alt Hacker NewsThank you for posting your side of the story. This is the first time I've ever posted anything publicly about modelfkeyboards. If you're dealing with some sort of targeted harassment campaign, that's obviously horrible. My sources for information are assisting my brother getting his keyboard he bought from you up and running, and talking with people I trust online.
At least at the time my brother bought his keyboard, the warranty policy was "1 year duration only covering manufacturing defects, buyer pays for all shipping, if any labor is required it will be billed at $50/hour". I think that even you realize this is unusually harsh, as the warranty policy isn't publicly available anywhere on your site prior to placing an order. There's just a mention buried in the terms of conditions that you will provide a copy of the warranty upon request.
From the people I've talked to, the impression I get is that the QC has gotten worse over time, not better. The newer models being larger and having more keys means that they need more adjustment to work properly. You can get a board where the keys on the middle click properly but the keys near the edges don't, and you have to mess with the mounting pressure and springs to get everything working.
In general I don't like pushing the philosophy of "these keyboards are for enthusiasts who like tinkering" as a way to spin avoiding QC and offloading the adjustment and testing process onto customers. I appreciate the idea of making a keyboard that's user-serviceable, but if it's not a kit, it should at the very least be working when it arrives.
Thanks for your feedback, but what you are saying is not at all representative of the feedback I received after thousands of back and forth emails over the years. Thanks to the updated manual and firmware process, those who have never used a Model F before tell me they were able to easily set everything up and it works fine.
Having to adjust more springs because there are more possible keys that need to be set up on the larger layout keyboards does not mean that QC has gotten worse over time. That's just because there are more keys on the keyboard that it's more likely that at least one or more springs need adjustment.
The most common setup step is just adjusting springs and reinstalling a key if it doesn't click the first time you install it.
The warranty includes replacements for parts because the user replaces the parts like keycaps, springs etc. if they are broken. I just mail the parts for free as part of the warranty. My post that you replied to notes that a full mail-in warranty service would not be sustainable, so there is no real way I can offer a labor service. The manual emphasizes that I can't offer free labor to set up or maintain each keyboard; following the manual will give everyone a 100% working keyboard.
This is not a kit for tinkerers; it's for folks who have a buy it for life mentality and are not afraid to use tweezers and a key puller to reseat something over the coming decades. If you follow the manual, your keyboard will be working 100%, but you do have to adjust the springs and keys and go through the setup instructions. I explained why it's not feasible to offer increased service.