BattleTech: Mercenaries – CGL does a shipping booboo? Internet rages!

[dawfyddParticipant 12068xp 2]

Honestly @limburger I don’t think anyone knows for certain why that happened. I’ve seen speculation it was CGL’s choice, that is QML’s decision, and even that it was down to CGL’s plans for dedicated ongoing regional distribution hubs (certainly ones for Europe & UK) falling through so they had to ship to one hub then separate it out.

 

Oh, and good news! I managed to find somewhere in the UK that still had copies of the Universe and Battle of Tukayid books in stock for not-stupid prices so they are on their way to me. Waiting to see if anywhere puts up Hot Spots: Hinterlands for pre-order (did have a seller on EBay selling it for £33 with free shipping but they sold out)

[limburger 21775xp 1]

@dawfydd all I can say for sure is that I have never ever seen these kinds of shenanigans with any other kickstarter before.
I think that most choose an EU local hub instead of trying to use a local logistics company that needs to subcontract to other regions. Or rather all I usually hear is that [logistics company] has sent the address confirmation when things are getting shipped.

I really hope CGL does a post mortem on this project to see where and how they failed, because they really need to get to the bottom of this disaster. OTOH I suspect they still consider it a ‘success’ because they are unaware of the damage they’ve done to their brand.

I doubt we as backers will ever get to hear the fine details though, because throughout the entire kickstarter it felt like informing backers was an afterthought as they were barely aware of how things were going themselves.

For me the absolute highlight of this incompetence was when the recent update almost literally said “according to CGL …” which shows that the entire kickstarter is not done by CGL but by a third party despite what it claims.

I’d say that would explain a lot of the issues, because more layers means more issues with timely & accurate communications between all those involved.

[dawfyddParticipant 12068xp 2]

@limburger yeah, that “according to CGL” was either a typo or someone saying something they should not have. Either way the fact it made it into a KS Update is just a massive unforced error.

I *do* though hope that CGL take on board how badly fulfillment on this has damaged goodwill, especially regards the international audience. But as you say it does feel like they are focused on positives, which I *get*, but you do need to acknowledge failures & mistakes to improve & grow as a business, as well as to demonstrate to the customer base that you are willing and able to do this. Ah well, we will see…..

(The really crazy thing of course being that the time it took this project to begin fulfillment was actually among the best I’d seen, particularly for a project of this size. Hells, if fulfillment is done by June, so a full year since the process began, in the grand scheme that’d still put this project ahead of a LOT of others that I have backed in terms of just completing the project. It’s that fulfillment though – it’s really shown *why* most Kickstarters aim to get orders sent out to the furthest destinations and/or simultaneously if using multiple hubs. I know BT’s main market is the US, but this has soured so many folks & retailers I don;t think they appreciate how badly they’ve fumbled this)

[limburger 21775xp 0]

It’s one of many unforced errors in the entire kickstarter.

And nothing they’ve done or said (in this kickstarter) made me think that they want to grow the customer base outside of the USA.  It’s in every communication. From calling ‘Asia’ as ‘done’ to barely mentioning the situation in Australia. I’m surprised they even dared to call EU customs by phone.  To me that’s something they should have been doing from day 0 when problems with paperwork were discovered. It’s almost as if they didn’t want to do it, but the increasing negative comments from EU backers made them reconsider.

The sad thing is that this isn’t even the biggest kickstarter … it’s in the top X of biggest/most successful at best.

Yes … the volume that this kickstarter reached makes the logistics a challenge, but as I’ve mentioned they made no effort to keep that volume contained. In every thing they’ve managed to make a problem something that ‘someone else’ had to handle.
From communications to production to logistics. There is nothing that indicates they even care about their product TBH.

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