Frequently asked questions

Please email me with your name and address and we will get it figured out.

We know that Apple’s “Hide My Email” feature in particular (emails that end with @privaterelay.appleid.com) doesn’t play well with the system. If you are using that, please let me know!

If you pledged using Kickstarter, your credit card was already charged in March.

For any post-Kickstarter pre-orders you made before October 4, we have charged your card on October 5. The charge appears as coming from SHIFTHAPPENS.

For pre-orders made after October 5, we are planning to charge your card in December 2023 or January 2024.

We are using different methods depending on the destination:

• U.S. addresses: U.S. shipments head out via USPS Media Mail, which takes 2 to 8 postal delivery days to arrive, though it usually takes no more than 5 days. The books ship from our printer in Maine.
• Non-U.S. addresses: We are using an international shipper (likely a combination of DHL and FedEx) for deliveries outside the U.S. As with the U.S., we will ship the farthest addresses first, then the nearest. Shippers tell us it’s about 4 to 14 business days from shipment to delivery. Please note: You may receive a call or email from a shipper asking for customs information or a payment, or a delivery person may arrive at your doorstep to collect customs fees.

Every book shipment will receive a tracking number, so you can know when your items will arrive.

It is possible to order the book many times independently using the same email address. Some of you might have done it intentionally (to split orders between credit cards), and some not so. The user interface is unfortunately not the best.

We did our best to unify orders on the same email and the same credit card, and also bundle some items to save you a little money. This should explain some of the above.

The way to know you have more orders and switch between them is to use this menu at the top of the screen on the page with your order:

No. Either we or you already paid for it.

Sales tax for Kickstarter pledges was included in the price because we couldn’t predict without sales volume in which states we would meet a sales tax threshold. And for post-Kickstarter pre-orders, we added and collected sales tax for Illinois, Maine, and Massachusetts. We will pay all sales tax owed directly to those tax authorities. Under the current rules in all other states, we aren’t required to collect sales tax for those deliveries.

If you paid for sales tax, it’ll be broken out on your order page (you can check even today), and we will include an invoice showing sales tax collected with each shipment you receive.

International customs is very complicated and we couldn’t find a way to streamline it, calculating what you might owe and collecting it ahead of time. As a result, one of the following will happen if you’re receiving a book shipped outside the United States:

• United Kingdom: The U.K. requires all shipments have a VAT code attached and we have done so, but books shipped to the U.K. are “zero-rated,” meaning no VAT collection is required. You should receive the book directly after it passes customs with no additional fees.
• No fees in some countries: Some countries also waive any fees on imported books. We can’t provide a definitive list of these.
• Fees collected before or at time delivery: As noted in the Kickstarter campaign, some countries may collect VAT on imported books (just as they charge for books sold within the country). You may be contacted by the shipper to pay in advance of delivery, or be asked by a delivery person to pay at your door. They will have documentation about the cost. You may also be charged an “agent fee,” collected by some shippers for handling the paperwork.

In some countries (like Brazil), it’s helpful to include some “metadata” for shipping to go smoother – for example a tax code.

Please attempt to include this in your shipping (there is no separate field, but you could include it as part of the address), or email me. Thank you!

The book orders are currently on pause, but the last few hundred books will be released to be ordered in December or January. If you would like to know when that happens, please sign up using a form in the store. After that batch runs out, there are no plans for a second printing.

The day Return became Enter booklet is already sold out. I am investigating print-on-demand options for the booklet, but there are no solidified plans for that yet.

Gorton font shipped on November 1. You should have received an email on November 1 with a download link, or later if you purchased the font at a later date. If you haven’t, please follow the “Please verify your address” instructions at the top of this page. The page you arrive at that confirms your address and the summary of the order should also have a link to “Digital Downloads” that should contain a ZIP file with your font. If you’re still having trouble, please email me!

The download with contain the font in a few different formats (variable font TTF, traditional font OTF, and WOFF/WOFF2 for use on the web), as well as a PDF specimen and a license.

If you haven’t pre-ordered the font but would like to buy it now, it is possible in my store.

All orders placed before or on October 4, 2023 are final. No cancellations or refunds will be made per the Kickstarter campaign or terms on the BackerKit pre-order site. Books may not be returned except as noted below in the refund policy.

Orders placed starting October 5, 2023, may be canceled before your card is charged at no cost. After we alert you that shipping is imminent and charge your card, cancellation requires a 5% fee due to nonrefundable credit-card fees. No refunds or returns are available for October 5 or later orders after we alert you that your book is in our shipping queue, except as described below in the refund policy.

Please note that I generally recommend following the unpacking guide to minimize the likelihood of damaging the book while unpacking it!

My book never arrived:

Each delivery will have a tracking number, which you can use to watch its progress. If your book shows it was received by the shipper, but it never arrives, please start by contacting the shipper. They may be able to do a search for a missing package or simply deliver it to you at that point.

If your book never shows up as received for shipping or you cannot get the shipper to respond, please contact me so I can figure out next steps, which may include sending you a replacement.

My book package arrived damaged:

If you receive a package with exterior damage, please take photos and retain the packaging after opening until we’re in touch. (Because of the protection we used for shipping, you may find that the book is undamaged even when the exterior boxes appear beat up.) Please send photos to me of the exterior box and any damage to the slipcase or books, as I may be able to pursue an insurance claim with the shipper.

I will replace damaged shipments at my expense. If only one portion of your book (like a single volume or a slipcase) is damaged, I may ship you a replacement for just that part. Due to the heavy initial shipping schedule, there might be some delay in shipping a replacement.

My book package arrived undamaged, but there is something wrong with the quality of printing or assembly:

If you find a manufacturing or printing problem (such as misprint, gluing, creases, etc.), please send photos to me so we can arrange next steps.

If the problem is unique to your copy, I will replace the item at my expense. If only one portion of your book is damaged, like a single volume or a slipcase, I may ship you a replacement for just that part. Due to the heavy initial shipping schedule, there might be some delay in shipping a replacement.

Note that each slipcase is made by human hands and there may be slight imperfections – this is pretty normal for high-end slipcases.

I don’t like the writing, the photos, or the design:

I’m sorry you do not! However, these reasons are not eligible for a refund. But perhaps you might find someone with an interest in keyboards who might enjoy it?

We’ve done everything possible to validate addresses as deliverable. If the post office or an international shipper returns your package and it’s their fault or our fault, we’ll ship back to you at our expense. However, if you provided an incorrect address, didn’t update the address on time, or were unable to work with a shipper to pick up a package, we may need to pass along our costs, which can include the full cost of shipping back to us, a processing fee by our fulfillment partner, and the cost of shipping a single item back to you. I’ll get in touch if that situation emerges.

At the moment, I want to see if theft is a widespread problem, and subsequently to create a fair policy that reflects that it’s not (usually) someone’s fault the package was stolen, but balanced against my responsibility in ensuring you get a book. I haven’t sorted that out yet as we only started shipping, and it might involve asking to pay some or all of the replacement cost.

If your copy of the book was stolen, I would encourage you to check renter’s/homeowner’s insurance or your credit card about whether they have a theft policy and would cover the product cost? I’d also encourage you to report this to the post office, which has an online form, and to your local police department, which likewise should let you report a low-dollar property theft online. The reason is that it’s possible they will recover stolen mail in one big batch and the address information could be missing.