We're making t-shirts themed around the epic science fiction of Schlock Mercenary
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Maxims Shirts in Our Store & Shipping Update 5
over 7 years ago
– Sat, Aug 18, 2018 at 01:25:01 AM
Greetings Backers,
New Shirt Designs in Our Store
We are excited to announce that the four Maxims shirt designs that were selected by the "Pick Your Maxim" backers are now available in our online store.
These designs are specifically maxim related and are coming from a Print on Demand shirt company. I'm very excited by the idea that you can all have shirts and they'll ship directly to you from the company in less than two weeks. Details on exactly why this excites me can be found in the Shipping Update portion of this missive.
But for now, the maxims shirts!
Maxim 12: A soft answer turneth away wrath, once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head
For those wanting to order additional shirts of the designs offered during our Kickstarter, those designs will be put into our store once we've delivered shirts to all of our Kickstarter backers. The maxims designs are available now because they've already been shipped to the backers who selected them.
Shipping Update
We've entered a new phase in shipping out your shirt orders. I have shipped out all the orders that could be filled based on the shirts I currently have. I am waiting on a fill order from the shirt company that will allow me to ship out an additional 56 orders. I'm in the process of contacting the backers who own the remaining problem shirts to see if they'd prefer a color substitution or to wait while I re-order exactly what they want.
We are committed to making sure that every backer gets what they want and is happy with their order.
We will reorder (from a different company) any shirts that are necessary to fill outstanding orders. If it seems like the re-ordering will take an unreasonable length of time, we will do partial shipping as needed.
There is a new metric for shipping progress: 162 shirts have problems for me to resolve as of this morning. (I've actually resolved some problems since I made the count.)
Alert on sizing for Women's shirts:
We've gotten word that some of the women's shirts are arriving smaller than the sizing chart stated they would be. If your women's shirt is too small, please email [email protected] and we'll work with you to make it right.
Why so many shirts with problems?
Shirt printing companies are set up to serve people who want lots of one design in a single color in various sizes. If you put multiple designs and shirt styles in a single order (As I did), they do not have automated systems in place to track everything. This leaves it up to humans to do the tracking, and humans make mistakes.
Several of the mistakes were mine. I did not insist on breaking out each design into a separate order. I ended up with two orders of three designs each. I remember looking at the order sheet and wondering how they would track which counts matched which designs, because the order sheet does not have a space to indicate the name of a design or image of a design. This made it easy for the printing staff to accidentally swap the counts for Friendly Fire 3XLT shirts and the counts of the Pillage then Burn 3XLT shirts. Which they did, and left me with five extra FF Charcoal 3XLT and short five Pillage then Burn 3XLT. There are several swaps like this.
Another of my mistakes was that there was a point in the order placing process where I did a spot check of the numbers they ordered vs my records from the Kickstarter instead of spending two hours sitting down and going through number by number. If I'd done the number-by-number assessment, I might have caught some instances like them swapping 5 2XLT shirts for 5 2XL shirts in the same color and design (apparently because they didn't want to order in additional 2XLT shirts.) Because I okayed the final order, I technically approved this switch, but the fact that they made a switch was not explicitly called out to me.
Many of the mistakes land squarely on communication issues between me and the shirt company or within the company itself. Customer support and manufacturing do not seem to understand each other's jobs and continually make decisions without consulting each other. Manufacturing seems to be in the habit of making adjustments to orders without consulting anyone else, and as long as the final shirt count is within 10% of what is on the order, they think it's all fine. Isn't fine with an order like mine that required precision.
But the good news is that I have finally reached the point where I'm no longer discovering additional errors. Now I have all the errors sorted and labeled. Which means I can spend my energy solving problems instead of discovering them.
Many thanks to everyone I've had to email. You've all been so kind and understanding. Even the ones I've had to email multiple times because I offered a switch and then discovered that I didn't actually have the shirt color I intended to switch to. I've got a system in place to avoid that now.
It will be at least two weeks of me methodically and carefully emailing each person and making sure I have things exactly correct. I'll be correcting problems and mailing out orders every week day. The next shipping update will be in two weeks on August 31.
Thanks for all your support,
Sandra Tayler
Shipping Update 4
over 7 years ago
– Sat, Aug 11, 2018 at 01:39:38 AM
Greetings Backers,
Quick Shipping Status by Pledge Level:
1 Shirt: 149/ 157
Shirt Bundle: 329/ 597
Pick Your Maxim 4/4
Total packages sent 490/ 780
165 packages into the mail this week. 290 Packages remaining. 80 of those are already prepped and will be in the mail tomorrow.
Alert on sizing for Women's shirts:
We've gotten word that some of the women's shirts are arriving smaller than the sizing chart stated they would be. If your women's shirt is too small, please email [email protected] and we'll work with you to make it right.
Summary:
Shipping is proceeding well. I've submitted a list to the shirt printer and they say they'll be getting a "fill order" to me to supply shirts they were supposed to send me and didn't. Starting this weekend I'll begin contacting backers whose orders need correction or clarification.
Details on Shipping:
This details section isn't as detailed as usual, apparently I'm still coming up to speed after GenCon.
Monday 8/6: travel day, returning from GenCon
Tuesday 8/7: The day of post-convention brain mush.
Wednesday 8/8: Recovered enough from the brain mush to print out over 200 packing lists. I also began collecting my wits, managed post-convention clean up tasks, and generally got my bearings.
Thursday 8/9: Printed postage, did some more organizational tasks. Did a little bit of mailing just so I could remember how it works before I had workers with me.
Friday 8/10: One helper and I assembled and mailed over 150 packages. We're set up to do about 80 more tomorrow morning.
I plan to have all of the non-problem packages into the mail by Tuesday. "Problem" packages are ones for which a shirt is missing or unavailable. For these packages I'll need to either wait for the shirt company to deliver the missing shirt, or contact the backer to make adjustments.
Next update will be Friday August 17.
Thanks for all your support,
--Sandra Tayler
Shipping Update 3
over 7 years ago
– Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 11:27:03 PM
Greetings Backers,
Quick Shipping Status by Pledge Level:
1 Shirt: 132/ 157
Shirt Bundle: 191/ 597
Pick Your Maxim 0/4
323 packages into the mail this week. 455 Packages remaining.
Summary:
All of the shirt shipments have arrived. We hand counted and have identified some shirts that should have been included but were not. I'm in communication with our shirt printer to get that corrected. A few of the size/color combinations may turn out to be completely unavailable, in which case I will contact backers individually to figure out a solution that works for them. Shipping will be on hold until I return from GenCon, so the next update will happen Friday August 10.
Decision on Pillage Then Burn shirts
I've decided to accept the screen printed Pillage Then Burn shirts and the sizable discount that they offered due to them not discharge printing the shirts. I chose this option because the size of my order has run them completely out of stock on some of the size/color combinations that would be necessary to reprint the shirts. When a shirt size/color goes out of stock it can be months before the manufacturer gets around to sending new stock to the shirt printer. I asked how many months and the mumble I got back seemed to indicate that "months" could be anything from two to six months. Waiting for reprinting would put a large number of orders into indefinite limbo. I can't do that to you backers, not when the screen printed versions are beautiful as is. If you receive your package and are truly disappointed that the Pillage Then Burn shirts are screen printed instead of discharge printed, email [email protected] and I'll work with you to find a solution.
Details on Shipping:
Monday July 23: We spent five hours sorting shirts and counting them. If any of you have ever done inventory for a retail establishment, then you know exactly how much fun that was. There were three of us working on the project. At the end, we had organized boxes of shirts, and a small print list of confirmed quantities. Here is a glimpse of the warehouse floor.
And a reverse view
My warehouse space is not optimized for shirt fulfillment. I have too many pallets of books taking up space. Fortunately the shirts will ship out and I'll have my floor space back. To give some context, I've outlined the various shirt designs so you can see where they all are.
And the reverse:
Even with the outlines, it all looks a bit like a muddled mess. But I know exactly where to walk to find each shirt design/size/color.
On Monday evening I printed out packing lists and sorted them so that my helpers and I could ship out some packages the next day.
Tuesday July 24: We got 150 packages into the mail. It took 2 people 3 hours.
Walking is how we create the packages. We have a bin and a packing list. We gather all the shirts for an order by walking from place to place. Then the shirts, packing list, and postage are all carefully stacked in a bin.
The bins go up front to the office space where a different person picks up the packing list and double checks to make sure that the shirt design/size/color combination matches the packing list. This way each order is looked over twice.
Tuesday was also the day when I made a final decision about the Pillage Then Burn shirts. I also printed and sorted more invoices.
Wednesday July 25: I worked by myself on this day. I spent several hours working on complicated packages that had other items combined with the shirts. I had to figure out a logical process for getting that done. I have one now. In the evening I worked some finishing details for GenCon. And I printed more packing lists.
Thursday July 26: I had one helper, we worked for 3 hours and we got around 80 packages into the mail. With two of us working, one could do the pulling and the other did the packing.
Friday July 27: I worked by myself today. I was at the warehouse for five hours. Because I had made a decision on the Pillage Then Burn shirts, I was finally able to unpack and sort them. I also spent time consolidating some of the other shirts into smaller spaces, which I could do because so many shirts had already been shipped. I also finished up some complicated orders, and sent out regular store orders.
Upcoming: As soon as I get back from GenCon, I'll organize a couple of shipping days where we can get almost all of the remaining packages into the mail. By then I should also have a definitive answer from the shirt printer about the missing shirts, some of which may have been missed because that size/color was out of stock. So I'll know exactly which of you backers I need to contact to make adjustments. I'll (hopefully) have an idea of when I can expect them to deliver the missing shirts as well.
Now I need to switch my shipping brain off and find my convention brain. I leave in only four days and I'm not ready.
Next update will be Friday August 10.
Thanks for all your support.
--Sandra Tayler
Shipment Update 2
over 7 years ago
– Fri, Jul 20, 2018 at 09:25:31 PM
Greetings Backers,
TL;DR: I was wrong in my estimate. Most of the shirts will arrive in my hands by Saturday of this week. Shirt shipping will begin in earnest next week. I don't yet have an estimate for how long it will take me to ship all the orders. There is a complication with the Pillage Then Burn shirt, but you'll still all get your shirts.
Slightly longer:
I got 9 boxes last Friday, 5 boxes on Wednesday, 11 boxes today, and I'm expecting 23 boxes on Saturday. Hopefully that is all the boxes. I've gotten the Schlock with Plasgun shirts, Friendly Fire, and Stupid/Lucky shirts and they are beautiful.
I will be able to begin shipping out packages next week, but I have a lot of sorting and counting to do first. The Pillage Then Burn shirt requires some extra attention because it was screen printed instead of discharge printed as I requested. Both options look beautiful, but for light color designs we prefer discharge printing because it is softer to the touch. (Dark color designs can't be discharge printed.) I am in communication with my contact to figure out what to do, but the conversation is paused for the weekend.
All the Details:
The nine boxes I was expecting arrived last Friday right on schedule:
However they didn't contain shirts of three designs as I'd thought. These boxes only contained Pillage Then Burn shirts. And, unfortunately they weren't as expected. We requested that the shirts with light color images be discharge printed. This means that color is taken out of the shirt instead of being added to it. The result is a very soft feel. But when I looked at the shirts, they were screen printed.
This close up lets you see that white has been added on top of the black shirt.
I called the shirt printing company and my contact was out of the office. The customer support person noted that my order specifically said "discharge printing," but she didn't have the power to promise me anything and asked for me to wait until Monday when my contact could resolve the issue.
On Monday and Tuesday there was a series of frustrating communications where my questions were only partially answered, I specifically requested my contact to call me, which she didn't. And when I tried to call her, I could only get my voice mail. I finally managed to gather the information that production had switched to screen printing because there might be a problem with the look of discharge printing on some of the shirt colors I'd selected. Instead of pausing to ask me what I'd like to do, they just switched printing types. (I've since received discharge printed shirts on all the colors and they look beautiful. I have no idea what they were concerned about.) So come Monday I'll talk to my person and see what they can do to make it right. My first concern is to make sure that what we're delivering to you is the highest quality we can offer. Both screen and discharge options are beautiful.
In the meantime, I took the Schlock with Plasgun shirts to the warehouse and began sorting them. I have to hand count each size/color combination and put them into separate boxes so that when it comes time to make packages I can quickly grab exactly the shirt that is called for. Also, with all the communication issues I've had with the shirt printer, I feel inclined to double check that they've got the right counts for the colors/sizes.
Here are the small, medium, 4XL, 5XL, and women's size shirts:
:
These are the Large, XL, 2XL, and 3XL shirts:
After I finished sorting, I realized that I've accidentally mixed in the Tall sizes with the regular sizes, so I'm going to have to carefully find them all. And then not make that mistake again with the other shirt designs. The other designs will be a bit more complicated because there are multiple colors of each size. But I'll still primarily sort by size.
Because of the huge array of color/size possibilities, I won't be able to assembly line any of these packages. This is going to be a slower shipping process than I like, but we'll still get it done.
As a notification: On July 31 I leave for GenCon and I won't return until August 6. All shipping will be paused that week.
Your next scheduled shipping update will be next Friday July 27.
Thank you for all your support.
--Sandra Tayler
Shirt Shipment Update
over 7 years ago
– Mon, Jul 09, 2018 at 10:48:27 PM
Greetings Backers,
Today I received notice that 9 big boxes of shirts will be arriving on Friday. This means that I will be able to begin shipping shirts during the first half of next week. I'm not sure yet how quickly I'll be able to work through all of the orders. With all of the size/color/design combinations we will have to be very careful to make sure that we're putting the right shirt into the right package.
Step one begins with all of you updating your addresses if you have moved since you filled out your survey. As soon as I post this update, I'll send out a reminder email with a link for you to update your address if you need to. On Thursday I'll be locking down all the addresses so that I can begin the process of organizing invoices for shipment.
The next scheduled update will be Friday July 20. By then I should have an idea of how long it will take for me to get all the packages out.
