Midnight Springs
CREATOR
5 days ago
Project Update: Spring update (remakes are STILL not done, I am constantly asking for updates)
Hello to the 98/148 of you who fulfilled your surveys but have not yet received your packages (and the 50 of you who have received them):
I saw some confusion under my last update. As indicated in the first paragraph ("because of the chrome plating for some of the moth designs those are still not done and pretty much guaranteed to be charged tariffs upon landing stateside"), it was indeed about the moths and about the trade war affecting that shipment and future shipments. It was not posted here accidentally or irrelevant to this campaign. Pintopia's campaign was briefly mentioned as an aside because many people backed both (thank you!).
I want to say here at the top, too, again: please email me directly instead of contacting BK on your survey or through your pledge if you want to speak to me. Otherwise you will just get a staff member who may or may not fwd me your message. The site's notification system is also incredibly broken and creators almost never are notified of comments on their campaigns or updates. My email has been in other updates: [email protected]
Here are some bulleted progress notes separated by relevant section, if I were to type all this info in paragraph format I think I would drone on and this is already a lot. Most of this has already been said in previous updates.
Remakes:
I saw some confusion under my last update. As indicated in the first paragraph ("because of the chrome plating for some of the moth designs those are still not done and pretty much guaranteed to be charged tariffs upon landing stateside"), it was indeed about the moths and about the trade war affecting that shipment and future shipments. It was not posted here accidentally or irrelevant to this campaign. Pintopia's campaign was briefly mentioned as an aside because many people backed both (thank you!).
I want to say here at the top, too, again: please email me directly instead of contacting BK on your survey or through your pledge if you want to speak to me. Otherwise you will just get a staff member who may or may not fwd me your message. The site's notification system is also incredibly broken and creators almost never are notified of comments on their campaigns or updates. My email has been in other updates: [email protected]
Here are some bulleted progress notes separated by relevant section, if I were to type all this info in paragraph format I think I would drone on and this is already a lot. Most of this has already been said in previous updates.
Remakes:
- I have been bugging my rep about updates about the moths pretty relentlessly. I really didn't expect the fish to be received sooner than them, but because they were done faster I paid for them to ship separately so I wouldn't be charged tariffs on the fish.
- As a reminder, I'm not even selling those fish yet, I'm not making money off of them from anyone and I self-funded their production and shipment.
- As another reminder, the orders that haven't gone out yet either contain wood or contain the chance of receiving wood (the gacha pool it is in) and it would be very unfair/misleading of me to entirely exclude it from the pool while remakes are happening. That's why those haven't gone out, not just the ones that explicitly claimed it, because not one of those reached out to tell me they'd be fine just receiving the misprint. If they had, and weren't pending anything else, they'd have their order. I took that as permission to hold off and just pursue the remakes.
- I WILL be charged tariffs on the moth remakes because they didn't finish them last month. While they're technically "free" because they're replacing a small volume of the number I received that have severe defects, they still have an assigned value and I also have to pay shipping for them. As noted in the most recent cat paws campaign update, that shipping cost will be around $50-$70 based on past shipments of similar size (I'm giving a range here because this company agreed to remake fewer moths than the other one did for paws, so it will be lighter). Then there will be ~145% tariffs billed to me on the item value, and also import fees that didn't exist before.
Fulfillment:
- 7 shipping labels have been printed for catmoth orders I mentioned as being able to fulfill. They are going out this week.
- The other catmoth-containing orders possible to fulfill are going out next week.
- Because of the tariffs, I have mentioned in several updates that I have to have moth gacha pins at my convention coming up, as a heads up, even if I can't get everything sent out first before it. Everyone's pins are reserved!!! That is possible to guarantee even considering gacha chances, and as for Machine 1 pulls I've already done those and set them aside. There will not be stock taken to the con that has already been sold to backers!! Let me make that clear, again! I truly cannot afford to wind up in the red in any capacity over either of these pin campaigns, so taking them to the con is necessary for me - and for the paws, I am only taking seconds pins in grab bags, not even a machine.
- Obviously...this campaign is overdue. The vast majority of the delay is because of the manufacturer. As I mentioned before and apologized for as well...I'm not working with them anymore. That's all I can really say, because I'm doing my best to rectify the issues they caused, and that I caused by putting my trust in them one last time.
- Despite being overdue, it's "only" (not trying to minimize it) been a little less than 6 months since I received payment and was able to send it to the manu to get the ball rolling. CNY also happened in that timeframe, halting all manufacturing for weeks as workers across the country took their much-deserved largest vacation time of the year.
- For those who also pledged for paws and are still waiting, it's possible for me to bundle shipments once remakes are in and refund 1 of the shipping charges.
I wish I was faster at physically packing things up when I actually have rewards right in front of me, and I did already for orders that could go out (pending the upcoming batch), but I am very severely chronically ill. I have to psych myself up for days to weeks to get 1 day in which I am able to do more than just life-sustaining chores and taking care of our pets. That's just how it is - but I also can't afford to not work. Because I'm American. Unfortunately many of you probably relate to that sentiment. So instead I spend most days practically a zombie.
I had my online shop closed for about 2 months just to try to recover a bit, and art is my only job. Crowdfunding is not for profit, it's to fund the rewards and then hopefully profit off of the leftover items later. So in those several months where I was closed and trying to fulfill what I could of the disaster handed to me by my manu(s), I was not secretly making money off of you or any other customers.
To reiterate as well, as mentioned in an earlier update and at the top of this update, I do also have 1/3 of rewards already fully sent out and taken care of. More are being added to that count this/next week. Not everyone is pending. If you are one of the backers who received them already, I hope you like them!
I just have to go at my own pace once things are in-hand... I apologize that it's slow. Everyone that filled out their surveys WILL receive what they reserved/paid for.
As always...please reach out where I will see it if you have any questions!
Comments
0