No Bones yet.

[ShadowRaven]

they were giving out Vampire boxes, because they had vampire boxes, and everyone, except those of us stuck above the icicle curtain, who were just getting Vampire boxes had theirs sent out already. The fact is, they where hoping to still be shipping right now, but delays that they could not prevent, have slowed things down. I totally understand your feelings here, and I won't belittle them by telling you to suck it up and be patient, but just ask you to understand they are doing the best they can.

[Laoke]

I'm just a little pissed off that the people who spent the most money buying the most options and multiple vamps get screwed the hardest and have to wait the longest..... while I watch reaper @ reapercon giving away boxes of vampire pledges that should have been sent to paying KS supporters intead being given away as free prizes to people who attended reapercon while now we all have to wait for the next BATCH to show up from china......

 

just a little peeved.

 

i understand your frustration, but someone had to be last. And the way the logistics worked out it was the people who had the extra options that drew the short straw. On the bright side, from everything we've heard the process is working well and they were ahead of schedule when circumstances beyond their control (aka: customs) temporarily halted the shipping process.

 

As for Reaper giving away product - uh, right now the bottle neck isn't Vampires. If they were giving away a free Cthulhu with every Insanity Meal, then I'd be disappointed. As it stands however - unless you want Reaper to double the shipping and send you a Vampire pledge seperately, I can't see an easy solution for you. They don't have physical possession of the non-Vampire addons yet. One option, if this is truly an issue for you, would be to contact Reaper and see what they can do for you. If you live close enough to travel to the Reaper factory, you should be able to pick up your Vampire in person.

 

Given the following constraints

• 17,000 orders
• Only Vampire boxes in stock
• Project costed for 1 shipment of gear (especially for overseas customers)
• Multiple shipments from China which were supposed to arrive to a schedule, which has slipped

What else can they do? While they've got a great, and well deserved, reputation for customer service, they're also a business. They have to make calls on what returns a profit for them.

[Illithar]

[snip]

while I watch reaper @ reapercon giving away boxes of vampire pledges that should have been sent to paying KS supporters intead being given away as free prizes to people who attended reapercon

[/snip]

eh? I believe the only people getting Vampire boxes at Reapercon where KS people, they were not 'prizes' for showing up to Reapercon. Those people who contributed to the Kickstarter and were able to attend Reapercon were given the option to pick up their Vampire pledge + Paints (if any) and Cases (if any).

 

Also, it is my understanding that Reaper has all of the Vampire pledges that they need it's the extras/options/add-ons that are lacking in supply.

Edited May 8, 2013 by Illithar

[ShadowRaven]

I think he is refering to the ones auctioned off. Which since reaperbucks are phoney money is essentially the same as giving them away

[cmorse]

 

[snip] while I watch reaper @ reapercon giving away boxes of vampire pledges that should have been sent to paying KS supporters intead being given away as free prizes to people who attended reapercon [/snip]

eh? I believe the only people getting Vampire boxes at Reapercon where KS people, they were not 'prizes' for showing up to Reapercon. Those people who contributed to the Kickstarter and were able to attend Reapercon were given the option to pick up their Vampire pledge + Paints (if any) and Cases (if any).

 

Also, it is my understanding that Reaper has all of the Vampire pledges that they need it's the extras/options/add-ons that are lacking in supply.

 

 

They were prizes in the auction, along with certain large undead dragons.

[Illithar]

I think he is refering to the ones auctioned off. Which since reaperbucks are phoney money is essentially the same as giving them away

Ah, I was not aware of any auctioning.

[vutpakdi]

 

[snip] while I watch reaper @ reapercon giving away boxes of vampire pledges that should have been sent to paying KS supporters intead being given away as free prizes to people who attended reapercon [/snip]

eh? I believe the only people getting Vampire boxes at Reapercon where KS people, they were not 'prizes' for showing up to Reapercon. Those people who contributed to the Kickstarter and were able to attend Reapercon were given the option to pick up their Vampire pledge + Paints (if any) and Cases (if any).

 

There were 7-10 (?) Vampire boxes auctioned off as part of the end of con auction for ReaperBucks. They weren't given away. ReaperBucks were solely awarded for participating in and winning events. None of the Vampire boxes were given as free prizes: you had to spend time playing games or taking classes or conniving with friends to collect enough bucks. There were a few door prizes of a few Bones minis.

 

The dragons auctioned off were prototypes or sample production runs not drawn from the main shipment.

 

Ron

[eriochrome]

I'm just a little pissed off that the people who spent the most money buying the most options and multiple vamps get screwed the hardest and have to wait the longest..... while I watch reaper @ reapercon giving away boxes of vampire pledges that should have been sent to paying KS supporters intead being given away as free prizes to people who attended reapercon while now we all have to wait for the next BATCH to show up from china......

 

just a little peeved.

 

I do not think it is an issue of totally screwing the people with big orders. Even a small order if you happen to have the wrong option choosen which is not in this wave will get you held up. Once you get to essentially all the options at about 300 bucks you are stuck until the end.

 

Ofcourse there is a something in business about it being better to annoy 1 customer a lot instead of many customers a little.

[Heisler]

In the end auctioning off 10 vampire boxes had no affect on the shipping.

[bojesphob]

One of the great things about manufacturing nowadays is that, for the most part, you can schedule out in advance when you get your products, and other companies can come in and deliver those products exactly when you need them. They only deliver when you need them, so you don't have to have the entire supply of products on hand before you need them, saving you storage space and money. When it works, it works so well that you don't notice that it's a different model than having all of the product on hand at all times. A lot of companies operate this way, because it's the most efficient, and it can even save the consumer money by reducing prices of the products.

 

Now, that being said, there are side affects to this as well, like what we are seeing from this shipment that's in customs. If there is any delay at all, it causes the whole shebang to grind to a halt. I've seen this happen on so many levels, from parts being delivered to an auto assembly plant to roofing materials being delivered to my house. Had customs not taken their jolly good ole time with it, we'd never have noticed the process that's going on behind the scenes. This is the nature of manufacturing in this day and age, like it or not.

 

I think we've been spoiled with having things instantly appear that we want, from digital music you can listen to the moment you purchase it to streaming movies, and it insulates us from having to deal with things when they don't go as quickly as we'd hoped. If you don't get your movie streaming instantly, you call your ISP, or Netflix, or Hulu and have them fix the problem, then you have it 10 minutes later.

 

So, being disappointed that you don't have your minis is understandable. I'm disappointed as well. But, temper your feelings when it comes to being "pissed". If your Bones miniatures are running later than you had hoped, and that's the worst thing that's happening to you right now, take a step back and take a moment to appreciate that your problems are minor and that you have the ability to not only be disappointed that you haven't gotten a bunch of plastic, but that you actually had the financial ability to purchase it in the first place without taking food off of your table. Find a little perspective, because there are a lot of people in this world that would love to be able to say that their worst disappointment in their life for the past few months was that some miniatures didn't show up on time. That doesn't mean that Reaper is off the hook, or that they don't have to send your minis to you as fast as they can, or that your disappointment isn't justified, it just means that no matter how you look at it, you're lucky that you even had the chance to get them in the first place.

 

I apologize if that comes across the wrong way. I'm not trying to marginalize anybody's feelings. To be honest though, I know that there's going to be someone else who comes on here later ranting that they weren't first, or that their stuff isn't in yet, or whatever, and that the above words will have no impact, but maybe, hopefully, those words can at least help someone reduce some of that stress their putting on themselves about the situation.

[Pally]

There's probably some people in customs who have friends that ordered only vampire sets and they're delaying the shipment until their buddies can get a rather high resale on their investment.

 

So if you have to blame anyone then I say blame customs. I mean how long could it possible take to determine that some little white plastic minis can't be melted down to make drugs? xP

Besides, that kind of stuff probably doesn't even usually come from places like China. Customs should use their head...

"Hmm Reaper minis? We already cleared some other shipments of theirs. We know they're a minis company based in Texas. Go ahead and let their stuff through."

 

But noooo. "Eh? What is this? Is it drugs? *licks mini* Hmm... I taste something. Melt this one down and see if we can snort it. Check all the boxes for guns too while you're at it. Oh! And carefully examine the sculpts for kiddie porn. Dude! It's my coffee break. We'll come back in 5 days and do all that."

[Reaperbryan]

As I have said on the KS COmments:

 

Once again, everybody please be respectful to each other.

The complaints are legitimate - the delays really are frustrating, there have been some incidents where communication could have been faster, cleaner, etc. Nobody who is complaining is screaming for blood, they're expressing their unhappiness, and that's ok.

Those who are supporting us are also right, this is a big project and we've had a few snags along the way, and those have upset our timetables, but overall, we are not "not delivering" we're simply "delivering later than anticipated". Frankly, there's just as much frustration and yet hope on this side of the project, too.

I thank you all for your time, and we will work harder to give what information we can, but remember, some of the information is considered confidential business information, and I cannot share everything, as much as some of it might make things easier to take.

[EdgeOfDreams]

I thank you all for your time, and we will work harder to give what information we can, but remember, some of the information is considered confidential business information, and I cannot share everything, as much as some of it might make things easier to take.

 

THIS. This is a very important point that I think a lot of supporters, especially over on the KS comments, don't understand: it's not that you don't want to tell us stuff, it's that for at least some information you legally or for business reasons CAN'T tell us everything. I don't think there's any possible way to kill all the nerd rage, but I feel like clarifying this point in the updates that get posted to KS and Facebook would help at least some people come to terms with what they see as unacceptable lack of information. For myself, I totally get it - confidentiality agreements and what-not can really affect business communications. Keep up the good work!

[dwarvenranger]

If it makes folks feel better, I volunteer to be the last shipment.

[Reaperbryan]

If it makes folks feel better, I volunteer to be the last shipment.

Logistically, going into the database and manually adjusting your pledge to force it to be the end would likely be a harder task than just shipping it in the place in which the computer sorted you.