Shipping update: Good News
about 7 years ago
– Tue, May 02, 2017 at 11:10:09 PM
Hello Backers!
I am happy to report that last Friday's personal visit to ShipBob seems to have had the desired results. tl;dr: We've got it sorted and your backer rewards are on their way again!
For those interested in the longer form details, I'll elaborate below.
On April 28th I traveled from Seattle and met with the company co-founder and Operations Manager and with their Customer Success Manager at their Chicago location where I got a detailed explanation of what exactly went wrong with our fulfillment. It was a flaw in their internal systems that had never come up before (lucky us!) and they've taken steps so that it can't happen again. They walked me through the entire process and gave me a tour of the warehouse, including showing me that they were already in the process of correcting our shipment situation.
If you are a United States backer and received a tracking number, that tracking number will be reactivated and will show your package's new progress. They are working through the backlog but several hundred numbers have already been reactivated and the rest should be coming along shortly. I have already heard from a few backers who noticed this was the case before this update, so hooray there!
If you are a foreign backer and received a tracking number, those numbers have expired and ShipBob will be issuing new tracking numbers which will be provided to you. We have asked that ShipBob subscribe you to updates for those shipments. You also will be receiving the new information shortly.
When those orders are cleared, the rest of the US and worldwide backers (with the exception of the in-transit-to-Australia shipments for the Pacific Rim) who did NOT receive any tracking previously will be issued tracking numbers when your packages are in transit. This includes people who were expecting Narrator's Kits as part of their orders. Those products are in the warehouse and ready to go out.
When I asked them about the damages we have seen from some backers who DID receive their packages, we were told those shipments were also being redone. They have added these bubble-pack sleeves to the process to better protect the books inside the boxes for everyone.
With that, I do believe we have finally addressed all the ShipBob-related problems. Our long Blue Rose shipping nightmare is drawing to an end.
Once again, I can only thank you all for your exceptional patience as we became aware of and then tried to sort out this tangled mess ShipBob managed to create. They have been good fulfillment partners for us on smaller projects for over a year and a half and once the scope of the problem was understood, they really did work to make the necessary corrections. I'm still quite unhappy that they caused so much turmoil for you all since you'd already waited a few extra months for delivery as it was and I let them know in no uncertain terms that this is a situation that has damaged their relationship with us as well as our relationship to you. There's no stuffing that genie back in the bottle so the best we can do is try to make it right and to make it right NOW.
I cannot tell you how much I want to see these beautiful books and add-ons out and in your hands. You've all been wonderful, even when sometimes you've been justifiably angry. I appreciate it and value your support for this project (and for poor Dylan as he got thrown in the deep end trying to sort it out from our side).
Thank you, so much.
For Aldis, and the Queen!
Nicole
March Blue Rose Update
about 7 years ago
– Mon, May 01, 2017 at 04:16:26 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Blue Rose April Update
about 7 years ago
– Mon, Apr 17, 2017 at 10:28:52 PM
Hello backers,
I've been trying to address some issues in the comments of the Kickstarter page but it seems like at this point a full update is due.
First: we are aware that several people received tracking numbers for their pledge shipments that either stalled out or seemed to go nowhere entirely. Our fulfillment service hasn't provided me with an explanation of what happened but they HAVE begun correcting the situation and we've already heard from some of the people getting the earliest re-ships that the product is now starting to arrive as expected.
If you find yourself in this situation (a tracking number that didn't progress or result in delivery) and you haven't yet contacted Green Ronin about it directly, please send your information to [email protected] and Dylan will make sure that your new shipment is underway.
Second: we have also received some feedback (though from far fewer than those affected by the mysterious shipping label issue) that some books were not packed well and arrived damaged. This is every bit as unacceptable to us as the outright non-delivery of packages. Again, if your book arrived damaged, please send your information to Dylan at [email protected] and he will get the fulfillment center to reship a properly packaged book.
Finally, some actual good news about the rest of the rewards! Narrator's Kits are in the warehouse and ready to go out. I put a temporary hold on them while we tried to sort out what happened to the original shipments because the last thing I wanted to do is double-up on having packages sent to a black hole somewhere. With the news that the reshipped books are arriving, we will be moving ahead with shipping out the Narrator's Kits for everyone waiting on those items.
There have been a couple of questions about the tokens and pendants as well. Those are being manufactured now and will be shipping to backers from the fine folks at Campaign Coins directly. Those rewards are still coming and should be completely insulated from any of the weirdness going on at our North American fulfillment partner.
PDF backer rewards are hosted at BackerKit now for everyone who pledged for such things and should be available there to you indefinitely. The only PDF reward that is not yet delivered is the Six of Swords PDF add-on. Six of Swords is still in development and will be posted to the PDF delivery system on BackerKit when it is ready for distribution.
I think that's all the news that fit to share for April. Before I sign off, I will reiterate that if you have a concern about anything (tracking numbers, delivery, non-delivery, damages, anything) please send a message to [email protected] so that our dedicated Customer Service Templar can take care of you.
Thanks as always for your continued support,
Nicole
Shipping update
about 7 years ago
– Tue, Apr 04, 2017 at 05:31:04 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Clarification on the "Hold" add-on
about 7 years ago
– Tue, Feb 28, 2017 at 03:08:01 PM
This update will be a quick one but I wanted to get it out in an e-mail in for those who aren't following along in the comments on the Kickstarter page.
If you're holding off to have your screen and book shipped together, select the Hold add-on. On the day that the BackerKit is locked down, everyone with the Hold add-on will get a credit for the shipping for their Narrator Kit.
Because this is something I added in after the fact, I need to be able to lock the BackerKit surveys first so I can bulk you all into a group and manually apply the credits for everyone. I know it's kinda clunky in its implementation since it was a solution applied after the fact but the bottom line is that the additional shipping will show up until the credits are applied but you won't be paying the additional shipping on the Narrator's Kit in the end.
Thanks again for hanging with me as I've tried to shave off every bit of excess shipping wherever I can. I know it's been important to a lot of people.
Nicole
