Horrible RMA experience so far

Ticket 720922

 

I opened the ticket because my K70 keycaps started getting hairline cracks in the inner cross part, and some would come off very easily. This was despite handling the keyboard with care in the past year since I've had it.

 

They approved my RMA and I choose the express type. Despite the fact that they made me ship the broken one on my own cost, I agreed as I assumed it was the UK returns center. Right after the RMA express keyboard was shipped,my shipping label updated to include the destination, and it turns out it's all the way in the Netherlands. Shipping a box that large there would cost me more than a full set of double shot keycaps so I updated the ticket to ask them to clarify.

 

This has been a horrible experience so far, from the keycaps starting to break just 1 year into normal use, to the lack of information on where the defective product would be needed to be shipped, as well as the customer having to cover the cost for what is a manufacture defect.

 

Anyone here know why we have to ship RMAs to Netherlands when we have a UK center for this? And also why did they not tell me or provide a proper shipping label BEFORE making me pay for the express RMA?

Update: so it would seem they are not accepting RMA Express returns to the UK depot for some reason. They did agree to pay for the shipping costs however it would have been nice to know they no longer accept returns to the UK

Pictures of the broken keys

Update:

 

Unfortunately this isn't good:

 

https://i.imgur.com/lgCgSZC.jpg

 

These are from the freshly arrived replacement. I don't even know what to say at this point. I've updated the support ticket but I doubt I'll get any help from there at this point.

 

Is this normal? Can some other K-series keyboard owners here confirm if they have these cracks on most of their keys?

 

I don't know what to do anymore

Ticket is 720922

 

Package seemed fine. Box was intact, the keyboard itself is in mint condition and so is the surface of the keycaps themselves. I talked to GloriousGe0rge over reddit (head PR coordinator I think) and he told me:

 

 

"Those are not "cracks", those are likely mold lines and coloration from when the plastic cools in the molds.

 

Looking at those, new out of the box, I pulled a few of mine off of the keyboard I've been using for over two years now, and lots of them have those lines.

 

Honestly, I've never noticed them before myself because it's never mattered. In normal usage, those shouldn't cause any problems."

 

 

He continues to describe how he tried to expand these cracks himself using his finger nails (like I said I could with my old keycaps) and even with a metal pick, and that they wouldn't break. There's nothing I could say to that so I dropped the subject and accepted that this is just how these keys are made.

 

Trying this myself has produced different results however. The escape key on the replacement keyboard seems to be coming off rather easy already (no click or pop like the others). It presents a hairline 'crack' like many other, which upon applying slight pressure with a small screwdriver head tool will result in the crack opening up quite clearly. Not all keycaps with those hairline/mold cracks open up when applying pressure like that, but quite a few do.

 

At this point I don't think George would accept that this is a defect or not (whether he knows it but can't confirm it due to his position or that he truly believes this is normal based on personal experience with the keyboards he's seen). I don't want to come off as some "I'm an angry customer, gimme free ****" guy so I didn't message him any further.

 

The reason I'm even posting this here is that these threads are google search optimized quite well and people should know this is not an isolated incident, like the many other examples of cracked keycaps coming up in searches on google for the Corsair K series keyboards.

 

 

To conclude, I don't know if this is a time-based manufacture issue (maybe they recently started cutting costs with the molding process for the plastic stem part of the keycap), or if these mold lines are expected on that part of the keycap (as I am getting conflicting reports about this from various Corsair representatives as you can see). I believe my replacement keyboard's keycaps will start loosening up within the year just like the previous one did, and that I might have voided my warranty by admitting here that I tested out some of the new keycaps with a metal tool to see if they crack easily. I honestly don't care at this point anymore, as far as I'm concerned I'm no longer pursuing any remedies to this past the initial replacement. It is what it is, a very powerful lesson in staying away from Corsair products in the future.

 

 

Cheers,

Alex

Final update to this:

 

I haven't heard from the corsair rep after messaging him, so I decided to say **** it and bought a set of PBT keycaps. None of them present any "mold lines" and they are all significantly sturdier than the standard ones, so all that in my previous post was PR bs.

 

In conclusion, PBT double shot keycaps seem to offer the premium quality that your 200$ keyboard's standard keycaps doesn't. If you are okay with spending a total of 250$ to have a keyboard that is the same quality to that of competitors's ~180$ models, then Corsair is for you. This has been a pain and a nuisance to deal with, and I hope to never have to deal with them again, as they probably don't with me.

 

Cheers

My K95 Platinum came with those rubbish keycaps as well.. had to buy the decent double shot PBT ones seperately.. Even on Corsair's highest end keyboard the do not provide decent keycaps.. I seem to recall RocketJumpNinja's video on the K95 Platinum where he mentioned this as well, he also said the old K95 (non platinum) came with better keycaps. Go figure..

Having tallied most of the keys as I replaced the old abs ones with the PBTs, I can say that about 80% of the ABS ones have 'mold cracks', and out of those, about 40-50% of them are clean cracks, as in when applied a bit of pressure, the crack opens up immediately without further breakage, which is in contradiction to what the PR reps have said over forums and in private. You can see such a crack opening here if you pay attention to the left side of it. Sorry for the quality, gif is a bit downgrading, but you can notice the gap when it opens up: https://gfycat.com/DismalInconsequentialCreature Note that I am applying only slight pressure on the stem with the tool.