Escape Advent Calendar 2024

October Update- Shipping - Ups and Downs
5 days ago – Tue, Oct 29, 2024 at 05:10:49 PM

Hello everyone

Some good news and some bad news, the good news is the overseas calendars are on the way, the bad news is the past week and a half we have had trouble with our shipping.

All is explained in the video as thought it would quicker to explain however has also made a little brief under the video for those who cannot see the video and pictures.

• The calendars have been ready to go since the 18th October, when organising the shipping as usual with our courier, they announced that the one they use no longer will carry chocolate. This left us with the other couriers provided. As you can see from the price list below, they are ridiculous.

• Looking around at other couriers, see price lists below the options were not good, bearing in mind this is for a (one) under 1kg parcel. This is of course over budget, and we had a real panic attack that we would have to stop shipping to overseas or ask for a donation for more money. None of these options we liked.  £23 in shipping for one calendar?

• Now here’s part of the good news, we are now sending enough calendars to become eligible for a Royal Mail business account that allows for a shipping price within the predicted budget.  Onboarding onto Royal Mail has taken a week to sort out and the calendars are on the move.

So, this does show how difficult it is for a small business to expand as shipping as become so expensive to send parcels anywhere.

We will keep you updated as we get through the delivery process.

Regards

Jason

October - It's time to pack the calendars
30 days ago – Fri, Oct 04, 2024 at 11:53:35 AM

Hello Everyone,

Just another quick update, we have received the mailers today and are set up in our little office space ready for the calendars to arrive from the manufacturers next week. It is now all hands on deck to get them packed and shipped out to you. 

As usual the plan will be to send out the longer distance rewards first (USA, Canada, etc) as they will be the longest to travel. We will start sending them out the door October 11th. We will then send the UK rewards nearer the beginning of November.

Charging cards

BackerKit pledges will be taken out shortly, so if you paid for extra calendars or puzzles this will be charged very soon. This will also include the Pre-orders if you have joined us after the campaign. 

We will still keep the Pre-order store open just a little longer for anyone who missed out.

Survey

Thank you to everyone who has filled in the survey on BackerKit. Still about 30 people left to fill out the surveys. Please check your inboxes or you may miss out. We have noticed some of the remaining emails are apple ID ones. Kickstarter sometimes has trouble with these and will either send to the junk folder or not at all so please check your email folders.

Clues

As you will be receiving your calendars soon, there is a temptation to complete them right away. You are welcome to do so, but we hope you wait till Christmas. The clues that are on the website for the new calendars will not be up until the beginning of December. 

We will keep you in touch with the progress.

Regards

Jason

End of August Update
2 months ago – Fri, Aug 30, 2024 at 03:01:55 PM

We hope you are having a loving 'Hot' August.  We are still on target for your calendars to be with you before December.

As mentioned it has been very hot in the UK during the month of August, this did cause a slight delay in getting the chocolates to the manufacturers but we planned for this. Don't worry your chocolates haven't melted, they were kept in a cool place while we waited for the heat to pass. This happened last year and we still managed to get the calendars out on time to fulfil your rewards.

This is the manufacturing and packing stage. Everything has been printed and chocolates arrived earlier this week. The calendars have been printed and are getting put together as we speak. 

PRE ORDER STORE

Our pre-order store is still open if you missed out on the campaign  We will be closing this near the end of October.

95% SURVEYS COMPLETED

Thank you to everyone who has filled in the survey on BackerKit. This is great, the best we have ever had and we can get on top of shipping much quicker. About 40 people left to fill out the surveys. Please check your inboxes. We have noticed some of the remaining emails are apple ID ones. Kickstarter sometimes has trouble with these and will either send to the junk folder or not at all so please check your email folders.

We will keep you updated as things progress.

Thank you for supporting us.

Jason

BackerKit shipping
3 months ago – Tue, Jul 23, 2024 at 10:16:20 AM

Hello Everyone,

Regarding BackerKit Shipping

First of all apologies for not getting back to all of you straight as we have been back and forth with BackerKit over the last week to sort the issue.

To cut a long story short some of the backers were receiving two shipping quotes for their add ons and causing an imbalance from the price paid on Kickstarter. Because of a few wrong boxes ticked, BackerKit was putting extra cost where it shouldn’t. We had put this through the test screen progress and nothing came up and thought all was okay but turns out it wasn’t. 

Hopefully all sorted now, you will receive another email from BackerKit shortly asking to check your survey and review. If you have only ordered from Kickstarter there will be no imbalance and if you have ordered add on’s through BackerKit it will charge you the correct shipping amount that was stated from the campaign.

Thank you to everyone who has filled in a survey already and for those who let us know as soon as you found out.

 Are you using an apple id email?

Another reminder to please check your emails and the junk mail folder, especially if your Kickstarter profile uses an apple id email.

Thank you for your support

Jason

Surveys are out/ Add On's are in/ Pre-Orders are up
4 months ago – Mon, Jul 08, 2024 at 12:05:31 PM

Hello everyone, we are just sending a quick update about what is happening.  We have sent off the artwork for final printing as per the schedule. Also the milk chocolate has been ordered and is being sent to the manufacturer for placement.

Surveys

We will be sending out surveys for delivery addresses very shortly.  This will be coming from BackerKit, so please check your junk mail folders if you have not received them within the next 2 days.

We have already sent out the first set of surveys to some of our backers to test that it works, it has come back all okay so everyone will receive theirs within about 2 days. 

** Please note if you are using an 'appleid' account this survey will be the Junk mail!

When filling in the survey, please make sure that you using the address you will want the calendars sent too in November. There will be a reminder to confirm this when we are ready to deliver.

Add on's

We have also added the possibility to get more add ons, including the wooden and acrylic Puzzle-A-Day calendar from DragonFjord that we sell on our website. Great for a stocking filler.

We also have included our other Add on calendars if you would like to send these to family and friends too.

Our Pre-store is now open for anyone who missed out on the Kickstarter! Please spread the word.

Thank you again.

Regards

Jason