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

[sundancer 42927xp 1]

I also did write to CGL today but I’m still waiting for a reply. Haven’t heard back from them.

[jamescutts 6916xp 0]

oops duplicate

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

[jamescutts 6916xp 0]

Fingers crossed @sundancer good news from @lonkelo.

I’d also like to know what those claims are based upon @calador2, I’m not really seeing how people are being ripped off, yes the shipping might be higher than expected but CLG seem to have gone out of their way to minimise costs where they can, sure theres cases where it is still a bit excessive such as sundancer, who’s research says it should be closer to 10 euro. Saying backers have been “conned” is a bit unfounded, if you backed and don’t understand that kickstarters are a potentially high risk pledge of support with many unknowns and potential changes then its probably not the right platform for you, “local” shipping was never promised just expected and as I’ve previously said it is naive to expect it to be the same as a retailer. This is also in no way in the same arena of Mythic.

What what is the actually shipping charge @tankkommander or if you not comfortable revealing that what percentage of your pledge value are your shipping fees ? I don’t remember seeing it in this thread, and it might give some useful context? Mines $45 or roughly 14% of the pledge value, its also roughly in line with what I would expect for “local” courier shipping for the size of package I am expecting.

[sundancer 42927xp 2]

The real bummer on all this: had CGL just taken the shipping costs from the Clan Invasion for certain pledge levels, add 50% and put that on the KS page all would have been fine I guess. People wouldn’t be expecting “ultra cheap” shipping plus if you put a number on stuff at the beginning people can choose to opt in or out and you don’t loose faith in your company and product.

[limburger 21680xp 1]

I think CGL did expect to have cheaper shipping this time …

things not going as planned is pretty much why kickstarters are kickstarters instead of straight to retail experiences.

We get to see and experience how the sausage gets made.

Things that usually are invisible (like logistics costs) become very visible once it starts to affect your total cost of your pledge.

It’s kind of why I don’t do “small” / “low level” pledges as they tend to have relatively high shipping costs.

[caledor2 4273xp 1]

@limburger I know that’s the trend. It is just so unnecessary and tiresome and it is getting old. If people see these one sided views they might not play the game or collect the models and this could hurt smaller companies that make great stuff.

But like you said it’s how it goes.

[limburger 21680xp 1]

FYI : My Mantic Warpath ‘High Command’ pledge is estimated 6 Kg and has a listed shipping of 30 pounds … and this includes one 6×4 battlemat as well as two smaller battle mats.

[sundancer 42927xp 1]

Good news, at least for me. I messaged CGL via KS as they requested and they offered me a 13.88 USD discount on shipping or 60USD “in store credit”. Since ordering from their US store has shipping costs in 3 digits I gladly took the shipping discount. Which now puts my shipping costs at “local rates”.

Now we wait until they actually update the shipping costs.

[dawfydd 11923xp 0]

Similarly good news @sundancer – Had a reply back to my message to them on Kickstarter and they’ve applied a $40 credit to my account to help with shipping. Far more than I expected and makes the shipping & VAT charge much less daunting.

[pagan8thParticipant 10747xp 0]

Interesting that the most popular thread in weeks is about postal charges…

[limburger 21680xp 1]

I must admit I kind of forgot to send them a message, because I was hoping it would fix itself.

Guess we’ll see if they aren’t flooded with messages triggered by their recent backerkit mail that told backers like me that their cards would be charged 😉

@pagan8th bad news always travels fastests and creates the most reactions. It’s what social media have proven since inception.

The (almost) weekly weekender thread needs more input from people doing hobby so we can push the positive aspects of this hobby a bit more 🙂

[sundancer 42927xp 0]

Interesting that the most popular thread in weeks is about postal charges…

Maybe because

1. What @limburger said
2. There is a lot of people here affected by the problem
3. I may have been (purposefully) click-bait-y with the title.

So my actually shipping costs didn’t go down but CGL added the 13.88USD to the “Complimentary Credit” they had thrown in for some extra dice for backers that also backed the Clan Invasion.

For me the shipping side of things is fixed because now all that will be charged for shipping is 13.35USD which is a very fair rate IMHO.

[tankkommanderParticipant 6413xp 0]

When I first got in to Battletech I had a missing mini in the Alpha Trike box. I contacted Catalyst customer support and then sent me a replacement. All seemed okay, a bit slow but then that is expected as they are a small company.

Now I have no idea what has happened. They are being very shady over the KS shipping. They are throwing a bit of money to people to shut them up, but refusing to give any details about local hubs and actual size/weight (which is information they must have).

So yes this has generated some discussion here. I suspect a lot of the ill-will this has generated is proportional to the shady way they are acting. If they just said ‘we messed up, the shipping is more than we estimated, for the future health of the company we have to ask you all to contribute a bigger proportion’ I suspect people would not have been happy but at least would have had an explanation.

Heck, I could even have a bit of respect if they just came out and said ‘we spent the money on staff, trips, art and a holiday’ 🙂

I cannot get a reply from them at all.

[limburger 21680xp 2]

I just got an answer to my kickstarter message which I sent yesterday :
“Your shipping fees are less than 10% of your order, so we can offer no assistance in reducing this further.”

I still think it is excessive, but then under 10% is not bad … it’s not “local shipping” in my book, but then when this started I had already figured it wasn’t too bad compared to what @sundancer had. I still think that bit of detail could have been explained a bit better.

I could sit here and mope and be all sorts of depressing and negative about this, but it won’t help anyone.

I’m sure Catalyst will have realized by now that things should be handled better next time. At the same time they’re dealing with the same kind of “sunk cost fallacy” as they have to deal with a gigantic amount of orders while trying to find a solution that works for ‘everyone’. They will have their own (external) deadlines (like shipping things to retail) which further limits what options they have. And they also depend on 3rd parties to actually be able to do what they need them to do.

Crowdfunding never were, never are and never will be 100% safe and reliable.
That’s kind of why they’re crowdfunding and not direct to retail.
We get to see how the sausage is made, up to and including mistakes and issues like this.

As individuals we don’t have the same kind of power that a single investor would have had under these circumstances.
There isn’t a legal status that can help both parties in this equation achieve a more honest and secure result. And even if there was we’re dealing with low losses compared to whatever mediation or legal action would cost.

Unscrupulous companies will take advantage of this … but I’d argue that the true criminals are few and far between.
The vast majority are simply honest mistakes that get made because most crowdfunding companies don’t have their internal processes under control.

[dawfydd 11923xp 0]

All paid up – a little over £100 after the credit from CGL was applied. Painful? Lil’bit. but on the upside that’s a whole lotta battlemechs arriving sometime in the next few months.

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