Physical Shipment Status

[Erik Rutins]

Hi Everyone,

I have some news on the status of physical orders. Some good, some bad.

I have confirmation that the UK warehouse has everything in stock and should be shipping orders out today or tomorrow. That warehouse covers everywhere except the USA and Canada. The delay in the manuals arriving in the UK was due to an extra two day last minute "discussion" with UK customs to explain to them that yes, these really were full color game manuals and not "magazines" (which is what they were claiming and would have had to be taxed/imported differently). That's resolved and everything should be all set for orders to ship out.

On the US side, things got more complicated. When we released AE on Monday, we had excellent information that the manuals were going to be received at both the UK and US warehouses that same day or Tuesday at the latest. The US shipment had cleared customs in the port of Los Angeles the previous week and the shipment tracking indicated arrival in our Minnesota warehouse sometime on Monday. They did not arrive on Monday, or Tuesday or yesterday. Every day we've been checking with our warehouse and our shipper, multiple times per day, to find out where they were. Until yesterday evening, we were told they should be in the warehouse "any day now". Yesterday we finally got the real story.

US Customs decided to inspect the shipment again in Minnesota. The manuals have been a few miles from our warehouse for two days now, in the possession of US Customs. The shipper that shipped them out from China apparently failed to stick the label on the box that says "Printed in China". This appears to have been a pure oversight on their part as we all knew it needed to be done and had reminded them to do so. This was not caught in Los Angeles, but was caught on the second unexpected inspection in Minnesota. Unfortunately, this may now cause a significant problem for us.

We tried to get them to give us a waiver for this shipment last night, that now seems unlikely. The only alternative, they tell us, is for us to open all the boxes and put a label on each manual that says "Printed in China". Needless to say, doing that will add some additional delay and at this point we don't know if this will take a day, a few days or another week. Right now, we've got the labels printed, we're ready to go but we don't have confirmation from them yet on when we are allowed to go do that.

The upshot is that we waited to make sure that physical shipments would go out at the same time as downloads, but we were hit by Murphy again at the last possible moment. We're working overtime with our shipper and customs to resolve this unexpected and unfortunate complication in the shipping schedule.

I'll post more here as soon as I know more. Last night's news was very unpleasant news for us and all we can say is we're doing everything we can to expedite this now that we know what the problem is.

Regards,

- Erik

[donkey_roxor]

Thanks for the update. I was going to wait for the physical manual to arrive so I could flip through it at my leisure before jumping into the game, but now...

[V22 Osprey]

What about shipping to dealers like NWS?

Great, it could take up to 3 weeks before I get this....thats just fantastic....[:)]

[Erik Rutins]

If we don't have physical copies, no one does, sorry.

[Joglinks1]

Don't we all love the red tape.....
I like the one from the UK, convincing them they are manuals and not Magazines.

At least I will get my copies next week. I ordered the whole lot..... [:D]

Joerg

[stretch]

the placement of a sticker... solved by the placement of many little stickers.   Silly rules.

[Shark7]

The efficiency of the Federal Government in action... [8|]

Need I say more?

[V22 Osprey]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

If we don't have physical copies, no one does, sorry.

It's ok, I just can't get why physical copies are being delayed over a ''printed in China'' label

[AttuWatcher]

Manuals printed in USA would not have this problem...oh well, I have my download so I'll probably forget all about this in a few minutes[8D]
 
Sorry for the rest of you though...

[sdevault]

I just wanted to take a moment (from my crying) and apologize to everyone for ordering this game[:D].
 
You see, I have the worst luck in the world. Had I not ordered this game, this would have never happened.....So, your more than welcome to place all blame on me!!

[Feltan]

Given that explanation, it is hard to believe any money was saved by having them printed in China instead of the U.S.

Regards,
Feltan

[bilbow]

Nah, it's my fault. First time ever I bought the physical option.

Implementing back up plan- warm up the printer!

[Joglinks1]

ORIGINAL: Feltan

Given that explanation, it is hard to believe any money was saved by having them printed in China instead of the U.S.

Regards,
Feltan

The problem is no one can print them anymore in the west. They shut all the print shops [:'(]

[sdevault]

Just be glad I am unable to do the download option, or that would have had issues as well.[;)]

[V22 Osprey]

A "Printed in China" label! I repeat a "Printed in China" label![X(]

[Yank]

Well it probably won't make you feel any better Eric but just to let you know I am completely happy with my all-electronic version of the product (and yes, I did the Download + boxed copy on my order). It can show up next week, next month, next year...PDF eBooks work just fine for me.

Fantastic product by the way. Congratulations.

[moonraker65]

Great news !!. Thanks Erik.

[joe chod]

Erik,
Thanks for you honesty and thorough explanation of what appears to be a situation out of your hands. 
 
Since the manual is available for reading online, andappears that  there is no problem with the physical shipment items other than the manual..........has there been any thought given to shipping all but the manual for now and shipping that when it becomes available? 
 
I know this increases $$ for postage, time, and materials, but it keeps customers happy. 

[CaptDave]

While the immediate issue is purely the fault of the original shipper, a contributing factor is the US Congress, which has imposed the ridiculous "Country of Origin" laws. Realistically, how many of us, besides the unions and a few over-reactors, give a rip about where something came from? Some do, yes, but I'd venture to say most of us are interested more in value (price vs. quality).

That said, thanks to Erik for the honest and thorough explanation.

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: Yank

Well it probably won't make you feel any better Eric but just to let you know I am completely happy with my all-electronic version of the product (and yes, I did the Download + boxed copy on my order). It can show up next week, next month, next year...PDF eBooks work just fine for me.

Fantastic product by the way. Congratulations.

Ditto, and the game is so good, I may never even open the game box when it does arrive.