Greetings Friends!  Well, we finally got an update on the shipping of physical goods, and I have to say.. I am not enthused or even pleased.  On August 20th at 5:39 PM, Starr Long posted an update on the Shroud of the Avatar forums:

Forum Post by Starr Long:

Greetings Avatars,

We have an update from the manufacturer to share with all of you. There are three shipments and two versions of Shroud of the Avatar that are in physical boxes.

The two boxed versions are the Retail Version and the Collector Version. The Collector Version is the version that came with pledges that included physical goods through Kickstarter (or through our website prior to January 4, 2016). It contains exclusive items only available to backers and has a special sticker on the box demarcating it as the Collector Version. The Retail Version is the version of the box that does not contain those exclusive items and does not have the Collector Version sticker. We will be using the Retail Version for promotions and to sell on Amazon.

A small shipment of the Retail Version was shipped to Travian Games last week in order to help promote the game at Gamescom starting tomorrow (August 21st) with a series of giveaways. A larger shipment of the Retail Version will be going to Amazon at the end of August and should be available for purchase by mid to late September. We will post an update as soon as that version is available.

The Collector Version will be shipping to Backers any day and should begin arriving at Backer’s homes within the next few weeks depending on your location. Due to costs and complexities with customs we chose to not have tracking with these shipments. However you will receive an email from the manufacturer when your package is shipped. We will also post an update when we have final confirmation that shipping has begun.

Now multiple things instantly stand out to me from this.

• It is good to see they planned ahead for possible non-kickstarter backers who may want to purchase the retail box for their own personal big box collections. From a marketing and sales perspective, this is a smart move.
• as a Kickstarter backer, I am not exactly thrilled that people are getting boxes at Gamescom before any Kickstarter backer does. One thing that has been of concern with many in the SotA community is that backers didn’t even get our physical goods by or even close to “launch”.
• The “3 shipments” comment from Starr doesn’t surprise me, especially with the large amount of packages going out.  The shipping in stages is something that happens with many small businesses. I myself have had to ship things in stages due to large quantities of packages that needed to go out to customers.
• Portalarium needs to state what their policy will be if a box is lost/stolen/destroyed/damaged ASAP.  As of my post, there is no note on it yet, but hopefully soon.
• What concerns me the most, is the lack of tracking numbers for backers for all shipments.  Now while all packages have tracking info for the shipping company to use, the company that sent the package and especially the recipient of the package, typically do not have access to that information. Due to the reality of human nature, the additional tracking is extremely useful, to reduce fraud. It is why such detailed tracking systems have been developed by shipping companies.
• The lack of going with the tracking number for backers also caused me to make note of interesting information as well as have caused me to have some more concerns:
  • with no tracking numbers, this would tell me Portalarium will not have these boxes be insured. Here in the USA, UPS/Fedex/DHL and others often hand off packages to USPS to finish delivery, if your box is lost/stolen, at best USPS will only do a “Missing Mail Search”, which means that, most likely you will never see the package and you are out that money.  I really hope that Portalarium use an shipping option that bypasses USPS for backers in the USA.
  • I would go so far as to say many, if not most, Collector Version backers would have paid an extra $5 to $10 more up front if we knew it would guarantee tracking numbers when the shipping would occur.
  • While some shipping options that are a bit more expensive often come with tracking. Even cheaper bulk shipping through most providers will garner you discounts on features like “tracking” when you are sending large enough shipments of packages. Some may even provide you with customer tracking for free when you ship enough packages at a time. Is Portalarium in a situation where they need to save every penny to stay afloat?
  • Non-USA Paid $15 for International Shipping, per Portalarium for their Physical Goods aka the Collectors Version. The lack of tracking while paying extra for shipping is disappointing. Though depending on the carrier they use for shipping, this cost could be also related to shipping options in relations to dealing with customs in some nations, because even though these are rewards and not retail items, they have a value that you must declare to customs.  If details do not match up or are questionable, issues will occur that hold up packages in customs.  One happy situation with customs is that many nations allow for gifts under a certain value, to go through under a “duty-free exemption” which will be great for backers if Portalarium is able to do so.
  • According to a past tweet by Relics by Rild combined with the fact that Starr Long himself stated the boxes were being done in France, not only does this mean European backers will get theirs first, but I question now if this subset of non-USA backers needed to be charged extra for shipping.  I think this is probably due to how they planned the physical box and physical goods, so this is understandable for that reason.
    
  • In some cases, online digital tracking stops once it reaches customs and so customers have to wait for their goods to get through customs and arrive, with no time frame of how long that can take. One reason I use UPS for my small business shipping is they have options that come with “Door-to-door service with in-house customs clearance included”. This was of massive help with international customers cause it provided communication to the recipient of the package and helped provide them with a positive state of mind.  These extra steps to provide communication also provide a level of customer service that are a positive for a business to have in this age of Social Media.

On a happier note, to provide residents in the USA with a route to help reduce issues with USPS delivered packages (even those that are handed off to USPS by UPS/FedEx/etc, I would highly recommend you sign up for an account on USPS.com, and sign up for their “Informed Delivery®” feature.  This does take a few steps to do, however it will allow you to check delivery status, leave instructions, and other features, even if you DO NOT HAVE A TRACKING NUMBER.  For some they can even give you a greyscale preview of the address side of mail pieces that will arrive soon. This feature has served me well in the past and has saved me some heartache, despite bad experiences with USPS that continue to occur occasionally.

On a satirical note, with what I foresee to be a number of backers being upset by this situation, I would like to encourage the community to come up with great memes about how EA (Electronic Arts) made Portalarium do this.  Because obviously EA is so evil, they mess up games they have nothing to do with.