Fulfillment Updates for Every Shipping Region
almost 5 years ago – Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 11:30:07 PM

Hello everyone!

Let me first say how excited I am to be part of the Grey Fox Games team. As Shane told me when he hired me, I would be the man wearing many hats for him, and one of my hats will be handling the Kickstarter projects, which of course includes these updates. I look forward to talking to all of you on this project and the ones we launch in the future.

That being said, I want to apologize to each and every one of you for the fact that our communication could have been handled much, much better. The time since the last update is literally a month to the day, and that simply is too long of time when you consider the many trials and tribulations we have been going through with our Reavers fulfillment. We could give you reasons why we've been so lax, but the truth is no reason is good enough.  I realize that an apology may not be enough for some of the frustrations you all are feeling, but I promise you that we here at Grey Fox Games will handle our future communications in more expedient manner.

So, let’s get to what we are here to talk about - the status of all of the rewards shipping to our backers, including the replacement trays, broken down region to region.

EU: All games and replacement trayz have shipped to our backers and if you are in this region you should have received your order or should have it within the week.  If you do not have it in hand by next Friday, please email us as you should definitely have it by then, even with postal delays.

We believe all of our French backers received a stretch goal deck that is in Portuguese. We apologize for this. Our manufacturer in China is sending a corrected replacement deck to every French backer and you should be receiving them in about 3-4 weeks.

AUS/NZ: All games and replacement trayz have shipped to our backers and if you are in this region you should have received your order or should have it within the week.  If you do not have it in hand by next Friday, please email us as you should definitely have it by then, even with postal delays.  Please note: add an extra week for NZ.  

Asia: All games and MOST of the replacement trayz have shipped to our backers and if you are in this region you should have received a shipping notification and/or your game/trayz at this time.

There are a small number of Asia backers who have not yet received their replacement trayz. If you are one of these backers, you should receive your trayz within the next 7-14 days.  Most of the ones in this category should be retail orders.  For some reason, the trays were not shipped with any of the retail orders.

Canada: We need to give an extra apology to our Canadian backers, the situation here just got out of hand and problems just compounded on top of each other and caused unacceptable delays.  The most up to date info is that about 48 shipments went out last week and the remaining started going out today and will finish up by Tuesday at the latest.  If you are in Canada, you should start seeing your games arrive late next week.

United States: All of the games have shipped except for less than 50 which are on hold because we ran out of Reavers Game mats (because our shipping company mailed a bunch of mats to people that didn't order them). We are having more mats air-shipped in from our factory. As soon as we receive them we will send out the final US orders to our backers.   For those of you that received ONLY a Reavers mat but actually ordered a copy of Reavers and a Champions mat, your orders should go early next week.

Everywhere else:  Many of these have shipped and are n the way, but if not, we will email you to let you know what's happening. 

Now I cannot possibly guess what people’s questions may be to this, but I will take a stab at a few with this FAQ:

You ran out of mats? How is that even possible?

Our fulfillment center made a mistake and shipped out 79 mats to backers who didn’t order them. We were not going to ask these people to send them back, so we just printed off more. Note: we are not trying to pass the buck onto our fulfillment partner here - mistakes happen, and we are working with them to make sure that this does not happen again in the future.

Based on this update, I don't have my game yet and I think I should.  What should I do?

Please wait until next Friday and then email me directly at [email protected] with your backer number and your complete address so I can begin tracking down what went wrong and get it fixed for you as soon as possible.

I opened up my box and component “XYZ” is broken/missing. What do I do?

Please email [email protected] with a complete description/picture of what is missing/defective along with your address and we will get new pieces/cards/bits out to you as soon as we can. We are getting slammed with these requests right now, so please be patient.

I paid for addons in the pledge manager but I didn’t get them. What do I do?

Email me directly at [email protected] with your backer number, your complete address, and what is missing so I can begin tracking down what went wrong and get it fixed for you as soon as possible.

I am really upset about how this Kickstarter was handled and I want to tell someone about it who will listen to me and take my advice on how to handle future campaigns. Who should I talk to?

Email me directly at [email protected]. I will read every single email I get and respond to it. I get it - you are angry and annoyed, and this could have been a much smoother ride for everyone involved. Tell me what you think we could do better and trust me, Grey Fox Games will take your advice under consideration.

Anything else I haven’t covered in this mini-FAQ. What do I do?

Email me directly at [email protected] and tell me how I can help you.

OK - so that should just about cover everything.

Please accept our apologies over the lack of communication and the frustrations you have been feeling over the recent months. There would be nothing we would love more than for all of our backers to have their games and be playing them right now. We are working towards making that happen every day.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Lance Myxter

HEY! You forgot about the United States Replacement Trayz!
almost 5 years ago – Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 11:06:16 PM

Hello Everyone, again!

My apologies to you all in the US who are waiting for their Replacement Trayz. That paragraph got deleted somehow and didn't get posted in the previous update. I hit publish then sat down and watched Aladdin with my wife and son while my daughter played D&D with her friends, so I didn't see the emails and posts.

United States Replacement Trayz Fulfillment

These will be in our hands early next week and we will begin shipping them out at that time. We SHOULD have all of these out the door by January 15 and our backers will then get them shortly afterwards.

I sincerely apologize for that not being in the previous update. I seriously have no idea how it got removed.

Again, if you have any questions, please email me at [email protected]

All my best - and I don't know why people dogged on the live action Aladdin so much. I enjoyed it!

Lance

The trays are here!
almost 5 years ago – Wed, Dec 11, 2019 at 12:24:11 AM

Thanks for waiting!

Hey Everyone! I know this has been a crazy campaign with more ups and downs then anyone would care to be a part of. We're heading to a close and I just want to say that we appreciate your patience, however much of it you've been willing to give. While we wish that we could have delivered everything in exactly the way that it was supposed to happen in the right time frame, it simply didn't happen. We've made some mistakes, manufacturing made some mistakes, and we want you to know that we're sorry about each and every one. We endeavor to learn from each one so that way they don't happen in future projects. 

Trayz are here!

The replacement Game Trayz are either at the fulfillment centers already or are very close as we air-shipped the replacements so we didn't have to wait for the boat to come across the water. For each part of the world we've got your status listed below. 

Here's the status:

•  UK/EU - Games and replacement Trayz have been received at our fulfillment partner and the final backer information was sent to them on Friday. They'll start shipping this week, so you should start to see product on your doorsteps shortly thereafter. 
• AUS/NZ - Games and replacement Trayz have been received at our fulfillment partner and the final backer information was sent to them on Thursday. They'll start shipping this week (if they haven't already), so we should start to see product on your doorsteps shortly thereafter. 
• US - Games and mats have completed their fulfillment (If you have concerns there, check out the last paragraph for how to get those addressed). Replacement Game Trayz have been received at our St. Louis office/warehouse and they are on their way to the fulfillment center today. This means you should start seeing your replacement trays as early as the end of the week, beginning of next week. It's a holiday shipping world right now in the US, so don't be surprised if there's a day delay. 
• Canada - Games and Trayz are on their way to the Canadian fulfillment center today. They will start shipping things out this week, which means we should start to see them in people's hands starting next week. 
• Asia - Games and replacement Trayz have been received at our fulfillment partner and the final backer information was sent to them as well. They should start shipping this week, so we should start to see product on your doorsteps shortly thereafter.  
• Brazil - We are fulfilling these directly from our warehouse in St. Louis, where we've already received all the product (both Trayz and games) so these are going out this week and the next. 
• Rest of the World - Same as for Brazil. If your area wasn't mentioned above, you're a part of the  "rest of the world" so you'll ship out from our warehouse in St. Louis so those will all go out this week and the next. 

 The rest of the campaign

For the remainder of the campaign, our plan is to focus our attention and effort on making sure that the everything gets exactly where it needs to be. What this means for you is that we will no longer be actively watching the comments section (as some of you have already seen.) We will send out updates as fulfillment finishes and if there any shipping concerns that everyone needs to know about and of course we are always available via KS email. 

Otherwise, if your package doesn't show up in the next few weeks, send us a message on here. Once fulfillment has completed then we'll know where most packages are and can help you find yours (or replace it if that's the case.) If your package shows up and its missing anything or is damged from shipping/manufacturing, just send an email to [email protected]. Please note that the each replacement request is handled in its completion before moving on to the next, so it may take a bit of time to get to your request. Don't panic though! We will get you everything you need.

There's light at the end of the tunnel and we appreciate your patience! We'll be back with more info as the fulfillment completes. Have a Happy Holidays and enjoy your week!

Game Trays Timeline
about 5 years ago – Wed, Nov 13, 2019 at 02:08:29 AM

Hey Everyone,

Game Trays

We have an updated timeline for you all. The trays will be finished at the manufacturer by either Wednesday or Thursday. The expectation is for them to ship out on Friday. It will take a week for them to arrive at their respective destinations; then they will be packaged with the games and sent out to all backers. From now, you can expect between 3-4 weeks before you have your game/trays in-hand. 

Linen Finish

We have read every comment regarding this topic and know that some of you are very passionate about this.  We wanted to clarify a few things as there is some misinformation out there as to exactly what a linen finish is, what it actually provides and why we decided not to replace the cards but did decide to replace the trayz.   Linen finish is essentially a texture stamp made to cards after printing and before cutting.  It does not impart any extra "quality" to the card and is considered a cosmetic effect more than anything else (it does create less surface area and can aid in shuffling, but for Reavers, that much shuffling is not needed).   After analyzing the cards that we did receive from the manufacturer, they were exactly what we ordered (300 GSM black core) and up to our standards.  The cost and logistics to remake all these cards and ship them was just too expensive to fix what we consider to be a cosmetic issue.  On the flip side, the trays we ordered were not up to our standard, did have a quality issue, and were not what we requested and so, therefore, we made the decision to remake those.  We did not come to the decision flippantly, nor did we at any point ever maliciously decide not to include the linen finish over any kind of cost savings issue (the extra cost for this effect at the time of manufacture is marginal, maybe .10 more a game).   It was a simple oversight prior to printing and we are sorry to have missed it.

At the end of the day, we feel that we delivered a great game that is both beautifully illustrated and of excellent quality (any issues with shipping damages or missing/damaged components we will make right).  We fully understand that some people will not be pleased with our decision not to remake the cards and may not back our projects in the future. Though we certainly do not welcome that response, we respect it.

Card Count Differences

Some of you have noticed that the counts on the cards differ between the rulebook and the kickstarter page. The rulebook has the correct amount. During the development of the game, we increased the number of cards in several of the decks; which resulted in more content. 

Thank you all again for your patience and support.

-Shane

Solution to Manufacturing Issues UPDATE
about 5 years ago – Wed, Nov 06, 2019 at 02:22:20 AM

Hey everyone,

First off we wanted to say thank you for your patience as we have been working through everything with the manufacturer. 

Game Trayz

First off, we want to say that we went back and thoroughly reviewed the proof copy tray for both thickness, weight and lid attachment and we can say with 100% certainty that the tray we approved is not the tray we received (the original tray was, depending where you measured,  at minimum,  25% thicker).   Our manufacturer does not do these items in house and is being told by the tray manufacturer that the mass production trays are made to the same specs as the proof.  He will be at the tray manufacturer today to dispute this claim and try to get them to agree to remake them.  However, no matter what, they will get remade to the specs we were shown and that we paid for.   

Now, what exactly does that mean for all of you? For US Backers who have already received a game, we will be sending the new trays to you. If you have not received a game yet, then we will ship it out together with the new trays. **This should not affect the shipping timeline of EU and Australia. This will put a slight delay on Canadian, Rest of World, and backers who added additional games to their order as we wait for the new trays to arrive.** We do not know how long this process will take, but we are going to demand a rush AND get all trays air shipped to their necessary destinations.  We will have a better timeline in the next 48 hours but expect it to take no more than 4 weeks in total and likely much sooner.

Linen Finish

The cards do not have a linen finish. This was an oversight on our part and we are extremely sorry about it. Regarding the card quality, we have conducted extensive testing of the cards that came in, and they are, in fact, 300 GSM Black core.   Since GSM weight, thickness and core color tells you only a small bit about the actual quality of the paper, we measure the quality of the cards we receive with the "bend test".   Basically, if you can fold the card so that the edges touch each other without creasing the card, the stock is playing card quality.  It is certainly not the end-all of tests, but it does mean that the cards should hold up to shuffling for a while.  So, with that being said, the cards do match the specifications we requested from the manufacturer and unfortunately, it is not feasible for us to reprint and replace all of them for the linen finish - an oversight that we are again, very sorry about.  We will say that we will never print the cards in this game with a linen finish, so the version you have will always be the only version of the cards that will exist.

Thank you once again for all of your patience and support. 

-Matthew