Time to lock orders!
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Jun 29, 2022 at 04:59:13 PM

Titans Terrain is on a train and rapidly making its way to our warehouse. The train is expected to arrive in a few days and from there it should take a few more days to get to the warehouse. In preparation for that we need to begin locking orders on Backerkit.

What does locking orders mean?

We are hitting the button to lock orders tomorrow morning, which means within 48 hours you will no longer be able to add or remove any products from your order. You are still able to update your address and payment information. Most importantly this requires you to choose your shipping preference. Customers who want the fast shipping option will need to pick that within the next day.

What if I need help?

Hundreds of backers have selected the fast shipping option, and we’ve helped dozens of people with technical issues get them resolved. If you want fast shipping, or have a question about your order just email us at [email protected]. We can add the fast shipping option for you, update your address or answer any other question.

When will I be charged?

We plan to charge cards on Tuesday July 5th. Customers who purchased through Backerkit will pay for their entire order at that time. Customers who purchased through kickstarter will only pay their shipping costs at that time. Be sure to update your billing information before next week if necessary.

Can I change my mind on shipping later?

Yes! If you aren’t sure if you want fast shipping now, we will be able to update your order later to include it. Your order will not go out in the first batch unless you select it now. Customers who want fast shipping later will need to email us and they will be shipped out in later batches.

Final Shipping Prices (We reduced costs a lot!)
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 24, 2022 at 04:58:36 AM

What we’ve been working on

We were all surprised to discover the high shipping prices a few weeks back and since then we’ve been hard at work to improve them. It turns out that over the last 6 months shipping prices have continued to rise dramatically. With labor shortages, inflation and fuel costs more than doubling, shipping prices are out of control. In addition to huge price increases, we’ve seen massive shipping delays and backups worldwide. For example a single container from China has gone from less than $5k to over $25k, and from taking 2 weeks to sometimes over 2 months. (Titans Terrain cost over $70k to freight across the Ocean)

We’ve spent the last few weeks meeting with many major shipping providers to better understand our options and improve prices. After meeting dozens of shipping companies and reviewing thousands of rows in spreadsheets we’ve succeeded in reducing costs dramatically from our previous estimates. We’ve also committed over $60k of our own money to subsidize shipping costs, further brining costs down for our backers.

Shipping options

We created two different shipping options, one fast and one cheap. The fast option will ship your Titans Core set and expansion set as soon as possible. In fact, the expansion sets will ship a bit ahead of schedule using this fast option. Also this faster option is up to 50% cheaper than our previous estimates (so its faster and cheaper than before). Our cheaper option waits to ship your core set and expansion sets together in one package. This delays the shipping of your core set until the expansion is in the same warehouse in the US, but it’s up to 70% cheaper than our previous estimates. This cheaper option will ship after our original October deadline as it requires us to change shipping plans, but it will arrive before the end of the year (we are predicting late November). The cheaper option is not available for all regions because waiting did not actually save any money in all places. These regions will automatically get the fast option.  Also the cheap option does not apply to customers who purchased just the core set alone, those customers already get cheap + fast rates.

The cheaper shipping option is based on price estimates we are seeing today, but it won’t be shipping until later this year. We plan on covering any increases in shipping costs that might happen over that period, but in the event that cost change so dramatically that we can’t afford it, we may ask for backers to pitch in more (this is very unlikely).

VAT and taxes

Our shipping costs above do not include any VAT or taxes that may be required in your region. In some cases it makes sense for us to collect taxes in advance. Doing so prevents a “service charge” of up to $30 that can be applied if we leave taxes to be collected on delivery. Taxes and VAT are applied to the total cost of your order (including shipping). We will be collecting taxes for the regions listed below. For Canada we do not have the ability to charge tax based on province, so we are charging a blended tax rate of 10% to all Canadian customers. When you go to check out, your tax/VAT will be included in your shipping cost total. So if you notice your shipping is higher than the amount listed above, it's likely because of the taxes/VAT.

• Canada - 10%
• UK - 20%
• Poland - 25%
• Czechia - 25%
• Estonia - 25%
• Slovakia - 25%
• Slovenia - 25%
• Brazil - You must email us with your Tax ID
• Chile - You must email us your with Tax ID

How you pick your shipping option

By default all customers are automatically assigned their cheapest shipping option. Any customer who wants to upgrade to the faster option will need to select that option in Backerkit (we show the steps in the images below). 

The process is different for customers who backed on Kickstater vs customers who pre-ordered on Backerkit. 

Kickstarter customers can simply click on this link to visit their Backerkit survey. From there you can "edit" your order, then go to the "add-ons" section. You will see a "fast shipping" add-on for $0. Add that and the correct cost of fast shipping will automatically be applied to your order. 

For Customers that pre-ordered on Backerkit, you can simply go to our Backerkit store here. From there you can browse our products and add the "fast shipping" add-on for $0. Add that and the correct cost of fast shipping will automatically be applied to your order.  Note: This method only works for customers who pre-ordered through Backerkit and not customers who originally backed on Kickstarter.

So what’s next

Review period

We want to give everyone a week to review shipping costs, ask questions and make their shipping selection.

Lock in orders

We will lock orders on June the 27th. This means you will not longer be able to change your shipping preferences, add-ons, bundles, etc.

Bill cards

We will bill cards on June 29th. This means which ever shipping option you’ve selected (or the default) will be billed to the card you have on file with Backerkit. Make sure to update your card if it is expired or you want to change payment methods before this date.

Lock addresses

We will lock addresses July 1st. This is the last day to change the address on your order.

Shipping starts

If everything goes to plan we will start shipping the first week of July. We expect to all get orders out within about a week (for everyone with fast shipping). By this time next month we expect everyone who wants their base set should have it in hand!

Wrap up

It has been a huge effort to get to this step and I really need to thank our backer community for working with us while we figure this out. We are really happy with where the shipping prices have ended up, despite all the price increases around the world. Oh and, Titans Terrain is officially off the boat and on the train to our warehouse, so it won't be long now! We are so excited to see you all play your first game with it.

Thanks everyone!

-Brian

Shipping update #3
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 10, 2022 at 11:12:54 PM

We still have around 1 more week before we believe we can finalize our new shipping prices, but we wanted to reach out now with an update on how things are going.

Many of you shared your feedback on if we should ship sooner for a higher cost or wait and reduce the cost by bundling. It seems that it is split 50/50, so we are going to implement a feature that allows anyone to opt into faster shipping through backerkit. Everyone else will by default get the new cheaper shipping prices, but will need to wait for their sets to ship together later in the year.

We still have a lot of phone calls to make and negotiating to do, but we are seeing improvements already. We encourage anyone who is concerned about shipping prices to wait and see what we are able to do in the next week or so. We've received a large amount of questions and comments over the last couple weeks and we ask that backers are patient with us as responding may take a little longer  than normal. 

Our next update (hopefully around June 21st) will include our new pricing and how you can choose between the faster or cheaper options.

Oh also, the ship carrying Titans Terrain has arrived in the North America and is waiting to be unloaded. It appears to be on schedule and we hope to have it arriving at our warehouse around the time of our next update.

Thanks again for working with us while we figure this out. Global shipping is very complicated.

-Brian

Shipping Cost Update
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Jun 08, 2022 at 10:48:37 PM

Hi backers,

We’ve heard your feedback on our shipping prices and we’ve been hard at work to try and get better rates. It will likely take us a couple weeks to finalize everything by checking all options and getting quotes for every region. That said we’ve already made some progress and explored some alternative ideas that we wanted to share.

What we are exploring

1. We could ship a bulk order of around 1000 units to to the UK in a shipping container. We are not sure the cost yet but it might be around $8 per unit if done this way. This would increase shipping times by several months as we need to arrange for a ship to take it from the US to the UK. Once in the UK we could dramatically decrease the shipping costs for UK and EU customers. Eg. From $40 + VAT down to $20 + VAT within the UK for example.

2. We have found shipping providers that will give us a discount on shipping multiple items together. Customers would need to wait until their expansion pack arrives and have them ship together, but it would be a meaningful price reduction of 10% - 25%.

3. We are also in negotiation with a few shipping providers to get better rates. This may take a week or so to complete, but we expect to see some small improvements on the overall rates.

What’s next

Overall our best ideas to reduce shipping costs will require customers to wait longer for delivery. Sending bulk orders to EU and waiting to bundle orders together will have a large impact on costs, but will take until the fall to ship. We want to hear from you what you prefer. In the meantime we want you to ignore our previous shipping estimates while we try to work out better prices. We will not be charging anyone for shipping until we have sorted this out.

Ultimately we want to hear from you. Would you prefer the cheaper shipping even if it took longer? Or  would you prefer to get it sooner at a higher cost? Regardless of which you chose are working to reduce costs overall, even for the people who want it sooner.

Thanks for working with us while we figure this out and try to improve shipping rates.

Shipping update + shipping costs
almost 2 years ago – Sun, Jun 05, 2022 at 11:11:28 AM

As you know the ship with Titans Terrain left the port in China on May 15th. The ship we are on is called the Ever Sigma, and it is now someone in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Its first stop is in Tacoma Washington and from there, its onward to Vancouver British Columbia. In Vancouver it will be loaded onto a train where it will travel to Minneapolis. From there it will get on a truck to our warehouse. Once in the warehouse we expect to pack and ship out every order within 1 week. (Its a long journey!) Depending on how far you are from our warehouse you will start receiving them within days while some further customers will get them within weeks.

Shipping Update

In our last update I told you that we expected the ship to arrive in Vancouver by June 3rd. Unfortunately the ship was delayed in one of the other Chinese ports it visited and is now expected in Vancouver on June 14th. I have spoken with our shipping partner and they said this kind of delay in normal and to expect additional possible delays as the ship visits Tacoma and then Vancouver. It is not uncommon for a ship to be held up by several weeks waiting to dock or clear customers. For this reason we won’t have specifics until it is safely unloaded and on the train, but we will update you as we get new information. All that said, and even will more delays we are still on track to meet our original project timeline of having all copies shipped out by August!

Shipping Costs

We’ve worked with our warehouse and put together the final cost for shipping Titans Terrain to you all. Below you will find a rubric that breaks down the cost per region based on the type of bundle you purchased. All sets of Titans Terrain including the expansion are roughly the same size and thus require the same shipping price. (Eg. If you are buying the core + expansion set, each box will ship separately and cost roughly the same each time). You may notice that the cost for shipping has gone up from our original estimate, this is due to the increase in shipping costs globally along with the slight increase in weight from us using thicker card stock.

To keep things simple we are charging shipping now for your full order, even though the expansion packs won’t arrive until later in the year. Backerkit makes it challenging to charge shipping separately for our expansion packs and advised us to do it all at once.

If you purchased a large order of 10+ units of Titans Terrain we will contact you directly to see if there is a retailer based shipping option available.

Taxes & VAT

Some regions require us to collect taxes or VAT. For Canada, UK and parts of the EU we are collecting taxes/VAT as part of the shipping costs so we can pay them for you. The cost of the taxes/VAT have already been added to the totals below. In many cases this greatly simplifies the process and also avoids additional duty fees. We’ve only collected taxes/VAT in the regions that say so on the image below. If taxes are required in your region and we have not collected them, you may need to pay them at time of delivery. (This is very uncommon)

Timeline

Lock Orders - Monday June 6th

When we lock orders in Backerkit it means that you can no longer make adjustments to your order. Nothing else happens at this time other than that.

Charge cards - Friday June 10th

All customers will be charged their shipping costs on June 10th. This is calculated based on the shipping cost table above. Customers who purchased through Backerkit will be charged for their order + shipping costs. Make sure your card information is up to date and you have an available balance so it all works smoothly.

Lock Addresses - Friday June 17th

This is the last day to update your shipping address. After this date, addresses will be locked in and no longer able to change.

Start Shipping - (Late June - Early July)

Once Titans Terrain arrives in the warehouse we will ship them out within a week. We currently expect that to happen on July 25th, but delays of up to a couple weeks are very possible.

I’m so excited to see Titans Terrain getting ever closer to delivery each day and I can’t wait to get it in your hands. Also I know I just threw out a lot of information so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask below or email us directly [email protected].

Thanks for all your continued support!

-Brian