Fulfillment Update 4/3/2020
about 4 years ago – Sat, Apr 04, 2020 at 03:39:13 AM

Hello Global Gladiators,

We are back this week to let you know how things are going on the fulfillment front.

Aftershock Fulfillment

We are currently waiting on information from Blackbox in regards to emails they have been sending some of you referencing a lack of inventory on their end. We have requested that they do a complete inventory check among all of their hubs to see what is causing the discrepancy. Like those of you who received these emails, we were very surprised to see that when we had printed more than enough copies of all products to not only completely fulfill this Kickstarter, but to also have additional stock on hand for sale on our webstore and future conventions. 

Our guess is that there are pallets in a warehouse that were not properly processed in their system during the Chinese New Year and COVID-19 situations. As of writing this update, we have seen about 30 shipment notifications this week. 7 of these are in the US and 23 are from the rest of the world. 

Canada

The situation in Canada remains the same as last week. Blackbox has not found an open fulfillment house currently able to handle/ship our project after the initial one had to close its doors due to COVID-19. According to Blackbox, this includes Snakes & Lattes. We have suggested they look for smaller ones so we could arrange transfer of items to a different Canadian warehouse. We will continue to update you as this situation develops. 

Asia

With regards to VFI Asia, we had hoped shipping would begin by the end of this week but it looks like we are late in the queue and they are still bogged down. Additionally, we took the time to go over ever tier and its contents with them to ensure smooth shipping once it begins. They are confirming everything aligns with those instructions and will then begin shipping out Asia. We have told them to start as soon as they can and to not wait for every pledge to be ready at the same time. We want them to just ship things as soon as they are ready to go.

Customer Service Delay

Customer service is currently experiencing a larger influx of emails due to the previous update, and we've been informed they are roughly one week behind on answering emails. So, if you have emailed them, please expect a delay and they'll get to your message as soon as they can. We do not recommend sending follow up emails as this will only bog the system down further. That said, thanks for your patience as the team gets through the current batch of emails. They are working very hard to make sure everyone is answered and taken care of.

Midweek Update 3/25/2020
about 4 years ago – Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 11:30:11 PM

Hello Global Gladiators,

We interrupt your week to bring you an important update!

EU Fulfillment Status

We were happy to see 247 shipment notifications go out so far in the EU today, however it has been brought to our attention that several backers have noticed items missing from their shipping notification. This honestly surprised us, considering what we have already experienced earlier in this fulfillment process. It is possible that Blackbox may be sending certain orders in separate shipments in some cases, but we can't say for sure at this point. We can assure you that we provided more than enough inventory to fulfill every backer's pledge for this Kickstarter. While we investigate what is causing this, we want any backers affected by this to know that we will ensure you get every item you pledged for. If you receive your shipment and are missing any items from your pledge, please read below for instructions. 

Missing Pledge Items

If you receive your shipment and notice that any items you pledged for are missing from your order, and you have not already contacted customer service about this, please send an email to [email protected] with the subject line "MISSING PLEDGE ITEMS" (important or it might be misfiled) and list out any of the items you are missing form your pledge. We will make a list of all affected backers, and their missing items. We will then give Blackbox this list once main fulfillment concludes and ensure that they send out all missing items to those affected backers. Rest assured, you will receive your missing items.

Please note we've received word that some missing items have been sent to backers in a secondary shipment. Should you receive a second shipping notice from Blackbox for your missing items after you have already contacted customer service to report said missing items, please contact customer service again to let them know.

Missing Aftershock Stretch Goals and Upgrade Packs

As stated in our last update, Blackbox is continuing to send the missing Aftershock Stretch Goals and Upgrade Packs to those that reported them missing prior to March. The process is ongoing, and we thank you for your continued patience.

Canada Fulfillment Status

Canadian backers may have noticed a lack of activity in that region. Unfortunately, Blackbox has given us the following update:

"Our Canada warehouse has shut down due to Covid-19 concerns, so we are working to find an alternate facility where we can ship those orders."

We realize this isn't news anyone wanted to hear, and we apologize to our remaining Canadian backers that they might have to wait longer because of the ongoing pandemic. We hope Blackbox can figure out an alternative soon and that Canada fulfillment can be completed. We will keep you posted with updates as we receive them, but please know the entire team here is working hard to keep abreast of the situation.

Stay safe!

Fulfillment Update 3/20/2020
about 4 years ago – Sat, Mar 21, 2020 at 01:48:59 AM

Hello Global Gladiators,

We are back for our weekly update to report on fulfillment progress, but first...

COVID-19 Statement

Blacklist Games has been monitoring the COVID-19 situation as concerns about the virus continue to escalate, and since the health and safety of our employees, partners and customers is of the utmost importance to us, we have asked that all our employees work from home for the time being as recommended by various governments and health agencies.

Additionally, we are working with our partners to ensure that our current and future projects suffer as few setbacks as possible due to closures around the world. Due to the COVID-19 precautions set overseas in the last months, our production partners in China are slowly resuming operations but are playing catchup. Fortunately, we anticipate only small delays in Altar Quest production, which should only push back the anticipated delivery window by a few weeks. We do not anticipate delays with regards to Hour of Need's production, or to future projects such as our recently announced Fantasy: Series 1 product.

With regards to public appearances, our plans have not currently changed and our next attendance should be at GenCon this year.

Should the situation change, we will update at that time informing you of the impact of said change.

We hope everyone is staying safe and doing their part to keep others safe as well during this time!

Fulfillment Status

We are happy to report that we saw a total of 332 pledges shipping out this week, with a focus on US and AUS. We are told that EU and CAN will be getting a big push next week as well, so just hang in there! 

We are aware of many backers' desires to know how many pledges remain to be shipped per region. We have not provided this information because it is not something provided to us, and we did not want to post incorrect information. However, we do understand the desire to know where we stand in overall progress and we wanted to give you some idea of what remains. Using our own internal data based on original backer counts and comparing what we've seen reported as shipped, we estimate there are roughly 280 pledges remaining to be shipped worldwide, and about 85 in Asia.

We have seen many backers reporting that they have received their tracking information in the Kickstarter comments, and several others who have posted photos on Facebook of their massive box of goodies arriving safely to them! This makes us very happy, but we are still determined to see every backer receive their rewards as quickly as possible.

There are some shipping notifications that were sent to backers with items they ordered not listed. Contrary to some of the email responses from Blackbox that we have seen posted in the comments, we have not been notified by Blackbox of any inventory issues at any of the hubs. There is enough inventory allocated to the correct locations. This said, if you are missing anything when you receive your main rewards shipment, please contact [email protected] instead of Blackbox. We don't want anything to stop the momentum they are on right now, as I'm sure many of you would agree. We will create a list of any missing items to submit to Blackbox directly after all remaining pledges have shipped to ensure all pledges are complete. 

VFI Status

We spoke with VFI this week to confirm that we are indeed in their queue and that all the shipping info they have is correct. We were told that it should be our turn in 2 weeks. Again, VFI was extremely backlogged with projects that were in the queue before us, and they have been working through that queue. We are very excited to finally see movement in Asia and we will absolutely let you know if there are any issues that arise. From what we’ve seen of VFI Asia’s fulfillment capabilities, they will do their best to knock out all of Asia in a matter of 1-3 business days once they get things rolling. 

Missing Upgrade Packs and Aftershock Stretch Goals

If you contacted [email protected] prior to March to let us know your rewards were missing an Aftershock SG box (Street Masters Tier backers) or an upgrade pack (Aftershock Tier backers), please note that those are still being sent out slowly but surely by Blackbox. If you still haven't seen yours arrive, it is normal as their main focus is main rewards fulfillment for all backers and therefore these missing items are being sent out more slowly for the time being. We ask that you give them more time to complete the process.

If you haven't contacted customer service about your missing items or missing items in pledges received starting in March, please do so and we'll add you to the list that will be submitted to Blackbox. 

Until Next Week

We are very glad to see the end of this fulfillment approaching, and we couldn't be happier to see backers who have been waiting so long finally receive their rewards. We hope you are all staying safe during this time, and take care of yourselves!

Fulfillment Update 3/14/2020
about 4 years ago – Sun, Mar 15, 2020 at 03:04:13 AM

Hello Global Gladiators,

I apologize for yesterday's update being delayed due to GAMA travel. However, let's take a look at how things have gone this week.

Fulfillment Status

We have seen notifications for a total of 137 full pledges shipping out this week from all regions (excluding Asia, see VFI update below), along with 3 missing Aftershock Stretch goals and 2 upgrade packs. 

We are glad to see several backers posting that they have received either a notification of their order being created or the tracking info from their order being shipped out. This helps us gauge the shipping process outside of what we see on our side. This also shows us that there may be a bit of delay between us seeing a notification and the backer receiving one. From what we understand, this is because of the third party courier options that our partner's regional warehouse reps have chosen. Though we have asked for this to be streamlined, it appears that even they do not have control over it. This is why some backers will receive FedEx, UPS, DHL, SmartPost, or something completely different even if in the same region as another backer. So the takeaway is that the numbers we receive are based on things that have been sent out, though there is a possible delay to when backers receive notifications, if they do at all. But what is assured to us, is that ultimately once we get notification, you will receive your product.

We are also aware that we have now passed the 2 week estimate that was previously provided as when they expected to finish shipping all remaining pledges. We will be meeting with them on Tuesday to tell them we expect them to ship out all remaining pledges by the end of the week, or if not, provide us an update to give our backers as to why it isn't possible. 

VFI Asia Update

We have received word from VFI that they have been returning to work and beginning to work through their shipping queue. While they are backlogged with projects from multiple publishers, they understand our urgency and have assured us that we are in their queue. We double-checked the shipping list with them to make sure that everything was correct and ready to go. We will have another meeting with them on Tuesday to get an ETA for when they will start shipping our inventory.

Until Next Week

Again, we want to thank all the backers that have posted comments confirming their receipt of their shipping notifications. Not only does it reassure us that the movement we see on our end is accurate, it helps inform your fellow backers how things are progressing. We really hope to see even more posts next week and maybe even confirmations of delivery. This fulfillment process has been long and frustrating, but we are genuinely excited to see everyone get their rewards. 

Fulfillment Update 3/6/2020
about 4 years ago – Sat, Mar 07, 2020 at 02:20:50 AM

Hello Global Gladiators,

Let's take a look at where we are this week:

Fulfillment Status

Shipping continues this week and we've seen a total of 136 notifications on our end.  38 Upgrade packs were sent out, about 20 Aftershock Stretch Goals are left from the list, and 46 full pledges are out the door globally. At this point, the majority of the missing upgrade packs and Aftershock stretch goals should be sent out. If you had contacted customer service in the last two weeks about these missing items, you were not skipped and are on a separate list that we are sending over to Blackbox for them to get started on. 

VFI Asia

As stated previous, Asian fulfillment has been on hold because VFI operations had not resumed due to COVID-19. We have seen some comments about people possibly receiving other games from VFI Asia. We are reaching out to VFI for a status update and, if their operations have indeed resumed, to see where we are in their shipping queue. We'll let you know as soon as we hear back.

Incorrect Shipments

If you have received a shipment that is missing any items, please note that Blackbox will address these after the remaining pledges have been shipped out to avoid any additional errors or delays. If you have already contacted [email protected] about this, there is no need to email again, but if you haven't yet please do so with the subject line: "INCORRECT SHIPMENT"

Until Next Week...

Also, we want to assure you that we are doing everything we can on our end, anything that won't risk further delay of the remaining shipments, to make sure the remaining fulfillment wraps up quickly. While waiting we are going through QA, keeping in constant contact with everyone involved and updating you weekly exactly with what we know. This is not a "feel-good" speech, rather an affirmation that we are completely dedicated to have you receive your products, the sooner the better, if that hasn't been properly conveyed. We do understand it's not a lot of solace for those who still have products that are in waiting, but we are committed to keep things moving for everyone.