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

[limburger 21680xp 0]

I’ve got a bit pledge so the postage is a lot, but it isn’t as bad as sundancers’

I’ve had a similar pledge / postage issue with a different USA based kickstarter (except unlike Battletech there was no alternative to get it locally so I had to suck it up …), so I think it’s a pure logistics problem that CGL may simply be unable to fix due to the nature of how these companies calculate shipping costs.

Maybe their hubs are still making us pay for a USA to hub transport by simply claiming higher ‘local’ shipping costs instead ?

Without knowing the details and with CGL not being transparent (possibly because their logistics partner isn’t helping … ) we’re just guessing.

[lonkelo 3195xp 0]

Ah shit. So I  recently found out that I completely forgot about this Kickstarter and still had to pay $63, half of which was shipping. My life being somewhat hectic at times I paid it, but only now realise that a quarter of my total costs is now shipping. Maybe because of the plushies I also ordered..? It does feel inflated and fear that now I have already paid that I won’t be getting anything back :/ My own fault.

 

[sundancer 42927xp 0]

The plushies are quite high in regards of volume inside a box. Unless they send them in vacuumed form (wich I doubt) so your shipping might actually get close to what is paid to the delivery service.

At this point all we can do is wait what CGL will be doing next.

[alfonsothetraitor 12968xp 2]

Unfortunately some companies make a fortune off of shipping rates.  Don’t get me wrong a company should not loose money on shipping but don’t gouge your customers on it either. I mean 3times the shipping cost is just theft as far as I can see. I used to work in shipping and the last thing you want to do is burn you customers because with social media people will talk and people listen.
I will not ever buy from AK interactive again. I purchased 3 of the back issues of there modeling magazines . It was a great deal so I bought them. The shipping was 24€ I knew it was coming from Spain so I thought that must be the going rate. After 1 1/2 months I finally got the package and to my disgust on the package it said 8€ shipping. After that burn I never purchased anything from AK interactive again.
What I’m trying to say is vote with your $€£¥  let them know that the shipping rate is too high and if they don’t lower the rate you will cancel your order.
to be honest with you this really sounds like someone didn’t add up all the shipping materials that would be needed and now they are trying to cover their costs.

[sundancer 42927xp 1]

After 1 1/2 months I finally got the package and to my disgust on the package it said 8€ shipping. After that burn I never purchased anything from AK interactive again.

Yeah that’s what annoys me very much too. I do know there is an overhead to shipping costs but when it exceeds 100% postage that’s just “additional profit”. Boxes are not that expensive and packing a parcel doesn’t take hours. In regards to CGL/QML: I guess there is nothing we can do but to wait and hope for the best. Or just cut losses right now.

[ced1106Participant 6224xp 2]

I read a post by a creator that, during the CoVid epidemic, shipping charges changed *every hour*. Or maybe two. Despite the Red Sea conflict not being in the news, Peter Zeihan, geopoliticist, speculated that the shipping disruptions in this China-EU shipping lane, would have an effect on shipping for months on all shipping.

Yadda yadda yadda. Crowdfunding has you pledge first, find out shipping later. Those are horrible terms, which is why I either pledge $1, don’t back the project (especially if the game will go to retail and I don’t think the stretch goals are worth a $40 shipping cost), or know I’ll have to suck it up for my limited edition plasticrack.

Don’t think you’re getting a value from KS anymore (well, except Archon?). It’s really more like those “premium collector’s edition” things which overcharge you for what you get, but you can’t get it anywhere else — at least unless the company goes bankrupt and you can get it at a discount on Miniature Market.

The FOMO is real, but, if you’re really on the fence or the game only “would be nice to have”, cross your fingers for retail, or even a sale. ):

[jamescutts 6916xp 1]

I don’t really think there is anything more that CGL will do, its very very close to actually shipping out, just weeks away so I can’t see them delaying further. They have already covered distribution costs (those to the shipping hubs) I cant really see what more they could do, there tied into the deal with QML now the stock is at their hubs even more so. QML will clearly be making some profit out of the shipping rate they are after all a business, possibly a fair bit of it too, i don’t think CGL will be.

It will vary across the world but you most likely don’t have any right to a refund or to cancel, you are afterall making a pledge not a purchase, something Kickstarter makes very clear to you before you pay anything.

The best thing that can happen now is to feedback, CGL have to be aware there are a lot of unhappy backers, even in the US (the biggest market) this seems to be the case. I haven backed their previous kickstarters but shipping wise the costs seem to have been lower, clearly global events play into this somewhat but distribution the thing that was most likley to be hit by this was covered by CGL.

[limburger 21680xp 0]

@sundancer boxes may not be expensive, but there is a world of difference between throwing things in a box and making sure it can survive transport across the ocean.

Awaken Realms have made packaging into an art form (good quality cardboard box, foam inserts to absorb damage … the works).

I wish companies across the world would learn from them, but that may be a big ask.

@jamescutts maybe they will learn … and they do appear to have learned something from their previous kickstarter.
However I’ve got my doubts. They’ve shown the will to fix mistakes, but at the same time it’s the kind of mistakes I wouldn’t expect from a company with a legacy like that.
Maybe the net result of this kickstarter is a revival of Battletech outside of the USA so they will rethink their global strategy and logistics ? Or maybe they don’t because the fans got “all” so the support for local FLGS is minimal …

[sundancer 42927xp 0]

Update on the shipping:

As a reminder, Catalyst has established an amount of funds, in addition to the initial subsidization, that can be pulled from for orders that seem high compared to the amount of items in your shipment. Please reach out to us in the Kickstarter messages here to see if you may be eligible for an additional subsidization on your shipping charges. To do this, please go to the project’s main page, click on the name “Catalyst Games,” and select “Contact Me” from the pop-up menu. We have already been able to assist hundreds of backers that have reached out! If you have already reached out for this and have not heard back, please rest assured that any and all changes will be made prior to the charge date. The last day to submit requests for assistance is Saturday, May 11th so we have enough time to review and process.

May 11th is only 3 days away so get your messages in to CGL! Basically this is CGL putting the blame onto the backers if you’re not on your toes with looking at shipping costs and react fast. This feels bad. They could give the backers more time and postpone shipping. :S

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cgl/battletech-mercenaries/posts/4095900

 

[limburger 21680xp 0]

seeing so many states listed in that update made me go WTF …
I was expecting them to understand how USA local shipping works and when to apply taxes on shipping etc.

Apparently I was wrong.

The worst part is that they have been using address data from December 2023 when they didn’t lock addresses or orders until recently.

Seriously … WTF?

I wonder how much of their data is out of date …

[maldroth 14xp 0]

I didn’t back this Kickstarter but things like this happening plus even longer project times of two years waiting for fulfillment has burnt me out on Kickstarter hype. Shipping costs have crept up on most that I’ve backed these days.

[tankkommanderParticipant 6413xp 0]

It is clear that the ‘local’ shipping rates are wrong. When people actually get the parcels they can measure them and see how much extra they have paid, but by then it is too late.

Looking at things I suspect that Catalyst agreed to pay for the handling, got hit with higher than expected costs, and have just shifted it on to the backers. So the local rates are a lie, they won’t give any details of the local hubs or package size/weight, and the ‘fund’ they have set up to help out is just a smokescreen to cover up and make themselves look good.

Maybe people will forgive and forget. maybe they won’t. If they get away with ripping off 23,000+ backers then they will just keep doing it again and again.

The fact is that they are not the first nor will they be that last to pull a stunt like this. How a company like Mythic still staggers on grifting more and more money from backers (we have your game, give us more money) is a great example.

For those of us who got conned on this I hope that we all remember to warn our fellow gamers about Catalyst going forward. There are only so many times they can re-upload Youtube videos to scrub the comments 🙂

[caledor2 4273xp 2]

@tankkommander what are you basing this on, do you have the numbers of all the backers and their shipping costs?

I don’t have high shipping costs and I have seen people respond that they don’t have high shipping costs.

I have also heard of people with high shipping costs that have been helped from CGL.

 

You might have been burned from Mythic games but that doesn’t mean that if something goes a bit wrong with a different company that they are all thief’s and liars that want to rip you of.

 

[limburger 21680xp 1]

@caledor2 haven’t you been keeping up with the new lingo ?
the moment any kickstarter f*cks up you get to call them liars and thieves …

I myself think it is a matter of ignorance and a contract with a logistics company that doesn’t allow them much wiggle room to fix things that were ‘promised’ to the backers.

We don’t know the specifics of the contract between both parties and neither of them is giving us any info that could shed some light on this situation.

While we could check costs afterwards the problem is that we’d be looking at costs at an individual level and not at the kind of costs such companies would offer to actual companies. In theory they should be cheaper … but then I wouldn’t know as I’ve never dealt with that kind of thing myself.

• This reply was modified 6 months, 2 weeks ago by  limburger.

[lonkelo 3195xp 1]

I reached out to Catalyst and they promptly offered me either a $15 discount on shipping or $60 in their webshop. Since shipping from the US is about $120 to me, I went for the former ? I have to say I am pleased with how quickly they offered to compensate.

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