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Shipping Phase 2 Update - December 2018

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by DarkStarr, Dec 21, 2018.

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  1. HannahAlpenglow

    HannahAlpenglow Avatar

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    As far back as last February - https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...bsite-bug-shipping-address-validation.109397/

    Probably just need to agree to disagree if this type of thing is a material item; clearly it’s different for us all. I get some don’t care about their boxes, I get that some think a business approaching $20 million in revenue is too small to get fulfillment correct or make it a priority, I get some think why not just go pay $20 more dollars for an amazon box.

    But some of us do care and are kind of done cutting slack and going with the excuse of the week. Businesses that care about their customers and much smaller than Port find a way to get this done even when things go awry.

    My R54 item mentioned up thread was handled so poorly and incorrectly it sure gave me the sense of someone working hard to get my money up front and not really caring much about the back end fulfillment. A shame.
     
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  2. Mishikal

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  3. UnionJill

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    Exactly! It was reported 2 yrs ago that there was an issue. Fast forward to now, and the issue is now affecting people from getting their items. The money they are making they could hire temps or get interns to do this work. Its taking almost a year to still ship out the boxes. That's insane. This is unacceptable.
     
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  4. Bowen Bloodgood

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    That's an assumption. You don't know how much they're making or what their budget is.

    Try closer to almost 6 months.
     
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  5. UnionJill

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    The game went "live" in March... that's well over 6 months. You're right, I do not know how much money they make. I do know it's alot. A few temps at min wage wont cost a ton, looking at the bigger picture. This kind of issue will and has caused people to lose faith in Port. I know for me, I'm not happy with them.
     
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  6. Bowen Bloodgood

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    Game went live in March but they never said that's when they'd ship. First round of shipping didn't start until late July / early August..
     
  7. Floors

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    99.9 percent of games do not come with boxes, do not come with cloth maps, let alone metal trinkets and signed docs.

    One thing I have learned from this project - never ever take people's money up front. It causes so much negativity, It's not even worth it.
     
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  8. E n v y

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    There is never any issue in taking money up front as long as you follow the golden rule.....................DELIVER.
     
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  9. Verit

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    Received box this afternoon.
     
  10. Floors

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    Congrats ! Welcome to the club !
     
  11. Bowen Bloodgood

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    I believe what you mean to say is.. in a timely manner.

    The real blunder here.. if I may (and naturally this is my opinion).. is Portalarium didn't do enough to set player expectations. Leaving people to set their own based on what we might consider natural assumptions that we're used to. On the other hand, so many players shot themselves in the foot by not paying close enough attention very early on (not taking about the goodies here but the game in general but I think it applies) and setting their own expectations based on only a little information.. ie "Spiritual Successor to Ultima" suddenly people thought that only meant UO and the game would start out open PvP or something.

    When I pledged back in KS, it was.. well my first KS (and only still) but I knew what the promises were because I paid attention. I also could see a lot of changes and some "promises" and early expectations changing naturally with the situation because.. I paid attention. Now granted, at this point I think it's only fair to point out that Portalarium has.. struggled with the communication aspect.. it's not that they haven't tried and mostly done a good job but there's always been a little room for improvement.. but still, if you engage and pay attention you can normally keep up.

    Anyhow, one of the reasons I'm not particularly annoyed with not having my stuff yet is promises not made and expectations NOT set by Portalarium (unless I missed something?). Such as "you'll have it by X" They're a game developer, not a fulfillment center. This part of things well, it's obviously not their forte I think we'll all agree.. but I pledged to support the game.. not turn Portarium into an expert shipping company.

    But also I'm not annoyed because they are clearly making the effort and people are still getting their stuff. I don't expect them to be Amazon. (They've given me no reason to) I just expect them to do their best.. put in an honest effort and get the job done in the end.
     
  12. E n v y

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    No I mean what I said.....Deliver.

    There shouldn't even be a discussion at this stage. Everyone who pledged at a level where they receive physical items should have received them months ago (within the same period I received mine). It really shouldn't be this difficult.

    Sure there are plenty of people who are as forgiving as yourself who will defend the indefensible....great. Sadly there are plenty of others who will not, plenty who no longer have anything good to say about Portalarium, no longer play the game and are more than happy to spam their customer journey throughout the gaming community.....both hurting the game and the company reputation.

    Selfishly it doesn't really matter to me, I got my physical good and i'm about half way in terms of leaving the game.

    Good luck to everyone who hasn't had their goods, and I hope you get them soon.
     
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  13. Bowen Bloodgood

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    If what you meant was JUST deliver.. and not in a timely manner.. then timing shouldn't be an issue for you. I was in fact trying to help you out on that point but ok.. JUST deliver.. and they're still in the process of doing that. As far as I'm concerned so long as it's all done before EP2 then they've lived up to their commitment. It's the individual who attached the expectation of time.

    Incidentally, forgiveness has served me very well. I'm a lot happier than I would otherwise be if I were fuming about this or that. :)
     
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  14. HannahAlpenglow

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    You are truly a forgiving soul, and I don’t begrudge anyone being forgiving or not caring about this issue that much.

    But just go search the announcements forum for “shipping” to see how many expectations (distinct timeframes) Port set on this - saying they didnt just isn’t true in my opinion. Go see how many times a new reason for delay is mentioned (my favorite is that their partner in China didn’t tell them that the new year there shuts everything down for some time...). I don’t think anyone expects Port to be Fedex but at a certain point it is laughable, and sad because Port either doesn’t have or doesn’t want to spend the resources to get it right.

    Please don’t confuse disappointment with anger; some of us just have different forgiveness points in terms of how a company treats customer issues. There is only so long some want to hear “we’re trying hard”. A functional business needs to do better than that after a while.
     
  15. UnionJill

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    It also goes back to what I said earlier
    .. you can buy the physical rewards for holiday gift giving and get it before the backers who have been waiting patiently for years for the game to go live and items sent. Bowden, I'm sure you're fine and dandy with all of this... which tells me you have your boxes. Well for those of us who dont, we see this as a problem.
     
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  16. Bowen Bloodgood

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    Perhaps I've just been in that situation too many times myself. Customer orders something that really need. Manufacturer tells us they'll ship it on such a day and we act on the best information we have. We tell the customer we expect to have something in stock by a certain day.. and then it doesn't ship on time.. or just this last week something that was supposed to arrive Monday was delayed.. twice. Absolutely nothing we could do about it but say "we're sorry there was a delay". Or better yet, the manufacturer backorder where they tell us.. "oh it'll be available in about 2 weeks" for about 3 months. But the customer doesn't know this and we're the ones who catch the flak for it.

    Or how about a carrier missorting a package or "severe weather delay" on that Next Day Air for the lady who's have surgery on her eyes? We busted our butts and bent over backwards to get that out and bam.. Not only did we do nothing wrong we went above and beyond. Customer only knows something didn't arrive on time and we get the angry phone call. And we ship stuff every day we have to deal with it.

    Honestly, we should be grateful Portalarium even put out the effort to keep us updating on the delays. That's more than some of us get! *shaking fist at certain other companies*

    So.. Shipping Announcements.. I see 7 threads started...

    Physical Goods Shipping Update.. apologies for delays including the afore mentioned Chinese New Years.. no expectations really set there.. only that shipping starts.. and even that isn't an absolute and says nothing about completion..
    August 20 update, announcing progress but nothing about when players would get their stuff.. no expectations set..
    Collector's Boxes Shipping & Arriving! Says nothing beyond some have shipped and arrived. Expectations implied maybe? maybe not.
    Collector's Boxes Shipping Phase 2 (and printed book update) -

    "If you have met all of the above requirements (address confirmation, shipping payment) and you still do not have your box by September 21, 2018 then please contact support@portalarium.com before October 19, 2018 and we will do our best to get you your Collector’s Box in our Phase 2 shipment which we hope to begin shipping in Q4 of 2018."

    Closest thing to setting expectations so far.. however the language is pretty clear this isn't a absolute guarantee..

    Avatar's Update #297: Collector's Boxes Shipping Phase 2 & Weekend Music Sale - Rehash of another announcement (the one quoted above actually)

    Physical Goods Shipping Phase 2 - Check your Shipping Address by Nov 2! - Reminder to make sure your address is good in the system.. no mention of shipping dates..

    Shipping Phase 2 Update - December 2018 - Well that's this thread isn't it? In the middle of the process of shipping more boxes.

    So, going back as suggested and looking these up.. sorry I'm not seeing expectations being set in regards to when everyone is expected to receive their stuff beyond that they're working on getting them out.


    Two points.
    1: I've noted several times that I don't have my box and why I'm not particularly bothered.
    2: The Amazon boxes as pointed out earlier in this thread are not the same as the ones backers get.
     
  17. HannahAlpenglow

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    I am not trying to sue Port - yes, they sure do put a lot of “we hope” and “we’ll try” in there and not “this 100% is happening on x date. Doing that to cya is legally fine but does not meet my customer expectations. The

    Here’s a few expectations I see, but it is pretty clear we have different expectations on how Port should be executing here.

    Q1 update mentions delivering physical goods

    Q&A saying Shipping should happen “shortly after launch” . Is it a reasonable expectation that August is not “shortly after launch”?
    The Q2 2018 update mentions they decided to delay goods until no later than end of Q2 to improve the quality of goods.

    Starr’s update that goods are delayed into Q3 now due to multiple factors, one of which was Chinese New Years. Wait, I thought the Q2 delay to make goods better? Because Chinese New Year happened way before the post saying the delay was to make the quality better...hmm.

    Those are all clear expectations to me, but we clearly have differing thoughts on that. The thing that should concern Port is they lost my business over things like this as my expectations clearly were not met, and how many more will get tired of it. Perhaps they hope most just don’t care.

    I should bow out, as I have probably stated my thoughts one too many times and have largely left. Apologies for coming off as a curmudgeon about customer satisfaction - too near and dear to me in RL I guess. I still want this game to succeed but hate seeing execution of customer issues haMstring the team - it really shouldn’t be this hard.
     
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2018
  18. Bowen Bloodgood

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    Oh you're fine. :) And I'm not saying they couldn't have done better, nor that people who are upset are all being unreasonable. I just think sometimes we do more to ourselves than we realize, and people think "business/company" and have preset expectations.. Some are warranted and some perhaps not. Every company is different. I just have the perspective of being on the other side of things. So I really appreciate Starr taking the time to post all those excuses. It's part of why I believe they're still putting out an honest effort which is all I really want them to do while I keep looking for that shipment email like the rest who haven't gotten their box yet.

    I suppose it would be helpful to know.. how many are left?
     
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  19. Mishikal

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    July 25, 2018: Everything's ready to go!

    end of 2018: Hey, not really!

    So yeah, I think it's very reasonable for people to be upset. Add to that the fact that those who are getting their boxes delivered have the wrong contents?
     
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  20. Floors

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    Everyone who ordered a box is going to get a box at some point. Then all the name calling, hand wringing and other unpleasantness is going to look kind of silly at best and ugly at worst.
     
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2018
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