Boardnamics Warning

Hey Everyone, I hate that it has come to this but I seriously think everyone should know what they are in for with Boardnamics purchases for the near future.

For context, this post is related to an assembly error that was noticed and accepted on March 15 but is still not corrected.

I ordered a set of strait cut gears from Boardnamics on January 23rd and it did get a little complicated as I removed something from my order and changed the adapters. Well it arrived with the wrong adapters in a reasonable timeframe (02/05/24). I didn’t have time to even look at the parts for 2 weeks so I notified him of the issue on Feb 20th. It then took him 4 days to respond(to multiple emails) and 4 MORE days to ship them. From the 28th to the 11th, I was away and unable to address issues, but certainly found some. It took him 3 days to respond, at which point the problem started to become obvious. Kevin started referencing a friend who is doing work in the BN shop for him. Well Kevin noticed his “helper” assembled one slave gear backwards, and assembled the other one improperly(the lazy way/was causing clearance issues). By the time we figured out the gear was backwards(March 14th), Kevin had said his friend would send a replacement.

So cool, takes a little while to work out the kinks, but a very reasonable issue to run into. Also 6 weeks of downtime, fine, I can live with that.

HERES WHY I START LOSING MY MIND

I ask for an update on March 26th and was told “My friend will send the gear as soon as he’s available.” AFTER TWO WEEKS

I ask for an update on April 9th and April 15th and get “I will have him ship the gear by the end of the week.” And an excuse about how busy Kevin is at his full time job which makes no sense because isn’t the friend the one who’s shipping my part?

April 22, 23, and 24th I inquire again and on the 25th, I get a response that was a tracking number(created, not dropped off) and excuses for Kevin and his friend. I’ll give him a one week pass because I guess Kevin’s friend got hit by a car, fair enough, also he only had minor injury and I believe is ok. BUT, when this friend got back to the shop, he realized there were no strait cut gears left and I could either wait 2 weeks or ship them the error gear to fix.

Well you would think that’s faster than 2 weeks buuuuut April 28th I get sent a shipping label. May 4th it was delivered back to Boardnamics and I have been GHOSTED for 6 strait days.

Not to mention this is what he said on May 1st: “It will be done the day he receives it.”

TL:DR Kevin and or Boardnamics has someone else running his shop who will slow down your orders and increase likelihood of an error, buy with caution.

8 Likes

pfff, my order took 10 months to get to me

just be glad u getting something 3months time

6 Likes

Lmao @KaramQ :rofl:

5 Likes

Uuuh… I… WHAT!

this is esk8 dude

4 Likes

Well you’re not alone…

General consensus:
Boardnamics makes good stuff for cheap.
But it takes for fucking ever and arrives wrong 50% of the time.
Communication is hit or miss.
Inventory and shipping forecasting seem to be mismanaged.

But at least it’s cheap and good right?
…right?

Kind of like finding an existing product sold on Aliexpress. You expect it’s going to be the same thing, you know it’s half the price as the competition, you know you’re rolling the dice on shipping time and accuracy.

11 Likes

TBH this has been my experience with almost every esk8 vendor, some even regulars here, and bad enough communication it makes me wonder why they have the reputation they do.

This market is super niche, and the only reason suppliers survive seems to be they’re few and far between, and generally everyone is overly understanding. In almost any other hobby a lot of the things that go on would be seen as unacceptable. I don’t mean everyone, there’s a lot of great people out there for sure. Shout out to @IDEA specifically as I had a great experience with him

I was telling a friend outside of here what happened to me with one supplier, and their reaction is that they would have refused to pay for the service, or lack thereof, and considered a credit card chargeback.

15 Likes

I don’t work there? I just sleep in the garage

4 Likes

Gonna second the notion about BN. Great parts, dogshit slow cs and overal timelines. Its unfortunate but that is how it goes with alot of these hobbies.

11 Likes

be glad it’s not the keyboard hobby community

cough keycap waiting times

3 Likes

Hey bud, just got back to Kevin’s shop yesterday.
I opened the package sent by you and the only issue that exists is the gear needed to be flipped. You did do the due diligence of taking off the buttonhead screws and all you had to do was flip the dang gear man. You were so CLOSE and this problem would have been avoided.

Gear was infact backwards and I’ll admit it was my fault. Although the issue was my fault to begin with, it takes seconds to flip which would have solved the problem long ago. If you are going to build a esk8, and don’t know how to flip a gear on an adapter, I don’t know what else to tell you. This was a simple fix anyone could solve and when working with esk8, you gotta be handy dandy.

It took me less than a minute. Your gear is flipped the right way now. Your gear will be shipped out today or tomorrow.

I am recovering from a fractured rib and punctured lung along with damn bronchitis so it’s been a bit of a hectic frienzy. Apologies again but I got a whole other day job and full time school so that’s why it takes long.

As for shipping issues, I’m helpin Kevin out. This is the fastest boardnamics shipping time in history. You’ll get your gear back :soon:

17 Likes

As someone whos into keebs, id say theyre a tossup.

I was fortunate enough to get a full refund, after some back and forth about particular fees. Ordered a complete M1 DT after a few inquiries about particulars. Their site said all inventory in stock with 2-3 days lead time, so I place and order… couple more inquiries on my part went unanswered, week went by, followed up saying if you can’t fulfil my order by the end of the day I’d like to cancel. They replied promptly. They expressed how the business was being ran atm and that Chinese holidays have set back production. I wasn’t keen on waiting two more weeks for my DT so I canceled. Tried to short me some PayPal fees that came out of their end, but I wasn’t having any of that. Ultimately we are squared away, but I still need a DT for my DIY.

2 Likes

Boardnamics eventually does the right thing, but you need to prod and prompt every step of the way.

I middle-manned the process and got my BN split baseplates from Full Send AUS (R.I.P.) where they were in stock and shipped fast as fuck.

2 Likes

Well I truly understand everyone has a life, after a couple hiccups, I was willing to wait a few weeks here and there. It just seemed like 2 weeks after promising something will be fixed, it should at least be addressed with an update.

I was not aware of how bad the incident was and I’m sorry to hear about the ongoing issues.

But as for the gear, I find it hard to believe it “flipped… by hand only” which is what Kevin told me as well. I’m assuming you have have noticed the damage from where I STOOD on the part trying to get it pushed out? I really spent hours on that thing and if you think otherwise, then you assumed wrong, because I will do EVERYTHING I physically can for my board before shipping stuff back.

Oh and I really don’t want to pick a fight over this because it’s really not a big deal, but I was quick to modify The gears screws instead of sending that one back just to be pressure fit together.(something you were supposed to do but instead just used screw tightness)

Finally, I work on my board, more than I ride it some months. I just have extremely limited tools.

I really like the idea of some of the gear drives as well as some of the 5m pullies. But, I have other priorities for at least six months before I need them.

Should I be ordering now if I plan to need them in January 2025?

What’s cray tho was the original time it took for my stuff was like… great. Honestly if this ONE part was assembled correctly, never would have gone thru this, still would have emailed with a bunch of questions tho.

Maybe?

There are also other things you’ll need and sometimes it’s more clear to buy supporting parts after you’ve started to assemble the drives.

Also I got BN strait cut gears, I think they are going out of stock forever after the next batch so def buy soon if you want that specifically

I considered a chargeback, but only because of the Ghosting. I think clear communication would have helped with the anger on my end.

Maybe some people would hate to hear “it’ll be 2 weeks minimum” but I would have targeted that then the word “soon”

1 Like

Unrelated, but would anyone like to take a look at my gear spacing and tell me if they should be closer?

1 Like