Extra Update EU 🇪🇺 & UK 🇬🇧
about 3 years ago – Fri, Mar 24, 2023 at 02:36:39 PM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

A quick intermediate update from my side to follow up on the current fulfillment in the UK and EU.

Region: UK 🇬🇧

Shortly after we noticed that UPS is charging import fees I immediately instructed Floship to drop the fees and handle customs internally instead. UPS has forwarded that information to all couriers and luckily for most backers this solution seems to have worked out. But some delivery people somehow didn't get the information and are still asking for fees.

In case there are still fees requested, please try to communicate this issue to the delivery person and ask them to double check their system or continue to refuse the parcel. UPS will retry in the following days or eventually return the parcel to the Lithuania warehouse. If the latter we will deliver the parcel again and you will get your game a little later :)

I already paid the fees,  what do I do now? 👀

Floship informed me that UPS will reach out to all backers who paid fees via mail and share a refund form. Since that is an UPS-internal process I have no visibility on the timeline. Also Floship wasn't able to share more details, so please keep an eye out for mail from UPS in the next few weeks.

Region: EU 🇪🇺

Floship handed over all parcels to Hermes this week and moved them to their central distribution center in Germany! 🎉 I don't know the exact order of processing, so please keep an eye on your tracking links and you should see some status change now, since the games are finally with Hermes now. Based on the public comments, the first batch seems to be Germany. I expect the other countries to follow shortly after.

I'm still waiting for the tracking numbers for: Czechia, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. I will share them with you as soon as I get them. There is the slight chance that distribution will start before I get the tracking numbers, so please also check your emails for updates from Hermes.

I'm a backer from Berlin, where do I pick up my game? 🌟

All games for local pickup will be sent via courier to Spielwiese Berlin, my favourite local game store where you can play and rent games. Once the games arrive you will be able to go there during regular opening hours and pick up your game. However, I will reach out to every backer who opted for "local pickup" via email with detailed instructions.

My tracking info is all in German, how can I switch the language? 😳

I'm actually quite puzzled by that as well and I found no English tracking for Hermes EU, sorry for that. If someone found a workaround, feel free to share your solution in the comments below.

Fingers crossed for the upcoming Hermes deliveries, hopefully no surprises this time. 🍀🍀🍀

All the best, Tommy ❤️

Logistics #8 📦 - UK customs, CA container, EU & AU fulfillment
about 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 04:08:21 PM

Dear People of Pangaia,

Yesterday I just shared an emergency update for UK backers to give a heads-up regarding a mistake by Floship, resulting in unexpected import fees upon delivery. Today I will follow up on this urgent topic and also share a regular update on the delivery status of all other regions, specifically EU, CA and AU. 

Region: UK 🇬🇧

Quick summary: Floship decided (without my consent or prior notification) to deviate from the agreed plan (see last newsletter) and directly imported the games from the EU using UPS. Many of the UK backers received a notification to pay ~ £50 per game for customs and handling fee. I advised everyone to not pay any extra fees and to reject the parcel if any payment is required upon delivery.

Today I received the confirmation from Floship that they will handle the UPS returns and re-ship the games again without import fees: "We will proceed with the custom clearance of a formal entry and then ship to your backers without requiring duties to be paid by your backers."

Question: I already paid for customs - what do I do now?

I don't have a definitive answer since Floship did not give any advice and I'm not an expert myself. Some articles I found useful are on dutyrefunds.co.uk and ups.com about how to request a dispute or invoice adjustment of a charge. If someone here has experience with this, please propose a recommended course of action in the comments below. 🙏

📣📣📣 Please fill out this short questionnaire to record your delivery status and whether you already paid UPS for customs. That will help me to get an overview of the current situation. Thanks @Julian C for the idea of the questionnaire.

However, I have lots of pending questions from my side, waiting for a statement from Floship:

1. What happens to the parcels that are currently in transit, are they being called back?
2. What happens to the backers who already paid for customs (£50 per game), what is the recommended refund process via UPS / HMRC? 
3. Why do some backers get charged for customs and some don't?
4. Is it safe to accept a parcel even if no payment was requested or will the backer receive a bill from UPS at a later stage?
5. What's the timeline for the return / import / reship process and when can backers expect to receive their parcel?
6. After import - do we keep using UPS or are we switching to Royal Mail as originally planned?
7. Will there be new tracking labels assigned?

As you can see I have more questions than answers at the moment and again I must apologize for something that was supposed to go smoothly, but did not.

Once I have more answers I will share a special newsletter to inform on the next steps. 🙏

Region: EU 🇪🇺 / CH🇨🇭

A few days ago we started the last mile delivery using Hermes and UPS and the first backers in Switzerland received their games! 🎉 I also finally received most of the tracking numbers and I have sent you a notification via Backerkit, that includes your personal tracking link. 

I'm still waiting for the tracking numbers for: Czechia, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. I will share them with you as soon as I get them.

Some tracking numbers are still in a 'pending' mode because the parcel has not been handed over to Hermes yet. Please keep an eye on the tracking status to check when you can expect the final delivery.

Question: My tracking link shows the wrong address and is missing the street?

Hermes is hiding the street name by default, that is normal and not a mistake. It is a common practice for tracking links to show only a part of the address for privacy reasons. After all, the link is public and can be accessed by anybody. Exposing your full address would be a risk.

Region: Canada 🇨🇦

I finally got the confirmation that container loading will start tomorrow on March 16th! 🎉

So far I have no further details about the departure time of the vessel or a general ETA for final delivery. Based on the fulfillment in the US we are looking at 22 days for sea freight travel + 14 days import and warehouse management, before the parcels are handed over to a local courier for last mile delivery.

Considering the mistake that happened in the UK I triple checked that all games will go through a standard import process before delivered to you. No custom duties are due upon delivery.

Region: Australia 🇦🇺

The container arrived successfully in the Sydney Port last week on March 11th! 🎉  The games have not been transferred to the local warehouse yet. We need to consider 14 days for import and warehouse management, before the parcels are handed over to a local courier for last mile delivery.

Also here I triple checked that all games will go through a standard import process before delivered to you. No custom duties are due upon delivery.

 Region: US 🇺🇸

I still have to share an update for US backers here, although it has already been 3 months ago since the first batch of games arrived in the US. We still have 94 orders that are pending in the US warehouse for unclear reasons and in the last 14 days they dispatched only 28 orders (2 per day). I gave this feedback to Floship and escalated this to the Head of Operations, but so far all my efforts to speed up the process had zero effect.

To all affected backers I must apologize again for the intransparency of the process and long waiting time.

As usual, please find the overview chart of the current state of global fulfillment below.

Last but not least...

After all this troublesome logistics I want to end this newsletter on a lighter note. 

Jeff Knapp from The Dice Tower recently shared a super nice review of Forests of Pangaia and I'm incredibly proud to have received the Seal of Excellence with a rating of 9 (out of 10). In case you haven't received your copy yet, here you can have another sneak peek! 🌟

Thank you again for reading my newsletter and being an active member and supporter of this project! 

Despite all the logistical difficulties we are facing, I'm looking forward to a few months from now, when all of you will have received your game and will be able to grow lush forests!! 🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲

All the very best,

Tommy ❤️

🚨 UK backers - UPS customs fee
about 3 years ago – Tue, Mar 14, 2023 at 03:15:38 PM

Dear UK Backers,

I must inform you that our logistic partner Floship decided to change plans (without my knowledge) and deliver all UK orders directly from Lithuania with UPS, resulting in a customs fee of around £50 per order. To be clear: As promised NO extra fee is required for UK / EU backers. Floship did not come up with a solution yet and I have scheduled an emergency meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) to rectify the situation.

📣 Until then I must advise you to not pay any extra fees and to reject the parcel if any payment is required upon delivery. 📣

Apologies for this unexpected delivery problem. I will follow up on this shortly.

Best, Tommy

Logistics #7 📦 - State of Global Fulfillment
about 3 years ago – Thu, Feb 23, 2023 at 06:12:48 PM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

Welcome to my regular newsletter – today we cover the state of fulfillment for the US, EU, UK, AU and CA. Let's dive right into it :)

US Fulfillment 🇺🇸

The last container arrived well in the US and all games are stored in the US warehouse by now. But there are 2 problems that are causing ongoing trouble with the final delivery.

1) The US warehouse is operating under high load and is terribly congested. Some games arrived already 2 months ago and are still not processed and waiting to be handed over to FedEx. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that Floship doesn't offer me any reliable overview on the state of the warehouse, making it very hard for me to mitigate the situation when backers (rightfully) ask for a status update on their parcel.

2) FedEx is supposed to be sending tracking information as soon as the parcels are handed over for last mile delivery - but this is NOT happening reliably. Many backers receive no information or way too late. Again there is no automated process by Floship to communicate the tracking information to me either, that's why I can't forward that to you in advance and give you a heads up.

Both problems combined boil down to a lot of manual work, investigation and communication overhead for me and is incredibly frustrating for all parties – especially for you as backers. But since my hands are tied I can only apologize for the incredibly bad process of Floship during this phase of fulfillment. I will keep answering your questions as fast as I can and make everything possible to ensure all games arrive safe and sound. 🙏

EU/UK Fulfillment 🇪🇺🇬🇧

Some of you tracked the ship in realtime and saw the vessel successfully arrive in Lithuania on February 17th. The container was unloaded to a bonded warehouse (that's a warehouse for goods that have not gone through customs yet) and the orders were split between goods heading to EU and UK. All UK orders will be transported to the UK in one batch and then go through a regular customs and import process.

After custom clearance, the EU orders will be moved to the EU warehouse, relabeled and handed over to Hermes for last mile delivery. The UK orders will be moved to the UK warehouse and will be delivered by Royal Mail.

Since we have not gone through customs yet, I expect the first games to be sent out starting from mid March and overall the EU/UK fulfillment should be hopefully completed by end of April. 📦

Australia Fulfillment 🇦🇺

Finally Floship managed to book a container and all items were loaded yesterday! 🎉 The vessel will depart on February 27th and has an estimated travel time of 22 days. After customs clearance the games will be moved to a local warehouse and prepared for handover to AU Parcel for last mile delivery. I expect all parcels to be delivered by the end of April.

Canada Fulfillment 🇨🇦

Unfortunately we are still waiting for a container to ship the Canadian orders. I have considered shipping via airmail instead, although the costs are 3-4x higher and the logistics already pushed this project way over budget. Ironically, Floship is actually charging a lot for storage each month which is outrageous, since we are prepared for delivery since October already and the delay is caused by them. As I still didn't get an ETA from them I have requested Floship to provide alternative shipping options ASAP – if there is no container available within the next 2 weeks we either ship the games through the US (like most others are doing) or via airfreight. This is my top priority and I will find a solution until the next update.

Asia Fulfillment

The delivery issues I mentioned in the last update have been resolved and the returned orders for Japan, South Korea and Singapore have been successfully shipped! There are a few orders that require further support, but most of the games have arrived by now and the Asia fulfillment is almost complete. 🎉

Please find the overview chart of the current state of delivery and fulfillment below. 

Translated Rulebooks 📖

Since some of you asked me via comment and PMs for links to the translated rulebook, I'm sharing the full rulebooks in all current languages we have translated so far.

Additionally there are two version in Chinese and Dutch, currently still under review: 

🇨🇳 Chinese rulebook here

🇳🇱 Dutch rulebook here

Last but not least...

I want to share some thoughts regarding my decision to go with a single logistics partner like Floship. 

I launched the Forests of Pangaia project in the middle of the pandemic. Logistics prices already started skyrocketing and many guidelines and best practices that were true for years had to be revised and rethought. Global fulfillment usually requires working with 4-5 different partners to cover most regions of the world and since I was handling my first project alone, the amount of management overhead seemed difficult. Each partner has their own packing process and standards and a local warehouse that needs to be stocked and managed individually. On the other hand, the prospect of having a single partner and a single warehouse, including a standardized packing process appeared to be quite efficient and easier to manage as well. Floship was well known in the industry and made a very good and professional impression.

Five months have passed since the games arrived at the Floship warehouse in Hong Kong and we started the logistics phase. So far it has been an uphill battle to eliminate roadblocks, delivery issues or communication errors, but we are getting there. There are many reasons why I would decide differently today and this goes beyond the scope of this newsletter, but I will share a detailed experience report, once this phase is completed.

However, Spring is coming and soon you will all have received your games and can start enjoying it with your friends and family. On that note I'm closing today's newsletter and will be back with more news in 3 weeks! Thanks for reading and for your continuous support! 🌱

All the best,

Tommy ❤️

Logistics #6 📦 - State of Global Fulfillment
about 3 years ago – Wed, Feb 01, 2023 at 03:28:47 PM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

First of all my deepest apologies for the long silence. So far I tried to keep my updates at a strict 3-week cycle, but at the time when my last update was due my family and I caught a heavy flu and I was tied to the bed for 2 weeks. I caught up with most requests, but please reach out again if you haven't heard from me by now. 😷🤒😵

Let's catch up on the state of global fulfillment.

US: 97% of the first batch of US orders has been successfully delivered, except 75 packages that still need to be handed over to FedEx. The second batch (135 orders) finally arrived at the local warehouse and will be processed in the coming days. One last batch of 25 orders is currently still in transit via sea freight, affected backers have been notified.

Europe: No changes here, the ship just pasted the coast of Portugal and is closing in. I expect the vessel to arrive in Europe on February 17th. Track the container here.

CA / AU: Unfortunately still no significant movement. All packages are ready and prepared and still wait for a shared container. The relatively low quantity of orders forces us to share a container with other clients and that is causing longer waiting times.

Japan / Singapore / South Korea: All orders went out already, but most have been returned to our Hong Kong warehouse due to a mistake on the weight declaration form. The orders are currently being processed again and will be shipped with a different courier. All packages will receive a new tracking number, I'm very sorry for the confusion. Please ignore your existing tracking numbers until further notice.

Taiwan: All Taiwan backers are required to provide their ID number in order to receive their package. Affected backers have been notified.

China: Due to a silly oversight on my end, shipping games from Hong Kong back to China Mainland has been a major struggle. I wasn't aware of this issue and should have shipped the games directly from China before exporting them to Hong Kong. I'm already in touch via PM with affected backers.

Please find the complete overview in the table below:

How to fit all components into the box? 🤯 

I noticed that some of you struggle to fit all components back into the box after play. I admit that the design is quite a tight fit, but everything has its place and hopefully this little guide will help to clarify my intentions.

Some of you raised the concern that the rulebook might get damaged from the pressure caused by the cloth bags underneath. Although I agree this could happen, I didn't notice this being an issue so far.

What are those extra cards for? 🧐

You might have noticed some extra cards that are not mentioned anywhere in the rulebook. Especially 4 extra ritual cards that are blank, just showing one resource symbol each: These are DIY cards that I have added to each game, to give everyone the opportunity to create their own ritual types at some point. I know this might now be everyone's cup of tea, but I deeply believe in the spirit of crowdsourcing and hope that these cards will spark some ideas and continue to trigger your creativity. 🌟

Play around with ideas, share them with others on our Discord channel and I will pick up your input for future expansions of the game. 🌟

 Also note that those 4 spirit cards below are just decorative and have no meaning in the game. You can use them e.g. as a bookmark.

And last but not least ...

There are some cards that appear to have a missing white border. That is actually by design, as they are intended to be turned like 'pages of a book' and form the Automa deck of the SOLO mode.

That's it from my side for today. I will continue to help out where I can to fix issues with a wrong delivery or damaged components. Please reach out to me via PM and I will reply as fast as possible to resolve any upcoming problems.

If you have already received your game, I hope you enjoy it and can finally play with your friends and family. Let's grow some forests! 🌳

All the very best to you, keep warm and stay healthy 🍀🍀🍀

Best, Tommy ❤️