KS Project Update #33: January Shipments / February Shipments / Why no tracking #

Project Update #33: January Shipments / February Shipments / Why no tracking numbers? / General Policies Posted by Chelsea Thompson ♥ Like

Thank you to everyone, your patience is appreciated. Please remember folks that this is a Kickstarter project and that the delivery dates are only best estimates; this is not a store. There were a lot of problems with missing parts/damage the first batch which went out on time so things were revised to reduce that from happening. Please also note that while the owners of the company generally work everyday, most of us (me included) only work 5 days a week so updates or communication is generally done during business hours M-F. January Shipments All of the January shipments are expected to be in transit by the end of the week. Most of them that have upgraded to heated beds will have the heated beds in a second box as it does not fit with the other parts in the standard shipping box. The people that have already received theirs in the January batch are not reporting any significant problems, so the changes that were made seem to be working. February Shipments Some people were concerned about why any February backers would have theirs shipped to them before all the January backers received theirs. We shipped two from the February batch. They were to customers that are located in traditionally bad areas for shipping, where most of the damage was caused (an inordinate amount of damaged shipments were from these areas of the world) and we know that we could count on them to give us feedback quickly and accurately as we have had constant communication with them; it was to test to ensure that the packages were now getting delivered safely to those areas. They are both overseas so the packages have not arrived yet. The rest of the February shipments we do expect to have out before the end of the month. We do expect to start shipping the March orders in March although it will be toward the end of the month. Why No Tracking Numbers A lot of the issue with tracking numbers being issued is the large amount of time that it takes not just to issue the tracking number manually, but to look up tracking information when it is not in an automated system. We ship approximately 100 packages a day as it is and every one through our online store gets an automated tracking e-mail. Even though our store is an automated system, nonetheless we still receive perhaps 10 e-mails per day asking about tracking status or concerns about where the package is or what the tracking data says when the tracking information IS given. The USPS does not have a good tracking system, particularly for international shipments which can cause lots of confusion as tracking info typically isn't updated when it leaves the US. Additionally a lot of the time the Kickstarter username does not align with shipment names which causes lots confusion on our end. General Policies We have heard reports from several people of some misuse of our free replacement policy, so we are changing it slightly. Sorry for any inconvenience. 1. Electronics/Hotend: If there is a problem with the electronics or hotend we will attempt to troubleshoot the problems first before sending a replacement. 2. Melamine MDF parts: Please send us a picture through our ticketing system of the broken part; this helps us confirm the correct part is being shipped (along with the text name). We have sent multiple parts to people that were issued based on the incorrect text based name of the part....this should solve the problem. 3. Other parts: The amount of damage of the other parts (rods, screws etc.) has generally been very low but again we will attempt to troubleshoot the problem before sending our a replacement.