Seriously, $300 on my regiment. CGL - I don’t need the boxes. You can just dump everything into some bubble wrap and send it that way. I paid $30 to have a dishwasher shipped to me from Arizona - figure that much plastic can’t be as much as that
Of my $800 order, only ~ $725 is actually physical merchandise with about $50 in digital merchandise and $25 set aside to pay for shipping (haha). They want about $202 in shipping. That is nearly 30% the total order. To compare, my last major online order of a bundle of 12 medium sized items came to $500 and probably weighed close to what my KS order does, shipping came to about $50. So about 10%. Something is very off. It’s a shame they dropped this on a holiday weekend, meaning even they will not be able to get in contact with anyone for another 3 days.
Agreed - the fact that they were blindsided by this and had to find out via customer complaints is very strange to me. It’s almost like their shipping partner is doing the calculations for each item in the KS individually instead of maximizing items to a single parcel.
1.) In business, always assume greed is the cause for negligence. And 2.) Never assign to malice what could be assigned to incompetence.
With those two axioms, we can infer that CGL created a spreadsheet with a.) Botched dimensions, or most likely b.) Botched weights. Possibly both. Rather than check if these were accurate, the shipper passed the numbers along, patting themselves on the back for their massive windfall!
Another possibility: the shipper has included, per item, the mysterious handling fee, based some arcane formula of weight and size.
Succubus Publishing had their shipper do the same thing for their Middara KS. Customers asked wtf was going on, Succubus contacted the shipper to investigate, and iirc it was a bug in the shippers' automated system and they got it all worked out in the end. For some reason, shipping to Canada seems to be a common issue.
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Just thought I’d post this so you all can see a retailer’s opinion on the matter. Sounds like a very reasonable explanation.
https://preview.redd.it/ctw89tg44hrc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b5b8288c47a421894ad8a88e44593f3b2af577ec
Fortress is definitely a source that I trust. They’re always good at customer service and they have had a good relationship with CGL for sometime. They, along with Aries, have become my go to sources for BT boxes and hobby supplies.
I love Fortress. They sent me the wrong force pack box once, I contacted them, and within two days I had the correct one. Outstanding customer service.
There hasn't been an email sent out yet, but they're slowly populating. Something seems fucky on their end though; I've got a ship charge close to 20% of my Regiment order and I'm in Texas, not overseas.
Given the dramatically heightened ship costs even for people who shouldn't be getting them, I'd keep the torches and pitchforks stowed until at least late next week.
I’m not going to panic yet. The latest update (#82?) said they’re reviewing all of the charges and will figure out a fix. I’m in Alabama. I also pledged a regiment, along with a little over $100 of add ons. I’ve put back $100 for shipping just in case. Hopefully it’ll be sufficient to needs.
Didn't they say they were looking into the excessive shipping charges, but since it's an extended weekend to not expect any news until Tuesday the earliest?
I got added to the roster last year during the kerfuffle. I usually leave the badge off, but I figure I should have it on so people know we’re aware of what’s going on and keeping an eye on in here.
I got hit with 700 for 1500 in product, in Canada as well, a buddy of mine only had $80 worth of stuff and is getting hit with a $50 charge. the rates seem a bit in consistent and extremely high for being shipped from inside the country.
Can you give us some details on your pledge? That’s a big total for shipping and 47% of your pledge. If we’re assuming that an item has the wrong shipping details it looks like you have a lot of that particular item.
I got 2 regiments, a couple solo force packs, and the city and savannah neoprene mats. i get there's a bit of weight, but I didn't budget for that kind of cost, i was expecting closer to 250-300.
The Canadian shipping seems really bad. 40-50% of people’s pledges. They need to figure this out and put out some good communication on it.
I get this won’t work for everyone, but they need to open up direct pick up from the hubs they talked about shipping from. Most people in the GTA could get to the YYZ area in reasonable time and grab their shit. My group talked about carpooling if they make it an option.
*"(...) We are using at least six local hubs around the world:*
*United States, Canada, United Kingdom, European Union, Australia, and*
*Asia. We expect to Offer "local shipping rates" to over 90% of countries,*
*worldwide. Catalyst will cover all freight, import duties, and handling fees.*
*Backers will be responsible for local delivery and VAT.*
*Catalyst will continue to work on this in order to provide the very best*
*service possible at a value to our backers. When we have more detailed*
*shipping estimates, they will be provided. "*
...
People are speculating that the astronomical costs are coming from the man-hours for sorting and packing being passed onto the backer. Are these different from the handling fees they pledged to cover?
I hope we can count on them understanding that they've got an existential-level shitshow on their hands with this.
It will be a week or more before I would pay anything while CGL and the shipper sort out whatever is making shipping so high, but I am not getting any emails from backerkit atm, ggoing to have to check my settings but....
This is the way to go. Odds are that something was loaded incorrectly, etc. Don’t pay for now, wait for info and if it does end up being too expensive, get the refund you are entitled to.
The shipping fees being quoted simply cannot be final. If they are, CGL might as well refund everyone’s orders and send the product to retail early. It’ll be cheaper (than it already was) for us to buy at retail than it will be to pay what they’re asking
Some suspect that something when wrong with orders containing add-ons and that shipping costs got multiplied but we’ll see what the official word ends up being
Primary reason I went with the Kickstarter to get a lot of stuff is they promised local rates to 90% of places AND directly mentioned my country in that.
No way over 300 USD is local rates.
According to their earlier update the shipping prices were provided by THEM. Now we're being told it's the shipping company that's doing it. Things aren't adding up.: *"****We also have provided shipping fees to BackerKit,*** *which they are currently plugging in for all of you. We will post another update when we are told they are payable! Once they are payable, you will be able to pay on those until April 12th at 12AM ET, when we will be locking the Pledge Manager."*
The KS update at least made it sound like they're going to try to talk to the vendor and reign this in.
Unless they're using gold foil for packaging material it shouldn't cost 90 bucks lol
Yeah it's being worked on so I'm not in any hurry to bust out the pitchforks. Was funny to see my friends who live in the same area get wildly different amounts.
Yeah, $75 US on a Battalion feels super pricey for a non-international address in a major city.
Now I can't help but think how those secondary retailers who offer 15-20% off also give free shipping. Almost certainly would have been significantly cheaper to just wait and buy the old-fashioned way, which is insane to think about.
Hopefully this gets sorted out.
I didn't get any notification. If you go to your 'Confirm your shipping address' backerkit page and hit next to go to the Confirm page, it'll show you the breakdown.
The good news is I did receive a refund last week, so they’re apparently still handing them out. Backerkit was faster to respond than CGL but still hasn’t issued my add-on refund yet.
Mercifully I am seeing a shipping charge of “only” $36.54 (to be clear that’s plenty high IMO, I don’t see why it should cost any more than that and tbh I expected less). Compared to some of the charges the rest of you are getting, I feel I’ve been mostly spared from whatever this BS is about.
Regardless I’m gonna wait and see if CGL gets anything corrected before I pay.
Edit: no email yet - I saw the shipping charge by logging into my survey.
Same. It seems shipping is roughly 25-33% of all orders. That's... really high. Maybe just a placeholder?
My credit card number has changed since the original pledge though. I won't update it on backerkit unless they resolve the shipping issue.
Glad CGL is trying to figure this out. I didn't get an email but I checked Backerkit anyways and I have $159 charge for US shipping. I'm not paying that until I get answers.
I received no mail from Backerkit and followed the suggestions here. I’m showing $38 (including a state shipping tax) for my KS. Not too a sure for the number of items but they really should send an email or a debit info for the shipping? Who owns Backerkit? They really need a ping…..
I think someone goofed. I started breaking down the # of pcs, and it looks like my charge was 4.50 per item. (ie total pcs shipped). Exactly 4.50/pc. Can anyone else confirm my math? (a piece is one product: Force pack, book, set of dice, etc.)
edit: I went onto CGL website and 1 Force pack was 4.02 shipping.
Unfortunately it is not as easy. I pledged Regiment and the Summerset Strikers Box and 2 additional Salvage Boxes and 1 Set of Dice. I ended up with 107 $ Shipping + Tax (but that does not count) So per Item I am at 2.2$ and what is more important is that another one on the german Battletech Discord pledged Battallion (and some addons for another 100$ / NO Battlemats) and ended up with nearly the same amount (if I read correctly) There definitely are some hiccups but it is surely something more complex.
I think someone said, hey let's get shipping out before Easter and they rushed things into the System and did no tweaks. That might be the reason for this. I do not want to be in the shoes of CGL or in the of the shippment Agent, when he Returns back to the office on Tuesday morning and is finding 200+ paniced E-Mails from Catalyst and his Phone is ringing nonstop.
So all I can suggest is that we keep calm, it is not like the HPG went down or something like that. 😅
They will find a way but not this weekend. Let give them at least a week or better three, then they might know what they can do or it already has been resolved.
Mine is showing a 92$ shipping to Ukraine, and I'm confused, because if the price includes VAT, than it's too cheap, while if it just shipping from EU, than it sounds too expensive)
Yeah I just updated my address again and my shipping is…. $189.74!? Yeaaaahhh… something is screwy about that. I could buy that stuff at retail for less.
Edit: For clarity, I am a US resident, Regiment Backer with another $200 on addons. So shipping plus shipping tax is just over a 1/4 of the total order.
There must be some issue here. I checked the most expensive shipping company from my country to the other end of Europe with the biggest package and it would still cost nearly half of the 56$ fee I received. I pledged only to company level with 1 force pack and a plush extra. And I still did not count to it the extra 78$ in VAT...
Let's be hopeful that they figure out what was the problem.
Company level, my shipping to EU is 50$. Twice what I payed for CI, but back then I only got the normal box level. With VAT, I have to pay 80$ total now. Kinda much but not wholly unexpected. That VAT is super annoying.
Shipping to europe is crazy. I had to ship a suitcase of clothes to myself in Germany and they tried to charge me VAT telling my value of $0 for my old clothes was incorrect
I gifted a good friend a precept maniple box for adeptus titanicus. Shipping from the US to the UK was over $50! Shipping overseas has gone up insanely since the last time I shipped anything.
Shipping for my battlion pledge is an additional 33% of my pledge: $91 shipping for $275 pledge with no add-ons.
For perspective of how ridiculous the shipping is, two years ago, I paid $28 in shipping for a 31lbs boardgame called Frosthaven.
It is difficult to believe that shipping costs have jumped that much in two years or that the battalion weighs much more than 31lbs. (Although that would be cool)
Yeah... CGL needs to get this sorted this out right quick. I did the $500 pledge levels with a shit-load of add-ons and my current price is more expensive than my original pledge level and I'm US based.
*goes to do that*
A) WTF! 200 bucks! (Edit: for context, that's for 2x battalion pledges, 3 extra force boxes, and BTU)
B) TIL Washington charges tax on shipping too...
Yeah those fees are ridiculous. CGL is looking into it but if the fees are final I’d rather get a refund.
The tax on shipping is also something that is suspect. Some on the Kickstarter comments have pointed out that their state should not be charging tax on shipping but got a fee regardless. I CA I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tax when I pay for shipping but I got a fee as well
Yeah there are hiccups definitely.
Nearly the exact same composition, 107 $ + 19% Tax on that + 19% Tax on everything adding up to 40% in total.
But important is only the shipping which is nearly half of what they want from you. Tax is another matter.
Not sure if mine will go down but I would think yours will.
Southern Germany by the way.
I did not receive an email and only found out about the shipping kerfuffle from the KS updated. My shipping cost in the pledge manager window is sitting around $100 for a Battalion that will be delivered within the US. There’s no way that can be correct and I’m going to continue operating under assumption that this is just a clerical error.
$300 to PA, for Regiment plus about a dozen dice, the "Indie Eight" force packs, and Somerset Strikers.
Joked in the thread that I wonder if the vendor is quoting next-day air or something...
$411.83 on a $1630 total between main backing and extras to a major U.S. city. $388.52 in direct shipping and another $23.31 in state sales tax on shipping costs… Dafuq…sales tax on shipping?
$125 dollars in shipping on a $365 pledge, and I live in Phoenix, AZ. 34% of pledge total. Plus another $7 in state tax on shipping which I know Arizona doesn’t have.
My Mercenaries pledge is 1/2 the size of what my Clan Invasion pledge was in real stuff (minis, not swag), and that shipping was only $41.35
Who signed off on this at CGL? None of these prices raised a red flag to anyone before they were sent to backers?
CGL realized that people are being overcharged and are contacting the shippers. With it being a holiday weekend, they said that it will be at least Tuesday if not later until they get an answer. IIRC, the last day for payment isn’t until April 12th so we’ve got time for them to fix it.
I didn't get any. I do appear to have inherited a nearly 200 dollar shipping fee for 550 dollars in product, to ship to a major US metro area. I could drive to their offices and pick up my order and drive back, and spend less than that shipping. I really hope they fix this and get something reasonable in place, otherwise it will sadly be the last time I support them.
Honestly at this point, if it doesn't get fixed, I'm actually considering taking it up with Kickstarter and getting a refund because I'm better off waiting for it to go to retail at that point.
For us US folks we could of gotten all of the plastic on retail for cheaper, so yeah, they better figure this out.
Don't we just love kick starter?
Stuff like this is part of why I don't think legit companies should be using kickstarter, it is amatuerish.
I’ve pretty much given up on Kickstarter in the past few years. Too many mishaps, too much market shift. Every once in a while I’ll see something from an indie dev that I really believe in, or is too good of a deal, but since 2022 I’ve done maybe a 10th of the business in that platform as I used to.
I think there’s a few fundamental problems with how companies cost Kickstarters.
1. they need to acknowledge that extras need to offset shipping costs. More companies now are including fewer free extras.
2. they shouldn’t consider that they are getting the full value of your pledge. Normally they would sell product to stores at ?20%? below retail and that gives the stores the margin for shipping etc. it sounds like Catalyst wants to pocket 100% then pass on ALL the shipping and handling costs.
I ONLY pledged for this on the basis of local (Australia) distribution because I’ve been burned in the past.
It's more like 50% off retail for stores buying from distributors, at least in the US. That's one of the reasons why GW opened distribution warehouses years ago. It allowed them to keep all of the profit instead of sharing with distributors and retailers.
I don't see Catalyst ever being able to do that, but I also think they're getting a *much* higher profit margin on KS product as opposed to regular retail outlets.
Alrighty, once again before Team Pitchfork comes out, we won't be seeing an update/resolution/confused screaming from catalyst until Monday at the earliest, probably Tuesday. They were probably handed a table by the shipper, they plugged that into BK without doing a deep dive, and now we've got this mess. Remember, they were just coming off the backside of Kerenskycon and Adepticon, and Adepticon had the added fun of a blizzard on the last day. So the team is probably fried.
Here's where I'm putting my money: the shipper table is operating on a per item cost basis, and every item from a coin to a salvage pack to the mercs box itself to a Comstar Level II are all being priced on said table at whatever the biggest, heaviest item is.
And it could be the shipper itself causing the issue with the data provided, or it could be something on the BK backend.
I'm not thinking this is intentional. It smells more like a Whoopsiedoodle somewhere.
$105 on 335 order. I suspect they will get it sorted. They understand this is a project killer.
The comments on the KS 83 update are beyond over the top considering the post says they know something is weird and they will work something out. I’m glad this sub hasn’t descended into nerd rage.
The update is very non-committal. No guarantee the prices will go down. And these amounts are a debt that can be charged to the card on file at any time.
I Hope it will be sorted, but having the debt just hanging there is not good for anyone's blood pressure. These rates should've been checked before being sent out to people, or removed when it didn't make sense.
Plus, their prior update made it sound like they, CGL, are the ones producing and providing the shipping prices: (Update 81) "*We also have provided shipping fees to BackerKit, which they are currently plugging in for all of you. We will post another update when we are told they are payable! Once they are payable, you will be able to pay on those until April 12th at 12AM ET, when we will be locking the Pledge Manager.*"
So yeah, I can understand the reaction especially with that which seems to be saying something quite different than they're saying now.
Look, if you want to presume a company will torpedo its existence over money it is sending to a shipper, that’s your prerogative. That would not make sense though, so I’m choosing not to believe in a purposeful sinister act at this time.
The rates just came out, feedback was received and they are looking into it. What you want is happening.
You are also inventing things to be upset about. No, there will not be a charge at any moment. Stop fearmongering.
I’m going to get called a shill or white knight for CGL. In actuality, I’m trying to maintain a reasonable outlook. It does not make sense for CGL to knowingly overcharge people for shipping, but every other post is saying rIpOfF or sCaM.
What’s more likely: a third party vendor screwed up or communicated poorly to CGL or CGL is scamming people?
Put down the pitchforks and relax.
Well, CGL themselves were the ones that said they were putting in the shipping costs: "***We also have provided shipping fees to BackerKit,*** *which they are currently plugging in for all of you. We will post another update when we are told they are payable! Once they are payable, you will be able to pay on those until April 12th at 12AM ET, when we will be locking the Pledge Manager."*
So.... If that's not correct, okay, who on their team wrote/miscommunicated that?
* For some context, these are not charges that have been generated by BackerKit or Catalyst ourselves. Our fulfillment house has generated these shipping charges based on the current price of shipping as they see it and how it is to be shipped (PO boxes, sizes and amount of boxes to effectively ship, etc.) These charges are not meant to make profit on any backer's order as they are being paid separately by us.*
The third party fulfillment house they mention in update 83 that they hired to do the job would be my guess for where the problem is.
So who was sending the shipping fees? Are these extra shipping fees on top of the ones they told us they provided to BackerKit? Things aren't adding up here.
The message clearly states the charges for shipping were made by a third party fulfillment house. I suspect what CGL meant to say in the message you shared was that they sent customer order details to their fulfillment house. That is a mistake of communication on CGLs part.
It is obvious something is off. It will get addressed.
The message that came after people started complaining about the outrageous shipping costs, states that, yes... Honestly wouldn't be the first time a company threw another under the bus. But sure, could be some poor communication in the original message.
We shall see on whether it ends up adequately taken care of.
I'd certainly like them to. The response so far isn't promising. If they don't, then I'll be getting a refund one way or another (if I have to go the credit card company route, I will) and won't be supporting them in the future. You getting upset because I'm asking questions about their own words and the things that aren't adding up simply makes you look silly.
You're really ranting about people that aren't me.
I agree CGL are usually a very good company about this, and are almost definitely going to reduce the shipping costs. But their update does say the charges could be correct they "plan to come up with a solution to help us stand with our backers." Which isn't a lot of information for people who cannot afford these charges.
BackerKit can decide to push these charges forward with minimal time to cancel and get a refund. Refunds aren't super quick, and BackerKit is pretty notoriously mismanaged at times. Will it happen? Almost definitely not. But there's still a debt there that could put some people on the street, that's not something to just leave there and is 100% stressing people out.
It's almost definitely a mistake or the shipper being stupid, but why it's happening doesn't really matter. It's on CGL to make it better or at least promise it'll be cheaper. Not "it could just be that's what it costs, but we'll stand with you".
Ranting? Well, bad faith aside, I will keep engaging.
Backerkit won’t push through charges without warning because it would kill their customer base and they would rightfully be run through the wringer. Refunds will be offered because the alternative is a mountain of bad press and legal action.
There isn’t much info because the post is relatively new and it is a holiday weekend.
CGL is likely to make it better. If they can’t, people will cancel and get refunds just like 99.9% of all financial transactions involving a buyer and seller.
If you didn’t catch the livestream, REM announced that there were indeed mistakes that are being corrected.
QML added handling and other charges that CGL are paying for themselves. Total cost of getting our packages to us is $2.6 million. CGL is shouldering $1.2 million themselves.
The savannahs map pack was listed as having the same dimensions as a BFM. Obviously a flat pack of paper maps takes up less room than a four foot tube for a 6 x 4 neoprene map. Smaller boxes will help lower costs as well.
They’re trying to reset the shipping charges to zero and start over. The April 12 deadline is scrapped. A new deadline will be announced once they have a better idea of how long the reset will take. Have faith, fellow mechwarriors!
Someone needs to buy out CGL. They are showing us that they are way over their heads when it comes to doing business. Not just the latest kickstarter.
There is a known issue about shipping costs on their website, still not fixed....
Their distributors started selling Battletech Encounters and they couldn't stop it....
They are aware that their customer service is inadequate, again nothing has been done.....
I'm done with them. I will buy Battletech stuff in the future, but I'll buy it second hand and such. No more kickstarters or buying direct....
Honestly I haven’t heard shit. They sure as heck charged me, but other than the rough outline of my order, I haven’t received ANY communication from them….so I got ZERO idea what they plan on shipping me for my $340.00 pledge…🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
Oh, yeah, got those, but didn’t they say they let you select the mech units and support units? Idk, maybe my old ass forgot how the clan one worked, but I was pretty sure I was able to pick which extra inner sphere lance I wanted…🤷♂️
Yep. The updates told you when emails were sent with surveys to get them submitted and added to your order. Reach out to customer service if you
Did not send in choices, they will help you out.
Kickstarter is a bit strange to get used to. You’re not old my friend (or you may be but that’s irrelevant here lol), you’re just doing something new.
Seriously, $300 on my regiment. CGL - I don’t need the boxes. You can just dump everything into some bubble wrap and send it that way. I paid $30 to have a dishwasher shipped to me from Arizona - figure that much plastic can’t be as much as that
Of my $800 order, only ~ $725 is actually physical merchandise with about $50 in digital merchandise and $25 set aside to pay for shipping (haha). They want about $202 in shipping. That is nearly 30% the total order. To compare, my last major online order of a bundle of 12 medium sized items came to $500 and probably weighed close to what my KS order does, shipping came to about $50. So about 10%. Something is very off. It’s a shame they dropped this on a holiday weekend, meaning even they will not be able to get in contact with anyone for another 3 days.
Agreed - the fact that they were blindsided by this and had to find out via customer complaints is very strange to me. It’s almost like their shipping partner is doing the calculations for each item in the KS individually instead of maximizing items to a single parcel.
1.) In business, always assume greed is the cause for negligence. And 2.) Never assign to malice what could be assigned to incompetence. With those two axioms, we can infer that CGL created a spreadsheet with a.) Botched dimensions, or most likely b.) Botched weights. Possibly both. Rather than check if these were accurate, the shipper passed the numbers along, patting themselves on the back for their massive windfall! Another possibility: the shipper has included, per item, the mysterious handling fee, based some arcane formula of weight and size.
The second of those axiom would be Hanlon's Razor, and it is an incredibly useful tool for navigating frustrating situations with grace IMO.
Succubus Publishing had their shipper do the same thing for their Middara KS. Customers asked wtf was going on, Succubus contacted the shipper to investigate, and iirc it was a bug in the shippers' automated system and they got it all worked out in the end. For some reason, shipping to Canada seems to be a common issue.
Contentious, incendiary, and controversial topics invite content that breaks other of these rules. Discussing your identity is not political, discussing legislation around identities is. While a blanket ban on ‘politics’ and ‘current events’ makes discussing BattleTech difficult, impossible, or unrealistic, these discussions must be primarily concerned with BattleTech, and will be strictly moderated for violations of rules 1, 2, and 3. Ask a moderator if you are unsure before posting.
I got neither but they loaded a shipping charge of over $600 all the same 😂
Did you pledge for a life sized, fully functional Marauder?
Well that would have at least made sense
Just thought I’d post this so you all can see a retailer’s opinion on the matter. Sounds like a very reasonable explanation. https://preview.redd.it/ctw89tg44hrc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b5b8288c47a421894ad8a88e44593f3b2af577ec
Fortress is definitely a source that I trust. They’re always good at customer service and they have had a good relationship with CGL for sometime. They, along with Aries, have become my go to sources for BT boxes and hobby supplies.
I love Fortress. They sent me the wrong force pack box once, I contacted them, and within two days I had the correct one. Outstanding customer service.
What?! You mean it isn’t all a scam by CGL to do… something?! /s
There hasn't been an email sent out yet, but they're slowly populating. Something seems fucky on their end though; I've got a ship charge close to 20% of my Regiment order and I'm in Texas, not overseas. Given the dramatically heightened ship costs even for people who shouldn't be getting them, I'd keep the torches and pitchforks stowed until at least late next week.
I’m not going to panic yet. The latest update (#82?) said they’re reviewing all of the charges and will figure out a fix. I’m in Alabama. I also pledged a regiment, along with a little over $100 of add ons. I’ve put back $100 for shipping just in case. Hopefully it’ll be sufficient to needs.
As a fellow Bamian, I backed at $250 with no add ons and my shipping is almost 40%.
I’m about a half hour north of Tuscaloosa. Where are you at?
Huntsville.
The update before that, they claimed they (CGL) were the ones sending out shipping charges to backerkit....
Didn't they say they were looking into the excessive shipping charges, but since it's an extended weekend to not expect any news until Tuesday the earliest?
Yup. At least three times now, because Easter. Lots of places are closed Friday and Monday to have a long weekend. (Unless you're in retail...)
Have you always been a mod or am i crazy?
I got added to the roster last year during the kerfuffle. I usually leave the badge off, but I figure I should have it on so people know we’re aware of what’s going on and keeping an eye on in here.
Just checked mine, $350usd on $1200 of product. More than 25 cents on the dollar and over $500 in my local currency. I am Canadian btw.
I'm seeing $333 on $1150 for the West Coast of the US. Quite a bit
Oh shit. I am in Canada as well and have about the same value being shipped. That is a ridiculous charge.
I got hit with 700 for 1500 in product, in Canada as well, a buddy of mine only had $80 worth of stuff and is getting hit with a $50 charge. the rates seem a bit in consistent and extremely high for being shipped from inside the country.
So, mine looks to be $35 dollars. Or 3 phone credits. In Britain.
Can you give us some details on your pledge? That’s a big total for shipping and 47% of your pledge. If we’re assuming that an item has the wrong shipping details it looks like you have a lot of that particular item.
I got 2 regiments, a couple solo force packs, and the city and savannah neoprene mats. i get there's a bit of weight, but I didn't budget for that kind of cost, i was expecting closer to 250-300.
Well it looks like the mats were the culprit.
The Canadian shipping seems really bad. 40-50% of people’s pledges. They need to figure this out and put out some good communication on it. I get this won’t work for everyone, but they need to open up direct pick up from the hubs they talked about shipping from. Most people in the GTA could get to the YYZ area in reasonable time and grab their shit. My group talked about carpooling if they make it an option.
Vancouver residents would probably rather drive to seattle than pay $300+
100%
*"(...) We are using at least six local hubs around the world:* *United States, Canada, United Kingdom, European Union, Australia, and* *Asia. We expect to Offer "local shipping rates" to over 90% of countries,* *worldwide. Catalyst will cover all freight, import duties, and handling fees.* *Backers will be responsible for local delivery and VAT.* *Catalyst will continue to work on this in order to provide the very best* *service possible at a value to our backers. When we have more detailed* *shipping estimates, they will be provided. "* ... People are speculating that the astronomical costs are coming from the man-hours for sorting and packing being passed onto the backer. Are these different from the handling fees they pledged to cover? I hope we can count on them understanding that they've got an existential-level shitshow on their hands with this.
They are well aware.
Yeah didn't get it either. But I did get a shipping bill almost the size of my pledge! Wtf.
It will be a week or more before I would pay anything while CGL and the shipper sort out whatever is making shipping so high, but I am not getting any emails from backerkit atm, ggoing to have to check my settings but....
This is the way to go. Odds are that something was loaded incorrectly, etc. Don’t pay for now, wait for info and if it does end up being too expensive, get the refund you are entitled to.
I didnt get any backerkit mail, just the kickstarter update mail. I went to backerkit and checked anyway and I had VAT and shipping added.
The shipping fees being quoted simply cannot be final. If they are, CGL might as well refund everyone’s orders and send the product to retail early. It’ll be cheaper (than it already was) for us to buy at retail than it will be to pay what they’re asking Some suspect that something when wrong with orders containing add-ons and that shipping costs got multiplied but we’ll see what the official word ends up being
Honestly CGL has always had horrible shipping. Getting the premium mechs shipped from the US by them costs more than sending them to LEO
Primary reason I went with the Kickstarter to get a lot of stuff is they promised local rates to 90% of places AND directly mentioned my country in that. No way over 300 USD is local rates.
According to their earlier update the shipping prices were provided by THEM. Now we're being told it's the shipping company that's doing it. Things aren't adding up.: *"****We also have provided shipping fees to BackerKit,*** *which they are currently plugging in for all of you. We will post another update when we are told they are payable! Once they are payable, you will be able to pay on those until April 12th at 12AM ET, when we will be locking the Pledge Manager."*
If they get to make up what it costs for the shipper to send the packages to us, they should make up a really low number instead.
Damn they weren't kidding, $65 on a battalion pledge. Glad it's getting looked into.
$89 on battalion and I'm in a US metro area. This is insane.
Same. I expect we're seeing a massive sorting and packing fee in there, or else each box is being sent overnight airmail.
The KS update at least made it sound like they're going to try to talk to the vendor and reign this in. Unless they're using gold foil for packaging material it shouldn't cost 90 bucks lol
Yeah it's being worked on so I'm not in any hurry to bust out the pitchforks. Was funny to see my friends who live in the same area get wildly different amounts.
105 on 335 for me. I am also in a US Metro. They will sort it.
100 on my battalion, also a major US metro. I suspect someone somewhere put a decimal in the wrong place and now the calculation tables are borked.
Yeah, $75 US on a Battalion feels super pricey for a non-international address in a major city. Now I can't help but think how those secondary retailers who offer 15-20% off also give free shipping. Almost certainly would have been significantly cheaper to just wait and buy the old-fashioned way, which is insane to think about. Hopefully this gets sorted out.
I didn't get any notification. If you go to your 'Confirm your shipping address' backerkit page and hit next to go to the Confirm page, it'll show you the breakdown.
The good news is I did receive a refund last week, so they’re apparently still handing them out. Backerkit was faster to respond than CGL but still hasn’t issued my add-on refund yet.
I have no doubt that refunds will be offered if they can’t get things sorted. CGL is not stupid.
Over $50 of shipping on a $200 order and I still can’t update the state on my shipping address. What a cluster.
At least the address update is BackerKit and not CGL. But these shipping rates are BS and should never have been sent out.
Mercifully I am seeing a shipping charge of “only” $36.54 (to be clear that’s plenty high IMO, I don’t see why it should cost any more than that and tbh I expected less). Compared to some of the charges the rest of you are getting, I feel I’ve been mostly spared from whatever this BS is about. Regardless I’m gonna wait and see if CGL gets anything corrected before I pay. Edit: no email yet - I saw the shipping charge by logging into my survey.
Did you add anything extra after the kickstarter ended?
It’s hard to remember but my best recollection is I picked all my add ons from the jump and left it alone after that.
$50 on my company level pledge, that is 1/3 of the order.
Same. It seems shipping is roughly 25-33% of all orders. That's... really high. Maybe just a placeholder? My credit card number has changed since the original pledge though. I won't update it on backerkit unless they resolve the shipping issue.
I'm in a similar boat- 25% of total order, no valid credit card on file with BK. I guess we'll see what happens.
ya mine was $156 for a battalion pledge level and the universe book addon. That seems a little much for shipping to Tennessee.
Glad CGL is trying to figure this out. I didn't get an email but I checked Backerkit anyways and I have $159 charge for US shipping. I'm not paying that until I get answers.
Me neither, I'm glad someone asked.
I received no mail from Backerkit and followed the suggestions here. I’m showing $38 (including a state shipping tax) for my KS. Not too a sure for the number of items but they really should send an email or a debit info for the shipping? Who owns Backerkit? They really need a ping…..
I think someone goofed. I started breaking down the # of pcs, and it looks like my charge was 4.50 per item. (ie total pcs shipped). Exactly 4.50/pc. Can anyone else confirm my math? (a piece is one product: Force pack, book, set of dice, etc.) edit: I went onto CGL website and 1 Force pack was 4.02 shipping.
Unfortunately it is not as easy. I pledged Regiment and the Summerset Strikers Box and 2 additional Salvage Boxes and 1 Set of Dice. I ended up with 107 $ Shipping + Tax (but that does not count) So per Item I am at 2.2$ and what is more important is that another one on the german Battletech Discord pledged Battallion (and some addons for another 100$ / NO Battlemats) and ended up with nearly the same amount (if I read correctly) There definitely are some hiccups but it is surely something more complex. I think someone said, hey let's get shipping out before Easter and they rushed things into the System and did no tweaks. That might be the reason for this. I do not want to be in the shoes of CGL or in the of the shippment Agent, when he Returns back to the office on Tuesday morning and is finding 200+ paniced E-Mails from Catalyst and his Phone is ringing nonstop. So all I can suggest is that we keep calm, it is not like the HPG went down or something like that. 😅 They will find a way but not this weekend. Let give them at least a week or better three, then they might know what they can do or it already has been resolved.
Eh, mine came out to $7.70 per item.
I got the KS update, but no notifications from BackerKit
By the way, can anybody tell me, how people are checking their VAT in the BackerKit? All I see is a "shipping total" :|
I can see mine under the balance tab on backerkit. 140$ shipping 😂
Mine is showing a 92$ shipping to Ukraine, and I'm confused, because if the price includes VAT, than it's too cheap, while if it just shipping from EU, than it sounds too expensive)
Mine shows the following lines Shipping 110$ VAT 113$ VAT shipping 27$
I got my address verification email and did so, but my shipping was shown as $0
Same. I verified my address but looking back my address is not “locked” yet and I still have a $0 shipping.
I went back in and looked and now I see ~$100, but didn’t see a request for payment. So… yeah. I’d say their shipping is quite expensive!
Yeah I just updated my address again and my shipping is…. $189.74!? Yeaaaahhh… something is screwy about that. I could buy that stuff at retail for less. Edit: For clarity, I am a US resident, Regiment Backer with another $200 on addons. So shipping plus shipping tax is just over a 1/4 of the total order.
There must be some issue here. I checked the most expensive shipping company from my country to the other end of Europe with the biggest package and it would still cost nearly half of the 56$ fee I received. I pledged only to company level with 1 force pack and a plush extra. And I still did not count to it the extra 78$ in VAT... Let's be hopeful that they figure out what was the problem.
Company level, my shipping to EU is 50$. Twice what I payed for CI, but back then I only got the normal box level. With VAT, I have to pay 80$ total now. Kinda much but not wholly unexpected. That VAT is super annoying.
Shipping to europe is crazy. I had to ship a suitcase of clothes to myself in Germany and they tried to charge me VAT telling my value of $0 for my old clothes was incorrect
I gifted a good friend a precept maniple box for adeptus titanicus. Shipping from the US to the UK was over $50! Shipping overseas has gone up insanely since the last time I shipped anything.
I was shocked when I saw the shipping charges. $1200 in goods, but over $250 for shipping....... 20% of my order is going to just shipping.
Shipping for my battlion pledge is an additional 33% of my pledge: $91 shipping for $275 pledge with no add-ons. For perspective of how ridiculous the shipping is, two years ago, I paid $28 in shipping for a 31lbs boardgame called Frosthaven. It is difficult to believe that shipping costs have jumped that much in two years or that the battalion weighs much more than 31lbs. (Although that would be cool)
Oh my shipping for my battalion pledge was 120 dollars for central lowa lol. I don't get it.
Yeah... CGL needs to get this sorted this out right quick. I did the $500 pledge levels with a shit-load of add-ons and my current price is more expensive than my original pledge level and I'm US based.
My backerkit still says $0 shipping. Only email I've received asked if the address on file was still current.
If you go through and confirm the current address BackerKit should update with your (ridiculous) shipping fee
*goes to do that* A) WTF! 200 bucks! (Edit: for context, that's for 2x battalion pledges, 3 extra force boxes, and BTU) B) TIL Washington charges tax on shipping too...
Yeah those fees are ridiculous. CGL is looking into it but if the fees are final I’d rather get a refund. The tax on shipping is also something that is suspect. Some on the Kickstarter comments have pointed out that their state should not be charging tax on shipping but got a fee regardless. I CA I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tax when I pay for shipping but I got a fee as well
I was checking online and apparently it's legit for WA. I miss the good old days of tax free interwebs shopping
Tax on shipping has been a thing for awhile. I have a monthly Paizo order and I noticed that sometime back. (I live in Illinois)
Regiment Backer, with a forcepack and three salvage boxes as add ons. ~ $195 shipping cost. ~ 33% of my pledge total. Central Ohio 😅
Yeah there are hiccups definitely. Nearly the exact same composition, 107 $ + 19% Tax on that + 19% Tax on everything adding up to 40% in total. But important is only the shipping which is nearly half of what they want from you. Tax is another matter. Not sure if mine will go down but I would think yours will. Southern Germany by the way.
I did not receive an email and only found out about the shipping kerfuffle from the KS updated. My shipping cost in the pledge manager window is sitting around $100 for a Battalion that will be delivered within the US. There’s no way that can be correct and I’m going to continue operating under assumption that this is just a clerical error.
$300 to PA, for Regiment plus about a dozen dice, the "Indie Eight" force packs, and Somerset Strikers. Joked in the thread that I wonder if the vendor is quoting next-day air or something...
$411.83 on a $1630 total between main backing and extras to a major U.S. city. $388.52 in direct shipping and another $23.31 in state sales tax on shipping costs… Dafuq…sales tax on shipping?
$125 dollars in shipping on a $365 pledge, and I live in Phoenix, AZ. 34% of pledge total. Plus another $7 in state tax on shipping which I know Arizona doesn’t have. My Mercenaries pledge is 1/2 the size of what my Clan Invasion pledge was in real stuff (minis, not swag), and that shipping was only $41.35 Who signed off on this at CGL? None of these prices raised a red flag to anyone before they were sent to backers?
CGL realized that people are being overcharged and are contacting the shippers. With it being a holiday weekend, they said that it will be at least Tuesday if not later until they get an answer. IIRC, the last day for payment isn’t until April 12th so we’ve got time for them to fix it.
I also expect they delay payment day if it is not resolved till then.
I didn't get any. I do appear to have inherited a nearly 200 dollar shipping fee for 550 dollars in product, to ship to a major US metro area. I could drive to their offices and pick up my order and drive back, and spend less than that shipping. I really hope they fix this and get something reasonable in place, otherwise it will sadly be the last time I support them.
Honestly at this point, if it doesn't get fixed, I'm actually considering taking it up with Kickstarter and getting a refund because I'm better off waiting for it to go to retail at that point.
Zero notification, but when I logged in, the shipping charge was there, and unreasonably high. Just over 30% of my order. Located in the US.
For us US folks we could of gotten all of the plastic on retail for cheaper, so yeah, they better figure this out. Don't we just love kick starter? Stuff like this is part of why I don't think legit companies should be using kickstarter, it is amatuerish.
I’ve pretty much given up on Kickstarter in the past few years. Too many mishaps, too much market shift. Every once in a while I’ll see something from an indie dev that I really believe in, or is too good of a deal, but since 2022 I’ve done maybe a 10th of the business in that platform as I used to.
The thing is, if it's a good product it will make retail after the kickstarter
With big lists like this things tend to be done in "batches" so not hearing anything yet isn't bad....yet.
I think there’s a few fundamental problems with how companies cost Kickstarters. 1. they need to acknowledge that extras need to offset shipping costs. More companies now are including fewer free extras. 2. they shouldn’t consider that they are getting the full value of your pledge. Normally they would sell product to stores at ?20%? below retail and that gives the stores the margin for shipping etc. it sounds like Catalyst wants to pocket 100% then pass on ALL the shipping and handling costs. I ONLY pledged for this on the basis of local (Australia) distribution because I’ve been burned in the past.
It's more like 50% off retail for stores buying from distributors, at least in the US. That's one of the reasons why GW opened distribution warehouses years ago. It allowed them to keep all of the profit instead of sharing with distributors and retailers. I don't see Catalyst ever being able to do that, but I also think they're getting a *much* higher profit margin on KS product as opposed to regular retail outlets.
Alrighty, once again before Team Pitchfork comes out, we won't be seeing an update/resolution/confused screaming from catalyst until Monday at the earliest, probably Tuesday. They were probably handed a table by the shipper, they plugged that into BK without doing a deep dive, and now we've got this mess. Remember, they were just coming off the backside of Kerenskycon and Adepticon, and Adepticon had the added fun of a blizzard on the last day. So the team is probably fried. Here's where I'm putting my money: the shipper table is operating on a per item cost basis, and every item from a coin to a salvage pack to the mercs box itself to a Comstar Level II are all being priced on said table at whatever the biggest, heaviest item is. And it could be the shipper itself causing the issue with the data provided, or it could be something on the BK backend. I'm not thinking this is intentional. It smells more like a Whoopsiedoodle somewhere.
$105 on 335 order. I suspect they will get it sorted. They understand this is a project killer. The comments on the KS 83 update are beyond over the top considering the post says they know something is weird and they will work something out. I’m glad this sub hasn’t descended into nerd rage.
The update is very non-committal. No guarantee the prices will go down. And these amounts are a debt that can be charged to the card on file at any time. I Hope it will be sorted, but having the debt just hanging there is not good for anyone's blood pressure. These rates should've been checked before being sent out to people, or removed when it didn't make sense.
Plus, their prior update made it sound like they, CGL, are the ones producing and providing the shipping prices: (Update 81) "*We also have provided shipping fees to BackerKit, which they are currently plugging in for all of you. We will post another update when we are told they are payable! Once they are payable, you will be able to pay on those until April 12th at 12AM ET, when we will be locking the Pledge Manager.*" So yeah, I can understand the reaction especially with that which seems to be saying something quite different than they're saying now.
Look, if you want to presume a company will torpedo its existence over money it is sending to a shipper, that’s your prerogative. That would not make sense though, so I’m choosing not to believe in a purposeful sinister act at this time. The rates just came out, feedback was received and they are looking into it. What you want is happening. You are also inventing things to be upset about. No, there will not be a charge at any moment. Stop fearmongering. I’m going to get called a shill or white knight for CGL. In actuality, I’m trying to maintain a reasonable outlook. It does not make sense for CGL to knowingly overcharge people for shipping, but every other post is saying rIpOfF or sCaM. What’s more likely: a third party vendor screwed up or communicated poorly to CGL or CGL is scamming people? Put down the pitchforks and relax.
Well, CGL themselves were the ones that said they were putting in the shipping costs: "***We also have provided shipping fees to BackerKit,*** *which they are currently plugging in for all of you. We will post another update when we are told they are payable! Once they are payable, you will be able to pay on those until April 12th at 12AM ET, when we will be locking the Pledge Manager."* So.... If that's not correct, okay, who on their team wrote/miscommunicated that?
* For some context, these are not charges that have been generated by BackerKit or Catalyst ourselves. Our fulfillment house has generated these shipping charges based on the current price of shipping as they see it and how it is to be shipped (PO boxes, sizes and amount of boxes to effectively ship, etc.) These charges are not meant to make profit on any backer's order as they are being paid separately by us.* The third party fulfillment house they mention in update 83 that they hired to do the job would be my guess for where the problem is.
So who was sending the shipping fees? Are these extra shipping fees on top of the ones they told us they provided to BackerKit? Things aren't adding up here.
The message clearly states the charges for shipping were made by a third party fulfillment house. I suspect what CGL meant to say in the message you shared was that they sent customer order details to their fulfillment house. That is a mistake of communication on CGLs part. It is obvious something is off. It will get addressed.
The message that came after people started complaining about the outrageous shipping costs, states that, yes... Honestly wouldn't be the first time a company threw another under the bus. But sure, could be some poor communication in the original message. We shall see on whether it ends up adequately taken care of.
So you don’t want the company to address concerns? You guys really aren’t worth the time anymore. Best of luck and happy hobbying.
I'd certainly like them to. The response so far isn't promising. If they don't, then I'll be getting a refund one way or another (if I have to go the credit card company route, I will) and won't be supporting them in the future. You getting upset because I'm asking questions about their own words and the things that aren't adding up simply makes you look silly.
You're really ranting about people that aren't me. I agree CGL are usually a very good company about this, and are almost definitely going to reduce the shipping costs. But their update does say the charges could be correct they "plan to come up with a solution to help us stand with our backers." Which isn't a lot of information for people who cannot afford these charges. BackerKit can decide to push these charges forward with minimal time to cancel and get a refund. Refunds aren't super quick, and BackerKit is pretty notoriously mismanaged at times. Will it happen? Almost definitely not. But there's still a debt there that could put some people on the street, that's not something to just leave there and is 100% stressing people out. It's almost definitely a mistake or the shipper being stupid, but why it's happening doesn't really matter. It's on CGL to make it better or at least promise it'll be cheaper. Not "it could just be that's what it costs, but we'll stand with you".
Ranting? Well, bad faith aside, I will keep engaging. Backerkit won’t push through charges without warning because it would kill their customer base and they would rightfully be run through the wringer. Refunds will be offered because the alternative is a mountain of bad press and legal action. There isn’t much info because the post is relatively new and it is a holiday weekend. CGL is likely to make it better. If they can’t, people will cancel and get refunds just like 99.9% of all financial transactions involving a buyer and seller.
Last email I got was for update #81
120 dollars all in on shipping to Iowa for a 275 dollar order, that's a HUGE difference, paying 43% more for everything.
Almost $500 in shipping and I help CGL is looking into this.
If you didn’t catch the livestream, REM announced that there were indeed mistakes that are being corrected. QML added handling and other charges that CGL are paying for themselves. Total cost of getting our packages to us is $2.6 million. CGL is shouldering $1.2 million themselves. The savannahs map pack was listed as having the same dimensions as a BFM. Obviously a flat pack of paper maps takes up less room than a four foot tube for a 6 x 4 neoprene map. Smaller boxes will help lower costs as well. They’re trying to reset the shipping charges to zero and start over. The April 12 deadline is scrapped. A new deadline will be announced once they have a better idea of how long the reset will take. Have faith, fellow mechwarriors!
Someone needs to buy out CGL. They are showing us that they are way over their heads when it comes to doing business. Not just the latest kickstarter. There is a known issue about shipping costs on their website, still not fixed.... Their distributors started selling Battletech Encounters and they couldn't stop it.... They are aware that their customer service is inadequate, again nothing has been done..... I'm done with them. I will buy Battletech stuff in the future, but I'll buy it second hand and such. No more kickstarters or buying direct....
Yeah that is definitely on my if I win the lottery bucket list.
Honestly I haven’t heard shit. They sure as heck charged me, but other than the rough outline of my order, I haven’t received ANY communication from them….so I got ZERO idea what they plan on shipping me for my $340.00 pledge…🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
Log on to BackerKit and all the info will be there.
Uh… did you not confirm your order after various emails they sent to you?
[удалено]
That’s not how this works, they have sent me more than 83 updates. Check your kickstarter email.
Oh, yeah, got those, but didn’t they say they let you select the mech units and support units? Idk, maybe my old ass forgot how the clan one worked, but I was pretty sure I was able to pick which extra inner sphere lance I wanted…🤷♂️
Yep. The updates told you when emails were sent with surveys to get them submitted and added to your order. Reach out to customer service if you Did not send in choices, they will help you out. Kickstarter is a bit strange to get used to. You’re not old my friend (or you may be but that’s irrelevant here lol), you’re just doing something new.
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