Campaign completed - final shipments sent.
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Jun 22, 2022 at 12:06:28 PM

When plans to ship European parcels from Germany fell through, and all the books came to the UK for global distribution, some of the rewards took a short while to follow.

Unfortunately what this meant was that certain European purchasers, those with extras, got delayed. Happily all those books were mailed out last week. I know some of them have already started to arrive.

Sorry if you are someone who has had to wait that little bit longer.  

All the books have now been dispatched.

Thanks to everyone who has supported the campaign. It has certainly had his challenges, and I am very happy it has now been completed.

Cheers,

Ralph

Import Duties
almost 2 years ago – Wed, May 18, 2022 at 11:04:34 AM

Hi,

I am very pleased to read that books are being received, and that you are happy with  the contents. Conversely I am disappointed when that experience has been marred by unexpected duty charges.

We did state that we planned to implement distribution that avoided additional costs for certain regions. I am very sorry that, as outlined, we have been unable to deliver the books that way. 

As a gesture of goodwill I will reimburse any duty charged, excluding any  handling fees. Please send a copy of your receipt, direct to my email - [email protected] , along with your PayPal address, and I will make a payment to you. 

I greatly value the support that you have given me. Support that has enabled the publication of my book. I hope that this offer will offset any upset, letting you simply enjoy the books content.

Thanks,

Ralph

Shipping update - almost complete
almost 2 years ago – Tue, May 17, 2022 at 02:35:18 AM

Hello,

We have some housekeeping to do, since things have happened so fast, after such a long period of limbo.

So, as you know, the book finally arrived with us, and our friends at All Rolled Up have done an absolutely  fantastic job of getting almost everything out in just a few days. Sincere thanks to Fil and her team. It's been great to see those books finally in your hands! Please do keep sharing your photos with us. Naturally, copies sent to places further flung from the UK will take a little while to arrive.

We are now awaiting return of a few of EU rewards from our German warehouse, which is promised to happen this week. As soon as those arrive we'll finish dispatch. There are just a handful of outstanding pledges yet to go.

There is sadly bad news for EU backers - we were not able to provide the EU-friendly shipping we believed we would be able to. The reasons for this were two-fold:

1: The rise of Omicron in the UK meant that far less German drivers would take the job of driving trucks to the UK at the end of last year when the books first arrived from the printer - German rules meant that they had to quarantine for 5 days on return from the UK. Not an attractive prospect for any driver.

2: Nigh-continual covid illness at our German friends' warehouse, which meant they were not in a position to do what was agreed.

This meant that missed the window to move part of the shipment from the EU to the UK. The EU rules changed in January, at which point our paperwork was not sufficient to move part of the shipment. We could move all of the books or none. Neither the UK nor the EU have covered themselves in glory in being prepared for these changes, and I personally believe that like us, most businesses were left with nothing more than hope that some kind of agreement would be reached, rather than what we're seeing right now.

If it were not for Omicron and these Brexit changes we would have been easily able to do what we set out to do - send all the EU books from Germany, and then send on the rest to the UK for dispatch from here. I've done this before for my own Kickstarters, and it's a well tested route... until January. When it became entirely impossible.

A huge amount of work has gone on behind the scenes to secure the books and get them moved. Way more than there should have been. Given how close we came to not being able to get any of the books out of Germany at all - which would have been disastrous for hundreds of backers - we made the tough call to complete dispatch from the UK where we have been able to have much more direct control over the books and what happened to them.

This does mean we must offer our sincere apologies to our EU backers. We simply could not deliver on EU friendly-shipping. We're sorry. We hope that the PDF version, and the book being longer than was unlocked as part of the campaign goes some way towards making up for that.

Jon & Ralph.

The Books are in Our Hands!
almost 2 years ago – Sat, May 07, 2022 at 07:18:48 PM

We have excellent news! The books are finally with us in the UK.

Now of course they were delivered to the wrong address, but we've managed to sort that out with the help of our very kind friends at awesome gaming accessories company All Rolled Up, who have gone above and beyond, and by this afternoon they will all be safely in their workshop where they should have been a very long time ago.

Dispatch will begin very soon - I wanted to get this message out to you before we have formulated the timeline on exactly what's happening when, but everything is all set for that to begin!

After almost 8 months of trying to move these books through Omicron, Brexit hassles, shipper hassles, and after redoing the paperwork countless times... they're here, and let me tell you it is a huge weight lifted.

I'm off to lie down while you enjoy this picture of the Art Adventure pallets:

Thank you once again for you patience and kindness. Almost there.

Jon (and Ralph, naturally!)

Interim news
about 2 years ago – Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 01:19:11 PM

Hello!

Just to keep everyone in the loop here's a short update.

So we're awaiting confirmation that Ralph's books are in motion out of Germany to our fulfilment people in the UK, from whence they will go to everyone. They were due to be collected yesterday, with all the paperwork done (there was a LOT!), and the slot booked. We are yet to received confirmation that that happened, which is rather frustrating as you can imagine.

We're hoping to get a simple confirmation that things are moving today, but right now the situation is unclear. I'll keep you informed just as soon as I know more.

IMPORTANT EDIT!

I have just heard the books were indeed collected, and so are en route to the UK right now! This is huge news, and a very important step forward. Now, we don't know exactly how long they will take to get here, and how much of an interest UK customs will take in the shipment. But this is great news!

Thanks!

Jon