First off I'd like to apologize for my absence. The truth is I let all the vitriol and scam accusations get to me during the fulfillment of Series 2 and became extremely reluctant to give any dates or estimates that I couldn't 100% confirm.
Why was it so hard to give concrete dates?
That's another matter altogether, and I'll get into that now.
There has been mishap after mishap with the fulfillment team, from minor miscommunications to complete radio silence on their end as they blow through their own established timelines and leave me holding the bag. Much of this was the result of an ongoing software migration that had Tiny Teeth falling through the cracks-- orders not being exported or not being tasked so it was like they didn't exist at all.
Some of it was the result of more misunderstandings-- about what needed to be shipped and when, what orders were preorders to be fulfilled later in the year, what orders could be fulfilled now, etc.
And some of it I have no explanation for except sheer negligence on the warehouse's behalf.
The most frustrating part of all of this is the inventory is there. It's been there since the beginning of April, ready to go and yet no one is packing it, so here we are. For the sake of transparency, I'm including some snippets of the current inventory report in this update but you can also check out the full document here.
Committed inventory (the middle column of numbers) is inventory that will be going out to you guys as soon shipping begins. At the beginning of May we finally had a meeting where I expressed my exasperation and they seemed apologetic, seemed to take my concerns seriously and give me some tangible explanations as to why they keep dropping the ball at every turn. Things have been getting better since then, with Tiny Teeth orders now going out promptly and various members of the team updating me on exactly what they're doing and how long it will take at regular intervals.
I thought Pintopia would start shipping this Monday-- this is what fulfillment told me originally, but apparently there was an issue with backerkit orders failing to validate in their system. They fixed this on Tuesday, and then Wednesday there was an issue with some mismatched SKUs that we fixed that day.
Now its Thursday. I continue to hound them for updates and this is what I received.
I share it this way so that you know, this is the extent of what I know. I'm not stringing you, the backer, along while I do some underhanded dealings on the backend and keep pushing out the date to buy myself time. I'm just as exasperated and upset as you are when my estimates- the estimates fulfillment shared with me -are not met. I'm sick with anxiety over the whole thing to the point of physical illness and I promise I'm doing everything in my power to speed things along.
Rest assured you will receive your items. We've now fulfilled over 5000 orders between series 2 and the tiny teeth shop and I 100% believe that once fulfillment begins on Pintopia the team will make quick work of it. Its not if that's the issue, its just when. So bear with me a little longer.
If I continue to work with this warehouse after the current round of fulfillment (and that's a BIG if) there will definitely have to be some more stringent requirements around turnaround times and the handling of large order volumes. We'll see. Right now my focus is solely on getting Pintopia orders out the door and after that I can worry about the future 💖
