What the title says. Curious if people like their caps? Specifically the MT3 set (looking into the Lord of the Rings sets, but would only want to buy if its good value

During the Drop BOGO sale, I decided to pick up DCX Skiidata and Permafrost. However, when I received the sets I was disappointed to find heavy scratches near the legends on a lot of the keycaps on both sets. I contacted the support team and they were very helpful to get these scratched sets returned and replaced. It took about 2 weeks from emailing them about the issue to getting the replacement sets, only for these to have the same exact issue. I’d expect issues like this on cheap $20 keycap sets from Amazon, not from sets that retail for $100.

I bought these keycaps expecting at least normal-level quality for a 130+ EUR keycap set. The lettering is fine, on the top face. All non-top side text will get erased the first time you try to clean the keycaps with a damp cloth (water only). None of my bottom row keys do have side legends anymore (ctrl, win, fn, those keys)

What's worse, is that within 2 years of purchase (purchased in 2023), all the green keycaps have started having issues with the colors, fading to a lighter green on the topside. There is no direct sunlight hitting my desk at any point in the day. The keyboard lives in a single room. I have cleaned these every 6 months since purchase, the same as any other keycaps I have. I have never owned a keycap set where wole keys would have general color fading issues, even including 20 EUR aliexpress keycaps.

Support tells me warranty expired in 1 year (which is 2 years less than normal Spanish warranty terms), so I guess if you want keycaps that are guaranteed to hold their color in their first year, but not after that, this is a good set for you.

From my part, I'm not purchasing drop keycaps ever again.

It's such a shame LOTR partnered up with such a sub-par manufacturer.

I'm open to suggestions to keycap sets for my zoom75 without breaking the bank, preferrably from an EU seller that does the standard 3 year warranty.

EDIT: the unused green keys left inside the plastic blister, inside their box, are also faded. 2nd photo is a box keycap.

Hi everyone I ordered a set of keycaps from Drop.com and they are terrible. Super thin, very rough and 3 of the perimeter keycaps rub my case. This is my first set that I ordered from them and usually get GMK's or Epbt . Has anyone had any success trying to return keycaps to Drop? Thanks

Keycaps that I purchased - https://drop.com/buy/drop-glimy-dsa-2077-keycap-set?defaultSelectionIds=960564

what are some keycap sets that work with the drop alt? i talked to some people and it looks like theres very limited options. i own and alt and rlly wanna know what keycaps i can upgrade to. thanks!

I'll pre-empt by saying I'm only sorta 'in' with the keyboard customisation community, so while I do go here, and I do like my keyboards, some of this is from the perspective of one looking in and trying to find stuff after the fact.

The other day, I was looking at some nice MT3 keycaps to buy. Which is where this drama begins:

The Main Players

Drop is one of the main hubs for mechanical keyboards, especially for those new to it. You can actually buy stuff they have in stock and have it delivered before you forgot you ever bought it, which, despite sounding normal, isn't for high-quality keycaps. In following the threads of this drama, everyone also seems to agree that Drop's been run by shitheads for a long, long while before this.

Matt3o seems like a cool, creative dude who builds lots of cool creative stuff. He's been in the community a long while and is well regarded as both a creative and an individual. People know this guy's name and most importantly, he built a new keycap profile.

The Absurd Details You Never Knew About Something So Simple

Keyboards have keycaps, the things you actually press, the things I'm pressing to type this.

Currently, I'm pressing on XDA profile keycaps, they're short and uniform, meaning they're all the same height. If you look down at your keyboard now, you're probably going to see Cherry Profile, or OEM profile, they're common and sculpted, meaning each row is a different height and angle.

There are high profiles and medium profiles, spherical and cylindrical tops, double-shot or sublimated legends, sculpted and uniform moulds made from PBT or ABS. Basically there's a lot and too much to go into here.

(If you want a comparison of MT3 and other notable profiles, this site is useful and interactive.)

The important part is Matt3o made a new one.

MT3: The Baby Profile On The Block

The ones Matt3o made are a high profile, spherical top, sculpted keycap. From reviews, it's very pleasant to type on.

It's made with a slope for keyboards on a tilt: when flat, the middle row keys actually curve away from you, but when the keyboard is tilted they lie perfectly flat as designed. Their height also gives them an enjoyable sound profile.

Matt3o originally wanted to fund the project with his own money, but instead eventually joined with Drop to bring these keycaps to life with their larger resources. While the naming was reluctant, Matt3o managed to slip MT3 in, a reference to his own name since he did create the things.

A few ideas were thrown on the table […] I suggested MT3 as an homage to the profile original creator[.] There was some reluctance at first, but […] ultimately they agreed to it. - Matt3o

And, what's that? Oh no, It's starting:

The lack of experience and professionalism of the manufacturer created an incredibly frustrating situation where each prototype I got was wrong or incomplete or worse than the previous. Especially when working with surface texture and colors. – Matt3o

Let's just say production on Drop's end wasn't smooth.

The first colourways sold with MT3 keycaps—after the intense delays—had numerous issues with quality control, with keycaps that never should have seen the light of day being sent out to customers. There were font-weight issues, misalignment issues, colour issues, missing keycaps, warped spacebars, wrong keycaps, and wrong heights, etc, etc.

Not great for keycaps someone is spending upwards of $100 on.

They told me we had still time to fix things, but they had actually already shipped the keycaps out to customers. – Matt3o

Despite the teething problems for the first issues, Matt3o got things back on track quality control wise and it went on to become Drops most successful profile, and for good reason. They're just very nice keycaps to use (though I Imagine the Marvel and Lord of the Rings collab that got built with the MT3 profile helped.)

Complaints and bad reviews are mostly collected near the beginning of MT3's lifespan and peter out over the years, a testament to their core quality when not being screwed around with.

As of right now, they're very well regarded.

MT3 […] remains our highest average-rated keycap profile that we’ve ever sold. – Drop

It's important to note that, at this point in the story, Matt3o actually has very little control over MT3 as a brand or what Drop does with it anymore. The cost of mass production, I guess, sorta' like selling your soul to the keyboard devil.

For all intents and purposes, the profile is Drop's and they can do whatever they want with it. (Sometimes, foreshadowing is not subtle.)

A lot of the above section used Matt3o's own recollections. They can be read further in detail in his blog post: MT3 Keycap Profile: a brief history. Which goes further into their creation and initial setbacks.

The End of MT3, The Rise of MT2

In 2017, we embarked on an ambitious new project: to make a brand new set of high precision doubleshot keycap molds with Matt3o's popular MT3 profile.

[M]aking high quality doubleshot keycap tools (molds) is extremely difficult and time-consuming. So, when we began a new project to make a whole new set of tools for a new profile, we decided to do it behind closed doors to spare community members from the roller coaster of unexpected delays.

We’re now weeks away from shipping our first production keycaps and we’re so excited to tell you all about them. Say hello to Drop MT2. – Drop

The link leads directly to their statement which has a bit more stuffing and fluff, but hold off a little bit on clicking it, spoilers and all.

Anyway, It's so cool that matt3o created a new profile with you guys!

....Matt3o did help create a new profile with you guys, right?

It turns out the existence of MT2 is as much a surprise to Matt3o as it is to the normal user.

I think the quote above says just about everything, but to recap: Drop created a new keycap profile all on their lonesome, they didn't tell you, and they certainly didn't tell the guy they were about to name it after.

The blog post 'What the hell is MT2?' goes more into Matt3o's initial reaction but I can put a tl;dr here:

So let me be super clear here: I have no involvement whatsoever in the making of the MT2 profile. I know the name is misleading but we’ll have to live with it and I guess it gives some continuity. – Matt3o

Or if that's still too long, the even more tl;dr:

Drop did that without telling me shit. – Matt3o

The quote would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.

So, that thrill of a new profile quickly turned into the heavily retrodden corporate 'are you going to treat people working with you with any fucking basic respect.' and the tl;dr to that is. Lol no.

The People Were Really Not Amused.

If you want to watch people argue, here's I think the longest reply thread I've ever seen on Drop. The people are aggressive.

It also shows that yes, people did think Matt3o was working alongside this new project and yes, they did—at least initially—have a more positive view on the new profile because of that.

Drop's reasoning for naming the new profile 'MT2' is that they were using 'MT' as the new naming system. MT2 is a shorter profile than MT3 and so it is named thus. They were also planning on a lower profile called MT1 in the future.

That can be read about firstly here (spoilers) and another sprinkling of corporate filling speak here, and remember that last sentence, we'll be getting back to that.

There was also the MT3 brand recognisability and the fact that, technically, nothing was stopping them doing this, remember they own the MT3 brand and moulds*.* Drop really didn't have to do a thing to change this descision.

But 'legally, we did nothing wrong' isn't great reasoning to whip out when we're talking about basic respect of creators and community good will. You don't win good will by being 'technically, legally correct.'

The reality of why they named their own keycaps this is obvious. MT3 sold really darn well with the 'MT' now being a recognisable profile type, and you might as well keep that publicity going by making the next one match. There's also the matter of Matt3o being well respected. People like the dude and want to support his work, and by letting those people think MT2 was indeed related to him, there was a chance they could pull the wool over their eyes and manufacture good-regard for their new project with very little effort.

Obviously after they were found out, it didn't work.

With Matt3o giving a call out on shady practices and quickly mounting backlash from the community, Drop renamed 'MT2' to 'DCX' and scrubbed the previous name from their posts in the 'we hear the community feedback' kinda way.

Around this point, Matt3o makes a new blog post: The MT3/MT2 Drama-not-Drama

Here we get the juice being squeezed out:

After all people know that MT3 = Matt3o and rightfully thought MT2 was my doing. I received dozens of messages from the community asking for details about “my” (not mine!) new creature.

So with one quick swipe Drop used the MT3 success to create a completely unrelated product and by calling it MT2 they are also claiming that the MT moniker is not related to me, it was all part of their business plan. – Matt3o

And the boiling hot water added in:

In the same chat they asked me NOT to post about my malcontent about the MT2 naming.

They went as far as saying (paraphrasing but remember everything is documented): “why can’t he [Matteo] not post about it or just post he is fine with it and to calm down[.]“ – Matt3o

Basically, Drop's response is, 'please shut up and just let the people think you made these, thx kisses.'

Matt3o is not impressed with the way he's being treated, and it all comes to a head with (see I told you we'd get back to this) this quote:

Lastly, the MT moniker is also being used to recognize the contributions of MiTO, who has been involved in the development and design of MT2[.] – Drop

So, scorched Earth response: Who's Matt3o? We've never named anything after Matt3o why would anyone think that, it's been MiTo all along, silly.

This is what we will refer to as 'the nail in the coffin' and it's something Matt3o would no longer put up with and, honestly, rightfully so. With his name and contributions being scrubbed and his success now attributed to another creator, he went on to announce his departure from Drop.

The Departing of Ways

Now, a question to you: who's MiTo? Well I can tell you I've seen this guy's name around, so he's at least prolific in his creations.

When it comes to reputation, I'll say it's not looking so hot. As I said before, I'm only a little 'down with the community' so I don't have any opinions of him myself. Along the way however, I found this comment comparing Matt3o and MiTo. With 100 upvotes and a silver medal it's at least a snapshot of the communities general outlook on him: egotistical, lazy, and of low moral character. A perfect match for Drop!

Obviously, the community wasn't impressed with this real life retcon.

Back to Matt3o:

After talking to them again it was clear that: 1) they have no respect for my person, they are loyal only to themselves; 2) they do not intend to rectify what they said.

At this point I’m disappointed, but there’s no drama. Since they prove to have no respect of me, I can’t in good conscience keep working with them. I would do it just for the money, there would be no soul in my products and I can’t give you that. – Matt3o

The end of MT3.

At least as it existed in Matt3o's hands. Remember, Drop still owns the moulds.

You’ll see more of my products on their website, that’s because they are already produced, but they will slowly fade over time. That means that there won’t be any new products designed by me for Drop. – Matt3o

If you buy the remaining stock of Matt3o and Drop's collabs, royalties will still go to the guy, but after that, MT3's future is murky with future colourway's, and the quality of those without Matt3o at their head, being up in the air, if they happen at all. Drop has a new profile all of their own they want people to buy remember.

(In editing Drop released 'Drop Signature Series Moodboard' It's got MT3 keycaps, and lack of a certain someone's name. So, I guess it's not dead just yet.)

Matt3o leaves a final blog post to wrap things up which is a nice read but doesn't contain much, just reiterating that Drop and him didn't depart on bad terms and pretty much 'what's done is done.'

I don't know how much I really believe that, all things considered.

What Ever Became of M- uh DCX?

Well, from what I see, it's really not all that special.

It's medium profile and indistinguishable from Cherries. They're godamn Cherry clones. There's no similarity at all with MT3 that could have at the most basic level explained wanting to name them after it.

There are comparisons between DCX and Cherry. Look at this yourself. What a big hullabaloo about something so underwhelming.

People will still buy them, unknowing of this drama (remember this is the place lots of new people in the community go for), or uncaring, or who just really want this profile for some reason. But a lot of people who would have bought them, now aren't after this.

I doubt this will greatly effect Drop's bottom line but their regard in the community is basically at rock-bottom. Which isn't much worse than where they were before, but now they don't have a genuinely great mind and creator working with them. That sucks.

They likely won't recover good sentiment over time and Drop seems uninterested in going out of their way to do so.

What Ever Became of Matt3o?

Well after peacing out from Drop and taking his ideas (and new profile called MTNU) with him he later joined up with GMK.

GMK is worth a whole seperate post for the shit they get up with and the stuff they've normalised in buying high-quality keycaps. To tl;dr GMK's entire reputation: overpriced with a waitlist of, I kid you not, years. There's also been delays to that waiting list of recent but Matt3o promises his designs won't be effected by this because! Um... Well he said they wouldn't.

In the end GMK is why people who are in the know still suck this drama up and buy from Drop (amongst others but they're not related to the drama.)

I don't know how to sum up my emotions reading that blog post of his, but I guess I can describe it as the sinking feeling of watching a nice creative software guy end up in a good position at Facebook Advertising.

Fin.

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Thanks for reading and for further reading:

MechanicalKeyboards reacts to Matt3o Leaving Drop

I want to put my experience with getting a missing key cap for this set sent out to me. I am not trying to be rude or mean in this post just trying to pass along information.

TLDR at bottom

The set itself is fantastic. Looks and sounds great! No complaints whatsoever.

However mine was missing the R4 "?/" key cap. It just did not get packed in the wrapping. I reached out to Drop support to try and rectify this issue. Drop Support was timely in their response but the options given to me were 1.) return the whole set to get a new one replaced 2.) get a $20 refund either to the card I purchased it with or in store credit. 3.) return whole set to get a full refund

I probed a little more into the 3 options and after another email exchange Drop Support than informed me that the only options now were 2 and 3 since one wasn't an option because the set was now out of stock (I had to bring this up to them when I asked about option 1 since it was saying out of stock on the store page).

I decided to just take option 2 since it was just one key cap and I did not want to send the whole set back in for a full refund. The refund goes through, no issues but I decided to take a long shot and message the manufacturer on this set (Signature Plastics) directly just see if they had a spare key cap laying around.

I get a response very quickly from them (I used their web portal for inquiries on ordering stuff from them) and come to find out that (direct quote from Signature Plastics) "...I am honestly confused by this as we have an agreement with Massdrop where they give us a list of customer issues (like this) and we provide replacements directly to the customer". Signature Plastics had me verify the key cap I was missing and has already sent a replacement for free!

Drop probably should get their customer support some more training or something, again I am not trying to throw shade or be mean but if I didn't decide to just send a email to Signature Plastics my (in my opinion) expensive key cap set I have been waiting for would have been incomplete.

TLDR: If you are missing a key cap from a set manufactured by Signature Plastics just message them directly for a replacement.

Just like the question says, have been trying to find a concrete answer but haven't been able to find consistent answers lol