[Closed] Unicomp GB of Dooom!

Muirium · 23 Apr 2015, 20:00

Your order was very complex! Care to share it with everyone? It took me ages to even get it into the basket. I can imagine how much work lies ahead for them in assembling it!

I think she was referring to the biggest ever single order of caps, alone. They're really setup to sell keyboards. Anyway, the rest of us beat you: ours came to about $550 in the end. (Before costly fast shipping.) I was relieved to get all that out of my PayPal account without anything getting locked. Biggest little "mini GB" I've dealt with yet.

One more story from Jeanne: we were talking about legends, and the tone of her voice when she said "the things some people want printed on their keys, you just wouldn't believe…" was just priceless! We were a lot better behaved than some she's dealt with before.

LLRnR · 23 Apr 2015, 20:09

Muirium wrote: ↑One more story from Jeanne: we were talking about legends, and the tone of her voice when she said "the things some people want printed on their keys, you just wouldn't believe…" was just priceless! We were a lot better behaved than some she's dealt with before.

I just wanted my number keys in binary...

Muirium · 23 Apr 2015, 20:19

Yeah, she understood what you were after. But time is too short to make new legends. They had to be available already to make the tight deadline. A few other keys were dropped for that reason too.

LLRnR · 23 Apr 2015, 20:23

Muirium wrote: ↑Yeah, she understood what you were after. But time is too short to make new legends. They had to be available already to make the tight deadline. A few other keys were dropped for that reason too.

So if I understand correctly it's not impossible that they do new legends if they're not on a tight schedule? All hope is not yet lost?

Muirium · 23 Apr 2015, 20:29

Correct!

LLRnR · 23 Apr 2015, 20:31

Muirium wrote: ↑Correct!

That's cool to know, thanks!

vsev · 23 Apr 2015, 22:36

So far you're goin to be the Unicomp guy anyway Mu !

Muirium · 29 Apr 2015, 05:36

How does 16 lbs of caps sound? Unicomp kept their word. Our package (including vsev's) is fresh off the plane and due to be in my hands tomorrow. That'll be quite the puzzle for me to haul back…

Muirium · 29 Apr 2015, 21:32

Um, anyone know the customs threshold for shipping from outside the EU into France? No reason…

davkol · 30 Apr 2015, 10:26

Isn't it €150 for customs and €22 for taxes EU-wide?

Muirium · 30 Apr 2015, 10:58

Nope. Britain is absolutely awful for this. Check out the limits here:

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

London will gladly tax you on gifts, and charge for the privilege. And if it's goods: £15 is where the pain starts. As if we'd let a little thing like customs union get in the way of gouging!

Bad news, guys. I was on the lookout for the parcel all day. Finally I went out to the movies (Ex Machina, fantastic film!) and it still hadn't come. I checked the UPS tracking and found it had updated from "out for delivery" to this:

04/29/2015 8:01 P.M. We've incorrectly sorted the package at our facility. This may cause at least one business day delay.

This one might miss my plane. Damnit!

Khers · 30 Apr 2015, 11:01

Nooooooo! Damn you USPS! Or whoever sorted it incorrectly!

Muirium · 30 Apr 2015, 11:03

UPS. They really fucked up with this one. Jeanne at Unicomp did sterling work getting it to them in time on Monday. They're usually pretty solid, too. Ugh!

LLRnR · 30 Apr 2015, 11:03

Ouch! When is your flight, Mu?

Muirium · 30 Apr 2015, 11:04

Well, I don't want to give the you-know-who a heads up with a specific time. But real soon, and very likely to be before that parcel gets here.

Khers · 30 Apr 2015, 11:07

That's a bummer! Guess we'll have to wait a bit longer for the delivery of this GB...

LLRnR · 30 Apr 2015, 11:09

Yep, too bad. Oh well. One should never be too optimistic with regard to delivery services.

vsev · 30 Apr 2015, 16:29

Oh f*** ! I was already enjoying those caps in few days on my boards ><

iAmAhab · 30 Apr 2015, 17:34

Well I guess it's good I'm used to getting fucked by postal services, so it won't hurt as much this time...

elRetto · 30 Apr 2015, 17:38

well shit happens

but on the other hand shared shipping is still quite a bit cheaper

scottc · 30 Apr 2015, 17:40

Oh, well shit. That sucks, Mu. It might end up being more expensive than direct postage after all! This sort of stuff happens, though. Nothing that can be done about it.

andrewjoy · 30 Apr 2015, 18:12

a shame, but it will be cheaper in one big load

Muirium · 02 May 2015, 19:42

Good news: the caps arrived!

Bad news: they arrived as I was loading my luggage into my brother's car, right about to leave for the airport! I opened up the box to take a look and everything appeared present and correct. Including two SSK barrel frames! But I only had a couple of minutes to figure out what to do. The only practical answer: leave them behind, alas.

Unicomp had printed two invoices. One for Vsev (whose order was so large I planned to proxy it straight to France) and one for the rest of us. But the various sets were all jumbled together in the same big box. No way could I load all that into my luggage without tossing out the Matias Ergo Pro (for the promised Euro tour, signups open soon!) and Andy's silver label Model M, which were at the heart of my hold bag. So I cast the magic spell of "oh fuck it" and left the caps* at my brother's for future resolution. Good job too, there was a fair traffic jam on the way to the airport and I wound up on the plane pretty damn quick once I finally showed up there.

*Actually, I did try squeezing some into my hand luggage. But all that would fit was a lonely single APL kit. Time was up, so I had to abandon all attempts at the rest. You'll be pleased to know that single kit forced my bulky old headphones out my bag so I had to fly a third of the way around the world with them around my neck. Did make a nice upgrade for listening to stuff on the flights though…

So, how much of a rush are you guys in for your stuff?

The easiest, cheapest route of all is I get it over here in January, when my folks are next over there to visit. Alternatives involve shipping to Europe from my brother's place. He's lazy and easily annoyed, though, and I wouldn't rate his shipping skills. He'd rather leave boxes in his spare room for other people to deal with than get involved himself. But these are your caps and I'd like to know what you think.

Believe it or not: this was the first time I've had any trouble with UPS. The plan was to get the caps a day earlier when I was packing anyway. They were in town, "out for devilry" on the 29th, but somehow UPS screwed it up and they actually came on the 30th instead. At least they didn't go missing I suppose! But a better lesson might be to run GBs on time instead of letting them slip late like I did here. I was stuck in bed for a while and didn't get all the nitty gritty ordering details sorted out until about a week later than I should have. Jeanne at Unicomp was a big help (we were on the phone a lot) and I'm pleased with how they handled this, at least. Ach!

Khers · 02 May 2015, 20:14

I'm not in a hurry to get them at all, though January is pretty far off in the future.

Anyway, I would be pleased when it does show up regardless. If it's in January '16 I will most probably long since have forgotten I ever put my money down and get a pleasant surprise. If sooner, I would be even happier, I guess...

How much would shipping be on a parcel this size? Iirc, I paid some $75 towards shipping for a bunch of keyboards from Cindy that should have been comparable, at least in weight terms, to this load of caps.

Muirium · 02 May 2015, 20:19

Good question. The box is about the same size as a large microwave oven, I'd say. But not hugely heavy. Shipping to Europe is an option, for sure. But since Britain is expensive for shipping out from, it could be a good idea to send everything to France (vsev?) or Germany for better rates. Most people's orders are quite small. But there's a lot of orders in there!

elRetto · 02 May 2015, 20:19

I'm okay with it either way. Do your parents have that much spare space in their luggage?

Muirium · 02 May 2015, 20:22

Last time, they flew some by some fancy tickets that give them better seats on the plane (my knees are still complaining I went 11 hours both ways by coach…) *and* a free extra bag allowance. I got my late-Christmas haul over with them last January by getting them to bring over my brother's biggest bag! I returned it to him when I went over in April by putting my own bag inside it. That beast could handle all these caps for sure. I'll talk to them about it.

vsev · 02 May 2015, 22:59

Muirium wrote: ↑Good question. The box is about the same size as a large microwave oven, I'd say. But not hugely heavy. Shipping to Europe is an option, for sure. But since Britain is expensive for shipping out from, it could be a good idea to send everything to France (vsev?) or Germany for better rates. Most people's orders are quite small. But there's a lot of orders in there!

If all folks want me to, I can sort out orders and proceed to EU proxy, as sure lot of orders will take some time to sort, repack, send, etc..
Also as Khers says I'm ok either ways, even still January is quite a long run !

chzel · 02 May 2015, 23:11

I can proxy too, and we are most likely to dodge customs here. Not "Germany cheap" shipping from here, but pretty average I think!

Muirium · 03 May 2015, 00:48

A big chunk of the whole thing is Vsev's, so if he's up to proxying and France is good for shipping prices, I think that's a great option. Still needs my brother to ship stuff though.

I talked to him and he's still happiest with the "wait until someone visits and picks up" approach. Which will take a while.