It has come to our attention that, while in the process of shipping orders, it was discovered that the Keebhut batch of Summertimes consisted of a much higher than acceptable number of outliers which exhibit tolerance issues that place some of them outside of the intended design. While the issue appeared to be resolved and is far less than the original non-shipped orders, for some reason Gateron dropped the ball somewhere and Keebhut’s batch variance is way out of spec. Unfortunately, with the ones that were tested we have been unable to determine the exact number of problematic switches, which falls somewhere between 5-25%, and as such Keebhut is offering a couple of options for those of you who have been so patiently waiting.

We understand that this is frustrating having had to wait for so long and rest assured that we are all holding Gateron accountable for this oversight. That is why, after lengthy discussion, we decided the best course of action was to allow those of you who ordered to make the call on how you would like to proceed. I can confidently state that the switches which are functional are very good but with us unable to determine the exact amount of bad switches in the significantly large batch we agree that simply providing an offset to make up for those switches is not the in the best interest of customers due to such a large potential swing in good:bad switch ratio.

I can’t reiterate enough: The last thing we want to do is ship you junk. Its not right. But we also know some of you are simply willing to take the risk and would rather have the product at a discount. After considering all options it was decided to allow Keebhut customers to choose a discounted product or simply cancel their order and receive a refund. Details can be found in your emails that were sent out by Keebhut or you can see the announcement on Keebhut for more details. Please keep in mind that this is for Keebhut customers as other regions are not reporting these high number of fail rates at this time.

Keebhut Discord: https://discord.com/invite/JNcdeZ9yWb

Gateron has been made aware of the issue, immediately went back to QC the numbers remaining at the factory, and were able to determine the issue. While it will require additional reworking of molds, it is partially environmental at this time and why we are seeing this variation vs. other regions. I am in discussion with Gateron now to see what can be done to fix this. I will provide updates when I have them but at this time please do not expect Summertime switches to be an in-stock offering. As much as I know this is a winning recipe, we’ve got some work to do (Gateron and me).

Due to the nature of this and the frustration caused to all parties, I will be making some big changes going forward to make sure this never happens again. I am realizing that these sorts of things may have been avoidable by simply extending timelines and spending time with production units before making orders available. Call it naivety or whatever but I just assumed that if a sample worked, mass production works. That ain’t it.

Going forward I will be discouraging preorders with vendors. Note that I have never allowed preorders to be run as a renamed GB model and all switches have always been purchased by vendors before preorders opened. However, if we could get these products in-hand and use them for a bit to ensure they are what we were promised from the factory before making them available we could have avoided the Melody/Runner overlubing, the Runner leaf issue, and now this massive disappointment that we are feeling.

In addition to removing these “surprise” elements and effectively making you all unintentional beta testers, for lack of a better phrase, I will also be designing a new QC process on my end. This will include general use like I have had with the Summertimes I am typing on now but I will also be working on ways to stress test the switches which would emulate rigorous use. I would greatly appreciate an insights you all might have on ways to improve this process.

I want to thank you all for your continued support, sincerely apologize for the disappointment everyone is feeling, and ask that you please provide constructive feedback in our Discord server so we can continue to grow together and avoid these sorts of situations in the future