No Bones yet.

[denneyg]

If I were a small company shipping out a very high number of packages, I would not indicate the x shipped out of y orders. Because, people will complain more when they calculate the difference between each posting. They now have a tangible number to throw at the company and complain about speed and efficiency. I do agree that a quick post of something indicating they are shipping would be nice. Kind of like what they did at the beginning.

 

- We are shipping out a hundred boxes of the simple orders to test the system.

- System is working and we are sending more.

- Pausing shipping for reaper con. We will be shipping like mad until the end of May else Bryan gets chained to a desk and not allowed to go to Origins.

- Shipping has continued.

- etc.

 

I wonder if they could state that last part of your example "Currently Shipping: Vampire+ vampire extras + ..." and so on.

 

Heck, I'd just settle for a "Yes, we have resumed shipping post ReaperCon." To the best of my knowledge we haven't gotten confirmation of that.

[ttuckerman]

Like others have said, there are 18,000 orders. There are ~10,000 users. most of them do not post. There is a good chance that none of the regular posters got shipments since reapercon.

[araziel]

But it would certainly be nice with an official update. Just to know they're chugging on and everything is going fine.

[Darsc Zacal]

Like others have said, there are 18,000 orders. There are ~10,000 users. most of them do not post. There is a good chance that none of the regular posters got shipments since reapercon.

Also interesting to note that over 5,000 of this forums users have never ever posted. Not even once.

 

Add into that there are over 1200 users who have only posted a single time, and one begins to realize just how small of a representation the regular posters here are of Reapers overall customer base.

[Hawker]

Now don't go out and get your torch & pitchfork combo as I consider myself to be one of Reaper's biggest fans and I honestly love the bones range.

 

But the communication recently hasn't been satisfactory in my opinion. I'm not underestimating how big a job they have in front of them but a quick update isn't going to take much time and would settle a lot of peoples concerns.

 

I'm in the UK so have resigned myself to an extra delay (and probably extra cost) caused by Royal Mail and Customs but I think we'd all benefit from an update and I don't think anyone benefits from silence on the issue.

[MagiusDel]

Funny, mine reads Porch and Fitchtork. Guess that's what I get for shopping in the bargain bin.

 

In all seriousness, though, I expected a "We've started up shipping again, everything's on schedule" post after ReaperCon, but I'm not terribly surprised that communications have been bad this last couple weeks. Brian's been working hard to get the Canadian Broker status thing straightened out, and I strongly suspect that has been eating up all the time that he otherwise would be spending posting vague assurances on where they're at in the shipping process, and otherwise assuring fans that, yes, they are working on things, and no, they aren't going to be any more specific about their timeline, because they just don't want people to jump to conclusions and then blame Reaper for breaking promises they never made, because if they did that, things would just get messy, and nobody wants to see that.

Right?

[ShadowRaven]

right

[unidentifiable]

Can someone satisfactorily explain to me this "Canadian Broker" thing? Reaper's been shipping to Canada for millennia years, so why is it suddenly impossible? Can't they just sneakily send one package at a time?

 

The only thing that I know is that for some reason Bones would not be free to ship, and "Broker" is some kind of magic that fixes that and lets Reaper ship 250 minis to my doorstep without my having to pay a dime. However "Broker" is apparently a 9th level spell that can only be cast by Canadian Bureaumancers. So Bryan has gathered an adventuring party (comprised entirely of paperwork) and sent it off to the Bureaumancracy to be signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public enquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months before being recycled into firelighters. Presumably, once done, the Head Bureaumancer waves his magic wand and Bones would no longer be deemed suspicious-toys-that-could-have-hollowed-out-bits-with-cocaine-in-them and allowed to enter New Albion Canada, whereupon much rejoicing will be done by Dudley Do-Rights across the land.

 

Okay, but seriously. If this whole thing is being blocked up by trying to avoid a $10 fee, I'd rather just pay and be done with it at this point. You can make it up to me in the next KS by expanding your line of Canadian sculpts :)

[Unruly]

From what I understand, if Reaper gets Broker status in Canada then any customs and import duties that get levied on the packages end up getting paid for by Reaper themselves. And since customs duties can be assessed based on the government's estimated value rather than the declared value, the could be significantly higher than they would be for most normal Reaper shipments. Also, shipping companies like to tack on all sorts of stupid fees for paying the customs charges on your behalf as a supposed "convenience service."

 

As an example for how customs charges can turn out bad, I had a friend in Canada ask me to buy a couple video cards for him a few years ago, because even with shipping the cost to him would be substantially lower than if he bought them in Canada. So he gave me the money to buy and ship them, I did just that, and then he got a bill from FedEx to the tune of an extra $100 or so because the customs office opened the package, decided that the declared value of $150(the price paid for just one of the two cards in the US) was wrong, and assessed duties based on a value of around $600(more than what the two cards would have cost if bought in Canada). That made up the bulk of the extra charges, but then FedEx tacked on another $25 or so in extra "handling fees" because they "paid the import duties on his behalf" rather than just letting it sit at the customs office while they sent him a letter asking for the fees to be paid. In the end, he still saved a bit of money, but it wasn't anywhere near what he was hoping to have saved.

Edited May 6, 2013 by Unruly

[Darsc Zacal]

Each time you order something through an online store that has to be shipped from outside Canada, that package is susceptible to duty, handling and potential other charges. Sometimes Canada Customs waves the package through without any charge, other times the additional charges can be quite substantial. Quite substantial. Much much more than $10.

 

Given the size of many folks orders, potential unpredictable charges on large dollar amount orders would have affected the way some of us backers might have pledged, had not Reaper reassured us that they would import everyone's order enmasse directly to a partner in Canada by the name of RAFM who would then send them out to us from within Canada. Meaning no nasty surprise charges to us upon delivery.

 

However. At some point another option was presented to Reaper which they decided to pursue instead. To the best of my understanding it involves Reaper acting as their own customs broker on our behalf. This is where the paperwork, red tape, and usual Government Canada efficiency comes into play and everybody gets to play the waiting game.

 

Personally. I would rather wait than potentially have to pay an substantial sum.

Edited May 6, 2013 by Darsc Zacal

[unidentifiable]

I was unaware the sum would be substantial, so that clears things up a bit. I was also unaware that customs could assess the value of a shipment on its own whim, although I guess that prevents people from declaring all shipments to be worth a dollar, and that clears things up further. I will happily wait to avoid shelling an additional $50+ on my $150 order.

 

But I still don't understand why these shipments are different than any other shipment made by Reaper. Surely to <deity> if this is the process then these fees might be levied on run-of-the-mill purchases as well...so what's new?

[thatguywiththeface]

if I recall correctly, ReaperBryan said something like more than a thousand orders where going out a day right before R-Con so no, I don't think a half year is in order. Another month maybe, but not another five

 

I believe he also said not to quote him on that. So, it's probably not as few as 100 orders a day, but it's probably not as much as 1,000. Which would make sense, given the fact that it's taken them a good chunk of time more than 18 days to ship everything out.

 

Also: Addressing the topic in general: can we PLEASE stop talking about updates? yes, I know, the lack of information is killing us, and speculation is bad, but Mr. Stiltz has enough on his plate right now without being guilt-tripped about not communicating with us as much as we'd like him to.

 

And you know, in retrospect, I feel like I was a jerk for complaining so much about not having my pledge... and I'm sorry.

Edited May 6, 2013 by thatguywiththeface

[Darsc Zacal]

What's new? I can't speak for others, but this Bones kickstarter order will be about 20 times the size of the usual order I normally place through Reaper. On those small orders Canada Customs lets the majority through without any charge, but even then I have been dinged by them a couple of times on those.

 

A larger order means a greater chance that Canada Customs will deem them worthy of additional charges. And again, a larger order means those charges will be painful on my wallet.

 

That's the difference. Reaper is doing us Canadians a huge favour, which I'm very thankful for as it means that I was able to order more minis because I knew there'd be no additional cost to me. Because of that I'm willing to wait.

[Dan Goodchild]

The part about which I'm most curious is whether Reaper is doing the application themselves or if UPS 'helpfully' offered to do it for them. This situation makes me think that UPS got its nose out of joint after being called on the massive, surprise brokerage fees and then stuck said nose in where it didn't belong.

I'm actually registered as an importer as a result of something I brought over the border for a former employer and it took all of about fifteen minutes. In fact, I stood in line to get to the computer station longer than I actually spent doing the paperwork. As much as we like to make fun of government bureaucracy, the process just isn't that onerous.

I just can't shake the feeling that UPS is gumming up the works to its own ends here.

[Qwyksilver]

All it takes is one hacked off Customs guy to open a box, bounce to the Reaper site, and decide your Kickstarter package price should be retail cost, not what you paid, and then BAM! tons of extra fees.

 

The brokerage deal helps you avoid this.