i bet i would have found a way to use what they did send me (two heroes, two environments, four villains) without what they didn't (one hero, one environment, one villain, some variant heroes, some... art or something), so whether the item is complete to ship does not to me seem significant.
it would have been easier to accept 'part of it got delayed, so we sent that part along later' than it is to accept 'part of it got delayed, so we delayed all of it. also we didn't explain that until someone noticed something weird at their local game shop'. there would have been unhappiness in either scenario, and in the one the customers are a little happier and in the other >G spends a little more money. in the difficult matter of customer satisfaction and concerns about the cost of doing business, in this case they came down on the side of the latter. and i'm surprised.
Because they're supposed to pay for shipping twice? How many pre-orders was that? How much would that cost? How well-off do you think >G is? These are factors they have to take into account. While as a customer we just think about getting the stuff we ordered. I think their decision was the wiser one of the available choices.
I think it's also important to remember that we've never been promised a delivery date. If you're frusterated bacause >G isn't meeting your expectation of a delivery date them please remember that all we've had are generalities, which have been perfectly acceptable. In fact, here's a snippit from an email I received from >G (emphasis mine) on Nov 17th:
All of the new products are currently in transit to our warehouse, and we expect a mid-December delivery, baring delays due to weather or other issues. Since this is a massive order, it will likely take us a couple of weeks to ship everything out. We hope to have everything shipped before Christmas, but can't guarantee any particular delivery date.
So from a customers point-of-view, it's not really a delay at all because we've never been told a date at which to expect it to be available. If anything, the few stores that did receive product and might have made it available have done so ahead of the release date.
Here's another example. Amazon will have pre-order sales of various books/movies/games and offer release date delivery. How are they able to do this? Because Amazon gets the product days to weeks before the release date. Does this mean that when the product arrives on my porch that I can get upset because there was a delay from when Amazon received the product versus when I received it? No, that'd be absurd.
I for one really appreciate how in-the-know >G lets us be by filling us in on when things ship to them. They don't have to do this; most businesses don't. I'm really excited to receive my pre-order copy and it is hard to wait but I know it'll all be worth it.
I would hope most of us are cool enough to just be a bit patient. We're all merely eager fans here; no need to brandish the torches and pitchforks over it. I appreciate the staff keeping us in the loop and even giving us some closure to the much-anticipated Title Deck. Delayed anticipation will make its arrival that much sweeter! :)
I am more than happy to wait a little longer in order to get everything that was promised with the order. I have never had a problem when ordering from GtG and I don't consider this my problem. It is the shipper's problem. And GtG is caught up in it trying to get their product.
I think that they are going about this wrong. Christmas comes once a year. If they can get this into their retailers hands then they should! It would not bother me one bit if retailers got the base game with none of the expansions. I Vote they sell what they can as long as they are open and honest with us about it.
Yeah. Honestly, I think they’re handling a sticky situation as well as they can.
That being said, now that it’s been sent to the retailers, although I understand why they asked them to wait to sell, I personally wouldn’t have any issue with them selling them. Doing so will not delay my getting the game, and it will allow others to – it almost seems selfish for me (or any other person who preordered, although I am not judging anyone) to ask them to wait just to prevent someone else from getting it before me.
So, long story short, I would say go ahead and let them sell, but I understand why they have chosen not to, and respect their dedication to the promise made to those of us that preordered.
I'd be lying if I wasn't a bit bothered by stores selling it before we got our copies. Then again, we're the ones who are getting the promos and mini-expansions before them, so in that respect it seems fair. Even if we also paid a bit more for shipping.
There really isn't a way to resolve this without making someone feel left out. I guess that's what I'm trying to say.
I agree that they have an obligation. If they were delaying our shipment so they could sell to someone else (as in your example) then I would call foul. If they could fill preorders, but decided to ship to vendors instead I would not be happy. However, that is not the case here. They are just trying hard to error on the side of not upsetting anyone. I am just saying if they were open and honest about the whole project there would be few objections. At least I wouldn't object. The key here is being open and honest about the situation.
I don’t think he’s saying that they haven’t been. I think he’s just saying that he, too, thinks that they are handling it well, but he would be ok with the retailers selling it now that they have it, since doing so won’t change anything.
I vote not too, a company holds on reputation and upholding their word. If you break of those engagement by making the game accessible to others before getting those preorder on the road you risk pissing off part of your fan base. Say 10% of those are pissed off that means you get 450 people that were fan enough to preorder that risk bad-mouthing your company and may not get on board as easily next time you do a preorder event.
Trust is easier to break than to get back. Seems like a useless risk...
Agreed. I personally don't care at all if people get the expansion before I do (and as a UK person I'm used to getting stuff weeks behind the US people anyway) but it isn't worth the huge outcry that would enevitably arise from hundreds of of customers complaining about retailers selling the expansion before Kickstarter backers have received theirs.
As much as I think that such people can act like spoiled children, it's not worth provoking them. We can wait another couple of weeks or so.