Having sold mechanical keyboards since forever. Literally, I started at The Keyboard Company in 1999 and we had mechanical models from CHERRY and Fujitsu and Chicony in stock. Year 2010 was when we started to notice the interest in higher quality switched keyboards really picking up. And since then it has grown significantly such that we now have numerous makes that we keep in stock. Filco, Matias, Varmilo, DAS Keyboard and Keychron are all making fantastic products that are a joy to type on. They all look great and come in all shapes and sizes.

Now we are finding more and more customers are looking to customise their keyboards. And to the extent that many are building their own, from scratch.

CHERRY switches are the most widely used, and now we see many clone switches made to similar design. The feel and feedback are adding pleasure to the typing experience. With the release from CHERRY of a new range of higher quality switches with improved standards we have taken some stock so that we can offer the switches, alongside the keyboards. A small step to add to the all around service we like to offer the keyboard connoisseur.

We are having a good old clear out.

The warehouse is packed and we have a load of stock due in for the Christmas season so we are having a massive clearance sale.
Keep an eye on www.keyboardco.com/offers

There will be end of line items, overstocked items and we are adding anything that is slow moving.
Running for at least the month of October, why wait for Black Friday?

At The Keyboard Company we have always been keen to build our offering to accommodate the weird and the wonderful of the keyboard world. We are the original dedicated Keyboard Company in the UK and we succeed when we can answer the questions and meet the needs of our customers and our customer’s customers..

HiVis Keyboard

An ever present issue in my years working with keyboards has been the availability of anything other than a standard layout. Recent years have seen a phenomenal increase in the shapes and sizes of keyboards available but if you want one other than in a UK layout, it is still a struggle. USA and EU language layouts are more readily available but still limited if you are in the UK and we have always taken care to cater for this as best we can. But there have always been certain ‘unusual’ layouts that simply were not manufactured by the industry. The numbers were not there.

Ukraine Language Layout Keyboard

In order to address this we have now built our own keyboard print facility.
Starting with a good quality base keyboard, with blank keys, we can add anything to the keytops. In small batches or large. If it is a completely new layout we can assist with the artwork and add to the keytops to create any language layout or custom design that’s required. It has taken time and effort but we are now able to offer this extra service and use it ourselves to stock an even greater range of layout choices.

So if you need something a little out of the ordinary, or your customer is in a far flung part of the globe, we can make sure you get the exact right layout for the locality, nice and easy and fast. And full custom layouts are now readily arranged.
Check our website for details.

Bruce

We’re just planning Black Friday, last minute as usual. Here are all the goodies which will be included.
https://www.keyboardco.com/category.asp?sr=black+friday&ex=1

26th Jan 2021.
Keyboard Company Shipping to EU nations Post Brexit.

Hi.

At present we are seeing shipments physically moving as well as expected but there are some difficulties with Sales Tax collection and associated Fees from carriers.
Keyboards are duty free on WTO so there are no charges related to that except on some accessories.

As we are no longer in the Customs union, VAT (Sales Tax) is now being collected in the destination nation and we no longer add this to the cost of the order when we take your payment.
So your order will not have the 20% added to it in the shopping cart on Keyboardco.com but this will be added at the point of delivery at the rate applicable in your country. This has always been the case with USA and Asia, so you may have come across it before.

This means that right now, when the carrier is ready to deliver to you they will contact you and ask for this payment before they will leave any goods with you. And they can add an administration fee which should be around 10 or 20 Euro, but in some nations we have seen it being higher than this. Sadly, at this point, there is no certainty on this figure, although you may get some clearer idea from your local carrier office.

With Brexit 3 weeks old now, and the last minute nature of the agreement, nations and carriers are just learning the facts now, as they go along. It’s far from ideal. But we are seeing more clarity as time goes by and we hope to have a more definite situation soon. We are working with our carriers to set up a DDP offering. That is Delivery – Duty Paid (And VAT paid). With this – all charges will be paid by us to our account so that when the goods are delivered there is no charge made. This will give the certainty we want for our customers but it seems it will be some one or two weeks until we can offer this. And set it up to work in our shopping cart.

I can only apologise for any difficulties this causes and assure you that we are working to ensure that we improve the situation. And of course, I would like to assure you that we value you custom, wherever you may be in the world.

Best Wishes

Bruce

Christmas delivery dates.
In consultation with our carriers we have the below dates as the latest despatch dates for delivery before Christmas.
We recommend ordering as soon as possible as our carriers and, by extension, ourselves cannot guarantee Christmas deliveries.

Royal Mail Small Items UK Sunday the 20th
Royal Mail 24 UK Tuesday the 22nd
Royal Mail 48 UK Monday the 21st
Royal Mail Western Europe Wednesday the 16th
Royal Mail Eastern Europe Friday the 11th
Royal Mail Rest of World Friday the 4th
UKmail UK Mainland Saturday the 19th
UKmail Highlands and Islands Friday the 18th
Courier USA and Canada Wednesday the 16th
TNT Express Europe Monday the 21st
TNT Express Rest Rest of World Tuesday the 15th

Please note our last shipping day before Christmas is Tuesday the 22nd.

So it’s that time of year again.
I hope you are all surviving and making the most of it despite the trials of COVID-19 and WFH and closed Pubs.
At least now we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

I am hoping to cheer you all up with HALF PRICE offers on some MiniLa from Filco and some of the hugely popular Keychron K2-V1.
So watch this space for full details, going live on…….
Friday!

UPDATE Black Friday deals are now live just go to keyboardco.com and click on Black Friday!

Things on the Brexit front have moved little since my post in February this year.

Brexit and The Keyboard Company

But we are planning for all eventualities.

We are confident we can continue to serve all our customers in EU areas and we have an arrangement in place to open a satellite office within the EU should it become necessary in the event of a no-deal. We have talked with all our logistics partners and there is a feeling that the physical movement of goods may see some small delays in the first months but that it will not be more than a day or two and that it will settle down again quickly. VAT/Sales Tax may change if we leave Customs Union but we feel this is possibly an advantage to us. We won’t have to add that VAT. The only drawback to this is that customers may have to pay their local VAT when goods are delivered. Usually this would be collected by the carrier as is the case right now if buying from USA or China. There are rules on this that seem to allow purchases under a certain value without any VAT collected.

With regards to goods that we buy from outside of the EU and then sell inside the EU, we see no issues with this. There may be some ‘Country of Origin’ paperwork we will need to do but this is something we already do in certain cases so would be nothing new.

We have valued suppliers in the EU too. Again, we have liased with all those concerned and we don’t foresee any insurmountable obstacles, such as would endanger supply. There is likely to be some more paperwork but that is mostly going to be on the part of us and our carriers.

We hope and expect that the experience of buying from The Keyboard Company will be as friction free as ever. I am personally committed to continuing to serve our fantastic clientele.
If you have any questions please let me know.

Best Wishes to you all.

Bruce.

Working From Home Week 3

We’ve been running The Keyboard Company remotely for the best part of three weeks now, having started on 19th March.
I am pleased to report that all is working out well; the guys who have stayed on-site can keep an appropriate distance from one another with one person in the office and one in stores.
The stores have been particularly busy. I am grateful beyond measure to these guys.
And I am so proud of the whole team who despite having to work from home and do things differently, have managed to keep everything very smooth with no more problems than one would expect under normal conditions.

So orders still ship same day and carriers are keeping to standard delivery timescales.
Royal Mail is doing a fantastic job and deserves thanks, they are proving to be another of those – as yet – unidentified hero services.

We are shipping about double the amount of orders we usually would at this time of year.
It is no surprise that the medical and washable keyboards and mice are popular right now but more surprising is the amount of sales to people working from home. But of course, if working from home for the first time, you tend to find things that need improving, and if you don’t already have a good quality mechanical keyboard, then it is an excellent time to get one. We have had a fair few customers saying things like: ‘my Filco is sitting on my desk at the office, and I can’t do without it’ and buying another one, or a slightly different one. Tenkeyless and other small footprint keyboards have been particularly popular.

I’m finding I can do everything I need to remotely. I am saving the hour a day spent in the car, and with no meetings or interruptions, I am finding that I do like working from home. All our suppliers are managing to meet our needs, and we are supporting our cleaners and other staff who are effectively not working. If it wasn’t for the horror of the Corona Virus on our society and our NHS – I couldn’t be happier.
I am even finding time to update the blog more regularly.

I hope you are keeping safe out there and following the guidance and I believe we will pull together and come through this the stronger for it. The sooner, the better.

Bruce