Frosthaven Preorders (Q1 2023)

Almost there, & Customer Service Update
over 1 year ago – Fri, Apr 14, 2023 at 04:14:16 PM

Happy Friday Mercenaries!

We're back on our regular Friday schedule with a quick, but rather uneventful update today.

Before we get started with Fulfillment Updates, we wanted to share that we've onboarded two new Customer Service team members over the last few weeks to assist with the many service tickets we've been continuing to get in regarding outstanding orders and order/part requests. 

A big shout out to Chris C. and Stephanie for "jumping in the queue" and helping champion support ticket requests. We're putting a much bigger dent in outstanding tickets and getting caught up quickly thanks to their help.  Also a big kudos to Ted for stepping in and getting replacement orders out the door with Cephalofair's Chris. Thank you gentlemen!

Also a big THANK YOU to everyone patiently awaiting replies and resolutions. We know fulfillment is a stressful time when something doesn't go exactly right, but Cephalofair as always is committed to making sure your needs are met. 

With that being said - here's our quick touch base on fulfillment:

-FULFILLMENT UDPATE-

United States:

Fulfillment Complete - pending order issues and/or reshipments. See last update for more details.

Canada:

Fulfillment Complete - pending order issues and/or reshipments. See last update for more details.

United Kingdom:

Fulfillment Complete - pending order issues and/or reshipments. See last update for more details.

EU + Rest of the World:

In our last update we'd shared that EU was projecting an April 15th date, which after the Easter break is sounding like a few more days will realistically be required - so thank you kindly for your patience as Fulfillment Europe continues wrapping up their end of the project. We see your comments and recognize there are still certain regions awaiting tracking numbers and will be sure to communicate once things are absolutely final. I think we can clearly say if you haven't received your tracking by the end of next week - please email us at [email protected] and we'll gladly verify your order status. 

Oceanic:

Unfortunately the Laserox Inserts have been taking their sweet time getting from port to Aetherworks, but the team has eyes on this shipment and it should be getting turned around very soon out the door to still awaiting backers. This is currently the only thing preventing us from calling Oceanic Fulfillment a wrap though. So if you weren't anticipating the Laserox insert and have any questions or concerns about  non-received pledges please give us an email at [email protected] and we'll be happy to assist!

Asia & South Pacific:

As communicated to us by VFI-Asia, all pledges have been shipped to their respective HUBS. Based on comments we're seeing on the project, you may still be waiting processing for receipt of your tracking information - but we're seeing many regions popping up this last week so hopefully you aren't waiting much longer. 

Also a reminder - that Laserox Inserts have/are shipping SEPARATELY. We've seen a little confusion on this so if you still haven't recieved a tracking number for this addon specifically, or see it missing from your order, that's as intended so as not to delay the rest of your order

Thank you for your extended patience, and to VFI-Asia for doing such a great job making sure cartons shipped extra reinforced!

 -FULFILLMENT END-

That's it for the moment. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend and will catch you again soon!

More Regional Completions and Fulfillment Updates!
over 1 year ago – Mon, Apr 03, 2023 at 05:29:02 PM

Happy Monday Mercenaries!

Apologies for missing Friday’s update. We had a particularly busy week around the Cephaloffice tending to operations, and with Chris and Ross making their brave return from knocking out TWO conventions in a single weekend - Adepticon in Chicago, IL & PAX: East in Boston, MA!

This was a first for Cephalofair attending two events in a single weekend and it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of these two gentlemen and our fantastic staff. Special shout outs to Cephalofair cosplayer Monica (and her husband Bill!), Rage Badger’s Alisandra & Stephanie, and our terrific demo runners: Josh, Dave, & Vann!

Excitement around Frosthaven and our upcoming miniatures & RPG lines were palpable and we had a great response from returning community members - and new! So thank you if you had a chance to stop by and say hello!

As fulfillment continues coming to an end we have fewer and fewer updates to provide, but are still excited to be here and be sharing the latest news with you.

We hope everyone had a great weekend - let’s get into it….

-FULFILLMENT UPDATE-

United States

As communicated last update - USA FULFILLMENT IS A WRAP! That being said, if you have already emailed us inquiring about your order, for any reason, please know we’re still working on an abundance of support tickets and will be sure your outstanding tickets will be resolved as soon as possible.

USA Preorders: Preorder shipments are beginning this week and should be shipped within a week's time. If you haven’t received a tracking number by next update - please shoot us an email, but most locations should be within a 2-3 day window so we hope Frosthaven is in your hands sooner than later!

Canada

We know the delay between shipments from the USA and notifications from the CAN hub can have a bit of a delay - but we’ve been told that CANADIAN FULFILLMENT IS A WRAP! That being said, if you have already emailed us inquiring about your order, for any reason, please know we’re still working on an abundance of support tickets and will be sure your outstanding tickets will be resolved as soon as possible.

CAN Preorders: Preorder shipments are beginning this week and should be shipped within a week's time to our Canadian HUB, at which point you will receive your shipping notification. If you haven’t received a tracking number by next update - please shoot us an email at that time!

United Kingdom

As of Friday - UK FULFILLMENT IS A WRAP! Our partner Spiral Galaxy signaled that all awaiting addons were shipped and you should have received your shipping notifications over the weekend. That being said, if you have already emailed us inquiring about your order, for any reason, please know we’re still working on an abundance of support tickets and will be sure your outstanding tickets will be resolved as soon as possible.

Europe + Rest of the World

Fulfillment is still on target for an April 15th shipping completion date! Not much news here other than we’re incredibly pleased to see all our European friends excitedly posting pictures and confirmations of their games arriving on their doorsteps!

If you’ve already emailed support regarding your order (for any reason other than shipping inquiries) please know we’re still working our way through a significant number of tickets and will get to you as soon as possible.

We will be back in two weeks to confirm our status, and let those without tracking numbers know the best time to email support for assistance. Thank you!

Oceanic

As of a week ago, Aetherworks had completed one third of the outstanding accessory shipments on ledger (more since). As indicated - the Laserox inserts are the last straggling accessory hitting the warehouse and haven’t quite arrived just yet - but UPS has reached out with confirmation they are incoming shortly so good news there. Thank you very much for your patience and we look forward to signaling “Completion” very soon!

Asia & South Pacific

VFI Asia has signaled that most of the HUB shipments have finally shipped, and that the recently arrived Laserox inserts are shipping out in the next HUB shipment this month.

We anticipate being able to share a completion status very soon and thank you all for your patience!

Retail Pledges: These have largely been scheduled and are in the process of being picked up/shipped if they haven’t already. If you are a retail backer and haven’t made arrangements yet please reach out to [email protected] to do so ASAP.

-FULFILLMENT END-

And that wraps up this/last week’s update! Again, we're beyond pleased and excited to see Frosthaven hitting so many game tables. It has been great to see photos from game nights and painted miniatures shared on social media and in our community forums. Please be sure to tag us on social media and if you are on BoardGameGeek.com, please share your reviews and photos!

Until next update - Happy Fulfillment!

North American Fulfillment Completing!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Mar 17, 2023 at 06:32:51 PM

Hello Mercenaries!

We’ve got some exciting updates today, and want to thank everyone for their continued ongoing patience awaiting shipping notifications and support replies. As we continue working through a record number of support tickets, rest assured we will address each and every question, issue, or concern in the coming week(s) and will not be leaving anyone, or their pledge, out to dry!

Along those notes, and before we get into today’s fulfillment updates, you may be aware that Cephalofair announced an APRIL 2023 crowdfunding project on Backerkit at PAX Unplugged last year. We will be making a formal announcement soon - but wanted to share here ahead of time that this campaign is being moved back to JUNE 2023 to allow confident wrap up of all outstanding obligations on this project first and foremost, and also allow us to continue making that the best campaign possible for those interested in Gloomhaven/Frosthaven Miniaturesor theGloomhaven Role Playing Game. More info to come soon - but we felt that was important to share with our backers here first so you knew where our priorities were given the delays due to the immense size of this project and the extra amount of time it’s taken since December to get Frosthaven to your doorsteps.

Thank you all for your enduring patience, support, and most of all excitement. We’re proud of what we’re accomplishing and the reception the game is getting world wide. We can’t do what we do without you and your trust in us to deliver will keep us going.

Now let’s get into….

FULFILLMENT UPDATE:

United States

By the end of today - we will be at 100% of pledges shipped!

There may be some instances of tracking numbers not issued until early next week - so we would kindly ask you to wait until Wednesday (22nd) or later to email us if you still have not seen a tracking number. No need to panic if this is the case - we’ll be happy to review your order and investigate or provide you with tracking details at that time. This includes Retailer pledges as well!

PRE-ORDERS: Preorder containers are set to arrive at our warehouse next week, and will begin shipping very shortly after. Please do not email us if you preordered Frosthaven in 2022 and have not received a tracking number yet - as these will be generating over the following few weeks.

Canada

By the end of today - we will be at 100% of pledges shipped!

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Shipped means your pledge has been fully packaged, picked up from our US warehouse, and is part of a caravan on its way across the border to our Canadian distribution hub where your tracking number will be issued “locally”. If you have not received a tracking number by March 27th, please email us at that time at [email protected] - but please no sooner!

PRE-ORDERS: Preorder containers for 2022 preorders are set to arrive at our US warehouse next week, and will begin shipping very shortly after following the same process as above. Please do not email us if you preordered Frosthaven and have not received a tracking number yet - as these will be generating over the following few weeks.

Europe + Rest of the World

With ALL containers finally having made their way into Germany - our fulfillment partners at Fulfillment Europe are continuing to do a top notch job getting pledges out as fast as possible!

This has not only been Cephalofair’s largest fulfillment project to-date, but also Fulfillment Europe’s largest fulfillment project to-date too.

Michael from Fulfillment Europe says: “It is a lot of hard work handling those heavy games – but like I said, we are really proud that we can be a part of it! And you can be sure that we put our heart and sweat into it, getting everything here in time and getting all those orders out to backers asap.”

In full transparency, Fulfillment Europe is looking at needing at needing likely a couple more weeks to get all remaining orders out than estimated and communicated in last update, so current ETA for completion of PLEDGES and PREORDERS both is April 15th. As always we’ll keep you updated should anything change - but the team is rocking and rolling and we’re excited to see so many countries receiving their long awaited orders!

United Kingdom

With ALL containers having arrived at Spiral Galaxy - remaining addons/extras shipments have been going out the door steadily and great progress is being made. The amazing group at Spiral Galaxy have communicated that they are feeling good about a FIRST WEEK OF APRIL completion, and we thank them for their due diligence as they continue working on our project amongst the other large and scheduled fulfillment campaigns they have going on simultaneously.

We’ll be back next update to provide you with a definitive COMPLETION date so you know when to email us, but for now thank you for your patience!

Oceanic

Aetherworks has communicated that next week will see a large uptick in shipping notifications as they proceed with significant accessory orders as projected to wrap up by the end of month. The one exception here is still the Laserox inserts which are expected to be in by month end and will ship shortly after that period of time.

We will be back next update with a more definitive COMPLETION date so you know when to email us. Thank you for sticking in there!

Asia + South Pacific

In a correction to our last update, VFI-Asia completed packaging delivery/staging to their centralized distribution center. Since that delivery, shipments have begun deploying out to individual countries from that distribution center. VFI-Asia is communicating that all unshipped regions should be completed by the first week of April.  

We'll be back update with a solidified fulfillment COMPLETION date so you know when to email us. 

-FULFILLMENT END-

We’ll be back in two weeks as usual! Thank you all for your enthusiasm and patience as we approach our logistical finish lines.

Fulfillment Completion is on the Horizon!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Mar 03, 2023 at 07:04:27 PM

Hello Mercenaries!

Before we get started with today’s updates - I’d like to kindly remind you that we are not able to provide specific order ETAs or tracking numbers for orders unshipped. You will receive a shipping notification email to your provided email address directly from our fulfillment partners once it has left the warehouse. Until we communicate that “[REGION] fulfillment is complete - please email us if you haven’t received your tracking number” - we thank you for your patience and excitement and ask you to keep the email lines open for serviceable requests.

Support is still experiencing an overwhelming volume of emails, in many instances multiple from the same parties, asking for estimates of when their orders will ship. These requests only slow down our ability to service actionable requests like parts replacements, lost packages, etc.

Additionally, all service requests need to please come to [email protected]. Please do not use the Kickstarter message system, as it is not a reliable enough communication tool, nor does it give us enough information to service your pledge. Thank you!

With that being said….

========FULFILLMENT UPDATE:================

North America (United States, Canada, & Mexico)

We are at 99% COMPLETION!

Our Hebron, KY warehouse had to shut down a little prematurely today due to tornado warnings, so we have a fraction of a percent of orders that we anticipate getting cleaned up and shipped out by early next week - but then we can confidently signal a shipping completion status for our largest fulfillment region. This includes a handful of retail backer orders that will be shipping via appointment and LTL freight.

KINDLY, PLEASE DON’T EMAIL US YET IF YOU HAVEN’T RECEIVED TRACKING!  =)

We know everyone is excited and it’s hard to believe when you’re in the final fulfillment % percentage, but “I assure you, Cephalofair is open!” and not going anywhere until 100% of our backers have their games. We stand by all orders, and even still to this date receive emails from backers from past campaigns who realize they forgot to fill out their pledge manager, failed to recognize their order wasn’t received, etc. Frosthaven is something we have plenty of stock on, and will be keeping in stock so there is no hard deadline at this time to contact us for order resolutions. 

Europe + Rest of the World

Things are moving along as communicated in our previous update, with the final container containing Envelope X Rewards and Sticker restock scheduled to arrive by the first week of March. Orders are continuing to flow, and with the progress made by Fulfillment Europe we’re even exploring some additional add-on split shipping we can do to make sure orders continue flowing until the very second that the last container arrives! Mid-to-late March is still in our crosshairs and we’ll keep you posted and alerted when “EU+RotW Shipping is Complete!” - but that day is not today.

United Kingdom

The final container estimated to arrive this last week to Spiral Galaxy spent a few extra days clearing customs, but has since cleared with a delivery appointment of next wednesday confidently allowing fulfillment completion to take place this month. We’ll keep you posted on the next update with hopefully a more precise completion date.

Oceanic

Not much to update here other than things are still on target for completion of outstanding orders by the end of March. We have a container that's been stuck in customs for about 2 weeks now without any sign from customs what the issue is, or when it will be resolved, but we and our freight partner are pushiung for updates daily.  A reminder that Laserox inserts, which saw massive delays out of Hungary for reasons not Laserox’ fault, are still en route and won’t likely arrive until General Fulfillment is coming to an end in March. Until then orders are continuing to flow and we’re split shipping what we can, when we can, to insure they do.

Asia + South Pacific

All containers have arrived at VFI-Asia and the vast majority of orders were picked and packed over the last week for outbound shipping! We are estimating backer shipment completion as of next week! - with Retail orders being contacted soon (if you haven’t already) by VFI-Asia to arrange ex works arrangements of those orders (Shipping payment & coordinated delivery). 

2022 Preorders

To reiterate last week - with fulfillment coming closer to an end in various regions, we just want to reassure any customers who preordered Frosthaven in 2022 that those orders will be shipping IMMEDIATELY following fulfillment completion in your region. We have already provided that data to our fulfillment partners and they have directions to begin these shipments once they’ve completed all KS backer orders. 

-FULFILLMENT END-

We appreciate everyone's patience as we get nearer to the end of fulfillment and appreciate everyone's excitement as we continue to work through this incredibly massive fulfillment effort.

Have a great weekend, and Happy Fulfillment!

Fortifying Fulfillment Timelines
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 05:04:22 PM

Hello Mercenaries!

General Update:

We hope everyone is doing well this week, and thank you all for your feedback and questions last update. Things in fulfillment hit about their most chaotic at this point of fulfillment, so we appreciate your patience and understanding as we worked on getting more granular information your way as to the full state of fulfillment this week. We cannot emphasize enough how many hurdles have come up on a daily basis as we navigated shipping multiple waves of product OUT of 4 different countries (2 of which were our first time navigating) and INTO 6 countries for final fulfillment.

While we can confidently say we had a plan at our onset, it has evolved and been forced to adapt many times along the way. From having to source new freight partners, to new customs requirements, fulfillment partners, and warehousing restrictions - our biggest priority has been maintaining as constant a flow of orders as we can from all regions, and we’ve been allocating extra resources (i.e. money) into making sure this is the case wherever we can. It’s not been the easiest project to navigate, but we’ve learned a lot and are now sitting on a lot of new logistical infrastructure to only do bigger and better in the future. Thank you all for your continued support and patience as we move this monumental project forward.

A Kind Reminder : Support is experiencing a large volume of emails at this time (like we said, most chaotic part of fulfillment) and additional email requests asking for status updates and ETA for specific orders is not something we’re able to offer, and only slows down our ability to service actionable requests like parts replacements, lost packages, etc. We are still unable to provide individual ETA’s, tracking #’s, or order locations. Additionally, actionable requests need to come through [email protected]. Please do not use the Kickstarter message system, as it is not a reliable enough communication tool, nor does it give us enough information to service your pledge. Thank you!

And if you’re just interested in more Frosthaven coverage - Isaac Childres sat down and spoke with GamesRadar recently about his personal ‘Road to Frosthaven’.

Short on time? 3 Minute Board Games has you covered with their first review of 2023!

We’ve got some more in-depth fulfillment details this week, as well as some new completion   ETA’s, so here we go!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FULFILLMENT UPDATE:

United States

This message goes out to 7% of you still waiting on shipping notifications - because we are at 93% done! Last update we shared our warehouse had projected a completion date of mid-February and we’re SO CLOSE to completion. It sounds like we’ve just undershot this mark due to some cross-inventory needs in our West vs. East coast warehouse but that is being tended to by our Ware2Go team and should be on track for a quick completion once it’s resolved. We’re getting confident signals about West Coast completing by month end, but are awaiting some better details about the hold up on the East Coast side of things.

Our intention in mentioning “mid-month”, “end of month”, etc. is never an attempt to be vague or illusive. There has just never been such a thing as PRECISE dates when it comes to operations at this scale and with how many points of failure can surface from staffing, road/rail delays, etc. We’ll continue doing our best to be as transparent as possible and certainly feel like we’ve gotten more experience under our belt to perform more efficiently in the future. Thanks for your understanding!

Canada

Weekly exports into Canada continue, and we have 2-3 weeks worth of shipments remaining! No other news this week as our primary point of contact is out on holiday, but we have been assured the US-Canadian workflow has been solidified and look forward to wrapping up as close to month end as we can. We’re excited to see so many new posts from our Canadian friends sharing their tracking notifications and recent arrivals!

Europe + Rest of the World

Our second largest portion of this fulfillment project has passed the 50% benchmark and is on target for 65-75% completion by month end. We have one final container, as indicated in the last update, containing Envelope X Rewards and Sticker restock scheduled to arrive by the first week of March. Orders will continue processing between now and then, however, and despite the delay of this final container, we anticipate all orders will have been shipped to your doors by mid-to-late March! It’s been a journey, but the home stretch is finally in our crosshairs.

A big shout out to Fulfillment Europe for being such a fantastic logistical partner and their team for pulling so much weight and pushing so many orders out of their warehouse over the last month.

United Kingdom

All core games have shipped! Our partner Spiral Galaxy has over 1,000+ addon orders they are currently working on shipping out while they await the final addon container of Card Sleeves and Envelope X Rewards arriving towards the end of this month. This will allow them to ship the remaining orders over the following week(s) in March. We really appreciate all the maneuvering and postal negotiations Spiral Galaxy was able to assist us with. Split shipping is not typically something we’re able to accommodate (especially in larger regions as costs are extremely prohibitive in NA and EUR) but between Spiral’s logistical negotiations, hard work, and some convenient package weight restrictions that came into play, this actually worked out in everyone’s favor.

We’ll still be looking at how to better pre-plan for complete order fulfillment at once in future projects so this is avoidable, but thank them, and you, for your patience and perseverance!

Oceanic

With the arrival of more Card Sleeves, Inserts, Stickers, and Envelope X Rewards, Aetherworks is continuing shipments over the next several weeks and is currently on target for completion of outstanding orders by the end of March. The one thorn in our side here is the Laserox inserts, which saw massive delays out of Hungary. They are unfortunately still en route and won’t likely arrive until General Fulfillment is coming to an end in March. We are exploring split shipping these later so as not to hold up your orders longer than we need to and will make sure to put resources here where we can.

Asia + South Pacific

Inserts are still enroute to VFI China - there have been some hold ups at customs as these are a first time import for our company, but VFI says once they arrive in the following week they will have in-hand everything they need to start and complete shipments within 1-2 weeks time. So ultimately, we’re looking at a fulfillment completion in March - with a precise window to be determined once customs (hopefully!) gives clearance next week - fingers crossed!

2022 Preorders

With fulfillment coming closer to an end in various regions, we just want to reassure any customers who preordered Frosthaven in 2022 that those orders will be shipping IMMEDIATELY following fulfillment completion in your region. We are already in the process of handing over that data to our partners and they are making arrangements as necessary.