My Special Little Snowflakes

So, a week after returning from Dragon*Con (hands down, my favorite event)–and with only a week to go until once more hitting the friendly skies (next up, Salt Lake City Con, and a ton of preparation I have to do beforehand)–what’s been happening in the crazy Land of Fulfillment? SO MUCH.

Namely, though, my world has been consumed with sending out kits from the PRELUDE to AXANAR Kickstarter (meaning, the campaign that ended in March 2014). The good news? I’ve sent out SO many kits to the international PRELUDE Kickstarter donors (hundreds, so far). The bad news (for me, anyway)? Now I’m down to the “oddball” kits, which aren’t lumped together tidily in BackerKit (oh, if only). What’s left, among the international donors, is an unholy pile of  “Special Little Snowflakes”, including–in no particular order–donors who “pre-ordered” (and no, there was no such thing as a pre-order, so that’s annoying) a package; donors who “pre-ordered” (argh, there’s that nonsensical term again) a package and then added extra stuff onto it; donors who “pre-ordered” only add-ons (which shouldn’t have been possible for multiple reasons, yet miraculously seems to have been so); donors who pledged at a level which had no physical perks… but then proceeded to add physical perks to their donation; donors who ordered multiple packages (with or without add-ons); donors who paid and are due physical perks but never entered their address and/or name (and failed to reply to any of my email requests for same); donors whose cards were declined (which shouldn’t show up on my lists of things to be shipped, but yet, there they are); and donors who paid for part of their initial donation, but failed to pay the balance, or to pay shipping, etc.  (That’s hardly a comprehensive list of what I’m dealing with, but it gives you an idea, right? Not fun.)

Another frustrating thing (for me) about all the cotton-picking “snowflakes”? There is NO WAY volunteers could help me weed through this mess; it’s too complicated. (Picture me at my computer, suddenly hopping up and running back to the warehouse storage area to pull some stuff, then racing back into the office area, back to my computer, switching to the other open browser so I can toggle back and forth between screens for BackerKit, the Kickstarter page, Paypal, one of my four webmail work accounts, Facebook, and the USPS site, trying to figure out what is what and get everything shipped. Again. And again. And… )

Right now, I’m waiting for the BackerKit folks to finish re-setting hundreds of carts for me so I’ll be able to tackle the stateside PRELUDE donor kits (once I’ve knocked out the last of the international ones, remember). As it happens, this is also a prime example of why our decision in the PRELUDE Kickstarter to ship things out in multiple shipments to US donors was such an ill-conceived one, in practice: I have to get the BackerKit people to manually re-set anyone’s account for which I’ve shipped partial shipments, in order for me to use the BackerKit built-in postage system and ship additional items to the same donors. (Time-consuming? You bet.)

Now, since I know someone out there will ask… again… the PRELUDE retroactive donors will be fulfilled after the international, and then the stateside, Kickstarter donors have been completed. (Why? Because the Kickstarter donations preceeded the retroactive ones.)

After that–and as always, around conventions (which are so very necessary to continue raising awareness of and support for this project!)–we’ll be working on sending out the patches (ONLY the patches, remember) to the AXANAR Kickstarter donors. We will also be shipping out the “special/secret perks” to the AXANAR Indiegogo donors.  (And for the love of little green Martians, people, please do not ask “where’s my stuff”, whether in emails, messages, or Facebook posts. The above discourse fully details what stuff is coming, and in what order; that’s as precise an answer as I can give. :))

MISCELLANEOUS (also Important!) STUFF:

If you have a question regarding Ares Digital (from how to log in, or how to retrieve a password, or why something is/isn’t showing up), you’ll want to contact our tech specialist, whose email is support@axanarproductions.com. (That is the ONLY email you should use for technical issues; any other email or messaging platform probably leads you to me, and a techie I’m not.)

PRELUDE DONORS (only PRELUDE donors, here):
Hopefully you set up your Ares Digital accounts long ago, and if so, that’s fantastic. BUT… if you’ve had a change of address–even if you correctly changed it in Ares Digital–you MUST also change it in the BackerKit (or let me know your new address so I can change it there). I’ve explained many times that I have to use the BackerKit system to fulfill ALL of the PRELUDE to AXANAR Kickstarter donations, so that is the portal I go through for everything… meaning THAT is also from whence I get your shipping information; Ares Digital has NOTHING to do with PRELUDE Kickstarter fulfillment, aside from delivery of digital perks from that campaign. (So, if what’s listed in the BackerKit is wrong? You’re not going to get your stuff, and there won’t be anything I can do about it.)