Heretic

I wonder if you input the tracking # into the Royal Mail web tracker if it'll be much more up to date? The UPS code doesn't work on the Parcelforce (Royal Mail) site. However the UPS one did update! Though it got it a bit wrong as it claims delivery was attempted though it won't get delivered until I cough up cash! United Kingdom 25/02/2015 7:34 Package delivery was attempted 25/02/2015 3:44 Package arrived at international carrier United Kingdom 24/02/2015 3:49 Package cleared by foreign customs office United Kingdom 22/02/2015 23:30 Package arrived at foreign customs office 22/02/2015 22:53 Package arrived at international carrier United Kingdom 20/02/2015 16:42 Package departed international carrier facility United Kingdom 19/02/2015 11:26 Shipment Acceptance at international carrier Bensenville, IL, United States 18/02/2015 14:00 Package received for processing by UPS M

Got the letter from the Royal Mail this morning: £54 Import duty/VAT and £8 for the letter itself! No change on the UPS tracking page. I wonder if it will update when I pick up the box. I was wave 3. So given that the goods must have arrived at least a day before the letter arrived I'd imagine we'll see a lot of deliveries soon.

I know one fella whose wave two rewards arrived in the Republic of Ireland. Mine, wave 3, destined for Northern Ireland is still in the same stage as GentleGiant's friend's. It seems odd UPSMI should consider handing over goods to a national carrier somewhere in the US as the same as them arriving in that country but it fits the time scales!

@Joyboozer. Previously there was a reasonably clear idea about what was happening, how fast it was happening, how it was organised and what should happen next. However it seems that for the remaining RoW backers the plan for their shipping did not pan out and Reaper are now sending them out via a channel that is in comparison very slow but is as fast as they currently can. The disparity between the customer experience before and after the events that rendered the ticker obsolete has resulted in a deal of heat on this and other fora and not a great deal of light.

@ReaperClark. My guess is you are a decent fella who has put a huge effort into making this KS a success. I really do get how aggravating it is when you feel like you've been going the extra mile every day for months and the only response you seem to get are demands for more. Please, please do bear in mind that it was all of us KS backers who had our levels of anticipation and expectation raised by the huge effort you guys put into fulfilment and saw the fruits of that effort in the ticker, not just the lucky 90% who got shipped during that period.

A box arrived today. It had the extras I ordered but was missing 3 of the four vampire sets. Can anyone who has a big order that needed 2 or more boxes tell me if the documentation on each shipping box mentioned there is more than one item. All the paperwork on the box mentions 1 item which would lead me to assume only 1 got sent from Denton but I just don't know! Edit: Parcel Force have confirmed there was only ever one Box. Wow! Just like Santa they made a list and I know they checked it twice: the line showing 4 x Vampire had a reassuring yellow highligter run over it. However somehow a box was posted across the Atlantic with only 25% of the Vampire orders it was supposed to have. Mind you given the extras there would have been no room for a single extra box! Edit: I emailed Reaper & they got back the same afternoon. Turns out each box has it's own tracking number and one is still stuck in customs. So I went back to my email & it seems that if there are two boxes they send out two emails with different shipping refs but both listing the same full inventory list. So keep your eye out for a second email that looks like a duplicate, there may be a different shipping number! Worth bearing in mind particularly in relation to customs charges! Full marks to Reaper for the speed of their reply! W

@OsidianCrane: I think you have a point. It was a bit disappointing when my mate got his mail weeks ago. I was not all that concerned, it was only when I came on to the forum to work out what was happening and things did not add up that I began to get frustrated. When he got his stuff it did make things a little worse! I reckon there are a number of contributing factors. Yes, seeing others get theirs before yours are even sent. Also allowing oneself to get caught up in the anticipation that the ticker caused and then the huge anti climax. Then trying to work out what had happened, having to check multiple channels and then there being contradictions between what we've read and what is happening! Add in too the uncertainty this causes. In particular the feeling that surely, surely if Reaper could overcome all the obstacles for 16000+ other backers surely they could have done more for us. So if Reaper could have made regular clear explanations that took the guess work out of it, reassured us that everything was in hand and were specific in what that meant, acknowledged that the delays we've experienced are of a different nature to those the U.S. or even Canada & the first half of the RoW suffered...... Then a lot of the heat would have been taken out of it. I can say that when I did get my email, the uncertainty went & while I will have to deal with my mate staggering into the gaming club weighed down with his Bones, I am pretty much back to the same sense of anticipation I was at when they sent him his shipping email though that doesn't mean I'm not impatient.

Normality is a fairly subjective thing! Though I am sure that it will be some measure of comfort to Reaper that the general wave of disgruntlement is not universal! Do wonder if Reaper peeps do read these threads do they sympathise with us or just think we're overly entitled jerks who should be grateful for the great deal they're offering regardless of whether it arrives in July, September or as soon as they can get it out.

Sorry if I missed the point!

Bolded for important parts. @Sumbloke this is an example of how the official KS updates just don't tell the whole story. Similarly the information that appears on Facebook. @Cassu: Thanks for the update! Seems that between Stacey Tail's similar email response and today the good folks at Reaper have had to push the timeframe back another week. Wish I was more surprised. W

@Laoke. I am not a big of user of Internet fora. I am led to understand that amazingly, some people like to post provocative messages just to enjoy the reaction and that dignifying them with a reasoned response only encourages further provocation. Hard to believe I know. From what I have seen Reaper have responded to events without keeping us in the loop even if the events might seem to us to be very much our business. Changes to plans, changes to ongoing processes, changes to the level of expectation. Lots of changes that have left many of us with a vastly inferior customer experience to other backers but with no adequate information provided to soften the blow. So I don't feel spending time seeking to fill in the blanks reflects badly on the seeker. W

There is a bit of life in this week yet, especially in sunny Denton. It will be interesting to see how things actually progress. Things will have to change pretty drastically for the RoW stuff to be shipped in the next couple of weeks. So unless there is another single big truck shipment in our future there may well be more news late on Friday, Texas time. Though of course processed may mean something other than shipped and even then the second week in August was an estimate in an email, not anything official! We'll get what Reaper sends when they send it and not a second sooner. Hope that is no too far in the future. W

1) While it is pretty much impossible that communication on something like this could be utterly perfect and beyond reproach, the comms early on we're just great! When there was only good news to impart and no packing to do Reaper were excellent! It has only been when the proverbial wicket got a bit sticky that quality of comms began a spiral downwards. 2a) Hmm guard your glasses well! if you can't see 'em you can't enjoy 'em 2b) see 2a 2c) good value certainly! 2d) No doubt but as you know it's not the wait as such that bugs me. I've got hundreds of figures waiting my brush.... Just hate the growing feeling of being kept in the dark. And yes re Jason 100% right, I guess I will just have to deal with not being as cool as he is. W

Thanks for clarifying that for me! I take back what I said. Looks to me that Reaper made sure the retail backers (undertaker level) rewards were fulfilled after the US & Canadian private backers were finally sorted out. So no N.American backer should see the (retail packaged) KS figures in their stores before they got theirs. As undertaker never applied to RoW we will not be seeing them in our bricks & mortar shops. I certainly had the impression that private backers would get fulfilled first and in a sense this has happened for most people. @Smoking Wreckage: The specifics of what you wrote were cool and your point carried weight. The way the term is commonly used means I tend to shy away from it but I appreciate you were not implying anything nasty! @Sumbloke: Wow!! Thanks for going to so much work! Now to collate all the Facebook, email and other communication streams! :-) (only joking!!!!)

@Laoke. If Reaper really can't manage to increase the speed of RoW delivery no one can argue they should punish the undertaker level backers by making them wait until September before processing their gear. You are 100% correct that it is disappointing that RoW could not be better taken care of, though if Reaper had not lead us to believe they would not send commercial rewards before all the privates ones we'd probably not have been as concerned! It is the implications of the decision that worry me. We're told Reaper are "chipping away" at our RoW orders..."chipping away". One hardly senses the urgency dripping from this choice of words! W