[Nexus 5 Accessories] dbrandSkins:
Before I get to this multiquote, responding to each person with the love that they deserve, I want to clear the air about a few things. I don't blame you guys for the frustration that many of our customers have been feeling recently. Just a few months ago, our customer service was leaps and bounds beyond any other company out there. There were never more than 1-2 unread messages and our customers stayed happy.

Recently, we've gone through some big changes. dbrand is making the transition that every powerhouse megacorp has had to go through at one point. Investors have come on board, everything from quarterly to 10-year strategies are penciled in, and a lot of upgrades have been made to streamline manufacturing efficiency. In short, we've planted the seeds and are now awaiting crazy genetically modified fruits that nobody has ever seen before. Bigger than any of this, we have been silently working on a 100% brand new website. One which will destroy your preconceived notions of what eCommerce is.

While making this transition from a "startup" to an "enterprise-ready" corporation, we have failed to keep on par with the standard you have come to expect of our most important two duties: customer service and order fulfillment. After taking three days to do an in-depth strategic analysis with our entire team, our inbox never recovered. The 3,600 pending emails have been whittled down to under a thousand, but the 2,700 we responded to took far too long. Many of the customers who emailed 3-4x were simply fed up. Order fulfillment was done at the absolute base measure of completion.

Admittedly, this was not even close to our standard levels of service, however it was a necessary trade-off to get things running properly in the big picture. In an ideal world, we would simply close up shop for a month while we sort everything out. Unfortunately, that isn't an option, as December is the one month of the year when we strictly cannot skip a beat.

All we ask is that you bear with us a little while longer. Many years from now when dbrand is a household name, you can be proud that you stayed with us through this scale-up period. XDA has grown with dbrand from the beginning and we genuinely owe each one of the participants in dbrand threads a 'thank you'.

There seems to be a few recurring issues that have come up, so I'll get those out of the way before responding to each user individually:

1Q. Users with White Nexus 5 devices have had to decide between a properly fitting flash cutout versus a properly fitting "nexus" cutout. Even if they were to choose the "nexus" cutout, the cuts simply don't fit as intended.

1A. You are not crazy. The fit is not flawless on the white device. When we designed the skin, we designed it using a Black N5. The white device, while a close match, is by no means a 100% perfect fit. We released the skins with the mindset that, if applied properly, the fit would be about 90%. While we wouldn't call this "good enough", it was the best we could do with so much else going on. Any extra time coding logic into the website for two variants of the N5, or doubling the manufacturing process to accommodate two separate fits, was not feasible. Time was extremely limited, order volume was ever-increasing, and internal paradigm shifts were eating up most of our processing power. Add to this the fact that a brand new website is imminent, any change to the existing v2.999999 site would not be the most effective use of resources. To rectify this, we WILL be offering a separate fit for the white and black variants of the N5. The fit WILL be flawless. Unfortunately, this "official change" won't go live until the new version of our site. In the meantime, we'll be offering any users who were affected by the "White N5 Plague" 80% off a replacement. Once we fix the fit (likely this weekend), all you have to do is place an order for a back piece and write "MAKE SURE ITS THE N5WHT VARIANT" in the Special Instructions. I'll be active on here to make sure everyone knows when the white variant is live.

2Q. Users did not receive a response to emails for over 10 days.

2A. We've cleared every "admin" email: those are the ones which are direct responses to Order Confirmations. If you sent a "Contact Us" email in the past few days, it's been responded to or is being worked on right now. We're still sifting through the ones that are weeks old to find the questions that still have relevance. Turnaround time is shrinking by the hour, we'll soon be back to our standard of insta-customer service. This is definitely the #1 item on our priority list of balls not to drop.

3Q. User didn't receive a screen protector. Orders taking forever to receive.

3A. There is a very simple reasoning behind this, and the answer will kill two questions simultaneously. We ran out of screen protectors almost instantly due to a monster retail order for N5 skins. Many (most) of our eCommerce customers didn't receive screen protectors with their order, so we decided to include an explanatory note and a pack of lens skins (packaged in a dime bag) to counterbalance the inevitable frustration that comes along with not receiving the full order. It turns out that because of the thickness that a pack of lens skins adds to the envelope, along with its suspicious shape and feel (it's a dime bag), random orders (mostly those within the USA) have been getting inspections, slowing down the entire process. To rectify this, we've upgraded to a slightly larger 1/8th bag, allowing for the lens skins to more evenly distribute within the baggie and reduce thickness. Unfortunately, this doesn't change the fact that your order is taking forever to arrive. If you haven't gotten an email from us within the past 48 hours and are still awaiting an order, please email us. We'll do our best to resolve the situation to your satisfaction.

4Q. User finds that the back skin stretches during removal, the letters rip, and it isn't as "re-usable" as was expected.

4A. The N5 back skins are 100% removable and re-usable, you must just employ the proper technique when taking it off. If the proper technique is used, the skin will have absolutely no warping, curling, stretching, ripped letters, or loss in adhesive. We'll likely make a video very soon to show how it's done, but here's a quick tutorial: 1. Apply a piece of regular scotch tape (the one that has the matte 50% opacity finish) over the "nexus" cutouts. Gently peel the four corners. Now select one corner and peel it off until there's enough space for you to firmly grip the device with your other hand. Rip the skin off with as much force as you possibly can. Make it a single, smooth motion; as if you were ripping off a band-aid. The reason that this works 10/10 times without stretching the skin is due to the nature of the adhesive bond. Breaking the adhesive bond requires a certain threshold of force. When you remove it slowly, you are delaying the inevitable break in the adhesive bond, while also allowing the adhesive to try it's hardest in resisting. This resistance is what causes stretching. While it may feel "wrong", tearing the skin off as quickly as possible results in force strong enough to consistently break the adhesive bond throughout the entire surface of the skin. A video will relay this information in a much more consumable fashion, but (as XDA members), you are all intelligent enough to understand what was explained above.

5Q. Frame pieces or edge of the back piece feels sharp when holding the device.

5A. As a few users have pointed out, just file the edge down with your fingernail. The skin you receive is freshly cut by an exceedingly sharp blade. When the incision is made and dragged through the material, it is cut at a strict 90 degree angle. This results in a corner which is sharp. Over time, the sharpness wears down. To expedite the process, just use your fingernail to wear down the edge a little bit. This won't harm the skin or your device.

On to the personal answers!! Pro-tip: Ctrl+F and type in your /u/ to find yours.

---------- Post added at 12:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:34 AM ----------

This was in reference to the Black Friday promotion. We weren't able to email our entire customer database at once due to regulations on send rates. We're slowly building up to a newsletter system where we can blast our entire database, but until then we have to send them in 5-10k batches. If there's any awesome deals that are going out via newsletter, I'll post it here as well.

Nexus 5 skins are just as re-usable as any other skin, see 4Q&A for an explanation. The 7-14 business day estimate is tough to break down for you unless I had your country. Guessing that it may be Hong Kong, you can expect delivery to be on the low end of that scale, often even below 7 business days.

Your English is wonderful! The front skin can be easily removed, but we wouldn't recommend removing the screen protector. It adheres using static cling and will collect dust if you remove it and attempt re-application. The front skin can be reapplied easily at a later date, simply fit it around the screen protector.

Due to the fact that you likely removed the skin like a logical human being (slowly and carefully), this resulted in a back piece that ended up warped. Use the technique outlined in 4Q&A for help in removal.

Not at all, our tests found that you need to almost fall asleep with the hairdryer on high before any damage can come to your phone. It's just a quick 3-5s on each corner and the skin will adhere wonderfully around the curved corner.

This was a "White N5 Plague" issue. Once we release a precision fit for the White device variant, it won't be an issue.

Sorry man... It sounds like this was partially an issue with the fit, partially an issue with the installation. Perhaps shoot us an email (best way is to respond to your order confirmation), and we can set you up with a replacement.

You're right, we really should have added this. The upcoming site will have a "Forums" section, one where these pro-tips will be revealed and discussed heavily. Stay tuned for that.

Cool idea with the "x" cutouts, lens skins will be included free with every order of a full front/back/frame skin. Stay tuned for that addition when the new site goes live.

Although the sale called for "Over $25", we included an exception to make it for $24 to include all the Nexus 5 users :) Even when we're not here, even when we seem to be off in another land not caring about the customer or responding to their emails, we're always thinking of you.

Sorry about that, bud. Shoot us an email response to your Order Confirmation if you haven't already and we'll get it sorted out as quickly as we can.

Ditto to you, Jim. If you haven't already been resolved through an email contact, send a response to your Order Confirmation and someone will help you out.

Damn you, Canada Post. We're not dealing drugs! They're just lens skins!!!!! Seriously though, respond to your Order Confirmation if you haven't already been helped.

If we could, we'd Amazon Prime Air that **** straight to your doorstep. Thanks for sticking with us, Mr. Waffles.

USPS.

You're 100% on the ball. Support has been lacking. We're looking to turn that around as quickly as we can and get things back on track. Thanks for your patience with us while we play catch-up.

You should start to worry. Email us if it hasn't arrived yet and we'll have someone get to the bottom of it!

Half-assed is quite the correct term for this. We outlined the reasoning behind the White N5 mess-up in 1Q&A, but I'll re-iterate for you here: We're sorry that the fit wasn't as you had expected it would be. We'll be re-releasing the N5 skins, with a fit specific to the white device, with the launch of our new site. In the meantime, we'll let everyone here know once the fit has been updated and you can order a replacement back piece at 80% off.

Very true. Very, very, painfully true.

Those "Contact Us" forms really piled up quickly during our strategic analysis & planning break. Since you didn't receive an Order Confirmation email, send me a PM with your email address and I'll make sure someone from Order Processing gets back to you with an update right away. Sorry about that.

5Q&A: File the edge down with your nail a bit. This will smooth out the sharp edges.

Let me know if this hasn't been resolved/received and I'll have someone get in touch.

Sorry about the ridiculousness, Jim. Hopefully we've resolved your issue by now, but please let me know if that's not the case.

You can definitely put the front piece over the screen protector, but that won't be required because our front skins come packaged with screen protectors. If yours arrived without a screen protector, rest assured we'll still send it out. It will come alongside a fresh front piece.

Can't blame you for being mad. If there's anything I can do to make it up, please don't hesitate to ask :)

This is fully our fault. We built up a clean reputation for instant customer support. Over the last few weeks, our customer support has taken a major hit. We're working hard to get it back on track. You should expect a lot more from us, as we are fully capable of delivering on it. Thanks for sticking through with us.

:( sry

To be fair, FB is a totally different part of the team. They just sort of post up to keep activity levels consistent and brand awareness flowing. They're not built for customer support. Hopefully your multiple emails have been responded to by now, let me know if anything is still pending.

Indeed it is bad practice. It's not a black hole we ever intended to get this deep into, it just sort of snowballed over the past few weeks while working on scaling up the dbrand operation. Hopefully you'll give us another chance.

Germany is consistently the fastest country on the planet to deliver letter mail. Don't expect it to take more than 3-5 days max.

Check your email, I believe this was resolved last night.

Let me know if this hasn't already been resolved and I'll have someone look into it.

Thank you so much for the support, Dicy. Soon enough this Q4 2013 fiasco will be a distant memory.

F*ck I remember that phone call. One of the bots told me to get on XDA immediately and when I saw that it was up to 80+ pages (likely full of perfectly legitimate complaints), I wanted to jump in a lake of battery acid. Hopefully everyone here will be understanding of our situation and give us a shot to make things right.

Woooo! Things are finally looking up :)

It will be sent out automatically, along with an email letting you know it's been shipped.