I have fantastic news. It seems the CPSC registration I did was a success and, instead of the plush taking 3+ weeks to arrive, they have instead landed and been cleared in record breaking time: 17 days! They’ve landed in Illinois and should make their final arrival to me on Monday!
Address locking has commenced!! Backers should have been notified to double check and make any last minute address changes. Please be sure to do that! I will be locking addresses on Monday morning!
I celebrated my 38th birthday yesterday and this was honestly one of the more relieving aspects of my week. It definitely allowed me more mental peace to enjoy my day. Fingers crossed that this means future shipments should arrive within a similar timeframe!!
This is a quick update to let backers know that Steven has processed 5 cartons of Noops to me.
Upcoming Transit Timeline changes:
Recent changes to how goods are imported from overseas have resulted in a significant delay and backlog in businesses importing goods from overseas.
This change now requires all retailers and businesses (big or small) to create an online account and efile all customs documents that otherwise is typically only needed on a case by case basis.
This change is good in practice (it protects children and consumers from dangerous products and bootleg merchandise), but the shift in routine is causing a huge backlog at the border as they work to implement the system and work to get importers compliant.
There are a lot of speculations on goods being destroyed upon arrival, and understandably some fear amongst small business owners that their shipments may be destroyed due to “non compliance”.. the reality is: That isn’t as common as people might think, and importers are given plenty of heads up in the scenario they need to provide adequate documentation before the destruction of their goods. This type of practice is done with bootleg merchandise, or goods that have illegal substances in them. This is not a normal procedure for small batch imports.
I do not fear our goods being destroyed, just worry about the unpredictability right now with the final clearing times.
For added context, Franklin was our first shipment to suffer from these changes. He had landed at the port on the 10th of June, but his inspection took until June 25th to clear, effectively resulting in an almost 2 month transit time (he dispatched from China on May 15th or so).
What this means going forward: Right now, this just means that production arrival ETA’s will be shifted from 23-28 days, to now 35-40 days. I figure the longer I pre-estimate the arrival, the better it will be for transparency with backers.
Please be patient with businesses and small businesses like myself. I have started the process of getting my account registered (and at the time of this update got confirmation that my account is established and filed for small batch manufacturing), but understandably, thousands of people are doing the same, so the process is slower than expected.
I am tremendously thankful for the patience everyone has shown. Noopy’s growth has been great, and I have been doing everything I can to carefully adjust and navigate the growth in a scalable way that ensures the integrity of the brand continues to stay strong alongside it. There are bound to be setbacks and some goofs along the way, but as many of you can attest, I will always do what I can to take care of you and your order. A positive experience is something I strive for. A moment of positivity. A moment of compassion. And a moment of love.
Thank you for supporting me and my silly little guys. I am so excited to get them to you. 💕
I’ll be back in touch soon with hopefully more good news!
This is a quick update to let backers know I have begun charging for shipping fees. Currently, I have processed about 156/350 backers shipping fees. Please anticipate your payment methods being charged if you have not already been!
If there's been a goof somewhere with your order, please reach out to me via email and I will get that remedied asap!
Costumes are arriving!
I have received the Trash Can containers and Burger costumes so far. The others are in transit to me now!
Steven is double checking the plush and will be shipping what he can to me.
Full transparency: There has been a lot of delays at the port due to recent changes in how customs and border control are processing incoming shipments from overseas. There are new protocols and processes being implemented to help expedite the customs inspection process, but the transition is taking additional time, resulting in delays at the port. These delays vary anywhere from +5 days to 3 weeks in additional transit times.
The good news: Our productions continue to remain compliant and are not affected any more than just needing the additional time to undergo routine inspections. The 'bad' news: The customs inspection has become more rigid and high maintenance, which is great for ensuring the safety of products coming in from overseas, but unfortunately creates a backlog that delays small businesses like my own. All this means more or less is that productions coming in are now taking 35-45 days to arrive to me versus the original 25-28 days. To my understanding, this process can be expedited by uploading the existing CPC and SGS documentation to each shipment online, which I am working on behind the scenes.
The additional time needed for customs inspection has our plush eta pushed to end of August. I appreciate everyone's patience while we work to get our shipments here quickly and efficiently. I will be back in touch with the next round of updates and hopefully some more good news with the eta of the Noops arrival!
I have just finished OMGcon in Owensboro and had a day to rest. My heart is so full from the love shown this weekend!
This campaign update will go over the shipping fee charts! Shipping fees have been 'enabled' for this campaign, which means that backers can now view their surveys to see their anticipated shipping fees. Please note these are in USD and for International customers it does not include any vat or import duties that your Country may collect.
Here are the charts:
USA:
USA
AUSTRALIA:
AU
CANADA:
CA
EVERYWHERE ELSE:
I am still tweaking weight categories for certain regions behind the scenes, so there might be adjustments to your shipping rate shown (this applies primarily to Non-USA orders such as Netherlands, Singapore, etc) depending on if I find any major discrepancies. The various rate increases that have been going on the last few years has really made this complicated, but I am doing my best to keep it lumped into the same weight classes, regardless of the zones.
"How do I know what my package weight is?"
This is tricky to explain clearly as most of our backer packages contain more than 1-2 items, but in general, most packages fall within the 3-9oz class if you ordered 2 plush or less.
Orders containing all plush + all costumes fall into the 16-28oz classification.
As a reminder, you can find out your exact shipping fees by viewing your backer survey. Not sure where to find it? You can access it here! (be sure to use the email you backed under/filled your survey out under!)
"Which shipping provider are you using?"
Currently, USPS is the most reliable carrier. Some customers may have better rates using UPS Ground, which I will use on a case-by-case basis (if it's cheaper, it's usually by 1c..)
International packages are shipped through Asendia Economy. The arrival times vary but typically between 2-4 weeks.
If you would like me to upgrade your shipping to UPS Ground / UPS Expedited etc please reach out to me via email and I can make an adjustment to your order. Please note for International customers there is a likelihood of UPS imposing Import Duties. The upgraded shipping for Non-USA packages is around $25-$45 depending on the location and weight of the package.
"When will I be billed for Shipping?"
I am still waiting for final confirmation of the plush preparing to ship out to me. Right now I am guesstimating I will begin processing payments for shipping around June 29th. Backerkit will give everyone a heads up and also send out notices to do address changes if needed. You will have a 48 hour notice ahead of time. But at the time of reading this update please keep it on your mental radar that we are preparing this step!
In the event your payment method fails, backerkit will notify you and you will be prompted to remedy the payment. While there is no 'deadline' to remedy the shipping fee payment, just know that I will not be shipping orders who's shipping fees have not been paid.
The 'deadline' to remedy your shipping fee payment will be the time it takes me to fulfill the campaign. For example, if I begin to ship orders August 1st and process the last 'shippable' order on August 15th-- That will be the 'last call' before I mark your pledge as abandoned. This does not apply to customers who have notified me of delays in payment. As long as you communicate your situation with me, I am always more than happy to accommodate or help find solutions!
Other than that.. We are just waiting for a word back from Steven about the status of the Noops! Thank you again for your patience and continued support!
This update will go over the current production progress and shipping fee updates!
First things first: Production Status of Plush.
I have received a small bundle of the finished plush to look over and confirm. They look wonderful and oh-so-durpy and I am eager to see what the final arrival will feature. I predict based on the couple I've received we should have a variety of durps. I will of course do my best to ensure backers get the best of the batch.
Here are some pictures of the lucky ones that made their way to me:
Strawberry Noopy
Porter Noopy2
Parker Noopy2
There is one small and notable difference with this batch. During the production specifications for our Noop3 size plush Franklin (hosted on my website back in February), I had requested that the team ensure the limbs for Noop3 were filled with polyfill, as my production sample arrived without it. However, in the reiteration of requesting the Franklin's are stuffed with filling in their limbs, this directive was mistakenly applied to all plush in production--Including Porter, Parker, and Strawberry Noopy. Visually, you will not notice a difference, but upon holding you will feel the limbs have a little more squish to them (they're still extremely soft and use the high elastic cotton polyfill and still have their pellets). This 'issue' is so minor that I reassured Steven that a remake was not necessary, just that we ensure this directive is correctly applied moving forward.
For our collectors, this will mark this batch as very unique to date. For our sensory lovers, do not worry. They are very much still floppy, still cuddly, and still full of chaos and an undying craving for soup.
The plush are currently undergoing QC and repairs for necessary fixes needed. We should have a status update soon! Stay tuned! The next update I hope to have a confirmation of plush and costumes shipping to me..
--- Shipping Fees: I will be contacting backerkit to enable shipping fees on my backend, and working on fine tuning the shipping fee chart for backers to see in the next update.⚠ I am not charging shipping yet. This just allows backers to see their shipping fees they should anticipate to pay and allows me to be able to double check discrepancies and weight issues with orders. I am almost finished with the charts, but want to make sure I have everything tuned correctly before proceeding with the next steps.
