Shipping Update #3
over 6 years ago – Thu, Mar 22, 2018 at 01:42:07 AM

Hello there, We’ve been sending out units in small batches since last week and everything seems to be in order with the shipping process. There is only one small issue we’ve encountered, which has forced us to make some changes to our plans. No worries! The shipping timeline will not be affected and everything is in order with the rewards. The only thing that will need to be different is the Oloid packaging. 

Turns out there are different weight brackets established by Mexpost. And when we shipped the first batch, we realized the cost was higher than we had estimated, much higher! This happened because the Oloid, plus the nice cardboard packaging, plus the kraft filling, labels, invoices, and shipping box, made the weight of the package go up to the next bracket’s rate that is almost double! We are over by just a few grams, but it doesn’t really matter. 

We ran the numbers, and the shipping costs were getting extremely high. For the past week we’ve been looking into every option we could think of to solve this. We searched for lighter shipping supplies and packaging, but even the lightest box was still taking us over the limit. Then we thought about padded envelopes but we were told at the postal office we could only send documents on those, not any other type of object. This makes absolutely no sense! The Oloid boxes fit perfectly in the envelopes and we would pay to ship them as packages, not documents. We tried talking to different people about this but received opposing opinions. In the end we decided we couldn’t risk the packages being returned to us by a customs officer with a “no envelopes” opinion. So that idea was out the window.

After all the research, all we can do to be able to ship the packages safely and at an affordable rate, is to place the Oloids in fabric bags instead of the cardboard boxes we had designed specially for them :( The problem with those boxes is they are pretty sturdy and have dense foam inserts inside, so the box itself is 90 grams. We found some nice, black velvet bags that will protect the pieces and, since they are much lighter, we will be able to ship them without issues. 

We wanted to give you something really special, and this is quite frustrating since we already ordered all of the boxes. But we keep learning with this project and the most important thing is that you all receive beautiful, high-quality Oloids and this will not be compromised by any means. 

The little bit of good news is that we will actually be able to send boxes to some of the backers. Anyone who ordered an Oloid Stand or three or more Oloids will get the box (except for backers who ordered the All Metal or Elemental Collection. Those orders will be shipped in a special edition wooden case). This is because we had already calculated to pay the higher shipping fee for units with accessories since they were heavier anyway. In those cases, it doesn’t make sense to try to make packages lighter, so at least we’ll be able to send the boxes to some of you. 

For the ones who ordered one or two Oloids without a stand, if you’d still like to receive your Oloid inside the box you can help us out by paying the shipping rate difference of $5 USD. It’s not much for one person but it is a lot when you multiply by thousands of packages, so if you are willing to help us out we will be happy to send your Oloid in the box!

If you’d like to chip in for shipping so we can send your Oloid in a cardboard box, you can do it through THIS LINK. Remember, this is only for backers who ordered one or two Oloids without a stand. I hope all of this makes sense, if you have any questions, let us know.

If you don’t wish to pay more, we will send a black velvet bag that is also pretty nice and will keep your Oloid safe and shiny. ** The orders with cardboard box will NOT be prioritized over the orders with velvet bag. We will remain shipping in a first come-first served basis ;)

Thank you again for your continued support. We’ll be back with more news next week!

Shipping Update #2
over 6 years ago – Fri, Mar 16, 2018 at 12:24:55 AM

Hello everyone! This is just a quick update to let you know we will begin shipping today!

We are doing a small test run of about 30 Oloids shipped to different countries and with different package configurations. This is to make sure everything is in order with the process before sending out a huge amount of units. 

We will be closely monitoring these first packages and we will be shipping small batches daily during this week and next. After that we will begin sending them out at a much higher pace. We estimate we'll be able to ship around 400 units per week. 

Stay tuned for shipping notifications and tracking numbers! Thank you for making this all possible! 

On a separate note, I would like to recommend this great Kickstarter project my good friend Edgar just launched. It is a gorgeous deck of playing cards featuring beautiful botanical photography. Honestly I’m very proud of him. The cards are so beautiful and the product has excellent quality (You know how important that is for me!). Click here to learn more :)

Bloom Playing Cards

 

 

Thanks, have a nice day!

-Pat & Team 

Shipping update #1
over 6 years ago – Fri, Mar 09, 2018 at 02:57:59 PM

Hello everyone, we are very sorry for the shipping delay. We are ready and receiving more and more Oloids every week. Unfortunately, we are having some problems with the export process from Mexico. We do not have a registered importer company in USA, and turns out it won’t be as easy as we thought to ship such large orders only for them to be shipped from there. Things started to get way too complicated :(

In order to solve this, we are considering shipping each unit from Mexico directly to each backer, but this is going to imply a bigger cost for us since we did not charge USA backers for shipping. We don’t want to make you guys pay more so we have decided to absorb this cost ourselves. But we also want to make sure we use a reliable service for this. We’ve been looking into Mexpost, which is the equivalent to USPS, and seems to be a great option. They have great service and provide tracking information so you can all see what is going on with your packages. The shipping times are around 10 business days so it is also not bad. For international backers things would be pretty much the same as if we were shipping from USA. We are confident on this process and we are getting ready to send out the first units with this method next week.

We will also be contacting a few of you to clarify some questions with some of the orders. So please if you get a message from us, try to respond as soon as possible to avoid your order from being held.

Surveys are already closed. If someone still has any emergency changes that need to be made to your order or address, please contact us directly as soon as you can. 

Once we are settled with the shipping process we will go back to addressing the black polished issue. We’ll keep you updated.

Thanks! Good day to everyone!

Surveys closing Friday!
over 6 years ago – Wed, Feb 21, 2018 at 11:06:23 PM

Hello everyone, 

We ended up keeping the Backerkit surveys open for one more week to give everyone the chance to make changes. However, we cannot wait any longer, we need to start processing orders for shipping!

On Friday the 23rd, the surveys will close for good and you won't be able to edit orders or shipping addresses.

Here is the link where you can access to your survey to fill it out in case you haven't, or to make changes in case you need to: https://oloid.backerkit.com/ 

About the BLACK OXIDE Oloids:

Looks like most backers are willing to wait until we fix the problem with the polished version of the black Oloid. We are waiting to get some samples and see how things are coming along. We can't promise they will turn out the way we are hoping, but your feedback made it very clear we should keep trying. So we will!

So this is what will happen. We will start shipping Oloids next week, and we will hold all orders that include a Black Oxide Polished finish Oloid.

If you prefer not to wait, you can switch your finish selection to Brushed. Some backers have pointed out a huge pro of the Brushed finish; it is much better at hiding fingerprints :) And it actually looks very beautiful, so think about it but not for too long! You have two days to make the change (with this link: https://oloid.backerkit.com/)  before the survey closes. 

Here is another picture of the Black Oxide in Brushed finish:

Thanks for everything! now start getting ready to receive your Oloids!

Oloid Surveys on the way!
over 6 years ago – Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 01:18:10 PM

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