The Story Engine

CREATOR

6 days ago

Project Update: Mid-December Update: Progress on US Fulfillment

Hello backers!

We're thrilled to announce that the UK, EU, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and Canada have now completed shipping, and our partner Flying Cloud Fulfillment is making steady progress on US shipments. We're emailing with them daily to check in on how things are going, trying to balance our need for progress updates with their need to focus on making progress.

We've seen some questions about US fulfillment coming up and we thought we'd answer those here as we update you on progress. This is an important update for US backers, so please read carefully!

US Fulfillment Progress

As of right now, if things continue at pace, Flying Cloud should be able to finish shipping all pledges by the end of December as we have been forecasting. Flying Cloud tells us that by the end of next week, they will have shipped the majority of US parcels.

However, today they advised us that they will not finish shipping all pledges before December 25, and that not all parcels shipped before the holidays will arrive by December 25.

We do have a plan to maximize the number of holiday deliveries we can make, which we'll explain in the next section.

We know this news is disappointing. Despite the immense effort they've been putting in, they are behind on the progress they told us they'd hoped to make. Fortunately, they tell us that their daily pack rate is getting faster, currently well over 100 parcels per day. We've asked if we can help by shipping some parcels from Canada using duty-free cross-border shipping services, and are waiting to hear back on if this would help them or produce additional admin work dividing up shipments they have already imported.

Holiday delivery was something we had been hoping for, but we've avoided promising because of how congested and uncertain shipping and logistics get at this time of year. We've consistently forecasted that fulfillment would take place throughout November and December. We still think our holiday delivery rate will be fairly high, but unfortunately not 100% for US backers.

We are now focused on maximizing the delivery rate for backers who have the greatest need for holiday delivery. We're doing this two ways:

We are asking backers who do NOT need holiday delivery to volunteer to go to the back of the shipping queue.
We are inviting customers who DO need holiday delivery to request priority near the front of the shipping queue.

How to Volunteer For Lower Priority in the Shipping Queue

We are grateful for any US backers with physical rewards who can volunteer to wait on their parcels until the end of the queue.

If you don't mind waiting, please fill out this form ASAP. Flying Cloud will try to hold back your parcel if doing can help with queue management. Please note that requesting this is not a guarantee that your parcel will be held.

Thanks for volunteering! You're helping us ensure that backers with the most urgent needs can have the holiday they were hoping for, and we deeply appreciate it.

How to Request Higher Priority in the Shipping Queue

We can't make promises for our fulfillment partner, especially at this time of year, but we are going to do everything we can to prioritize shipments that absolutely need to arrive by the holidays.

Click here to fill out a form requesting higher priority in the shipping queue. The sooner you fill the form out, the greater the chance we can adjust the queue efficiently.

Please request this only if you have a high need for your parcel arriving soon. Please note that filling this out is not a guarantee you'll have your parcel delivered by December 25, but we want to do everything we can to avoid disappointment for people who are counting on holiday delivery.

US Fulfillment FAQ

We wanted to take a moment to answer common questions about US fulfillment.

Will I receive a tracking number/shipment notification?

Yes! When your packing label has been printed you'll receive a tracking notification. Flying Cloud generally uses FedEx, USPS, UPS, or DHL. If the carrier's tracking page doesn't tell who is sending the parcel, check the sender's location in the tracking. Flying Cloud is located in Maryland.

Your webstore's holiday shipping deadline passed. Does that mean I won't get my rewards for the holidays?

No, it does not. We set our webstore's holiday shipping recommendations earlier than they need to be for a few reasons:

We knew we would be prioritizing backer shipments throughout December.
We prefer people to order early to avoid disappointment.
Order deadlines can vary greatly depending on the parcel carrier used and the distance from the shipping hub.

You could receive your ship notification much later than December 11 and still receive your parcel by the holidays. Also, please keep in mind that our webstore is only shipping US orders that contain our original decks from 2019-2022; none of the new material is available for delivery yet except to backers.

That's all for now!

The best way to get support is to reach out via our contact form, which we check frequently.

We are always happy to answer questions in the comments as well, but if you need any support with your address, contact, pledge details, etc., we won't be able to check on private information through public comments or posts.

If you've received a shipment notification from one of our fulfillment partners, it should include a support email address for receiving direct support for that shipment. Contacting our fulfillment partner or the delivery company directly for support with your parcel will get you faster access to an answer direct from the source, but you are always welcome to loop us in for additional support.

Thanks so much and happy holidays!

The Story Engine Team

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