I’ve just got an e-mail from support stating it will be shipped early to mid October.
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They were right. The kit has arrived Friday, October 11th. I haven’t gotten to installing it yet, though 
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Yes, I’ve got the same.
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likewise, “…expect to ship one to you in early to mid-October”
and saying expect two emails, one when order is created, second when order has shipped
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I got mine a week ago. I’m actually surprised that it helped the keyboard feel a bit more solid.
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Applied the deflection kit. It is still by no means perfect - the “build quality feel” is still sadly not there, with some keys still sounding “hollow” to the touch - but it is significantly, night-and-day better. The keyboard is no longer as mushy, it feels a lot more similar to a standard laptop keyboard, and the switch has a nice and hard bottom-out in most places.
It’s a pretty welcome upgrade. It still very much feels like a first-generation design, mind you, and I still think the current iteration of the mid-plate design is a bit flimsy, but this improves the situation nicely. The mid plate no longer feels as bendy to the touch when applied,which is also very good. These five little pads really do make a difference. Having tried both, I would say that, yes, the typing experience is now much closer to the Framework 13, though not exactly the same.
Looking at the keyboard from its edge with the touchpad module removed, it still does not appear to sit completely straight. But it’s a noticeable improvement from the noticeable concaveness it had before the kit. If I nitpick, I can tell the left area seems to be slightly raised compared to the right one, but nothing that hinders usability too much.
I’ve received mine on October 11th as well, and installed it a day later. The difference it made isn’t too big I think, the tolerances of my FW16 seem to be on the better side of the spectrum in general.
I’ve installed mine just now. Duration: 15 minutes, much of the time needed to read the ultra-low contrast numbers for the 16 fasteners of the midplate. I do feel a difference, deflection when typing is reduced.
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After installing mine, I haven’t noticed a difference, might not have had the deflection problem in the first place. I’m not positive that I didn’t like it better before.
It didn’t help with the slight gap I had in the upper left between the keyboard and the midplate. I was hoping that it might. For now, it’s still paper shims doing the filler work.
I finally received my kit last week and installed it immediately. I’ve noticed a massive difference in both the sound of typing, as well as the feeling. It feels much stiffer and more confidence-inspiring now.
Installation was reasonably simple, although I feel as though there were some discrepancies between the text instructions and the accompanying video.
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I have a lot of gaps between the keyboard and the mid plate, I would say the upper 70% of the keyboard does not adhere to the mid-plate perfectly as I have not found a way to make the mid plate straight. And, yes, I have re-seated everything half a million times, I had to stop because I was worried for the health of the screws and threads… last thing you want is a stripped screw keeping you from getting inside your laptop. The sounds of typing feel “cheap” and I really suspect that’s the cause. I am on my second set of mid-plate and keyboard, too.
In my case, the deflection kit raised the left edge of the keyboard above the spacer at the center, where it was flush previously. Interesting that the keyboard in that point seems to be a little curved, with the top of the curve being where the NVMe spacer is.
This seems to be one of the lotteries / tolerances you play where you may have more or less luck. I have been considering shimming at least the bottom function row of the keyboard because that one sounds really “clacky” and cheap.
Yeah, at this point, my keyboard sounds fine, feels fine. The deflection kit turned out to be not what I personally needed, but I’m impressed with them sending them out.
It really sounds like you’ve got a lemon. If you can scrape together some good photos/videos I like your odds with support. So far, I’m on my fourth exchange with them, and they do issue homework, but they’ve done right by me consistently – better than. After the multiple photo/video exchanges, they’ve given me replacement hardware out of warranty twice. (Both times, they specified that it was a one-off special exception – I wouldn’t count on it.)
Or, yeah, the shims are probably a good idea for you. Why use a keyboard that rattles when you can add paper or tape?
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I have tried going to support with several videos and sounds, including a Spectrogram recording showing an abnormal 3 kHz frequency. I got told repeatedly that my laptop is fine and that due to its modular design I cannot expect it to be as solid as a competing option.
I have investigated my fit further, and I realize that my keyboard fits like this ever since I installed the deflection kit:
This doesn’t look right in any way to be. The entire thing is bent up! Following the mid plate itself with my finger I can also tell the same pattern. It’s like a body of water, rising up and depressing down in several points. No wonder my keyboard doesn’t feel right to use!
I’m considering going back to Support with these photos. I have since then also re-seated the mid plate assembly as they suggested - no change.
My keyboard looks the same as yours does. (I made a pretty convincing video with maybe 1mm of displacement when I would tap next to the Escape key, but I don’t feel like signing up for a video hosting site.) I’ve been messing around with it all morning. I’m in danger of wearing out the screws – it’s pretty hard to perform an intervention that’s a net positive.
I think the idea with the official deflection kit wouldn’t be to necessarily make everything flat, but just to make sure that the midplate is pressed against the keyboard in enough places with enough pressure to prevent the keyboard from being too bouncy.
For me, after a couple hours or so, I gave up and removed most of my own shims and the official deflection kit. I think I like it better without it, though the keyboard is bouncier – I type pretty light. I did have to put some paper back under the corner of the keyboard though. It rattles with and without the deflection kit.
Now that I think about it, I never tried getting support for look and feel issues, only functional deficiencies, like a USB port not working.
I put my keyboard deflection kit in the other day and I think it feels a lot more solid. It didn’t bother me before, but I do like the feel of it more now that I’ve added it. I’m wondering how much of the issues is personal preference vs different tolerances. Like I feel that I got a bit lucky on mine. Although there was some issue with the spacers on the sides of the touchpad. I bent them a bit and it’s better but not perfect. It doesn’t really bother me.