 and the guy never sent it. I never followed up on it because I'm chronically lazy.

I guess I'm more of a scammer than a scammee.

I mean, I told PlacaFromHell I would send him something interesting probably about a year ago now. I can't even remember what's in the box I packed up!

And I've had User101's digitran board for several months now even though the conversion work is long done.

I guess I just want to publicly say, "I'm workin on it" and "I'm sorry"

[PlacaFromHell]

Even though I'm not particularly responsible in my buying habbits, I can't really think of a time when I was "scammed". I bought a little IBM post-up flier on ebay for like $10 and the guy never sent it. I never followed up on it because I'm chronically lazy.

I guess I'm more of a scammer than a scammee.

I mean, I told PlacaFromHell I would send him something interesting probably about a year ago now. I can't even remember what's in the box I packed up!

And I've had User101's digitran board for several months now even though the conversion work is long done.

I guess I just want to publicly say, "I'm workin on it" and "I'm sorry"

I remember that, but because is more a gift than something else I don't want to be rude. If I remember well you were going to send me some switches for being the first to guess that you put the membranes of a Fujitsu keyboard wrong. Hopefully my grandchildren will find a nice chassis for them

[Darkshado]

I'll leave it at "Berserkfan"