I ordered my first keyboard kit from drop.com. After 16 days it finally arrived! Damaged.

Box was loosely packed in a larger box with a air pads. Of course the smaller box ended up at the bottom of the larger box with the air pads holding it in place.

All the items were loosely packed and unsealed, including the PCB which wasn’t in a anti-static bag. Is this the norm?

The case has significant scuffs and scratches on the upper edges and in the corners (and a few other places)

An example:

https://preview.redd.it/oqq4s5zwexja1.jpeg?width=4030&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=3ae66ed88875dcc46e8df010ac451857416ab87c

I’m contacting support but after researching I’m not too confident I’ll receive a reply. Should I just build it knowing if I ever want to sell it it won’t be cherry? How much will this degrade my resale opportunities?

Probably best to wait and see what support says before publicly complaining about a company, no matter who they are.

Re: the photo. That line, if that's what you are referring to, seems to be a mark left by the hook that would have been suspending the board in the anodising tank. Normally you just the small indentations, but occasionally you will get a light scrape when the hook is removed. Are all the marks on the inside of the case? If so, see if they have an acceptable quality statement on the website, as many will class this is within their acceptable quality terms. If the marks are on the outside of the case though, there's no question - unacceptable.... but it's bad form to to go public before giving a company a chance to put things right. I hope it all ends well though, good luck.

usually when reselling in-stock boards, you won’t get back what you paid, so you’ll have two things going against you already, and then if you decide to build it then that’s 3 potential things that would make it harder to resale.

if you can, try to get a refund or if you still want that particular keyboard then see if they can exchange it if possible.

I broke down and put it together. You can’t see the damage unless you angle it. I just wasn’t prepared for it to be so poorly packaged as my other recent orders weren’t packaged this way. Most of the keycaps are scuffed. They threw it in a bag and into the box. It was wedged inside the case.

My point is I want to keep buying more high quality kits and this means I won’t be doing that with drop if they pack it like this.

Any suggestions for other retailers that have decent support and know how to ship their own products? And

I’ve tried mechanical keyboards.com but am finished with them and their horrific web shop.

Amazon is ‘ok’ mostly but often the stuff they sell is also from drop and mechanical keyboards.com and I get dinged for high shipping costs (7-25$ and up)

It appears the Preonic is never in stock and only availability via preorder. I would be doing basic mods like switch pads, case foam, stabilizer mod and an accent artisan keycap.

The idea is build a nice board and bring it around to show people to get them addicted then sell them the stuff I I’m not using be it parts or a whole keyboard. Me waiting for drop to process that and I’m just not confident with their customer service to take care of my return properly because of the cost and the additional risk of damaging the product in return (if I send it back they way I received it.)

There are loads of vendors for keyboard stuff though. Have a look through this list. There's Novelkeys and CannonKeys that immediately spring to mind.

Pro tip: you shouldn’t be buying from drop and they don’t sell high quality kits anyway.

I’ve learned. But thanks for your advice.

yep, in addition to good stores like novelkeys and cannonkeys, divinikey sells KBDfans products, who have very good kits within the 150-250 price range.