Vessel information. Address Locks.
over 5 years ago
– Thu, Sep 13, 2018 at 12:22:54 AM
Hello backers,
Here is the latest information for each region:
Australia/NZ - already arrived at the fulfillment center. Shipping should happen this month.
EU Region - Games have already departed via freight. VESSEL: TOLEDO TRIUMPH/0998-007W. Estimated arrival to fulfillment center: Sept 29th.
North America - Games have already departed via freight. VESSEL: MSC ROMA /836E. Estimated arrival to fulfillment center: Oct 15th.
Asia and Other - fulfillment is currently underway by VFI.
Based on these projections, I am hoping to have ALL of the orders delivered between now and the end of October.
Locking addresses
At this point I need to lock down the addresses for upcoming fulfillment. Please see below when your region will be locked and make sure to get in any address changes in before the cut off window.
Australia/NZ - Addresses will be locked Sept 14.
ER region - Addresses will be locked Sept 20th
North America - Addresses will be locked Oct 2nd.
Asia and other - Addresses are already locked/cannot be updated.
To update your address, use the link sent to you from BackerKit. Or if you have a BackerKit account, log into their website. If you cannot find your original BackerKit email, go to this page to get a new link sent to you:
https://deep-space-d-6.backerkit.com/
Bulk Orders
If you backed at the bulk order level, expect an invoice in the coming week.
That's all for now. You can read further below if you want to a little insight on the shipping process and what partly caused some delays in this stage.
Cheers!
-Tony
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Fulfilling a Kickstarter Project
I don't know a single project creator who views the shipping and fulfillment part of a campaign as anything but a headache. It's messy and confusing, and even though this is my 5th campaign, there are still issues that I run into, old and new.
When a product is manufactured overseas (in this case China), there are multiple important parties involved: The creator (me), backers (you all), the manufacturer, the shipping company, the freight forwarder, the fulfillment company, the postal company. I'm sure I missed some, but these are the big ones.
Have a look:
Things might get a little complicated but here goes...
Each one of these arrows is it's own process and even the way you contact and interact with Fulfillment Center A can be very different from Fulfillment Center B. As a creator you are in contact with almost ALL of these entities (the boxes).
As a creator you also have a few options. You can coordinate everything down to a high level of granularity. This is great and what I've done in the past, but it doesn't work so well with larger campaigns full of more moving parts. As a result, you can have the manufacturer coordinate the majority of the processes. This is called full service or turnkey manufacturing. Under these terms, the manufacturer coordinates the freight, shipping, and delivery of final goods right up to the backer's doorstep. It does cost more, but as more manufacturers compete for publisher contracts and the cost of manufacturing levels out, improved services in this area becomes a high demand differentiator. Essentially, the ability for a manufacturer to offer full [manufacturing]floor-to-door service of a product, plays a key role in how a manufacturer is chosen.
So what happened? I took on the role of turnkey client- more or less the same as my previous DSD6 Kickstarter. I still picked what fulfillment companies I wanted to use, but it is the responsibility of the manufacturer to contact these companies and establish timeframes and capabilities. That did not happen. Instead, the games were shipped to each fulfillment center without their awareness. I only realized this because my manufacturer mistakenly gave me the dates for outgoing shipping mislabeled as dates for arrival.
This is an important detail for obvious reasons, how would they know what to expect? But more importantly, each of these fulfillment centers have a preferred freight forwarder and freight company (see the blue dotted box). This is because when you import goods from another country, as the receiver of said goods, you are legally responsible for clearing the customs and importation duties. Using your own freight companies ensures best practices and legal conformity. Because my manufacturer opted to use their own freight companies, these fulfillment centers cannot safely receive the goods.
Ultimately what that means is my company must act as the consignee of the goods, but not the final receiver. Being legally responsible for goods you cannot inspect for yourself is inherently risky. Sure it is common practice, and sometimes the only way to coordinate goods to multiple locations in a timely order, but this was not the original plan I had intended with full service manufacturing. As the consignee, you get to have fun with these lovely acronyms: POA, BOL, and ISF. I hope you, dear backer, never have to deal with these lovely 3 letter words :)
Luckily, most of these issues have been resolved. I have previously acted as sole recipient of imported goods in the past. I'm also very grateful for the hardworking individuals at these fulfillment centers for working extra hours to help me correct course. The problems with the freight shipment could have caused even greater delays (goods stranded at the docks!), but I'm confident now they'll get to where they need to be.
Okay so that part is largely past us. The games have arrived at some locations, and are on boats in others. This campaign has seen tons of problems (a lot of which were wholly mine, without a doubt), let's hope that the fulfillment stage isn't lined with as many issues as each of the previous ones.
If you've read this far and still want to know more, drop a comment. This stuff is not easy, and others certainly make it seem more manageable, but I'm open to share any information I have. Some people might read all this as me passing blame yet again, but that's okay right? Blame is frowned upon when it is used in place of proactively making changes to fix a situation or clear progress. I hope I am transparent and honest enough for you all to feel that I am making changes and progress.
Best
-Tony
