Tracking updates!

I got a FedEx tracking update from GtG today! I’m so excited for new games!

bounces

RIGHT?!?   Got mine yesterday morning! All the excite!!! 

July 17 I get to open my game (I hope. )

Now time to find people who will play that day.

I get mine on Saturday!  Hope it's actually Spirit Island and not OblivAeon ;-)

Oddly, the delivery estimate for ours is for Tuesday – but it arrived here in Indianapolis tonight… 

Guess that means they're planning on loosing it (like usual). 

That makes me slightly more optimistic. I finally got a tracking notice about an hour ago and it says they're going to take a week to move it 300 miles to me.

My package is apparently taking a super special route to get to me.  When I first got the tracking notice on Tuesday it was scheduled to arrive next Monday.  However, the scheduled delivery has been pushed back to Wednesday, despite the fact that according to the tracking page it is currently residing about 70 miles from where I live.  It traveled over 1,700 miles in under 48 hours, but they think that it will take another 6 days to travel the last 70.

I'm hoping that they are wrong.  

I'm seeing similar.  The original notice had it set for me to get the package Tuesday but now that's it much closer it says it won't arrive until Thursday.  I sincerely hope it gets to me tomorrow or Saturday since I'll be out of town for a week after that.

Tracking! Sadly, no matter when it gets to my home (updated to tomorrow, even!) it will be weeks before I can dig into it. Damn getting gigs that eat up weeks of life when beautiful, beautiful cardboard is hours away with my cat and husband!

Huh.  Apparently the package just departed from where it had been resting.  I'm not entirely sure why they feel the need to move it at 9:00 at night, but I guess they want to get an early start if they want the package to travel 70 miles by Wednesday.

Got mine yesterday 1 victory by a team up of Shadows flicker like flames and river surges in sunlight. Shadows is an extremely efficient fear machine and the major powers River got mean the invaders were routed as soon as we got to terror level 3. It is a great game but pretty heavy as far as stuff to watch goes.

I realize now why it's going to take so long.   The package was shipped using FedEx Smart Post.  So FedEx will get it to my local USPS and then they'll deliver it out. Which means extra processing time despite being an hour trip back and forth for me to pick up from the FedEx location it is at now.   I thought GtG, Paul specifically, said they were going to stop using FedEx Smart Post?

Don't get your hopes up. 

In standard FedEx fashion, this morning the update said it's in Kentucky… 

…

For the record, my package (which seems to have been one of the first to arrive, on Tuesday) was delivered directly by FedEx--there was a note in the tracking about being delivered directly by FedEx rather than through USPS. Maybe they had another delivery in town, or maybe my package was just too large to hand off.

I'll hope that's the case but I am a tad frustrated when that they said weren't going to use FedEx Smart Post for packages outside of when they offer cheaper shipping like the Christmas sale.  

Mine appears to be SmartPost as well. They got it half way here last night and delayed the delivery estimate by another day.

Mine also says it is "SmartPost"… 

Got mine this morning in Philly. It was shipped FedEx but it was delivered by USPS for anyone wondering.

Yeah, FedEx Smart Post usually uses USPS for the last mile.

I've had a few things lost from Kickstarters because of Smart Post (old post office was terrible), including the Sentinels hero pack last year. Thankfully I've moved and don't have to deal with that post office anymore.

@Powerhound_2000

I'm sorry if I was unclear or gave you a false impression at some point in the past, but we will always use SmartPost for US Kickstarter deliveries for the forseeable future. The reason why is because, unlike standard FedEx shipping (or UPS, for that matter), SmartPost pricing is based on the actual weight of the package, not what they call the "dimensional weight".

When shipping any package, the higher the weight, the higher the price we pay to ship it, which makes sense. When we ship via regular FedEx Ground or Express, however, the box dimensions are added into a formula that produces an essentially made up "dimensional weight". If the dimensional weight is higher than the actual weight of the box, that is the number they use to determine pricing. Unfortunately, the formula is set up so that anything less dense then, say, a solid ream of paper, gets dimensionally weighted. That means that shipping out a 3.5lb game with .5 lbs of outer box and packing material (thus weighing 4lbs) can easily get rated as a 10lb parcel dimensionally. Since game boxes inherently contain air, plus we generally like to use padding when packing boxes to reduce damages, dimensional pricing can absolutely ruin us for large ship-outs.

The only services that don't use dimensional pricing are regular USPS mail, and FedEx SmartPost. SmartPost is slightly more expensive, but not a ton, and it is a lot more reliable in our experience. The move to SmartPost for Kickstarters is how we have been able to offer free shipping to US backers on recent Kickstarter campaigns, something that we never did up until about 18 months ago.

Just a note on that Spirit Island wasn't free shipping it was $9 for US.  Exoplanets which I'm expecting as well was free shipping though.  I'll admit though that I doubt $9 is enough for shipping those together.  

@Powerhound_2000

$9 isn't actually enough to ship either of them separately :)

That doesn't surprise me.  

I have some vague recollection that SmartPost is much worse in other countries (UK in particular), and that Greater than Games said they were moving away from that?

Incidentally, I just had to ship out a copy of Spirit Island (from a bulk order, where one participant had moved). I paid UPS $14 for that, matching up with Paul's comment that $9 was not enough. (Also note that was just the UPS charge, and didn't include, say, the boxes; I reused some of the boxes from the shipment to me.)

My current saga: the package left St Louis and arrived at a town 17 miles from my house at 4 p.m. local yesterday. It left that facility at 2:30 in the morning today, for parts unknown. Delivery estimate has always been next Wednesday.

I’m going to hope that’s the transition to USPS and I get it today or tomorrow! Given that some people are receiving theirs already, I figure that’s not out of the question.

I’m expecting both Sprit Island and Exoplanets, but I have one 15 lb box coming. I assume this is both of them together.

It should be as the Spirit Island box i received was noted as 6.60 poumds leabing some margin for other stuff.

Mine was delivered to my ex-wife today; she's dropping it off when she comes by to take the kids to Despicable 3.

Is it bad if I haven't even gotten a FedEx notification yet?  I hope that's not bad.

I find FedEx notifications (and FedEx in general) to be pretty unreliable. I only started getting notifications for this shipment because I logged into their site and checked my account (yes, it was already set up and I've gotten notifications for some other shipments). So, you may want to log in and see if those notifications are just sitting there waiting for you.

My package was on its way here, then inexplicably re-routed to Indiana, and then left Indy 48 hours ago with no status update since. Is Tim Cosing driving the truck, spelling out clues?

It’s here! It’s here!

Careful! Don't let the Prussians go stomping all over your house!

it was supposed to be here, but got delayed some how and couldn't get a cross the state over the weekend.  Tomorrow's mail can't arrive quickly enough (I want my lazer ryders too)

Yeah. I, whom work (sorta) for fedex, only got my notification when it was delivered. Go figure.

Got my notification for a 12 lb box from Greater than Games.

I just have to wait until Friday.

Sigh.

I'm going to play Lazer Ryders and Spirit Island till I puke.

I got it on Saturday before my game night. Hard to convince people to play a game you never read the rules on.

Played 2 solo and 2 games with friends. I Love the game very much, but I like busy games with a lot going on.

Side note i was supose to come Today.

my copy is supposed to be delivered tomorrow but I'm out of town until Sunday.   I hope no one takes that or any other packages we get.  

That sounds like it would be an…achievement.

Our copies arrived during the day. While I was at work, my wife tormented me by texting me pictures of Mr. Chomps munching on the Exoplanets box and making friends with Branch and Claw.

Without enough time to play after I got home, we dug through the contents. My very very first impression: wow, those invader sculpts are tiny!

Does anyone know if any of these have been shipped to international backers yet?

Fedex is notoriously bad down here. They'll find any excuse to drop a slip and run, and without a car its a 2 hour epic quest to find the warehouse to pick it up.

Define "shipped".

The international shipment was the first thing out of the GtG warehouse.  But I don't think that it's made it across the pond yet (or if it has, it's only just done so.)

All of the non-US orders have gone out, and some have started to be received.

Paul,

At what point should European orderers start to get concerned if they haven't received their shipment?

Wouldn't want the torches and pitchforks to go off, after all. :-)

We are using a slightly different method, so I don't yet have quite as much data on how long it should take. If they don't show up in the next week or two let me know.

ominous… what could possibly go wrong? Hopefully they'll turn up next week, or I might have to consider relocating to Australia for the speedier shipping.

We actually shipped using the same method to Australia. This time though it relies on whatever your local postal service is for the final leg, so it might be a case of different postal efficiencies by country?

Who knows Paul - it won't necessarily be the Royal Mail that they have as a partner over here and some are more reliable than others. I just find it funny that they managed to get across the Pacific more speedily than the Atlantic, but I'm sure it will arrive soon!

... and somebody in Ireland posted on BGG that they have received so it must be on the final leg in European destinations! Yay! It's as if the sound of a thousand voices cried out in relief that French customs didn't get involved again.

I trust AusPost more than I trust Fedex. Less tracking but more reliable delivery.