International Shipping (EU) of Physical Tiers

[Cheiron]

Okay, this will be my last attempt to get a response from Obsidian on this, as all previous posts (by me and a few friends) on the Fig page, during streaming sessions, and during a Reddit AMA, were ignored and remained unanswered.

 

I am located in Europe. Right now I have pledged all-digital. I would gladly upgrade my pledge to include a physical box (such as the Collector's Edition), but only if I could get some kind of guarantee from Obsidian that they will ship the physical items "EU friendly". Which means, either (best scenario) ship them from within the EU, in which case we (the pledgers) won't have to worry about additional taxes and administrative charges at all, or, failing that, at least pre-pay the taxes for us, and include a customs clearance document that clearly states that taxes are pre-paid (which is the way that eg Amazon US does it). In the latter case, you can charge those taxes to us, but at least we won't have to worry about the additional administrative charges... having to pay both the import taxes AND the administrative charges, simply adds too much to the tiers, making them uninteresting for us EU backers.

 

Please Obsidian, can you let us know what we Europeans can expect when we pledge for a physical tier? Because I know there are several people, like me, that have been hesitant to increase their all-digital pledge to a physical one because of this. A good answer to this could give the campaign a much-needed boost towards the next stretch goal...

 

See also:

https://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-47-this-project-is-eu-friendly/

Edited March 24, 2017 by Cheiron

[Pidesco]

All I can personally say is that I didn't pay any extra fees for the original game when I got it. I also got the signed copy so my box probably had to pass through the US originally. Additionally, I don't remember anyone on the forums complaining about paying extra customs fees, but  my memory may be faulty on that.

 

I also assume that, at this point, unless Obsidian is certain the same company(ies?) will be used for international deliveries, how international shipping will be handled isn't set in stone yet, so Obsidian might not have a definite answer to give yet.

 

I'm a volunteer mod by the way.

 

 

Edit: Forgot about Paradox. Paradox is the publisher, and they're based in Sweden so there shouldn't be any reason for you to pay extra fees if you are within the EU.

[Regggler]

On the fig page, the said it was their intent to be as euro friendly as possible. Collected fig comments on European shipping, all by Feargus:

 

"Not sure if this helps you, but for Europe we will be distributing from within the EU." (Feb 4, 2017)

 

"We plan to ship things to fullfillment houses in the US and EU. We might produce certain things in the EU rather than ship them as well. I've been talking to some other game companies in Europe about it." (Feb 5, 2017)

 

"We are going to work on shipping from within Europe, so we will be a European Friendly as we can. As for the partners, we won't have that information until after the campaign - sorry." (Feb 10, 2017)

 

" For the Pillars boardgame, we used ShipNaked. I don't know if we will use them for this, however if they were able to ship into Europe "the right way" then we would find someone who does it the same way." (Feb 18, 2017)

 

"We won't have an update on the European shipping partner before the end of the campaign. I can say that we will be looking at shipping partners like Ship Naked, which Zero Radius used for the Pillars of Eternity card game. I believe they shipped from within Europe, which reduces VAT and other taxes and fees." (Feb 21, 2017)

Edited March 24, 2017 by Regggler

[Cheiron]

If the items are shipped from Paradox in Sweden, that would be perfect. But I've been burned one time too many by other Kickstarter to just take it on faith, so I would like an official statement from Obsidian on this. If they already had a solution in place for the first one, and are planning to use that same approach for this one, then that would be perfect...

[Katarack21]

 

"Not sure if this helps you, but for Europe we will be distributing from within the EU."

That seem's pretty clear...

[Cheiron]

Yeah, I hadn't read that "we WILL be distributing from within the EU" comment yet (searching in the Fig comments section is horrible), that sounds pretty definitive.

All the other comments (some of which I had read) sound more like "we will TRY to find a partner to ship from within the EU, and IF we find one, it shouldn't be a problem".

[Regggler]

My worry here is that "we will be distributing from within the EU" (Feb 4, 2017)  seems a bit at odds with "We are going to work on shipping from within Europe" (Feb 10, 2017).

 

I'll edit my post above to include the dates.

 

Edit:

For what it's worth, I backed at a digital level at first, and later moved to a physical one because Obsidian definitely is aware of the customs problem for Europeans, they are eager to fix it, and they managed to do so for Pillars 1, from what I've read (see Pidesco's post).

Edited March 24, 2017 by Regggler

[Cheiron]

Agreed, it's a bit worrying that "we are going to work on..." and later statements sound a lot less sure than the innitial Feb. 4 statement.

So it would still be good if Feargus could provide some up-to-date info here...

[TeraAkron]

For me, the major issue is not the international cost of shipping, but the actual customer value of the physical box. The box is basically....just the box. There is no CD inside nor a printed manual. It's an empty box with a paper side with a digital download code.

 

How exactly are we supposed to support this?

[Regggler]

Your are not "supposed" to support anything - if it's worth it to you, back it. If not, get a purely digital reward.

 

Personally, I enjoy putting game boxes on shelves, so the box itself has value for me. Matter of taste, of course.

[Pinsalinj]

Apart from the VAT issue, what prevented me from taking any physical goodies was the shipping price. I wanted a T-shirt but the shipping would double the price (I'm in Europe too). If they ship from the EU, I don't really get why that would cost 25 dollars.

(And that seems a lot even from the US, I'm about to receive my Torment t-shirt for which shipping cost 10 dollars so I don't understand why there's such a difference.)

[AndreaColombo]

PoE CEs were indeed shipped by Paradox from Sweden, so no additional VAT/customs charges were incurred by European backers (I would know, as I am one of them.)

 

I would be very surprised if Obsidian did not adopt a EU-friendly solution for Deadfire. Keep in mind that even Beamdog shipped their SoD CEs from within Europe even though they don't have a European publishing partner (and they charged $45 for shipping to Europe.)

 

I guess they can't commit to it now because they don't have a partnership that is set in stone. I'm sure they'll talk to Paradox about it (and after the first game's success, I doubt Paradox would turn the offer down) but until a contract's signed, the wisest thing for Obsidian is not to make promises.

[Cheiron]

Well, I can live with that if they offer us the option to reduce our pledge from physical to digital-only lateron, if they fail to provide an EU friendly shipping option...

 

As I said. I've been burned one too many times by this kind of thing already...

Edited March 24, 2017 by Cheiron

[Regggler]

To shamelessly bump this thread:

@Aarik, anything new you can share about European shipping?

[Pinsalinj]

(and they charged $45 for shipping to Europe.)

 

 

Wow. Okay, I'll stop complaining then... (Still can't afford that t-shirt though )

Edited March 24, 2017 by Pinsalinj

[Cheiron]

No comment from Obsidian?

[Aarik D]

Hey everyone,

 

Sorry about the delay, support is out of the office during the weekends, so we weren't able to get back to you guys. We're very concerned about and cognizant of your shipping concerns, and are working that out soon as we figure out our shipping and distribution planning. Sorry I couldn't have definite answer for you guys at this point in time. 

[Cheiron]

Thanks for the reply, Aarik. So at this stage, you cannot guarantee EU friendly shipping, you can only say that you'll try your best to make it happen.

In other words, it's still an IF, not a WHEN...

[Regggler]

Hey Aarik,

 

awesome, thanks for the answer! And sorry for pestering you on a weekend

 

@Cheiron: Eh, Pillars 1 managed to be euro friendly, and Aarik said it's "on the list" so to speak - so personally, I'll happily await my collector's edition.

Edited March 28, 2017 by Regggler

[Nazirah]

Hi folks:

 

I’m backer of Deadfire. As I can read in your Website, the status shipment continues in “Pending” mode.

I would like to know the approximate date of shipment.

 

Thanks a lot

 

Hey everyone,

 

Sorry about the delay, support is out of the office during the weekends, so we weren't able to get back to you guys. We're very concerned about and cognizant of your shipping concerns, and are working that out soon as we figure out our shipping and distribution planning. Sorry I couldn't have definite answer for you guys at this point in time.