I picked the wrong vendor

2026-10-21

I lost thousands, and the cause was a vendor I picked myself.

What happened

In June 2023 the moderators of Geekhack and Reddit posted a warning about Mechs & Co, my US vendor for the set. Their own list showed Beige Addon as unpaid.

Mechs & Co had taken buyers' money, but GMK had never been paid. Updates had stopped and their Discord was closed. Nobody could get an answer.

So on July 5 I told everyone to file a chargeback and reorder from another vendor at group buy price.

Oblotzky, Hex and Prototypist agreed to take buyers' Mechs & Co receipts and open draft orders, which meant people could still get the set at the group buy price.

In September NovelKeys and GMK stepped in as well and offered a discounted rescue price to anyone who had ordered from Mechs & Co and could show their order receipt.

In the end GMK made the set anyway, and it started shipping in February 2024. A month later, Mechs & Company LLC filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

What it cost

People lost money. Buyers who paid by debit card had the hardest time getting their money back, and those who waited too long to dispute found the window had closed.

Some refunds that Mechs & Co said it sent never actually arrived in buyers' own accounts.

Lessons learned

1. Count their open group buys. Mechs & Co had 26 keycap sets and 7 keyboards open, all with money already collected. Each one is cash taken before the factory is paid.

2. Watch the updates. Mechs & Co stopped posting, then closed the Discord. When updates get irregular or stop, treat it as a warning and ask questions right away.

3. Ask when the factory gets paid. Ask for the date, and ask again if it passes. NovelKeys and GMK later confirmed that Mechs & Co never paid anything for our set at all.

4. Pay by credit card through PayPal, Shopify or Stripe. PayPal gives you 180 days to dispute and card networks often give a year or more. Group buys take longer than that, so set a reminder.

5. Keep a plan B in every region. That is the only reason the set reached people: Oblotzky, Hex and Prototypist could take over orders at group buy price after Mechs & Co fell through.

The set itself turned out fine. GMK made it, and people have it. I am glad about that part.

Dump