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I have been following some of your products, most notably the Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords miniatures from Crocodile Games (which are filled with awesome!). I've gotten almost all of them as they have been released.
I understand that pre-orders are made not only as a convenience to the consumer, but as a yard-stick of interest and committed funds for the manufacturer to better determine interest and the quantity they want to order. As such, I try to pre-order things that I am interested in to help keep those numbers "true".
However, when I do this through your online system, I am forced to pay full shipping on each piece just to tag them. While I understand the reason for this to keep the money straight in general, it makes doing a number of pre-orders vastly more expensive than if I just waited for them to be released. In my mind, that would kind of negate the (what I see as crucial) point that I want you and Crocodile to know I REALLY want them to be made!
When an order is made, the in-stock items have the option to ship together or wait until all of them are available with the pre-orders/out-of-stock items. Would it be possible to break the pre-orders out to their own group? Then have the option to set them "wait til all are available to ship" and set only one shipping cost for the pre-orders, independent of the in-stock stuff?
My intent is to show that I have interest in the product and put money behind that interest. I'm sensitive to the issue that a check box saying "yay!" is NOT the same in business as having paid in advance!
Chief Technical Officer
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Would it be possible to break the pre-orders out to their own group? Then have the option to set them "wait til all are available to ship" and set only one shipping cost for the pre-orders, independent of the in-stock stuff?
We decided against doing that because it can lead to unnecessary delays and disappointed customers. Should one of those preorders arrive much later than the others—or, worse yet, enter that world of limbo where the manufacturer has cancelled it without notifying our distributor—then the other products sit in our warehouse for no good reason until somebody decides that it's a problem. By then, the customer is probably less than thrilled with the service they've received, even if it is what they asked for. (And in the meantime, we've already paid our distributor for the products that have arrived, but we haven't charged you for them yet, so that negatively affects our cash flow.)
So, for now, backorders and preorders require individual shipping.
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We decided against doing that because it can lead to unnecessary delays and disappointed customers...
...So, for now, backorders and preorders require individual shipping.
That is what I figured. :( Obviously that's the better option for the business, but it kind of thwarts the end result I'm looking to get.
So the only way I can show my interest in these pre-order miniatures without paying $100 dollars for shipping, for now, would be to post "yay!" in their threads? Would that be considered as pre-orders might?
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Chief Technical Officer
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So the only way I can show my interest in these pre-order miniatures without paying $100 dollars for shipping, for now, would be to post "yay!" in their threads? Would that be considered as pre-orders might?
Well, kind of. When we're looking to get a sense of a product when we're placing our orders, we look at a few things. The biggest is how sales of similar products—especially product in the same line—have done. We also look at presales, of course, and we look at buzz—how much we think people are talking positively about a product. So your "yay" adds to "buzz"; couple that with your orders of previous products in the line, and you're weighing in pretty good there.
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Director of Brand Strategy
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Slightly off topic, but still about preorders (and the minis line, in fact)...
Over the summer, when the third wave of Pathfinder minis were announced (Merisiel and the ogres), I preordered all of them and my card was zapped to make sure I had the funds. At the time I did. Then several months passed and I continued to check my recent orders to see if their status was changing. Still, nothing out of the ordinary here. Then I got the "Your Items are About to Ship" email a month later and rejoiced! Until I realized that this email came on a day when I had no money in the account to cover the charge made months prior. Luckily Cosmo was able to cancel the order before it actually left the warehouse, but I might not be so lucky next time. The result is that, for someone like me who lives relatively paycheck-to-paycheck, I am hesitant to preorder anything. With subscriptions I can check the product schedule, and get the credit card zap a few days early to try and prevent major overdrafting, but for a preorder there can be months of ambiguous time between the zap and when the money leaves my account. Is there a way to set up a similar notice a few days ahead, or a second balance verification before preorders ship? I'm pretty sure that you're gonna say no and suggest a prepaid credit card, but unfortunately that's not really an option for me for a number of reasons. Anyway, thanks for listening!
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Chief Technical Officer
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Is there a way to set up a similar notice a few days ahead, or a second balance verification before preorders ship?
The first suggestion would cause delays that most people probably don't want. Your second suggestion, though, is something we already do. I think you already know about authorizations—non-monetary transactions done when you place the order to make sure you have available credit. Well, if your bank has closed the original authorization (which usually happens within a few days of you placing the order), we make a new one right before we try to ship. If at that time, you don't have enough available credit (for credit cards) or a high enough balance (for debit cards), *and* your bank doesn't allow you to overdraft, then the transaction is declined, we send you an e-mail letting you know that, and we don't ship the order. If your bank does let you go over your credit limit or overdraft your debit account, then the charge goes through, and then your bank assesses you any fees they have on over-limits or overdrafts (that part is invisible to us).
So if your bank lets you go over-limit or overdraft, and then charges you a fee for it, I'd suggest talking to them about the possibility of not allowing that—that is, tell them to just decline the transaction if it would put you into that situation. If they won't, you may be able to find another bank that does. Some banks do even better than that—they offer overdraft protection on debit cards, which would allow the transaction without assessing you an additional fee, so long as you cover the overage in a reasonable amount of time; in the case of credit cards, the equivalent is no over-limit fees.
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Director of Brand Strategy
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I was unaware of the second authorization, I guess because I never got an email about it...If the second authorization fails, you get an e-mail that your payment method was declined; if it succeeds, you get a shipping confirmation e-mail.
Yeah, mine would never fail, as my bank lets it go well past -10. If only D&D rules applied to banks.