Thanks for the updates as always Knytiri.
We really appreciate all of your hard work.

Thanks Knytiri! I know you are working your tail off, and so is everyone else there. I work in the IT industry for a mid-sized hospital, and I have some experience with customer service. I can appreciate at least some of your struggles, and I will just say that it is appreciated.

Artair, no offense but perhaps you can do that in your field, but with this, a lot of us never would have bought if the ship date weren't similar to what was promised...much less it being completely unknowable. If we'd been told at the outset, "Hey, we have no way of knowing when these things will be done", then the burden would be on us. We'd know what we were in for. But with a product like this and a no refund policy of IndieGoGo, that's unfair. (Not that I would want a refund. I don't. I want my beautiful saber!)

We've got some approximate dates...and we'll be understanding if there are reasonable updates to that.

Knytiri wrote:
Thanks so much Kyntiri!!! Kickstarter should ship in mid feb.The MID means a lot to me!The wait is still killing me but I have no complaints! I'm pretty sure point 3 itself would be a huge update to many of us because of the "mid" lol.I support delaying the sabers to get results instead of quick junk 100%.May the forge be with saberforge!!!

Thanks for the updates Kyntiri! We much appreciate them.

Thanks for the update Kyntiri! I think people just like to hear anything to help satisfy their concerns. Especially from the view point of Indiegogo where you received $1.3 million. It may seem common sense from your point of view that to fulfill those orders is going to take some time. But for the typical consumer it probably does not. They just go by the mid February date posted and want to hear that they will receive their product.

I for one have one of your beautiful sabers that I bought from Etsy and patiently waited for last year. I will wait patiently this year for my Indiegogo order as well!

Casey

We did not get 1.3 mil from IndieGogo. We raised a little over 400k through IndieGogo. The combined total for BOTH campaigns was 1.25.

Sounds like things are a bit hectic, what with being unable to work in the new factory. How are you guys dealing with both ASP and normal orders? Is there a small team dedicated to each, or is ASP getting priority until the new shop is authorized as a safe workplace?

ANorris wrote:
I understand your concern and how you feel uneasy about missed, shifting or lack of release dates. I do not wish to say that any of your feelings or wants are invalid. I only hope to put forth what my experiance has shown to ease difficult situations like this between producer and consumer of a new product.

What i want to clarify from my previous post is that constantly putting out new dates will not solve anything. The only thing that will resolve all of the concern and frustration (of the KS backers) is the product in hand. So what makes that happen the fastest and smoothest should be the goal.

I'm very happy to see that the KS is nearing its end and the IGG will follow immediately.

One thing note here is that this products value is not deminished by its timetable. Missing a movie launch or sell by date is not an issue with this. Expecially considering the future of the Star Wars franchise. So while inconvenient it is not worth cancling the entire project because of a missed date or two. I could be wrong but, I am under the impression that a majority of backers wanted this specific product as they could have easily put their money into one of the other options.

What i was trying to get across in my previous post was that a bad date, even a very tenitive one, can be more detrimental than no date when it comes to stakeholders and customers on a project that is already past the original milestone date.

If you can its better to list the major blockers (issues) in the way that need to be cleared first and send status updates on what is completed, not including any forcasts. (Much like they just did by informing us about the OSHA stuff.) Then only provide a new date when you are sure you can hit it.

Every date you line up and miss hurts your credibility and upsets your consumers more and more, even if that is what they are screaming for.

The original estimate may have been possible if they recieved the order volume they initally expected. The fact people would not have pledged without a timeframe is moot, its water under the bridge, the product is ordered and money spent.

Now they need to work on how to best manage expectations without wasting resources that are already streached thin. Analyzing their current position and all factors between here and success to come up with new dates at each speed bump is very costly. They are better off to instead applying those resources to finishing the project. (Which sounds like what they have been doing.) Often the meeting to talk about a problem and how to fix it can eat more time and resources than just assigning the person, who would likely do it anyway, to get it done and let him/her get to it.

@Knytiri thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to try and calm fears and put out fires. Please know that your extra effort is noticed and appriciated.

I agree with that sentiment, that quickly quoted dates that aren't reflective of reality would be a bad thing. I should have picked up on that strain of what you were saying. That's totally valid and well said.

We're all excited and we believe in SaberForge 110%.