November Shipping Update!
15 days ago
– Thu, Nov 07, 2024 at 12:54:28 PM
Happy November, everyone!
We're so excited that all shipments are on their way to the Fulfillment Centers around the world! For the US/Canada, the games are scheduled to arrive tomorrow, which means they'll start being packed up and deliveries will begin the second half of this month. You'll receive tracking numbers once the deliveries start, so be on the lookout for those in the coming weeks!
For the rest of the world, games are scheduled to arrive at the Fulfillment Centers towards the beginning of December, which means deliveries for you will be expected to begin later in December. Just to be completely transparent, the shipments were picked up a bit later from the factory than expected, which is why there's a difference in delivery times.
If you still need to update your address, please reach out to us at [email protected], this will be the last LAST chance to update before deliveries begin!
We'll send out another update once deliveries are happening, and will keep everyone updated throughout the delivery process!
Please don't hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions/concerns. We're always happy to help :)
- Casey & Zoey
p.s. Here's a picture of Mia in her present under the Christmas tree!
p.p.s. How soon after Halloween do you set up your holiday decorations? Let us know! 🤣
Shipping Update!
about 1 month ago
– Sat, Oct 12, 2024 at 08:09:07 PM
Happy October! Hope everyone's having a wonderful spooky season :)
We are excited to share that the games were picked up at the beginning of October and are currently making their way across the ocean to our 4 fulfillment hubs around the world! We'll be sure to let you know when they arrive, which we expect to be the beginning of November. From there, the fulfillment centers will box up the bundles and begin deliveries, likely later in November. You will receive a tracking number for your order at that time!
With that being said:
One Last Check for Address Updates
If you have a new shipping address since you completed your BackerKit survey, please email us at [email protected] so we can update that on your order.
If you need to confirm your shipping address, you can check it by clicking here:
As always, please email us at [email protected] if you have any questions, and thank you all so much for backing!
Casey & Zoey
Camping Season
Just like all of you, we've been sitting around waiting for manufacturing and fulfillment to happen for Bear Mountain. In the meantime, to keep us sane, we've been working hard on Camping Season; a fun and fast-paced game about designing, building, and managing your own campground! You can check out our Kickstarter page for it here:
We are super excited about how well Camping Season compliments Bear Mountain Camping Adventure, as they're completely different in gameplay and style, but both are so cozy and immersive in the camping genre.
Your support means the world to us, and we appreciate how many of you have already pledged. We're so lucky to have the community that we do. Y'all are the best :)
Reminder: BackerKit Will Be Processing Payments and Locking Addresses On September 20th
2 months ago
– Wed, Sep 18, 2024 at 12:38:31 PM
Hello! Just wanted to send out a quick reminder that BackerKit will be processing payments and locking addresses this Friday, September 20th. Rates for shipping and sales tax / VAT (if applicable) are available for you to view in your BackerKit account.
Please be sure to update your address if you've moved since last fall. You can still update your address in your BackerKit account, which you can find by going to this link:
Good News For The UK!
With our new shipping arrangements, we were able to reduce the cost of shipping to the UK by almost $10, placing it well within the ranges we originally posted on the campaign! You'll see this reflected in your BackerKit account :)
Shipping Rates
Shipping rates in the system are actual shipping costs incurred, and are the most accurate and up-to-date prices to pass savings on to you, our valued backers. We are super excited that, despite the global increase in shipping costs over the past several months, we were able to keep shipping rates for over 80% of backers within the ranges we presented on our campaign page.
Taxes
If your order is subject to sales tax or VAT, the tax amount will be shown on your order in BackerKit. If you see a tax amount on your order:
- For the UK and EU, we are required to collect and remit VAT on all orders.
- For the U.S., sales tax laws differ by state, but most states require sales tax to be charged if we have a physical nexus in a state or an economic nexus based on the total quantity or value of transactions in a given state. These determinations are made on a business by business basis, and the sales tax requirements that we have met may be different from the sales tax requirements of other companies running campaigns on Kickstarter. Our sales and local tax accountant has identified and verified the states in which we must collect and remit sales tax, and those states will be reflected within BackerKit. We are not able to confirm the tax obligations of other companies.
Hopefully that information will help clarify how shipping and tax charges may be different from other campaigns you have backed! If you have any questions, please email me at [email protected].
How to Check Shipping and Tax Amounts on Your Order
If you have not filled out your BackerKit survey or are having trouble finding the email or link to view your order's shipping and tax rates, you can check it by clicking here:
If you used your Apple ID to log in to Kickstarter, the BackerKit surveys will not be able to send to your Apple ID. If you have another email address that you prefer to use and haven't already had us update your order for you, please email me at [email protected].
Thanks so much for your immense support!
Casey & Zoey
Important Shipping Update! Date of Shipping Charge Moved To September 20th
2 months ago
– Thu, Sep 12, 2024 at 03:29:29 PM
UPDATE ON SHIPPING:
Thank you for providing your feedback on the shipping costs! We have heard your concerns and have an important update to share.
There was a 150% increase in cost of ocean freight over the past several months, as well as overall shipping weight increasing due to requested add-ons such as metal coins, playmats, etc. that were not taken into account when we originally posted the estimated shipping costs to our campaign last year. The updated quotes we were receiving due to these factors were close to double what we had originally posted to our campaign page, thus, we worked extremely hard to get the rates to where they're at now, which we were quite thrilled with.
The facts that are not being shared are these:
-around 75% of accrued shipping rates are WITHIN the ranges that we originally posted on the campaign.
-more than 90% of shipping rates are within $10-$15 of the original shipping rates posted on the campaign.
Unfortunately, there were regions outside the reach of our 4 main shipping hubs around the world that were seeing a shipping rate 3 times that what we originally posted on the campaign. As passionate board gamers ourselves, we would be devastated if we fell within those regions ourselves as backers, and don't blame you for the reaction. We asked for many other quotes to attempt to get these shipping rates under control, as our main focus as a company right now is to get as many people to play and enjoy our games as possible. We will not be profiting off of shipping costs, as these are the actual accrued costs. We were not getting any quotes back that would resolve this issue and we felt there was no other option than to go ahead with shipping, as there are so many folks patiently waiting for this game, and (as we were repeatedly told) the rates are the rates.
HOWEVER, we have heard you loud and clear. Something we take great value in about the board game community is that we all look out for each other, and while the heaviest shipping burden only affected 1% of our backers, it's actually heartwarming to see how passionate others are who weren't affected by the outrageous rates we were stuck with, coming to help those who were affected (who, to be clear, we felt absolutely sick about because we just want them to get their game, without, of course, mismanaging funds to where we would not be able to fulfill, etc.).
Due to your feedback, we have been working literally around the clock to find a solution to this issue. I apologize that I haven't been able to respond to any comments on here yet, as I've been in meetings non-stop. Here's the update:
We have figured out a way to bypass our prior logistics to get a better rate for those who were seeing $166 for shipping, and are incredibly pleased to announce that we will be able to charge between $50-$60 for shipping to those regions. Over the past 24 hours, we've talked and negotiated with many of the providers in our network to be able to redirect packages to our Memphis fulfillment center, then airfreight these packages to the before-mentioned regions that were seeing the 3x shipping cost from what was originally estimated, bringing down their cost to $50-$60 (as we wanted them to be from the start). We were able to negotiate a deal with our Memphis office to get more favorable airfreight cost, and we couldn't be more grateful for it.
Additionally, with all of the re-negotiating in the past 24 hours, we are looking into receiving slightly better shipping rates for our UK backers. No promises on this one, but with what we needed to change, we have an opportunity to give it a shot, and will keep you posted. For all other areas (EU, US, CA, AS) these are the very best rates we are able to get, and we're quite pleased with our partners for these regions. There seemed to be some confusion about the shipping cost being more in the EU, and want to remind those folks that the VAT is added to the shipping, and you can see the breakdown of those 2 items within your BackerKit account. We wish there was a way to get around VAT, believe me, I tried.
With all of that being said, we will not be charging shipping tomorrow (September 13th), and will be moving the charge date to next Friday (September 20th) so that we have time to fix the shipping rates in BackerKit for those affected by the changes.
We also want to acknowledge that it was our mistake to believe what we were repeatedly told, that there was no other option or solution to get the shipping cost lowered for those folks affected by the $166 cost, and want to apologize for believing so. We are extremely happy that we were able to get a solution for this issue, and will use it as an opportunity to make sure our shipping rates for all future campaigns are within the ranges originally posted (even if that means we need to over-estimate, even more so, than what we are originally quoted).
Thank you so much for helping us fight for this change, and thank you for hanging in there, while we worked through this unique situation. If you have any other questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to my email: [email protected]. I have not let an email go without a response for more than 48 hours since the email address was created, and want to make sure you are taken care of. After all, we wouldn't have the amazing opportunity to get the games that we've worked so hard on out into the world for folks to enjoy without your help, and we are forever grateful for that.
Thank you
Casey & Zoey
Manufacturing/SHIPPING Update! Processing Payments/Locking Addresses September 13th
3 months ago
– Fri, Sep 06, 2024 at 11:02:09 AM
Hey everyone! Big update coming atcha!
First and foremost, manufacturing is going very well, and set to wrap up later this month (YAY).
BackerKit Will Be Locking Addresses And Processing Payments on September 13th
Rates for shipping and sales tax / VAT (if applicable) are now available for you to view in your BackerKit account. BackerKit will be processing payments for shipping, sales tax / VAT (if applicable) on September 13th.
On September 13th we'll also be locking addresses for shipping, so please be sure to update your address if you've moved since last fall. You can still update your address in your BackerKit account, which you can find by going to this link:
Shipping Rates
Shipping rates in the system are actual shipping costs incurred, and are the most accurate and up-to-date prices to pass savings on to you, our valued backers. We are super excited that, despite the global increase in shipping costs over the past several months, we were able to keep shipping rates for almost everyone very close to being within the ranges we presented on our campaign page.
It's also worth noting that we posted these ranges to our campaign prior to adding requested add-ons (metal coins, neoprene playmat, extra mini expansion, etc), which of course, inflated the shipping costs significantly. However, we worked extremely hard to keep the rates as close to within the ranges as we possibly could.
Taxes
If your order is subject to sales tax or VAT, the tax amount will be shown on your order in BackerKit. If you see a tax amount on your order:
- For the UK and EU, we are required to collect and remit VAT on all orders.
- For the U.S., sales tax laws differ by state, but most states require sales tax to be charged if we have a physical nexus in a state or an economic nexus based on the total quantity or value of transactions in a given state. These determinations are made on a business by business basis, and the sales tax requirements that we have met may be different from the sales tax requirements of other companies running campaigns on Kickstarter. Our sales and local tax accountant has identified and verified the states in which we must collect and remit sales tax, and those states will be reflected within BackerKit. We are not able to confirm the tax obligations of other companies.
Hopefully that information will help clarify how shipping and tax charges may be different from other campaigns you have backed! If you have any questions, please email me at [email protected].
How to Check Shipping and Tax Amounts on Your Order
If you have not filled out your BackerKit survey or are having trouble finding the email or link to view your order's shipping and tax rates, you can check it by clicking here:
If you used your Apple ID to log in to Kickstarter, the BackerKit surveys will not be able to send to your Apple ID. If you have another email address that you prefer to use and haven't already had us update your order for you, please email me at [email protected].
Rulebook Translations
We are very happy to announce that the Bear Mountain Camping Adventure rulebook is available to read in 4 different languages thanks to our amazing translation collaborators! This includes the expansions as well! You can find/download them here:
https://www.sweaterbeargames.com/camping
Camping Season
We are so grateful and humbled by how supportive and encouraging you all have been toward our new game, Camping Season. It's amazing to see how many of you have already upgraded to VIP status for our upcoming launch! Your support literally means the world to us! If you're interested in getting the Excursions Mini Expansion included with your copy of the game, feel free to sign up using this link:
https://www.sweaterbeargames.com/camping-season-reservation-page
That's all for now! Please let me know if anything comes up by emailing me at [email protected].
As always, thanks so much for backing!
Casey & Zoey
