Shipping Progress
over 4 years ago – Mon, Apr 25, 2022 at 01:53:00 AM

Dear backers,

We are reading every comment and do thank you for the kind words and criticisms! There are no wrong opinions, so we are not disproving any here. As briefly mentioned before, we are a two-man team and are both employed elsewhere too. We are passionate board game lovers and started publishing quality strategy board games years ago. We use our weekends to handle logistics, write KS updates and keep up with customer requests and questions through KS, social media and e-mail. 

This is no complaint at all, but it might explain why some feel communication is lacking. Be assured that we will answer all of your questions and are working hard on delivering Carnegie everywhere! And today, we have plenty of news regarding the shipping process. Most vessels arrived in the harbor of their destinations. We provide a more detailed update per direction below, as fulfillment is progressing:

•  The Netherlands & Belgium: The pallets arrived in the local warehouse of our partner in Belgium last week. They have been busy picking and packing your rewards and shipping already started. All packages should be out within a few days from now, meaning that delivery will still take place in April. Some of you reported having received tracking codes, or and some are already enjoying Carnegie!
•  Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Israël, Reunion Island & South Africa: Packages to these countries will be send from Belgium as well, straight after fulfillment for the Netherlands and Belgium. Due to the journey these packages have to undertake, delivery will happen in May.
•  France: The pallets arrived a few days ago with our partner in France (Pixie Games) and they immediately started to pick and pack your rewards. Backers in France should expect their rewards in the first week of May. Note that you could be receiving an e-mail from Meeple Logistics to confirm your address details. This is all good, that is an extra check from our partner to make sure your address details are up to date, so please confirm and let them know :).
•  Italy: The pallets did leave the Netherlands and are on their way to Italy, but they didn't arrive yet. We are pushing our logistics partner to get a status update. We expect the pallets to arrive any moment next week. Our shipping partner in Italy is ready to start picking and packing immediately after arrival and delivery to backers in Italy will happen in May.
•  Spain: The pallets arrived in Spain last week. We contacted our shipping partner in Spain and they are preparing pick and pack. No delivery date was specified, but we expect it to be somwhere in May.
•  UK: We have a date for the pallets to arrive in the UK at ZATU Games and that is tomorrow, Monday April 25th! They plan to send everything out within the same week. Backers in the UK should expect delivery of their rewards either late April or very early May.
•  USA: The vessel (EVER LUCKY) arrived in the harbour around April 12th and the container full of games went to customs clearance. Taking into account delivery to the local warehouse and the huge number of packages (over 2.300!), please allow this process to take some time. Delivery to your doorstep will start as soon as possible and will happen in May.
•  Canada: The vessel (SEATTLE C) was planned to arrive at the harbour April 22th. There has been a delay of about 1 week and the new expected arrival date is April 28th. Taking into account customs clearance and delivery to the local warehouse, rewards are expected to be send out mid to late May.
•  Rest of Europe (over 30 countries, excluding the ones mentioned above): The vessel (HMM RAON) is still on track to arrive in Lithuania at May 20th. No additional information here, fulfillment in June is still on schedule. We are aware this is about one month later than in most of the other regions.
•  Australia & New Zealand: The vessels (EVER UNITED & KAMOKUIKI V.033S) arrived in Australia and New Zealand on April 20th and April 18th, respectively. Customs clearance is happening right now and thereafter your orders will be send to the local warehouses and fulfilled from there. Previously, we hoped for an April delivery, but mid May seems more likely now.
•  China: All games arrived in the warehouse of our partner meanwhile and already have been packed. But since Shanghai was sealed off due to a recent covid outbreak, there is an unexpected delay here. Our partner expects that delivery in May is still possible, but this heavily depends on local epidemical restrictions.
•  Japan: The vessel containing the games is about to arrive, but because of the holiday weeks in Japan from late April to early May, shipping starts mid May.
•  South Korea: Fulfillment was finished by our partner in South Korea already. Enjoy Carnegie!
•  South America: The vessel to Brazil is sailing and is expected to arrive late May. Customs clearance takes about 10 days and after delivery to the warehouse of our partner, they will immediately start picking and packing. Shipping out rewards for South America should be finished mid June.
•  Countries not listed above: Fulfillment has been finished from Hong Kong. Enjoy Carnegie!

That is it for the massive list of directions and countries. We cannot wait for you all to enjoy Carnegie and hear your opinions! This is at most two months away, and for plenty of regions pretty much sooner. 

Quined Games

Retail Copies explained
over 4 years ago – Sun, Apr 10, 2022 at 11:54:19 PM

Dear backers,

This is an extra update to respond to one major question popping up in the comments: Is it true that Carnegie is already for sale in retail and online stores in Europe? We checked this and yes, this is currently the case for the German/English retail edition. This retail edition includes naturally no Kickstarter extras and no expansion either. The retail edition was sold to retailers and webshops through our publishing partner Pegasus Spiele. The Quined Games Deluxe Kickstarter edition of Carnegie will be delivered to you - our backers - first.

Please let us explain how this situation came about. For this Kickstarter campaign, for the first time, we started a publishing agreement with partner publishers all over the world. This heavily contributed to making this campaign possible. Backers would receive their KS copies first through our partners in their respective countries: The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, China, Japan and Korea. Our fulfillment partner, based in Hong Kong, handles shipping KS copies for the rest of the world. Afterwards, Carnegie retail copies will be shipped to our publishing partners and be made available for sale in retail stores and webshops.

Although, we have one partner (Pegasus Spiele) that doesn't handle shipping KS copies to our backers. So for Germany and the USA, backer shipment would be handled through our fulfillment partner from Hong Kong instead. We never saw this as a problem, since the vessels to the USA and Europe were booked in advance. However, since the hub of our fulfillment partner is located in Lithuania (instead of in Western Europe), this added a month of extra ocean shipping time. This shipment sadly also contains the parcels for backers in Germany, while the retail copies for Pegasus Spiele were shipped straight to Germany. This is the result of a miscalculation from our side; not handling shipping to backers in other parts of Europe (mainly Germany) ourselves. We are really sorry for this and we will draw our lessons.

It is not even in our own interest to start these retail sales, since we didn't print a Quined Games Retail edition, just the Deluxe Kickstarter edition in a multitude of languages. We hope you understand that we cannot force our partners to wait another 2 months to start their retail sales, after those massive shipping delays we all suffer from. On top, container prices have risen to about 6 times the costs, compared to when this campaign was live. We wouldn't ever ask you to pay extra due to this negative price development, we bear these costs as a company. It sadly did influence shipping schedules as booked containers were cancelled and delayed multiple times in the process.

We hope that, knowing all this background information, there is some more understanding for the situation we got in. We are a very small publisher; our team only consisting of the company owner and a single parttime assistant. We try our best to arrange everything as good as possible and we acknowledge that on this topic, it failed this time. Retail sales shouldn't have started before delivery of Kickstarter copies to our backers and this wasn't ever our intention. We are committed to approaching logistics differently in our future campaigns. Thanks for your time reading this statement.

Best regards, Quined Games

Answering Questions + Vessel Updates
over 4 years ago – Thu, Mar 31, 2022 at 11:55:57 PM

Dear backers,

We are here with an update to answer questions that were recently asked frequently, via private message, e-mail or on BoardGameGeek. Let's get right to it:

• Now the games are starting to arrive at your doorsteps, there is a chance that, despite careful composing of the games, some components are missing or arrived damaged. We are very sorry for this and will make sure that you receive requested replacements parts. To this end, please fill in this Google Forms in case of any missing or damaged parts for Carnegie: https://forms.gle/4JXUtERDf7qLJyvy5 
• The game rules indicate that there should be 30 discs per player color (cyan, grey, yellow and white). This is NOT true for the KS edition that you will receive. Since the KS edition of the game includes a silkscreened custom VP marker as a social goal, there is only 29 discs per player color. We didn't create separate game rules, as retail editions do include 30 discs. Be assured that 29 discs per player color is correct in your KS copy, so there is no need to request missing parts in this case.
• Some of you reported a white spot on the back of the game box. Our illustrator, Ian O'Toole was quicker to reply than we were ;). As he confirmed, this is part of the overall worn / distressed texture and is not a manufacturing error. The BoardGameGeek thread we are referring to, is this one: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2837652/defect-or-it-design
• We were asked how we handle shipping to Russia, given the current situation in Ukraine. We decided to postpone shipping to Russia.

We also have updated information on most vessels:

• For The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain & UK + Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Israël, Reunion Island & South Africa, the HMM HANUL arrived in Rotterdam last Friday morning. The container is currently being customs cleared, after which it will arrive in our warehouse later this week. The games will then be split per direction and shipping to backers will start in April.
• For other parts of Europe, the container is on the HMM RAON, with a departure date of March 29th and an estimated arrival of May 20th in Lithuania. As mentioned in the last update, fulfillment should be happening in either May or June. With this new information, we are looking at June, taking into account the customs clearance process and shipping to the local warehouse of Floship in Lithuania.
• For AU/NZ, we hoped to be able to share more information, but as Floship didn't receive any update, we also have no additional information at this point in time. The ocean shipping time from China to AU/NZ is short, so once the goods are on the vessel, it won't take long before arrival. We are thus still looking at fulfillment in April with confidence.
• For the USA, we ended up requiring two containers because of the number of backers from there and the resulting volume of parcels with destination USA. The first container boarded the EVER LUCKY, about to arrive in the USA already on April 11th. So we are looking at fulfillment starting early May, taking into account customs clearance. This container has over 95% of the orders for the USA, but some orders will be transported in the second container. We are awaiting specific info and dates for that container and will update you ASAP.
• For Canada, the container is on the SEATTLE C, which is set to depart at March 31st and will arrive in Canada at April 22nd. So we are looking at fulfillment in May.

Best regards, 

Quined Games

Moving forward, first copies are arriving
over 4 years ago – Sun, Mar 20, 2022 at 01:15:36 AM

Dear backers,

Time for another update as things are moving forward. Floship Limited has finished the largest chunk of the pick and pack process. This means that your rewards are on their way now, either about to board a vessel or straight via air-shipping. Shipping of all required copies to our partners is proceeding as well. 

Please find a detailed update per direction below:

•  The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain & UK + Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Israël, Reunion Island & South Africa: The vessel is currently located in the Mediterranean Sea. The planned arrival date in Rotterdam of March 16th has been postponed to March 25th, which our forwarder already warned us about. Your order will be fulfilled either from one of our local partners (France/Italy/Spain/UK) or from our shipping partner in Belgium, all planned for April.
•  USA/CA/Europe not listed above: Your order has been picked and packed in Hong Kong and is loaded in a container that will head to your country. We requested vessel names to provide you accurate tracking in the next update. We are looking at fulfillment in May or June, but can only provide a more specific date once the vessels have left the harbor.
•  Australia & New Zealand: Since the number of packages isn't as large as for some of the other directions, rewards will be ocean shipped to Australia and New Zealand in a mixed container. This is different from the USA and rest of Europe, for which a full container has been booked. Unfortunately, a mixed container takes more loading and waiting time in the harbor. We requested an update on the container to AU/NZ and will have more information in the next update. Fulfillment in April is still very likely though, since the pick and pack process had already been finished with our last update.
•  China, Japan, South Korea & all of South-America: Our manufacturer and partners in these countries are currently handling shipping. Once the games arrive, shipping out your rewards will start as soon as possible. We expect this to happen in April for China, Japan and South Korea. For South America, fulfillment in May is more realistic, because of the extra ocean shipping time that is required to Brazil.
•  Countries not listed above: The pick and pack process in Hong Kong has been finished and your rewards have just been sent. Some of you already reported having received their rewards!

That is it already for today's update. As soon as more major progress has been made, we will update you!

Quined Games

Fulfillment Progress
over 4 years ago – Wed, Mar 02, 2022 at 10:14:16 PM

Dear backers,

It is early March and we wanted to update you on ocean shipping as well as the overall progress of fulfillment. We will list where we stand per direction, as before. Please note that some directions have now been split/merged, dependent on the progress. Let's get right to it!

•  The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain & UK: The vessel has left the port of Shenzhen and is on its way to Rotterdam. You can track the vessel by searching for its name; HMM Hanul. The planned arrival date in Rotterdam is March 16th, but our forwarder warned us about more delays on vessels lately. So we are counting on the vessel to arrive late March in Rotterdam, after which shipping to the Netherlands and Belgium will start immediately from our partner in Belgium. For France, Italy, Spain & UK, road transport will first be necesarry, so it will take a little longer before these partners can start shipping your rewards.
•  Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Israël, Reunion Island & South Africa: Almost identical to bullet point 1, since the games for these countries are in this container as well. Shipping will also start immediately from our partner in Belgium, once the vessel arrives in Rotterdam.
•  USA: Your order is picked and packed in Hong Kong as we speak. This will be finished on Monday, whereafter the parcels will be loaded in a container. We haven't got a precise departure date or vessel name yet. It is hard to promise specific dates in this time of global shipping delays, but we are aiming for a late March vessel departure.
•  Canada + countries inside Europe, not listed above: The pick and pack process in Hong Kong will start next Monday, when the process for the USA has been finished, and will take about a week. We haven't got a precise departure date for the vessels to Canada and Lithuania either. It is hard to promise specific dates in this time of global shipping delays, but we are aiming for late March vessel departures.
•  Australia & New-Zealand: The pick and pack process in China has already been finished and your rewards will be on their way soon. The next step is ocean shipping and the final step is shipping from within Australia/New-Zealand to your addresses. There is only about 1 month left before you will finally have Carnegie in your hands!
•  China, Japan, South Korea & all of South-America: There has been a delay here since our manafucturer assembled too little English Kickstarter copies. So we had to wait for these extra copies to finish before we could plan bulk shipping to these partners.  This issue has now been resolved and our manufacturer will soon be able to ship out to our partners in China, Japan, South Korea and Brazil.
•  Countries not listed above: The pick and pack process in Hong Kong will start in about 2 weeks, after the process for USA, Canada and rest of Europe has been finished. As your order will be send straight from Hong Kong and no ocean shipping is necesarry, you will still receive your rewards pretty soon!

To summarize, we partnered up with Floship Limited for all countries listed in bullet points 3, 4, 5 and 7. Countries included in bullet point 2 will be fulfilled via air shipping from Belgium and for bullet points 1 and 6, our local partners will send out your rewards. To conclude this update, some footage we received from Floship Limited.

Best regards, 

Quined Games