I got one of those from work. The mouse already has a slot to store the dongle in. I was very close to complaining to them that they shipped it without a dongle since the slot was empty.
A flimsy little box this size? I'm just folding it in half, stomping it flat, and then maybe folding it again with my feet before doing the same thing again.
I'm just old enough to vaguely remember some of the deeper lore of computing and I think the word comes from there.
Way back in the 1980s, when it was as easy as heck to copy a diskette and before always-on internet facilitated online license key verification, some high-dollar software products would use hardware as copy-protection. The software would only run if you had the publisher's little black-box hardware thingy plugged into, say, your computer's RS-232 serial port. Back then, having something plugged into a cable port that didn't physically connect to anything or fulfill any physical function was a pretty odd concept, and so it wasn't clear what sort of short-form name to give to such a thing. "Dongle" just sort of caught on.
I would love to say that in the strictest sense, something's only a "dongle" if it doesn't physically connect to something else:
A USB-C/lightning-to-3.5mm headphone thingy isn't exactly a dongle, it's just an adapter, or as in a lot of cases, it's a tiny DAC (digital-to-analog converter) which is a device unto itself.
A dedicated 2.4GHz transceiver for a keyboard/mouse combo like this is a "dongle" because its only physical connection is to the computer.
But I'm not that pedantic, at least not on this one. In casual talk, you'll probably catch me calling just about any oddball adapter a dongle.
Agreed, I got the same model and I was convinced that it did not come with the dongle. I think the mouse had a place for it to go and it was missing… I was about to go and return it.
I mean, is there not dongle storage onboard the device?
I bought a 100 dollar logitec mx ergo pro, no onboard dongle storage. I was pretty fucking pissed about that. Hundred fucking dollars. I lost it the first day
Omg I bought one of these a couple years ago. I was beyond furious, I had bought it for my fiance and was trying to set it up so she could play Sims on the ps4. It was late and the store had already closed when I was trying to set it up. Took a couple hours to find it. And a breathtaking amount of swearing
I think every device that uses a dongle should have a slot in the device to hold it. All of my mice over the years have done this, usually hidden in the battery compartment. I'm not sure why keyboards can't do this.
Logitech used to put the dongle for the mice outside of the mouse, where you could see it. The dongle would be about half an inch away from the mouse in the packaging, but you could see both through the clear plastic super easily. See example. And people kept throwing the dongle away with the packaging.
So they put them inside in the battery compartment, but they still left the pull tab for the battery so people don't need to open the battery compartment to turn the mouse on.
I work in an office supply store. People who one of my coworkers rang up for a mouse will come in at least once a week and tell me their mouse didn't come with a dongle. I open up the battery compartment and pull out the dongle. They feel really foolish. I tell people "the receiver is inside the battery compartment," when they buy a mouse from me, just so they don't feel silly later on.
But yeah...Logitech mice did not used to have the dongle in the battery compartment and they do now. This appears to be for a mouse/keyboard set, which might be why it's not in the battery compartment (the mk sets don't necessarily have a spot for the receiver in either the mouse battery compartment or the keyboard battery compartment).
Of course some Logitech mice (my MX Master 3S for example) don't have a battery compartment or anywhere else to store the dongle. Though at least it also has Bluetooth so when you lose the Dongle, you can always fall back to that (at the expensive of battery life and some responsiveness)
The protocol is hypothetically vulnerable to some exploitation. Also, it requires an active radio, which is sometimes just blanket banned in 'high risk' areas.
The prior packaging for this class of combo used to be a top open box with a similar setup, mouse and receiver next to each other under the keyboard with a large flag around the receiver. I go though a lot of these at work, specially over the last 5 years as the newer revisions do not hold up well to user wear.
Logitech likely saved 2 cents per unit on this new packaging.
Oh, I wasn't trying to say that Logitech was right or wrong with the placement of the receiver in this case. Just pointing out that putting them in the battery compartment is a somewhat newish thing for Logitech, and that in the case of combo sets, they haven't started doing that yet.
I was just saying the packing just prior to this latest one was better.
I do remember that short period when they had them stowed in the battery compartment. Its been funny watching the incremental changes for ever increasing idiot users, like preinstalled batteries, putting a tab on the batts so the power switch can be on out-of-box, making the battery tab larger multiple times, etc. xD
That’s the infuriating part about this placement, many of them do still have the dongle storage slot in both the keyboard and mouse. I’d always move them when sending out home equipment to reduce support calls.
If it doesn't have a slot, you might be able to use something like those adhesive Velcro dots to fix the issue. I did that with a Razer headset, works alright.
Just remember afterwards, to never buy that brand again. Out of pure, unadulterated spite.
And thats the frustrating thing about this mouse and keyboard set sold by Logitech. I bought the same set and was getting really annoyed trying to find the dongle. The mouse even has a spot to store the dongle in the battery compartment! It was the first place I looked.
Funny thing is, I was watching one of Ashens’ returned items videos. And one of the items was a wireless mouse citing “missing dongle”. It was inside the mouse.
Got a keyboard recently that is supposed to have a dongle, spent so much time trying to find it. Apparently, they hid it under the folding leg of the keyboard. It is not mentioned where to find it in the manual, though. I appreciate that it has a spot to put a dongle, but I wish they stated it in the manual, too😅
That's the really goofy thing. These Logi combos do have a slot in the mouse and/or keyboard to stow the dongle, but they don't always pack them that way.
I can sort of understand it with some of their ~$25 mice, because putting the dongle on display in the blister pack lets you see if it's one of their "unifying" dongles which definitely adds some bang-for-your-buck. But in all other cases, Christ, just put it in the storage slot.
I had to drive an hour to fix it for my 70+ disabled aunt. It then took nearly 45 minutes to find the dongle, and only after I literally destroyed the box to find it.
Honestly, packaging is a surprisingly big part of manufacturing. Gotta ship all the intermediate products, and probably not in a big bin. Gotta have packaging for the end user that satisfies so many stakeholder concerns: Keep the product safe, be ecological (this one is massively complex), be cheap, be easy to open by the consumer.
I've seen a packaging award on off-brand q-tips because (I'm just guessing why admittedly) the box is completely of cardboard, not even any glue; it's robust enough, and it has a handy little cover to flip open to get at the q-tips. It's very simple in some ways, but there's a lot of cleverness that went into making it that simple while still making all those stakeholders happy.
All of which to say, it doesn't surprise me that a degree for that exists.
I just got a heavy record turntable shipped to me and it was purely cardboard. No glue, staples, bubble wrap, packing peanuts etc. Just a super intense supporting structure made of folded cardboard. It felt like as much engineering went into the shipping box as the actual equipment
The stupid thing is, there's a slot in the mouse purpose built to hold that part. They do this because people don't read the "Look in the mouse for the antenna" bit, Or understand what an antenna is for.
I think that's the goal. I think they're trying to get people to buy the chip on its own. They cost like $40 Canadian. Not only that, there's two of them. For my keyboard and mouse, I found out it didn't work for both of them. Both are Logitech products.
I bought a Logitech keyboard from Goodwill awhile back, and of course it didn't have the dongle. Oh well, I figured, the dongle from my older Logitech keyboard should work, right? Of course not.
I was luckily able to return it, and I tried to explain to the cashier that it was as good as garbage without the exact dongle. They clearly didn't understand what I was talking about, because they just put it back out on the floor for another person to waste their time with 🫠
Logitech's Unifying dongles have been around for over a decade (I think a lot more?) and can be reprogrammed to pair with any unifying device. They do have two newer standards, Bolt (offering better power usage and encryption) and Lightspeed (optimized for response time). None of the three standards is compatible with the other two, though I believe all Bolt and Lightspeed devices can use Bluetooth as an alternative (though you lose the benefits).
You can only do that if they have a "unifying" receiver. Most MK sets (the mouse and keyboard together) don't work with a unifying receiver. Only the mice or keyboards on their own do (because the idea is you just want one receiver plugged in, and if both your mouse and keyboard have a receiver you should be able to unify them into one receiver, but with the mouse/keyboard combo sets, they both already map to the same receiver). You can see if it's unifying if it has the little orange gear anywhere on the packaging or the receiver.
They clearly didn't understand what I was talking about
Way way back in the day when games came on disks, I had a game from target that needed a code on the back of the game manual. Turns out the target version didn't include a game manual and therefore it was impossible to install. Try explaining this problem to a target return desk employee.
Target had a non return policy on games. Finally they just gave it to me to make me go away.
I still remember sometimes getting copies of games owned by other members of my extended family for my birthday or Christmas. CD-Rs with the name of the game written on it with a sharpy, packaged in blank paper envelopes with only the installation code or some excerpt from the manual needed to answer ingame questions written on them.
Messing up which envelope belongs to which game when getting multiple of them at the same time made for an annoying puzzle game when installing them the next day.
Sadly this stopped when using Steam or their own online account system got more common...
Nope. I bought a Logi KB/M combo earlier this month, and it had its dongle stabbed into a box flap like this. And it's not "Unifying" compatible, because believe me, I'm familiar. I already have a K400+ keyboard-and-trackpad and an M185 mouse connected to this PC through a Unifying dongle. My MK295 can't connect to it. I absolutely have to use its own packed-in dongle.
Ive seen 4 out of 5 people return a wierless mouse saying it doesnt work because they cant find the dongle in the battery compartment even with it written on a big pastic tab that you have to pull out to even use it.
I was the guy at the Fry’s customer service counter trying to return a wireless trackball that was missing its dongle. The clerk was hella smug about it too, when she opened the batter compartment for me. Humbling experience.
Lmao mine slung clear across the room and I was about to return the keyboard and mouse because I thought it didn't come with one. I saw the flap and understood it was supposed to have been there. But it wasn't. I was gathering up all the stuff and saw it under my sons computer chair ... Such a horrible choice of design, should be packaged in the mouse or keyboard where the slot is.
Usually it is inside the keyboard or mouse. The first time I got one of these, I was incredibly confused when I opened that cover on the back of the keyboard and it wasn't there. Checked inside the box, still nothing. Finally noticed the hole on the flap, and it wasn't there either. Turns out that mine had fallen on the floor at some point during the unboxing process too.
It's a stupid design, but thankfully it doesn't seem to be this way on all their keyboards...? Only for certain ones.
Is this a Logitech keyboard by chance? I just had a similar experience with one their keyboards. It has a very wonderful spot for the dongle built in to the battery cover but they put it in a slot in the cardboard box it comes in. So I had a second of wondering where the hell it was that could be easily avoided.
The packaging color is a dead giveaway. I was hoping to be able to make out the exact model from the labeling or the UPC, but no dice. But hell yeah, 100% Logitech.
Former Office Supply store manager here: The Answer is All the time.
Maybe not like every month, but we would absolutely see returns on items because the product was hiding in the packaging. One specific instance was a large printer, but the cartridges were only a handful for all 4. Customer called telling us he's unboxed EVERYTHING and can't find the ink. We tell him it SHOULD be in there, but he can't find it. Okay, bring it back and we'll swap it, making sure it's got ink before he leave.
He comes in, all the packaging haphazardly put into the box (You know how you do when you don't care about the product in question anymore.) But in a chunk of the Styrofoam I spotted some color. It was wedged into one corner of the Styrofoam, pretty well hidden away if you didn't know what you were looking for. Customer apologized, we told him it wasn't his fault, everything was fine, thankfully.
But yeah, hiding the dongles inside the mouse while having a fake dongle on the packaging is dumb, The dongle in the flap is dumb because we've had people lose it not realizing it's connected to the packaging. Once it gets lost in the couch cushions you might as well buy a new keyboard.
I bought a box fan that did something similar. The feet were hidden below the fan in a fold of the box you would never see if you simply unboxed it like a normal person. The only reason I knew they were in the box was the reviews I read before I bought it.
All the time. When I used to work at a computer store, customers would come back saying it didn't come with the dongle. Sometimes it'd still be on the lid and they just didn't notice, or they full on lost it.
I delivered 20 to a client setting up an office in another state. The person that received them put a keyboard at every desk and threw out the boxes. Yep and all the dongles.
Dude I almost lost that little turd 2 weeks ago while unpacking the keyboard. There’s a slot inside the keyboard to store it while not in use. Like come on.
I had a full blown argument with a woman once about this. She insisted there was no dongle, I insisted there was. Help Desk is not good for my blood pressure.
Doesn’t surprise me. I worked at best buy years ago in customer service and constantly had people wanting to return mice because “there was no dongle,” only for a majority to be embarrassed they hadn’t looked where the batteries went.
Holy shit. I got one of these through work and never found the dongle. I've long since thrown the box away. I requested another but can't get one but every 2 years. I'm stuck using a plug in style keyboard until my 2 years is up
Probably not? As far as I know, Logitech keyboard and mouse combos always come with a single dongle, pre-paired with both. Though you can try re-pairing through the Logitech software.
Having sold these for the last decade I could not tell you the amount of angry customers that swear black and blue they didn’t get an adapter. This and others hiding inside the mouse near the battery that most people born last century cannot find, take up a large portion of my day explaining where they are.
I work retail. You would be shocked at the amount of angry customers who walk in thinking the mouse they bought didn't come with a dongle when it was just inside the mouse itself. I'm sure this design was responsible for a lot of people getting yelled at.
We order these for work and its really hard to reach the mouse and keyboard from one side. Usually you have to open both sides to get each item out easily. Its way harder only getting it out with one side.
I have exactly the same model and there is a little container on the keyboard that is supposed to hold the dongle, I was so lost when it wasn’t there when I bought it. I wanted to return the keyboard.
I'm currently using a cheap Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse (MK270) and had the same issue when I got it. It felt like the box was empty, and I almost threw it in the recycling.
I don't know why they do it that way, there is literally a storage compartment under the mouse's battery cover for the USB dongle. You need to take that cover off to put in a battery, so surely the user would find the dongle during installation.
We had these kind of boxes at our office when we moved to a new office. No more own desks, so everyone got cordless. A LOT of people were saying they didn’t have the dongle. Good thing was that there were other people telling the new person where it is, but I would estimate by the amount of confused people, a lot of people don’t find it on their own.
Back in the late 90s HP sold a flatbed scanner where the power adapter was taped into the outside of the polystyrene packaging, people would buy a whole computer setup with printer scanner, and set it all up and throw away the boxes only to discover the scanner didn't work months later, it happen often enough we kept a spare replacement unit in stock at store, customers were not happy having to pay for a replacement.
Had to do an office relocation in London and my company brought in help from an external company. These are the K&M combo we got, it took the contractor around 40 boxes to realise where the dongle was, and because each dongle is unique to the setup, I then had to go through each and everyone to match them up. Thank you Bill if you're reading this
My company bought us all a Logitech wireless keyboard with this packaging. Needless to say that they had a lot of trouble replacing all the dongles that accidentally landed in the trash.
We used these Logitech keyboards at work for employees, and yes, the dongles regularly got binned with the packaging by mistake. I had to create labels and stick it on them saying "Important: Dongle at end of box on cardboard flap" or something similar.
Used to get ones like this for our employees. Not only did they frequently lose the damn dongle, the version we had 1000 of couldn't be easily repaired to a new dongle, so if they lose they need a new combo. Also when employees leave and potentially give back the keyboard, or swap desks, etc, you had to take care not to get any of the dongles mixed up. (Or they'd give you the keyboard but not the dongle).
we use that exact keyboard and mouse set at work and i have had to help 2 coworkers who could not find the dongle already. I dont even work in IT. no idea how many times that guy has gotten that question.
As an IT guy I check those boxes whenever I see them in the trash because the unifying dongles is super useful and always gets lost. I have about 9 of them in my desk right now.
how is this not inside the battery compartment, where there's usually a little storage slot? I swear on the last few Logitech mice I've bought, that's where it's been.
Oh my god is this the keyboard and mouse combo from Logitech? I got this from work some time ago, didn't need to use it for a while at first, but threw away the packaging, without noticing that I didn't have a dongle. They had to give me a new keyboard and mouse...
Ah yeah. Used to work at a Computer Store and we had a lot of Logitech wireless keyboards. Many customers came back wanting a refund because they thought it didn't come with the dongle. We had to show them where it was.
Legit bought this same one last week here in Korea. It confused me like crazy as I was checking inside the mouse and keyboard slots looking for it, just when I was about to fold it back in and return the product i hit it with the keyboard putting it back in and saw it. Really dumb placement.
I bought a new mouse and thought I lost the dongle immediately somehow. It’s still in the box since I could never use it, I’m going to have to check this now.
I bought one of those years ago while visiting Denmark. The store had extra USB dongles attached to the box, and when asked why, I was told there was an obvious manufacturer defect, because none of them had one included.
When I got home, I found the "missing" one tucked away like yours... I'm guessing the store never discovered them either when they got customer complaints.
This happened to me. I ordered this too and opened the mouse to find the usb compartment empty, that’s when I had to go searching and realize they placed it in this terrible spot
My air fryer had some BS hidden part similar to this. The rotisserie attachment was hidden under the bottom styrofoam cushioning. It’s that last bit of styrofoam which hardly anyone removes once they remove the product. They could have easily taped it inside of the cooker. But nooooo!! If I want it, I had to pay an extra 25-30 for the replacement.
i bought a external lexar ssd yesterday, opened it and thought that it didn't come with a usb cable.
went back to throw the package away after testing it with my own cable and noticed one side of the glued shut inside packing tray was slightly heavier. they put the cable in there with zero indication anything was in hiding in the tray.
that was slightly annoying, this is just stupid lol, they must sell a lot of those spare dongles
I bought a wireless keyboard and mouse once and no matter what I did.I could not find the dongle
The mouse had a little internal compartment that could house it but it was not in there.And the foam padding that held the keyboard and the mouse did not have a space in it for the thing
This must have been where the friggin dongle was in that box, like I opened it up, didn't immediately see the dongle, and assumed it was inside one of the components and threw away the foam and the box, and only looked inside all the openings and spaces in the keyboard and the mouse after throwing away the box
I now have a useless worthless keyboard and mouse that will never be able to connect to anything
Wife got a entire new setup work, came with that exact model keyboard.
Tore up everything looking for that stupid dongle. Did not find that dongle until after I put the boxes in the recycling bin.
I think that's the worst dongle placement I have ever seen
I've placed my dongle in worse tbh
Damn you beat me to it by like 3 seconds
[deleted]
That entirely depends on who you ask
I can say with certainty that I won't be asking anyone their opinion on this topic.
Oh come on...live a little!
Sometimes 3 seconds is all it takes.
Whoa look at Superman here lasting 3 seconds.
Beat MeAt to it
There’s room for both your little dongles in there, so plug away.
I don't know whether to be offended or inspired
Begging for a "that's what she said" joke
3 seconds? Whoah! Look at Mr. Casanova ova hea!
That's as much time as needed to discharge said dingle
Something something cylinder intact
it is imperative that the dongle remain unharmed
/r/dontstickyourdongleinthere
"I’m trying to put my dongle in it and it won’t fit."
"Oh yeah, and how big is your dongle?"
"Well I don’t know much about these things but my wife has seen a few dongles in her time and she says a little bit on the small side."
My blackberry isn't working.
kinky
A small M&M tube filled with butter?
He beat me by one second (13 hours)
I got one of those from work. The mouse already has a slot to store the dongle in. I was very close to complaining to them that they shipped it without a dongle since the slot was empty.
Literally came to leave the same comment minus the "I think"
They save so much money by not placing them inside the storage slot built into the keyboard.
TBH I’m angry about how many people in the comments seem to not break down their damn boxes before discarding them.
A flimsy little box this size? I'm just folding it in half, stomping it flat, and then maybe folding it again with my feet before doing the same thing again.
I'd have crushed the shit out of that dongle.
Why do you need to stomp a “flimsy little box”? Seems easier to just rip ends off their glue and fold.
Me hill giant, smashums the noobs.
But you have seen it.
Is a usb a dongle? Only heard iPhone adapters be called dongles before for aux to whatever the fuck apples charger is
I'm just old enough to vaguely remember some of the deeper lore of computing and I think the word comes from there.
Way back in the 1980s, when it was as easy as heck to copy a diskette and before always-on internet facilitated online license key verification, some high-dollar software products would use hardware as copy-protection. The software would only run if you had the publisher's little black-box hardware thingy plugged into, say, your computer's RS-232 serial port. Back then, having something plugged into a cable port that didn't physically connect to anything or fulfill any physical function was a pretty odd concept, and so it wasn't clear what sort of short-form name to give to such a thing. "Dongle" just sort of caught on.
I would love to say that in the strictest sense, something's only a "dongle" if it doesn't physically connect to something else:
But I'm not that pedantic, at least not on this one. In casual talk, you'll probably catch me calling just about any oddball adapter a dongle.
Agreed, I got the same model and I was convinced that it did not come with the dongle. I think the mouse had a place for it to go and it was missing… I was about to go and return it.
I mean, is there not dongle storage onboard the device?
I bought a 100 dollar logitec mx ergo pro, no onboard dongle storage. I was pretty fucking pissed about that. Hundred fucking dollars. I lost it the first day
And you know whoever designed this thinks they're very clever.
No, sorry. I don't know them.
Oh, stop it. You're very clever.
You don't know them because they go to another clever school. For clever people.
With a salary of 400k a year to boot
Trust me, no designer making computer packaging is paid $400k; not even close
They probably spent 6 months “designing” this package. Just to look busy.
Omg I bought one of these a couple years ago. I was beyond furious, I had bought it for my fiance and was trying to set it up so she could play Sims on the ps4. It was late and the store had already closed when I was trying to set it up. Took a couple hours to find it. And a breathtaking amount of swearing
I think every device that uses a dongle should have a slot in the device to hold it. All of my mice over the years have done this, usually hidden in the battery compartment. I'm not sure why keyboards can't do this.
Logitech used to put the dongle for the mice outside of the mouse, where you could see it. The dongle would be about half an inch away from the mouse in the packaging, but you could see both through the clear plastic super easily. See example. And people kept throwing the dongle away with the packaging.
So they put them inside in the battery compartment, but they still left the pull tab for the battery so people don't need to open the battery compartment to turn the mouse on.
I work in an office supply store. People who one of my coworkers rang up for a mouse will come in at least once a week and tell me their mouse didn't come with a dongle. I open up the battery compartment and pull out the dongle. They feel really foolish. I tell people "the receiver is inside the battery compartment," when they buy a mouse from me, just so they don't feel silly later on.
But yeah...Logitech mice did not used to have the dongle in the battery compartment and they do now. This appears to be for a mouse/keyboard set, which might be why it's not in the battery compartment (the mk sets don't necessarily have a spot for the receiver in either the mouse battery compartment or the keyboard battery compartment).
Of course some Logitech mice (my MX Master 3S for example) don't have a battery compartment or anywhere else to store the dongle. Though at least it also has Bluetooth so when you lose the Dongle, you can always fall back to that (at the expensive of battery life and some responsiveness)
Unless your company decides that Bluetooth is a security risk and disables it.
Geesh, at least allowlist some devices then
The protocol is hypothetically vulnerable to some exploitation. Also, it requires an active radio, which is sometimes just blanket banned in 'high risk' areas.
They should put the dongle on a piece of string attached to the mouse that you can't remove, so people don't lose it
People would just snap the string and complain about the nonsensical packaging.
And others would just plug it in and accept that they bought a wired mouse
The prior packaging for this class of combo used to be a top open box with a similar setup, mouse and receiver next to each other under the keyboard with a large flag around the receiver. I go though a lot of these at work, specially over the last 5 years as the newer revisions do not hold up well to user wear.
Logitech likely saved 2 cents per unit on this new packaging.
Oh, I wasn't trying to say that Logitech was right or wrong with the placement of the receiver in this case. Just pointing out that putting them in the battery compartment is a somewhat newish thing for Logitech, and that in the case of combo sets, they haven't started doing that yet.
I was just saying the packing just prior to this latest one was better.
I do remember that short period when they had them stowed in the battery compartment. Its been funny watching the incremental changes for ever increasing idiot users, like preinstalled batteries, putting a tab on the batts so the power switch can be on out-of-box, making the battery tab larger multiple times, etc. xD
My Logitech vertical mouse uses a dongle, but doesn’t have a place to store it. When I was looking on eBay, most listings didn’t include the dongle.
That’s the infuriating part about this placement, many of them do still have the dongle storage slot in both the keyboard and mouse. I’d always move them when sending out home equipment to reduce support calls.
If it doesn't have a slot, you might be able to use something like those adhesive Velcro dots to fix the issue. I did that with a Razer headset, works alright.
Just remember afterwards, to never buy that brand again. Out of pure, unadulterated spite.
And thats the frustrating thing about this mouse and keyboard set sold by Logitech. I bought the same set and was getting really annoyed trying to find the dongle. The mouse even has a spot to store the dongle in the battery compartment! It was the first place I looked.
It DOES have this. Which infinitely amplifies the stupidity.
Funny thing is, I was watching one of Ashens’ returned items videos. And one of the items was a wireless mouse citing “missing dongle”. It was inside the mouse.
Got a keyboard recently that is supposed to have a dongle, spent so much time trying to find it. Apparently, they hid it under the folding leg of the keyboard. It is not mentioned where to find it in the manual, though. I appreciate that it has a spot to put a dongle, but I wish they stated it in the manual, too😅
My keyboard has a magnetic dongle holder.
That's the really goofy thing. These Logi combos do have a slot in the mouse and/or keyboard to stow the dongle, but they don't always pack them that way.
I can sort of understand it with some of their ~$25 mice, because putting the dongle on display in the blister pack lets you see if it's one of their "unifying" dongles which definitely adds some bang-for-your-buck. But in all other cases, Christ, just put it in the storage slot.
I had to drive an hour to fix it for my 70+ disabled aunt. It then took nearly 45 minutes to find the dongle, and only after I literally destroyed the box to find it.
This is incredibly stupid, and was done just to save a few fractions of a cent on packaging it the proper way.
Source: I'm an armchair expert on many things, including packaging
I have a nephew who got his college degree in Packaging Science (probably not the right name for it). I was blown away that such a degree exists.
It came up when we were opening Christmas stuff and he piped up with “Hey! I worked on the team that created that packaging!”
Whodathunkit?! (obv not me)
Honestly, packaging is a surprisingly big part of manufacturing. Gotta ship all the intermediate products, and probably not in a big bin. Gotta have packaging for the end user that satisfies so many stakeholder concerns: Keep the product safe, be ecological (this one is massively complex), be cheap, be easy to open by the consumer.
I've seen a packaging award on off-brand q-tips because (I'm just guessing why admittedly) the box is completely of cardboard, not even any glue; it's robust enough, and it has a handy little cover to flip open to get at the q-tips. It's very simple in some ways, but there's a lot of cleverness that went into making it that simple while still making all those stakeholders happy.
All of which to say, it doesn't surprise me that a degree for that exists.
I just got a heavy record turntable shipped to me and it was purely cardboard. No glue, staples, bubble wrap, packing peanuts etc. Just a super intense supporting structure made of folded cardboard. It felt like as much engineering went into the shipping box as the actual equipment
Right up there with non nutritive cereal varnish.
It's a floor wax and a dessert topping
I work in manufacturing and we had a packaging engineer for 6-months. I loved working w him and miss him - those guys make things work on my end!
The stupid thing is, there's a slot in the mouse purpose built to hold that part. They do this because people don't read the "Look in the mouse for the antenna" bit, Or understand what an antenna is for.
I would guess ~0.0075%, as most people would not toss out the box until they have all the parts.
I'm going with ~0.00751% if we're playing by Price is Right rules
Tbf, if you're going by Price is Right rules, the lowest you can bid is 100%
Well, there are things I bought, open the box and throw the box away before testing it days later.
It's worse than that, they are going to open it up, find no dongle, and immediately return it.
It's like looking in the refrigerator for an amazon delivery. Yeah it could be there, but are you going to look there? Probably not.
It's the cheapest keyboard Walmart sells in-store.
I assume people buying it will just assume it's Bluetooth-only, and they're doing something wrong. Maybe wait for their child to come fix it.
I'm curious as to how exactly you reached that number. Edit: typo
I think that's the goal. I think they're trying to get people to buy the chip on its own. They cost like $40 Canadian. Not only that, there's two of them. For my keyboard and mouse, I found out it didn't work for both of them. Both are Logitech products.
I bought a Logitech keyboard from Goodwill awhile back, and of course it didn't have the dongle. Oh well, I figured, the dongle from my older Logitech keyboard should work, right? Of course not.
I was luckily able to return it, and I tried to explain to the cashier that it was as good as garbage without the exact dongle. They clearly didn't understand what I was talking about, because they just put it back out on the floor for another person to waste their time with 🫠
I thought you're able to pair Logitech stuff to other dongles? Like if it's misplaced, you buy a new dongle, and you can pair it to the new one.
Depends on the model, most newer ones have universal dongles but older ones and certain new models don’t always and have specific dongles
Logitech's Unifying dongles have been around for over a decade (I think a lot more?) and can be reprogrammed to pair with any unifying device. They do have two newer standards, Bolt (offering better power usage and encryption) and Lightspeed (optimized for response time). None of the three standards is compatible with the other two, though I believe all Bolt and Lightspeed devices can use Bluetooth as an alternative (though you lose the benefits).
I just bricked my old $99 PS5 headphones because I somehow misplaced the dongle. Loved those damn things too.
$70 to get a replacement dongle from eBay.
I got $20 earbuds instead.
You can only do that if they have a "unifying" receiver. Most MK sets (the mouse and keyboard together) don't work with a unifying receiver. Only the mice or keyboards on their own do (because the idea is you just want one receiver plugged in, and if both your mouse and keyboard have a receiver you should be able to unify them into one receiver, but with the mouse/keyboard combo sets, they both already map to the same receiver). You can see if it's unifying if it has the little orange gear anywhere on the packaging or the receiver.
Way way back in the day when games came on disks, I had a game from target that needed a code on the back of the game manual. Turns out the target version didn't include a game manual and therefore it was impossible to install. Try explaining this problem to a target return desk employee.
Target had a non return policy on games. Finally they just gave it to me to make me go away.
I still remember sometimes getting copies of games owned by other members of my extended family for my birthday or Christmas. CD-Rs with the name of the game written on it with a sharpy, packaged in blank paper envelopes with only the installation code or some excerpt from the manual needed to answer ingame questions written on them.
Messing up which envelope belongs to which game when getting multiple of them at the same time made for an annoying puzzle game when installing them the next day.
Sadly this stopped when using Steam or their own online account system got more common...
Lmao sure
Nope. I bought a Logi KB/M combo earlier this month, and it had its dongle stabbed into a box flap like this. And it's not "Unifying" compatible, because believe me, I'm familiar. I already have a K400+ keyboard-and-trackpad and an M185 mouse connected to this PC through a Unifying dongle. My MK295 can't connect to it. I absolutely have to use its own packed-in dongle.
Ive seen 4 out of 5 people return a wierless mouse saying it doesnt work because they cant find the dongle in the battery compartment even with it written on a big pastic tab that you have to pull out to even use it.
Yup, need instruction they wont read to figure out how to pour piss out of a boot.
I was the guy at the Fry’s customer service counter trying to return a wireless trackball that was missing its dongle. The clerk was hella smug about it too, when she opened the batter compartment for me. Humbling experience.
Lmao mine slung clear across the room and I was about to return the keyboard and mouse because I thought it didn't come with one. I saw the flap and understood it was supposed to have been there. But it wasn't. I was gathering up all the stuff and saw it under my sons computer chair ... Such a horrible choice of design, should be packaged in the mouse or keyboard where the slot is.
Usually it is inside the keyboard or mouse. The first time I got one of these, I was incredibly confused when I opened that cover on the back of the keyboard and it wasn't there. Checked inside the box, still nothing. Finally noticed the hole on the flap, and it wasn't there either. Turns out that mine had fallen on the floor at some point during the unboxing process too.
It's a stupid design, but thankfully it doesn't seem to be this way on all their keyboards...? Only for certain ones.
I literally just had this problem an hour ago lmao
Is this a Logitech keyboard by chance? I just had a similar experience with one their keyboards. It has a very wonderful spot for the dongle built in to the battery cover but they put it in a slot in the cardboard box it comes in. So I had a second of wondering where the hell it was that could be easily avoided.
It is. It was $20 so I guess I shouldn’t have expected much haha
The packaging color is a dead giveaway. I was hoping to be able to make out the exact model from the labeling or the UPC, but no dice. But hell yeah, 100% Logitech.
I almost returned it because i thought it was missing. Why not put it IN THE MOUSE SLOT
It's even dumber once you realize the included mouse has a specific storage slot for the usb receiver in the battery compartment.
Former Office Supply store manager here: The Answer is All the time.
Maybe not like every month, but we would absolutely see returns on items because the product was hiding in the packaging. One specific instance was a large printer, but the cartridges were only a handful for all 4. Customer called telling us he's unboxed EVERYTHING and can't find the ink. We tell him it SHOULD be in there, but he can't find it. Okay, bring it back and we'll swap it, making sure it's got ink before he leave.
He comes in, all the packaging haphazardly put into the box (You know how you do when you don't care about the product in question anymore.) But in a chunk of the Styrofoam I spotted some color. It was wedged into one corner of the Styrofoam, pretty well hidden away if you didn't know what you were looking for. Customer apologized, we told him it wasn't his fault, everything was fine, thankfully.
But yeah, hiding the dongles inside the mouse while having a fake dongle on the packaging is dumb, The dongle in the flap is dumb because we've had people lose it not realizing it's connected to the packaging. Once it gets lost in the couch cushions you might as well buy a new keyboard.
The other side is glued shut for a reason.
That just makes it a challenge, not a barrier to entry.
I found mine by sheer chance.
The dongle stored inside the mouse is so much smarter. If you know to look for it. Ahem.
Why isn't it just taped to the manual or in a little baggie?
It is a really annoying box.
I bought a box fan that did something similar. The feet were hidden below the fan in a fold of the box you would never see if you simply unboxed it like a normal person. The only reason I knew they were in the box was the reviews I read before I bought it.
All the time. When I used to work at a computer store, customers would come back saying it didn't come with the dongle. Sometimes it'd still be on the lid and they just didn't notice, or they full on lost it.
I delivered 20 to a client setting up an office in another state. The person that received them put a keyboard at every desk and threw out the boxes. Yep and all the dongles.
Dude I almost lost that little turd 2 weeks ago while unpacking the keyboard. There’s a slot inside the keyboard to store it while not in use. Like come on.
Someone had a really bright idea, and it somehow got through to prod.
Dumbest placement ever. Put it inside the cover where the batteries go like every other SMART vendor
That's absolutely fucking terrible.
It's actually incredibly efficient design. It just has no clear demarcations on the outside.
Vaccum cleaners love ’em!
Tbf all Logitech keyboards and mice are just Bluetooth now aren't they?
no
I’ve seen things where the dongle is inside the battery compartment and the customer returns the item because “the dongle is missing”.
Just stow it in the battery compartment like a sane human, already.
Literally today I bought a logitech combo and I was looking for 5 minutes for this fking thing, they could have put it in the bag with the mouse
I can confirm I realized this after dumping the box. Returned it to Amazon.
I had a full blown argument with a woman once about this. She insisted there was no dongle, I insisted there was. Help Desk is not good for my blood pressure.
ProtoArc is much smarter about it. The back of the keyboard has a lidded compartment hiding the nano receiver held by magnet(s).
Logitech used to have that (still do on many models), but they don't do that for a lot of newer models.
Doesn’t surprise me. I worked at best buy years ago in customer service and constantly had people wanting to return mice because “there was no dongle,” only for a majority to be embarrassed they hadn’t looked where the batteries went.
Yes.
Yup I lost one
Imagine if Logitech sold the receiver seperately.
Holy shit. I got one of these through work and never found the dongle. I've long since thrown the box away. I requested another but can't get one but every 2 years. I'm stuck using a plug in style keyboard until my 2 years is up
I got a keyboard from my new job with that exact dongle placement, and I almost did miss it entirely.
Truly crappy design
One in five people toss it out and phone to ask why the keyboards broken.
I have had to dig the box out of the trash because of that at least once.
😨 that's why I can't use the mouse that came with my Logitech keyboard???
Probably not? As far as I know, Logitech keyboard and mouse combos always come with a single dongle, pre-paired with both. Though you can try re-pairing through the Logitech software.
This isn't a problem for humans with functional brains.
Having sold these for the last decade I could not tell you the amount of angry customers that swear black and blue they didn’t get an adapter. This and others hiding inside the mouse near the battery that most people born last century cannot find, take up a large portion of my day explaining where they are.
I can't imagine, in this era, supporting a company that still uses dongles TBH.
r/designpornyougettingfucked
I work retail. You would be shocked at the amount of angry customers who walk in thinking the mouse they bought didn't come with a dongle when it was just inside the mouse itself. I'm sure this design was responsible for a lot of people getting yelled at.
Me oncne
Logitech is hot garbage
My "whatever the fuck that thing is" has been lost for about 6 years now.
Yes! I bought one of these and spent so long freaking out about the “missing” piece
egregious!
We order these for work and its really hard to reach the mouse and keyboard from one side. Usually you have to open both sides to get each item out easily. Its way harder only getting it out with one side.
I work in a computer store and we sell these. If I had a fucking dollar.
As a Logitech retailer. Very often
I have exactly the same model and there is a little container on the keyboard that is supposed to hold the dongle, I was so lost when it wasn’t there when I bought it. I wanted to return the keyboard.
they’re should be inside a little storage slot in the keyboard / mouse with a sucker sticking out the says “usb receiver here” or something like that
I'm currently using a cheap Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse (MK270) and had the same issue when I got it. It felt like the box was empty, and I almost threw it in the recycling.
I don't know why they do it that way, there is literally a storage compartment under the mouse's battery cover for the USB dongle. You need to take that cover off to put in a battery, so surely the user would find the dongle during installation.
We had these kind of boxes at our office when we moved to a new office. No more own desks, so everyone got cordless. A LOT of people were saying they didn’t have the dongle. Good thing was that there were other people telling the new person where it is, but I would estimate by the amount of confused people, a lot of people don’t find it on their own.
Back in the late 90s HP sold a flatbed scanner where the power adapter was taped into the outside of the polystyrene packaging, people would buy a whole computer setup with printer scanner, and set it all up and throw away the boxes only to discover the scanner didn't work months later, it happen often enough we kept a spare replacement unit in stock at store, customers were not happy having to pay for a replacement.
Had to do an office relocation in London and my company brought in help from an external company. These are the K&M combo we got, it took the contractor around 40 boxes to realise where the dongle was, and because each dongle is unique to the setup, I then had to go through each and everyone to match them up. Thank you Bill if you're reading this
My company bought us all a Logitech wireless keyboard with this packaging. Needless to say that they had a lot of trouble replacing all the dongles that accidentally landed in the trash.
We used these Logitech keyboards at work for employees, and yes, the dongles regularly got binned with the packaging by mistake. I had to create labels and stick it on them saying "Important: Dongle at end of box on cardboard flap" or something similar.
Used to get ones like this for our employees. Not only did they frequently lose the damn dongle, the version we had 1000 of couldn't be easily repaired to a new dongle, so if they lose they need a new combo. Also when employees leave and potentially give back the keyboard, or swap desks, etc, you had to take care not to get any of the dongles mixed up. (Or they'd give you the keyboard but not the dongle).
Manufactured ewaste.
Look in the fucking box? That's pretty low intelligence to just throw it away when you're missing a piece...
You would be correct! I got one for work and took about 10 mins to find the dongle as I opened it at the other end. So stupid!
LMAO my dad told me a month ago that his new keyboard didn't have one and he had to use the old one.....
As an IT - I can tell you it's been lost MANY times.
My friend and I had a similar heart attack when we started to search the box for the dongle because we couldn't find it.
I love you Logitech but god damn that's just shit.
we use that exact keyboard and mouse set at work and i have had to help 2 coworkers who could not find the dongle already. I dont even work in IT. no idea how many times that guy has gotten that question.
As an IT guy I check those boxes whenever I see them in the trash because the unifying dongles is super useful and always gets lost. I have about 9 of them in my desk right now.
probably not many, since you need it to work
how is this not inside the battery compartment, where there's usually a little storage slot? I swear on the last few Logitech mice I've bought, that's where it's been.
Oh my god is this the keyboard and mouse combo from Logitech? I got this from work some time ago, didn't need to use it for a while at first, but threw away the packaging, without noticing that I didn't have a dongle. They had to give me a new keyboard and mouse...
Ah yeah. Used to work at a Computer Store and we had a lot of Logitech wireless keyboards. Many customers came back wanting a refund because they thought it didn't come with the dongle. We had to show them where it was.
Yo that's the worst one I've EVER seen
I went nuts trying to find it, wasn't until I was putting it back in the box to return it did I see it.
On top of that, traditional no one really attaches parts to the box. I would never think to look there because I’ve never gotten stuff in that manner.
Legit bought this same one last week here in Korea. It confused me like crazy as I was checking inside the mouse and keyboard slots looking for it, just when I was about to fold it back in and return the product i hit it with the keyboard putting it back in and saw it. Really dumb placement.
Omg. I bought one of these and could never find this
I bought a new mouse and thought I lost the dongle immediately somehow. It’s still in the box since I could never use it, I’m going to have to check this now.
That’s got to cost more than even just throwing it in the box. Leaving it in the keyboard.
If only there was a place built into the keyboard battery compartment that could store it
We have these at work and it took us way longer than it should have to figure out where the dongle was.
I bought one of those years ago while visiting Denmark. The store had extra USB dongles attached to the box, and when asked why, I was told there was an obvious manufacturer defect, because none of them had one included.
When I got home, I found the "missing" one tucked away like yours... I'm guessing the store never discovered them either when they got customer complaints.
Fuck
I once returned a mouse cause I couldn't find the dongle.. did you know they can be stored inside with the batteries? I didn't
This happened to me. I ordered this too and opened the mouse to find the usb compartment empty, that’s when I had to go searching and realize they placed it in this terrible spot
wow, that is impressively stupid. like i would have to try to come up with something this dumb
Good design should include a place on the product to store the antenna.
My air fryer had some BS hidden part similar to this. The rotisserie attachment was hidden under the bottom styrofoam cushioning. It’s that last bit of styrofoam which hardly anyone removes once they remove the product. They could have easily taped it inside of the cooker. But nooooo!! If I want it, I had to pay an extra 25-30 for the replacement.
i bought a external lexar ssd yesterday, opened it and thought that it didn't come with a usb cable.
went back to throw the package away after testing it with my own cable and noticed one side of the glued shut inside packing tray was slightly heavier. they put the cable in there with zero indication anything was in hiding in the tray.
that was slightly annoying, this is just stupid lol, they must sell a lot of those spare dongles
No. Fucking. Way
I bought a wireless keyboard and mouse once and no matter what I did.I could not find the dongle
The mouse had a little internal compartment that could house it but it was not in there.And the foam padding that held the keyboard and the mouse did not have a space in it for the thing
This must have been where the friggin dongle was in that box, like I opened it up, didn't immediately see the dongle, and assumed it was inside one of the components and threw away the foam and the box, and only looked inside all the openings and spaces in the keyboard and the mouse after throwing away the box
I now have a useless worthless keyboard and mouse that will never be able to connect to anything
I threw one of these away. Exact same problem
Wife got a entire new setup work, came with that exact model keyboard. Tore up everything looking for that stupid dongle. Did not find that dongle until after I put the boxes in the recycling bin.
As someone who works in IT, I can confirm customers have thrown away the dongle by accident half the time, heck I did it once