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Fixing my keyboard with 0.65 GPB keyswitches that cost me 36 EUR

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I’ve got a Keyboardio Model 1 keyboard. It’s the first keyboard they made. I love it! Keyboardio is a small boutique keyboard manufacturer from Berkeley, California. I also have their Atreus keyboard and pretty soon they’re releasing their Preonic keyboard. You can say I’m a fan!

The Model 1 is a split-design ergonomic keyboard. All their boards come with schematics and source code. They marketed their first keyboard with ‘comes with source code and a screwdriver’. They also marketed it as ‘heirloom-grade’ but later they removed that claim. And unfortunately, it turned out the Matias keyswitches they used were not as durable as they hoped. All later keyboards they produced have socketed keyswitches, which can be easily swapped, but for the Model 1, they did not have that insight yet. Later revisions of the Matias-switches are more durable, as Keyboardio-founder Jesse pointed out. No hard feelings from my side, but after I guess three years of intense use I have one or two keys that give me issues. I found out I could order the keyswitches from a store in the UK for just 0,65 GBP a piece. Replacing them does involve soldering, and while they indeed included a screwdriver plus source code with their keyboard, they did not include a soldering iron 😉 but I have one of my own so that’s not too bad.

Unfortunately, shipping was relatively expensive. 

12 off KS101Q (Matias Quiet Click Key Switch Module) @ £0.65   
Sub Total £7.80
Carriage £11.11
VAT @ 0% £0.00 
Total £18.91

Then when the switches arrived, I received another invoice from PostNL, the local Dutch delivery company, that I had to pay VAT on the value of the package plus the original shipping. On top of that, I had to pay 8 euros extra handling costs for them invoicing me the VAT.

So, to break it down, these are my costs:

  • Keyswitches: 12 * 0.65 GPB = 7.80 GPB = 9.78 EUR
  • Shipping: 11.11 GPB = 13.92 EUR
  • VAT on switches + shipping: 4.79 EUR
  • VAT handling cost: 8 EUR
  • Total: 36.49 EUR!

Let me be clear, I have no problems with paying taxes, I think it’s fair. And Keyboard.co does not make a killing on these 65 cents keyswitches. But it’s not great that so much of my cost goes to PostNL and Royal Mail.

Also, this is without any tariffs in play!

Contrast with China

If I buy similar key switches on AliExpress, I get much more switches for less money, and I get free shipping to boot!

It’s unfair that a company that sells from the UK to The Netherlands has to pay so much for shipping (or unfair that the Chinese company pays so little for shipping, depending on how you look at it). Why can’t PostNL and Royal Mail not offer better rates to companies who do business inside Europe?

Broken

And to make it even worse, for less than it cost me to buy the key switches, I was able to find a return flight from Amsterdam to London! Just 30 EUR.

Why does shipping 80kg of fine meat in humanoid form to and from the UK cost almost as much as shipping just one way + taxes for my 12 keyboard keys?

Repair

I’m still happy I’m able to get spare parts for my keyboard. When I took my keyboard out, for the first time in about a year since I got issues with malfunctioning keys, I found that more than the just one or two now seemed bad. Happy I ordered some spares. Now on to fixing!