Update is quite late this time very sorry about that, I had a doozy of a week... TL;DR: car in the shop, couldn't commute anywhere for a few days, did nothing but cram for finals for a minute. It's been hard BUT I have car access again and after the end of this week I am officially on break from school. THE GRIND CONTINUES. Here are the stats:
less than 20 to go!!!!!!
About 10 of the orders marked "shipped" will actually be dropped off at the post office tomorrow (was having printer issues today up until the post office closed...) but I wanted to get tracking info out there to everyone because it's important for this next part:
I have an IMPORTANT update so please read below if your order is still unshipped
I unexpectedly ran out of Bluestar (not Spotted, just Blue... Honestly I don't know what happened there) and Starry Sky pins. I already ordered a restock and they are in production right now, however I do apologize for not keeping better track of inventory sooner as this has caused a delay for certain pledges. I was given an estimate of around 3-5 weeks to receive the pins. In the meantime I'll be getting the remaining orders ready with the items missing for now, so that as soon as I have them, I can quickly add them and send them out. I'll also focus more on any last late shop orders.
As of now, the only remaining unfulfilled orders contain one or both of the two out of stock pins mentioned above.
If your pledge is one of these (you haven't yet received a tracking number or email from me) and you prefer to swap out either of these pins for equivalent alternatives to get your items sooner, please comment below with your alternative choice.
For example, I'll allow any swaps like this:
Swap Blue in a Blue&Spotted pin set for one other cat, any choice (Yes, for the inconvenience I will allow mix and matching just this once)
Swap the Blue&Spotted pin set for another set entirely, any choice
Swap the Starry Sky pin for any two pin sets, your choice (since it is a limited release pin I'm hoping this is a fair trade)
If you do not comment with alternative pin choices, I will assume that your preference is to keep your order the same, and wait for the replacement items to arrive.
Apologies again for the oversight and the additional delay :( with the bluestar pins I really don't know what happened because I have LOTS of spotteds left. Either I received an unequal amount from the manufacturer in the first place and didn't notice, or I somehow misplaced lots of bluestars. I'll keep looking in case it's the latter, but in any case, more are on the way.
Thank you all again so much for your patience. I can see the end of the tunnel. It's so close. Thank you for bearing with me.
I almost forgot!! It's biweekly check-in time again. Unfortunately, I didn't make more progress since my last update post... I've hit that time in my school term where I'm pretty deep in the weeds of finals crunch time. I apologize for the slow progress overall, I still think I can do better to balance school and fulfillment. I'll make sure that I have more progress to report in my next check in post in June. I'm still shooting for completion of the remaining shipments by the start of summer and I think I can do it if I really buckle down. I endlessly appreciate everybody's patience with me in the meantime.
As always if there are any issues surrounding your pledge please let me know in the comments. Thank you all so much again.
Apologies, my update is a day late this time. I won't make a habit of it in the future, I wanted to do a little more today before sending the update.
Before this update there were some pledges I had left unlocked and/or uncharged, because I wanted to make sure first that I was keeping enough momentum before charging these. I mentioned in previous updates this was causing fluctuations in the "unfulfilled" orders number (shown here as "Start Shipping") which made it somewhat confusing to quantify the actual progress I was making. I apologize for any confusion this caused, it was honestly a little confusing for me. I think it will be simpler and more transparent if from here on I just show the numbers as I see them on my end: 8 pledges are basically in limbo; these backers never filled out a survey and therefore I'm considering these abandoned for now. This is fine, but just to be clear if any of these backers decide to fill the survey then I can lock those orders and the unshipped pledges number will increase again.
32 pledges are unfulfilled. While it shows 31 on BackerKit, I had one pledge actually ship and get lost and transit so I will be replacing it along with the others. My goal is still to fulfill the remainder of these before Summer. I believe I will be able to stick to this schedule.
I also haven't forgotten about late shop orders. I'm placing the highest importance on outstanding pledges since those were placed significantly earlier. I want to get everything resolved as quickly as I'm able.
I feel better about the progress that I made this time and everything feels less insurmountable when the number goes down and I get to know that my supporters are finally receiving their overdue items. Balancing packing and shipping batches of orders with a demanding school schedule is difficult and it is something I will be more a lot more careful managing in the future so that I don't ever allow myself to shut down that way again. Thank you all so so much again for your patience with me despite everything.
As always please let me know if you have any issues with your rewards (missing item, errored item, wrong address, anything) ideally in the comments below or through email.
Hi everyone! I’m back for another biweekly update.
Just cutting right to the chase… Unfortunately, I honestly made very little progress since my last update. I had a lot going on in my personal life and had a bit of a rough time mentally for a moment. I don’t think these excuse the lack of progress because despite these things I know I could have done more and I apologize. I share this because I know it is better to be upfront and honest about where I am at and why.
Last update I mentioned that 12 orders had been packed and not yet labeled, those were all shipped out - 7 of them have been delivered and the remaining 5 are still in transit.
I don’t feel satisfied with the number of orders fulfilled between this update and my last so I will aim for more progress in my next one to the best of my ability. Thank you all for bearing with me. I know it’s a little slow but I’m trying to get a better balance between school and fulfillment. I’m happy to hear when the items are make it to you guys safely and I hope it won’t be too long before everyone has theirs.
I want to thank you all again for your patience as I continue to tackle the rest of the Tiny Warriors fulfillment. Under the replies section of my previous update post from March, I stated that in the interest of keeping my backers better informed, I would commit to sharing an update every two weeks. Regardless of how much progress has been made in that time, even if there isn't any to share, I will adhere to this update schedule. I'm hoping this improvement in communication will help me stay focused, keep everybody in the loop, and prevent long periods of silence on my end from ever repeating. You all deserve to stay informed.
I has been two weeks since I made that promise, so here's what's new since my last update:
Locked 4 orders that were left unlocked . . . These were probably caused by late survey submissions. It's not an issue, I just realized that they weren't contributing to the "unshipped" order count until they were locked. In my last update I stated there were 43 orders marked unshipped, this bounced the number back up to 47 (before the order counts in the next bullet points below.) I'm sharing this part for transparency as it causes a slight number discrepancy.
5 orders have been shipped and delivered
12 orders packed with requested freebie pins . . . to be shipped Thursday or Friday this week
14 orders packed without freebies . . . I wanted to give everybody time to see and reply to this update post in which I offered 5 additional pin sets free of charge to anybody who hadn't received their order to that point - I held off on shipping some orders which were packed, but that those backers hadn't yet requested pins for, in case those backers reached out. However, I will be considering this update post a last call for additional freebies so that I can move on with fulfillment on those orders. If you already commented on this post before today, I have seen and taken note of your selections. If you still haven commented, please do! If I receive your comment before your order is labeled and shipped then I will still include those extra items for you. You can also let me know if you choose not to receive any extras. If I don't receive a comment from you then your pledge will ship as-is. I hope I have given a fair time window.
Admittedly it's slower progress than I hoped to share in this update, I started school again last week and I think getting adjusted to my new schedule and classes slowed me a bit. However I'll be continuing to ship orders and work on school at the same time, and doing my best to give adequate attention to both. I want everybody to have their items in hand as soon as possible, it's the least that I can do now.
Also, I'm only human, so if you receive your items and there are any issues - please don't hesitate to reach out (I recommend just commenting on this post - it's easiest for me to keep track of inquiries this way) and I will correct them as quickly as possible!
Thank you all so much again for your support and feedback, it has been invaluable to me beyond words. I have taken it to heart and will use it to improve as much as I can going forward. I will be back in two weeks for another update!
