Shipping Report Week 3
about 1 year ago – Fri, Mar 31, 2023 at 03:48:49 PM

Hi Friends,

Some Big Updates, but let's start with trying to answer the most seen FAQs:

• In the US, if you get a notification saying a package is coming from Everything Kitchens, Good Company, or you get a message from ShipHero, these are our games! The fulfillment company, Good Company, also ships glassware and so that seems to be leaking through, and ShipHero is the software system we use with them to track orders.
• We are uploading tracking numbers into Backerkit as we get waves of them sent to us from the fulfillment centers, which in turn emails the backer with the tracking number. You do not need to email us asking if you have a tracking number yet. If you haven't gotten a tracking email yet, your box hasn't shipped yet.
• If you think you may have missed a tracking email, please go here and look: boirequiem.backerkit.com/backer/review. If there is not a tracking number there, we also do not have a tracking number for your pledge yet.
• If your tracking number has been on "label created" for a few days and/or missed the estimated delivery, we apologize. The estimated delivery is automatically added by the courier (FEDEX/UPS). We are at their mercy for how quickly they decide to scan our packages into their system.
• Damages - please reach out to https://maestromedia.com/pages/contactus. Picture verification is required, so please respond to that initial email that says we got your request with photos to help speed up the process. We will help you out as quickly as possible.
• The cards in the Full Collection Kickstarter Version only take up about 1 and 1/3 rows. The cards in the retail Ultimate Collection only take up 1 complete row. The Big Boi Box was designed to fit all the cards double sleeved (which then makes them take up about 3 rows), as well as future cards. The empty space does not mean something is missing! See below for pictures of what your copies of the games will look like.
• All fulfillment companies are working on batches. The largest quantity of orders with the most same items (tiers/add-ons) will go out first, working down to the most unique orders later. This ensures more people get their pledges quickly.

Fulfillment

US Fulfillment - We're past the halfway mark! Signed and Poo'd tiers are starting to go out, we just did a couple of test shipments to ensure they have good packaging. We are working on shipping out the bathwater and mystery boxes, so those individual items will ship out shortly (for everyone, not just for the US).

UK Fulfillment - Confirmed through multiple channels that SHIPPING HAS BEGUN! Like the US and as explained in the above FAQ, they are shipping in batches.

EU Fulfillment - Gamesquest has confirmed that the games have cleared customs and are on their way to the warehouse. Delivery is expected on the 5th and 6th of April, with shipping starting the following week.

Oceania Fulfillment - Confirmed through multiple channels that SHIPPING HAS BEGUN! Like the US and as explained in the above FAQ, they are shipping in batches.

Asia Fulfillment - Waiting on confirmation from VFI on the start date. We continue to email asking them to nail down a start date. They've been explaining that it's a "complicated process" with them having a main fulfillment center that sends batches of packages to sister fulfillment centers for different regions.

CA Fulfillment - As per the last couple of updates, the US fulfillment center is bulk shipping all CA orders to Canada. Once they cross into Canada, shipping out should be incredibly quick since the games will already be labeled. The shipment has not happened yet.

Rest of the World Fulfillment - Shipping from the EU fulfillment center, so it will start when EU shipments start.

Localized Games - The ships are projected to be in port soon. Once we get confirmation of this, we will have a more clear estimate of shipping start dates.

It continues to be awesome to see even more of you receive your packages. We love to see pictures of all your cool new goodies - please do share pictures of them on social media when they arrive! Be sure to tag @edmundmcmillen and @TheMaestroTeam on Twitter.

Thank you for bearing with us as we work our way through this mammoth task. We do appreciate that waiting is difficult! We can't wait to celebrate with those of you still waiting when your copies do arrive.

Stay tuned, we'll be back next Friday with another update on the latest for each region.

~The Maestro Team

CONFIRMED: UK/AU Shipping Started | Maestro's New Project
about 1 year ago – Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 01:56:02 PM

Hello Friends,

We can confirm (based on email conversation AND in the fulfillment portal) that shipping in the UK and Oceania has begun! They did confirm that they will be sending out the biggest bulk orders first (those that are the most common order combinations, which tend to be some of the less complex ones) as a way to ensure the greatest number of backers get their packages as quickly as possible. Just like with our US fulfillment, we expect it to take a good few weeks to get everything on the road - so don't panic if you haven't heard anything yet!

As for our other regions: are working through the EU/Europe issues still and hope to have that ironed out soon. The US fulfillment center continues to rock through their packages, and we have officially hit the halfway mark! No new updates for the other fulfillment centers, but we'll be back Friday with all the latest news. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for that.

---------------------------------

In other news, Maestro Media has another Kickstarter currently running, Sally Face: Strange Nightmares, and we're in the final days of funding!

It's a cooperative, story-driven, dice-rolling, symbol matching, boss battling, mystery game set in the Sally Face universe. A lot of awesome people have worked really hard to bring it to life, and we are all proud of the result. Head on over to the Kickstarter page, check it out, and - if you feel so inclined - join us for the thrilling conclusion of the campaign!

See you Friday,

~The Maestro Team

Shipping Report Week 2
about 1 year ago – Fri, Mar 24, 2023 at 11:06:44 PM

Hi Friends,

Let's just dive right in:

US Fulfillment - 17,297 packages have been sent as of this writing. There are 41,489 packages that need to be shipped, so we're just under halfway. HOWEVER, BIG CAVEAT: While we have sent out about half the packages in 2 weeks, this rate will slow down as orders get trickier. Again, fulfillment will take 8ish weeks to complete, so don't start getting nervous if you haven't received a tracking number yet - you are not alone!

Some important things to note:

• If you get a notification saying a package is coming from Everything Kitchens: we dove into this further, and that is apparently the name UPS has on file for our 3PL fulfillment center. That means if you have a UPS account it's showing up as Everything Kitchens (but it doesn't mean anything is wrong).
• We are uploading tracking numbers into Backerkit as we get waves of them sent to us from the fulfillment center, so you should also be getting an email from Backerkit saying: "here's your tracking number" when your package is on the way. Apologies to the first week folks, the timing was off on us receiving the tracking numbers, so some of you were surprised with packages. THIS IS FIXED, so you do not need to email us asking if you have a tracking number yet. If you haven't gotten a tracking email yet, your box hasn't shipped yet.
• If you think you may have missed a tracking email, please go here and look: boirequiem.backerkit.com/backer/review. If there is not a tracking number there, we also do not have a tracking number for your pledge yet.
• If your tracking number has been on "label created" for a few days and/or missed the estimated delivery, we apologize. The estimated delivery is automatically added by the courier (FEDEX/UPS). We are at their mercy for how quickly they decide to scan our bulk packages into their system. We're finding this can take several days from when the fulfillment center creates your label and puts your package on a pallet for pickup to when the courier gets your package into the mail system.
• Damages - please reach out to https://maestromedia.com/pages/contactus. Picture verification is required, so please respond to that initial email that says we got your request with photos to help speed up the process. We will help you out as quickly as possible. There are a ton of emails coming in and we are a small team, meaning responses are not as quick as they usually are, but we are all working overtime to try and get everything sorted out for you all.
• The cards in the Full Collection Kickstarter Version only take up about 1 and 1/3 rows. The cards in the retail Ultimate Collection only take up 1 complete row. The Big Boi Box was designed to fit all the cards double sleeved (which then makes them take up about 3 rows), as well as future cards. The empty space does not mean something is missing!

UK Fulfillment - Confirmed with Gamesquest again that shipping will start the week of March 27th. Like the US, they will begin by shipping the largest portion of same items and then working onto the most complex orders. 

EU Fulfillment - Waiting on confirmation from Gamesquest EU on the start date. There was a customs inspection with German Customs that held up just the games. We were not initially told about this, we are working on it now. We expect orders with add-ons only to begin shipping next week. And we will be spending a lot of our time next week getting the customs issue sorted.

Oceania Fulfillment - Confirmed that shipping will start the week of the 27th. Like the US, they will begin by shipping the largest portion of same items and then working onto the most complex orders. 

Asia Fulfillment - Waiting on confirmation from VFI on the start date. It's been exactly 1 week and 7 emails to them since we've heard back from them.

CA Fulfillment - As per the last couple of updates, the US fulfillment center is bulk shipping all CA orders to Canada. Once they cross into Canada, shipping out should be incredibly quick since the games will already be labeled. 

Rest of the World Fulfillment - Shipping from the EU fulfillment center, so it will start when EU shipments start.

It has been awesome seeing so many of you start to receive your packages. Please do share pictures on social media - it makes us all happy! Be sure to tag @edmundmcmillen and @TheMaestroTeam on Twitter.

Bear with us as we work through shipping - this is a huge undertaking but we are getting there, step by step. We can't wait to celebrate with those of you still waiting when your copies do arrive.

We'll be back with another shipping update soon. Until then, friends.

~The Maestro Team

Shipping Report Week 1
about 1 year ago – Fri, Mar 17, 2023 at 12:20:02 PM

Hi Friends,

Can you believe it? We're 5(ish) days into shipping already! We wanted to share a bit more about our visit to the US fulfillment center and then answer some questions we've been seeing in the chat. HERE WE GO!

Here’s the stats the fulfillment centers have shared with us:

US Fulfillment: 10,000 packages have been sent this week! This number will slow slightly since the 10K includes packages they were boxing up last week as well as this week. Shipments (vs labels created) started Wednesday (not Friday!) and I've seen a few people Twitter/comment that they've got their packages! A few of you have said that you got a notification from "Everything Kitchens," this should have been fixed by the fulfillment company on new shipments. Don't worry, the fulfillment company also ships glassware and it was a glitch in their system that didn't update the "shipper" to Maestro Media.

UK/EU/ROW: There seems to be some internal confusion amongst the Gamesquest staff. They have booked and scheduled "56 jobs" totaling thousands of shipments. Our team went through, spot checked, and approved these shipments last week. We were on a call with them on Tuesday discussing the beginning of shipping this week. This has not happened yet, as of today's call they're confident shipping will start on March 27th. We will keep you updated as this is very different from what our reps have been saying. However, they did say they would send out an update Monday correcting the Vlog that went out Thursday that's caused so much confusion.

Oceania/Asia: Both warehouses have confirmed they’ve received new shipments and are processing them now. Delivery should be starting in the next week or two, it’s all on how quickly they sort and prep the received shipment.

CA: The US fulfillment center is sending a couple of waves of freight shipments, the nice thing is that these boxes will be packaged and labeled already, so once they hit the CA fulfillment center it’s a quick turnaround. I’ll be back when I have more from the US fulfillment company on that first shipment.

We’ll be back with more shipping news soon!

~The Maestro Team

Fulfillment Starts This Week!
about 1 year ago – Mon, Mar 13, 2023 at 01:45:22 PM

Hello Friends,

IT IS HAPPENING! A couple members of the team visited our US Fulfillment Center Friday-Sunday last week, and we virtually toured the Fulfillment Centers in the UK/EU. In both centres, games are being packaged and labeled. Which means... shipping is about to commence!

Now, let's talk logistics, because this is a MASSIVE project for each fulfillment company. 

We're shipping out over 150,000 packages to 158 different countries. Each of the 5 global fulfillment companies has 80+ different SKUs (aka items) in their warehouses between the different versions of the game and the merchandise. All made possible because of you fine people on this Kickstarter!

First, fulfillment is estimated to take a total of 8-10 weeks. As we've discussed in numerous past updates, shipments of the English language game, orders with just Merchandise, and/or English game + merch, will ship first, with shipments for Spanish, Italian, German, and French games starting 3-4 weeks after the start.

If you're in the UK/EU/ROW and have a translated game, your shipments will be further behind due to the final boat having issues in transit. If you ordered both a translated game + merch, or merch + an English game - YOU WILL RECEIVE TWO PACKAGES FROM OUR FULFILLMENT CENTER. One package will be merch and/or the English game, and your second package will be the translated game.

Also, as mentioned in a previous update, if you are receiving a specialty item: Bathwater, Satan Head, Sketch, or Mystery Boxes, those items are shipping separately from the game and merch items in your order and will ship later in the timeline.

US - Your items are shipping out from Missouri, we've been to the warehouse - it's MASSIVE - and there is A LOT of stuff there. It was incredible to see and the team doing the shipping is fantastic. Games are being boxed right now, with a massive first wave happening on Friday. You will receive a tracking number from Backerkit, 

CA - Your items will be packaged in Missouri and bulk shipped to Canada to avoid having individual packages in customs, and having packages get stuck as US shippers hand off to CA shippers. You will receive your tracking number from Backerkit as well.

UK/EU/ROW - Your items are shipping from Gamesquest, and we spent a good deal of time last week on calls and spot-checking orders with the fulfillment team. We have a long relationship with Gamesquest, and we're thrilled to have such a great partner shipping our game to fans. Shipping is starting, and you will receive a tracking number from Gamesquest within 2 days of your product being loaded onto a truck to head to the courier.

Oceania/Asia - Aetherworks and VFI will be handling fulfillment in your regions respectively. They are receiving shipments and sorting packages. Shipping will begin soon! You'll be getting tracking numbers from the fulfillment company.

Again, we are expecting fulfillment to take 8-10 weeks, so please celebrate with people as they say they've received their packages, and be patient as you wait for yours. This is the hardest thing we've had to ask for yet - patience - when all we want to do is play this game and display/wear/use the merch!

This is one of the largest fulfillment projects in Kickstarter/Backerkit history, thank you all for making it so successful. We'll be back soon!

~ The Maestro Team