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This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
I know you're very excited to receive your cameras, and I am just as excited to get them to you.
Going into Kickstarter, I wanted to deliver a product that was meaningful, realistic, and could be delivered just a few months after the campaign.
And for the most part things have gone really well - the Flashback app looks great, we had working cameras before even launching, and we didn't need to compromise on the core experience Mack and I had designed. Recently, we've even partnered with a shipping company that can source packing materials without single-use plastic.
So it's unfortunate to announce that we can't quite deliver the cameras during August as planned.
Of all the challenges typically faced by Kickstarter projects, the one I anticipated the least was a huge number of backers. With my sights set on 1000 cameras, it was difficult to imagine a world where we'd be producing over 5000! During the campaign, it became clear that we were going to far exceed our goal, and I was caught off guard. Mack and I decided to step up the scale of our initial manufacturing and invested into different moulds that will produce more cameras per day. In this process, the inevitable risk was that it could take longer to get to the first batch of cameras. However, it was important to make this decision early on rather than waiting until production already started, so we made a judgement call.
This leads us today. The production tools are going through their first pilot run this week, which is behind our initial timeline. Overall, our best estimate is that everyone will receive their cameras no later than November but under the new strategy, everyone will receive their camera at a similar time. In other words, the first orders might be shipped later, but the later orders will be shipped much earlier. Knowing that we now have over 5000 cameras, I think this change of strategy was the right choice. With the initial strategy, we could have started shipping by now but may have taken until Feburary to finish them all.
I understand this news will come as a shock. It has been awesome to hear about your festivals, weddings, birthday gifts and travel plans, and I really wanted the camera to be there in time.
I've made every effort so far to be transparent and upfront about all aspects of the project, and I will continue to do so. I was aware that a large number of backers was a possibility and even noted it in the Risks section, but to receive even 1000 pledges already seemed like such a momentous goal. It's possible that we should have considered this scenario in more detail.
The only thing I can ask is to please finish your BackerKit survey as soon as you can (refer to the previous update for details). 80% of backers have already done it, so thank you! For anyone who signed in with Apple ID, there is an issue with the emails being received, but we're working to resolve your queries as they come in.
We've received a lot of messages about payment issues with European bank cards and from people missing the campaign by a few days. A lot of these people are early followers from our social media, who have been supporters of our mission since day one. Some even backed the project and are included in the Kickstarter backer count, but didn't end up completing their pledge because of payment/bank issues. So we feel some obligation to provide a solution for these supporters to lock in a camera at the Kickstarter price, and for this reason we will be taking more preorders on another store for a brief period.
However, any additional orders won't affect the shipping date for Kickstarter backers. With our new production strategy, the earlier orders can be shipped before later orders are manufactured.
The short story: We need you to do a new colour-choice-and-shipping-address survey. We’re using a dedicated survey platform called BackerKit to collect your information, and it will arrive by email. The change is for a good reason: details below.
The long story: We have more cameras to ship than initially expected - 10X our initial goal! This is OK, but we've had to rethink some of our plans. Some of our strategies would have been fine with the initial quantity, but any manual efforts would require 10X as much time to complete and become more prone to mistakes. As a result, we want to streamline everything we can about our production and shipping processes!
The Kickstarter platform can be a bit clunky for us to use when it comes to coordinating fulfillment. We did our research, and have decided to use a service called BackerKit. They've been in operation for over a decade and are a go-to solution used to manage shipping & product choices for Kickstarter projects with a lot of backers.
On your end, BackerKit will appear as a survey link sent to your email address.
There are two main benefits to using BackerKit: (i) we're able to handle some of your requests that aren't possible within Kickstarter and (ii) our fulfillment process will be faster and less error-prone.
Here's some of the benefits in more detail:
The only downside is that we need to run the surveys again using the new platform. Your old responses won't be carried across. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I hope you can see how this will be faster overall!
Your survey will be received as a link by email within the next 48 hours. Please fill it out as soon as you can. It will only take a few minutes and the interface is very easy to use.
You'll be asked to enter your colour choice and shipping address. Your address formatting will be validated this time, and you can even change the shipping country.
You can also change your pledge level or order additional items if you missed out during the campaign.
There's no need to create an account with BackerKit: the link sent to your inbox is already paired up with your Kickstarter pledge.
If you can't find the email after 48 hours, please check your Spam inbox. Otherwise, if you get in touch here on Kickstarter we can manually send you your unique link in a message. (This was also impossible using Kickstarter surveys and let to some confusion!)
Hey all! Just to let you know - all pledge payments will be finalised tomorrow at 7PM AEST.
Tomorrow is the end of the 7 day grace period for payments. During this period, you're able to update your card details from the Kickstarter mobile app or website.
If you've had any issues with payments, you should have received a notification from Kickstarter asking to update your payment method. At the end of this 7-day window (tomorrow!), Kickstarter will try one last time to charge whichever card you have on file. If this fails, your pledge will be cancelled and there's no way to restore it.
You can also trigger a retry of the payment immediately, but only on the website and not the mobile app. So if you want to be sure you have updated your details correctly, I recommend using the website.
If you can't go ahead with your pledge for financial reasons (or any other!) it's absolutely no problem at all: don't stress about it. If your card declines tomorrow, Kickstarter won't attempt to charge you again. We'll be sorry to see you go, but we have exceeded our goal and will be able to go ahead with our mission. It means a lot that you helped get us to where we are now <3