Impact! 17 Football Team KickStarter - LAST DAY!!!!!

[connexion]

Son was admitted to hospital again on Monday and not due to leave until some time next week.

Best of luck, Tom... :-/

[Darkson]

Best of luck, Tom... :-/

This.

[Tritex]

Son was admitted to hospital again on Monday and not due to leave until some time next week. Been spending a lot of time with him this week as he recovers.

Tom

Praying for you and your family at this time my friend. Hope he recovers well.
Jason

[ChenZhen]

Still working through as fast as I can. Son was admitted to hospital again on Monday and not due to leave until some time next week. Been spending a lot of time with him this week as he recovers.

Tom

Sounds like you have your priorities right. Family priorities trump games. Our (really cool) toys can wait.
Praying for you and your family. Hope all is well.

[GalakStarscraper]

I appreciate the thoughts from everyone. Trying to get as much done as I can when I'm home but just not been home much over the last 2 weeks.

[Lychanthrope]

Trying to get as much done as I can when I'm home but just not been home much over the last 2 weeks.

No problems Tom. Take good care of your son. Wishing the best for you and your family.

[Olaf the Stout]

Really hope your son is ok Tom. My minis really don't matter at all compared to that.

[Glowworm]

Really hope your son is ok Tom. My minis really don't matter at all compared to that.

+1

All the best wishes to you and your family.

[stanrichardson]

Tom

Firstly to yourself and others this is not an attack and I don't want it to start a flame war. Please read my comments and take them as they are meant, this is purely me asking questions and hope for direct answers from yourself. If you want to answer via pm that's fine. If you do that I will only share the responses with the parties concerned. If anyone else wants to jump on this honest and open post, that's your choice, but please do not make it personal. The comments I am making are no different from any other I would make to a project that I have backed, if you disagree with any of my points please feel free to say but do not call me for voicing for what I feel and others feel to.

Firstly I did not back your project, but I did support it heavily as part of a group circa $550. And after hearing how the group feels I feel like I need to get this out in the open.

Secondly we all understand the personal issues you and your family have and continue to face. Several of our group have children and the pain a parent must face under those circumstances is world changing.

With that said this post is made with a purely business head on, but takes those issues into account.

You are a father and husband but you are also running a business, we support the fact you have put those factors first and rightly so. These questions do take those factors into consideration, and we understand that Tom the husband and father and Tom from Impact can never be truly separated but I hope you take this as its meant, a customer asking the views of a business owner.

We all know the project has been delayed, and that delay is on the distribution side. Please correct me is I am wrong.

The follow points are either my own or been directly voiced to me.

1. Was there failings in the planning of how the distribution would work? For example the issues with packing and extra help and quality of that help?
2. When did Impact become aware that a bottle neck would occur, if point 1 is true? And what action was taken?
3. Did this project outstrip the companies ability to deliver and if so why was not controlling action taken?
4. The company has run other kickstarters, since the close of this one, and more than one. It has been stated that the time impact would be near zero on this kickstarter. So does that mean someone else was doing the posting, project management, banking, budgeting under the impact brand? And could those resources been used on this kickstarter to aid delivery?
5. Did you still support running these kickstarters and at the same time starting a post here about other companies delayed projects?
6. How are the pledge rewards being packaged? Is there a system or is it random? Please could be see what the rates are by pledge banding? Country? From various media there is a prevised impression that USA and very vocal impact fans seem to be getting there's first.
7. Why have updates stopped? The only updates have been made via the comments section, which requires backers to check and can be easily missed. If you can post a comment why not address all backers via an update?
8. Do you feel this kickstarter has damaged Impact as a brand and how would you address the people that supported Impact.
9. How would you address the people who first experience of Impact is this kickstarter?

I hope you and others take this comments as they meant. no one wants to see a company fail, certainly one as well know as Impact.

Again I wish you and your family well on a personal level.



Stan

[GalakStarscraper]

1. Was there failings in the planning of how the distribution would work? For example the issues with packing and extra help and quality of that help?

Yes and no. Distribution was planned out and should not have been an issue. My part time staff was going to pack up the teams and I was going to ship them out. Plan working like that ... everything would have been finished months ago. Extra help has been not a solution due to the quality of anyone that has tried to help.

2. When did Impact become aware that a bottle neck would occur, if point 1 is true? And what action was taken?

Difficult one to answer. I would guess that would have been around December when we started getting reports from 90% of the backers receiving product that there was an issue with multiple teams not having all the parts. To resolve that I took over all the packing and shipping to fix this issue and that was pretty much when my son's massively severe health issues started.

3. Did this project outstrip the companies ability to deliver and if so why was not controlling action taken?

Yes it did. I have not been able to identify anyone outside of myself that can pack up the pieces of the teams accurately. I've tried and when I double check the teams ... I am consistently finding a massive high error rate. Would not be a problem if I had no other concerns but I have been spending most of my time driving my son to care and spending it with him at the hospitals since December. I recently posted an update that he was home from the hospital and that lasted about 10 days before we were back to full time trying to take care of him. I'm keeping the company open and running but just barely. 2 weeks ago I took a loan for $6k just to pay the mortgage since I have not been able to spend the time on my business that I need to keep going as effectively as I should.

4. The company has run other kickstarters, since the close of this one, and more than one. It has been stated that the time impact would be near zero on this kickstarter. So does that mean someone else was doing the posting, project management, banking, budgeting under the impact brand? And could those resources been used on this kickstarter to aid delivery?

I'm posting comments and updates which are done often from the hospital or out of my home. Online stuff that I can do out of the shop (like banking, budgeting and project management). When I'm home I'm working on packing up teams and shipping out rewards for this KS as much as possible. My wife and part time help processed the management of shipping the rewards.

5. Did you still support running these kickstarters and at the same time starting a post here about other companies delayed projects?

Yes I do. The products from those KS projects are supplying revenue streams to give me the money that I need to keep shipping this KS project since the money from the project is already gone. They also keep the company open. Even if Impact! closed for some reason ... I'd still work to get all the rewards shipped ... but it would definitely take longer if I had to do it all from only personal income. As for starting a post about another company's delayed products ... I honestly do not remember bring up another company's delayed projects. If I did .. in hindsight that would an error if they have had problems like I have had and not just that they took the money and ran. The only projects I remember commenting on would be the Rykar's Star Wars Orcs and the Necrom Amazons both of which were going to fail to deliver. I offered both to step and try to help get the backers their rewards out of my pocket. Rykar took me up on it ... Necrom did not. Necrom ran a 2nd Crowdfunding project while the Amazons were still outstanding and it failed and I might have commented on that since I offered to help the company out. So on both of those ... I did comment and I'm okay with why I did because I was trying to help them. If there was another comment or post and it was out of line ... point me to it and I'll definitely explain why I posted it or deleted it and apologize for the remarks.

6. How are the pledge rewards being packaged? Is there a system or is it random? Please could be see what the rates are by pledge banding? Country? From various media there is a prevised impression that USA and very vocal impact fans seem to be getting there's first.

Yup I've been mostly packing the vocal folks first. At this point the project is very delayed. Several backers have privately told me they can wait so when someone expresses that they are no longer willing to wait ... yes I offer to ship them as I'm doing the best I can to manage the anger or disappointment over the project. Just like the first thing I did before answering this post was request what reward you were part of so that I can try to ship it. I've had a lot of backers tell me they have the mindset about this KS like the fans of Heresy do with his dragon. Just like with Andy who is multiple years behind on shipping his dragon ... several of my backers know I'm not blowing them off and that I am working on it as much as humanely possible without the company closing. So those backers ... yes I am taking them up on there incredibly generous offers to wait as much as I can and trying to address the ones that have lost their patience. I do not have a breakdown of shipping like you are asking. It is mixed random based on what teams I have packed up and what backers I'm talking to but the USA is definitely not getting preference (I am not even looking at country of origin as I'm packing until I'm ready to print the address label one the box is ready to go). Most the packages that ship out are going overseas.

7. Why have updates stopped? The only updates have been made via the comments section, which requires backers to check and can be easily missed. If you can post a comment why not address all backers via an update?

Because the last update was an error. My son was home ... I posted this great message of hope and then 10 days later I'm back in the weeds. And at some point ... it sounds like a broken record to me to post an update that says ... son still sick ... shipping as much as possible. So I've been trying to respond in the comments to anyone with a question. I'm working through the rewards as quickly as I can but I have to do it myself as I simply cannot afford to ship rewards twice if there are errors. Postage to Europe for even a couple figures is now almost $10. If I have too high an error rate that will pretty much break the company since this KickStarter has already cost $2000 more than the amount it raised.

8. Do you feel this kickstarter has damaged Impact as a brand and how would you address the people that supported Impact.

Absolutely. Any problem that goes wrong damages the brand name. My address to those people would be to ask anyone that has worked with me on anything other than this project. Customer service is one of the most vital and important things to me. Excellent customer service to me is the most important part of running Impact! but this project is my Waterloo and I openly admit it. I was forced to pick between my son and this project. I cannot apologize for picking my son ... but I do sincerely apologize for the effects that it has had on the backers who are waiting.

9. How would you address the people who first experience of Impact is this kickstarter?

I'm sorry if this was your first experience with the company. I take no pride in what has happened with it and I think about this project every day and what time I'll be able to get each day to continue to work on it. If they would make different decisions in my place that would have had a more successful result ... I apologize that I did not think of them. If they were willing to ask anyone outside of this project about what customer service means to me ... they would see this project is a massive negative but singular blip in what I've done to service the fantasy football community my entire life. However, I would hold no negative thoughts about anyone that choose not to buy from my company again or back another KS that we run based on what happened with this one. I've run 3 KS projects that went several overdue. They happen and I do my best to really learn from each one so that those problems do not happen again.

I hope you and others take this comments as they meant.

I hope I did my best to answer them. If I missed a question or did not answer something well enough ... just let me know and I'll try again. Not trying to dodge any questions or give non-answers to them ... there was a lot there to try to address.

Tom @ Impact!

[stanrichardson]

Thanks Tom

Your responses are appreciated, as discussed privately this was not an me trying to get the order I am involved in bumped up the queue, like I said the response would of been enough.

I honestly wish you nothing but the best and thanks again for engaging with this

S

[GalakStarscraper]

Thanks Tom

Your responses are appreciated, as discussed privately this was not an me trying to get the order I am involved in bumped up the queue, like I said the response would of been enough.

I honestly wish you nothing but the best and thanks again for engaging with this

S

I apologize to the folks in your leagues that have lost faith in my company. Wish I knew before they reached that point. I've noted your league's reward on the list of get out sooner than later.

Update Edit: This is the other part of this KickStarter that is just very difficult to explain why it is taking so long without being able to bring someone in and show them all the steps. Normally for any KickStarter I would expect shipping to go at a rate of 10 to 12 backer rewards packed and shipped per an hour. This has been true of almost all the KS projects we have done. This FF KS is the exception. I packed up the reward for the backer that Stanrichardson was part of tonight and 5 hours later I have it finished and ready to ship. I keep working to get the everyone's rewards out but this KS is just a black hole for how many hours it swallows vs the productivity that it allows you to yield for that effort. I've spent over 100 hours packing up just Massimo's reward and I still have a good 4 to 5 hours to finish the last box of figures to ship to him after he confirms with his league with any other items I need to make sure are in the final box to ship of his reward.

Tom

[ChenZhen]

Our league has done 2 orders per year from Impact.

We have been very pleased with the products, service, and support from Impact (Tom). The trollcast teams have been a great way for new coaches to get into the game / hobby. We have grown to a league of over 20 coaches in 2.5 years.

We placed a big order as a league for this Kickstarter. The order was slower in coming than we would have preferred, but the updates helped us to be patient. Seriously ill kids are no joke. We did get our order (and there was much rejoicing).

I want to encourage anyone that has only interacted with Impact around this kickstarter, that this is the exception. We have been extremely pleased with all of our "regular" orders. The bases, rings, dice, pitches, stars, cards, and teams have all been popular.

Kickstarters can be strange beasts...many of us are waiting on Shadows of Brimstone rewards to get made / shipped from Flying Frog Games!

This kickstarter seemed like a perfect storm of things all came up. One or two of them would have been a slight delay....all of them has resulted in a more significant one.

Just the perspective of this repeat customer and kickstarter backer.

Edited for typo.

[Darkson]

I feel guilty as I was one of the ones that told Tom to hold off on shipping mine till the end of the queue, only to find it had gone the day before I sent the email.
I've got other KS stuff to come, and I've told him to hold it all and ship it in one go, if that saves him time.

Very happy with the teams when they arrived though.


[Edit] Shadows of Brimstone - yep, there's an example of how not to run a KS. Won't be touching another FFP KS.

[mzukerman]

Thanks for the insightful questions and thanks for the answers Tom. If I could ship my wife to you in Indiana, she'd be pretty good at the distribution. She even said she'd do it, but alas our house would fall apart without her.

I've been trying to keep our league at bay (Kickstarter buyer was Dave Wilcox). I have dealt with Impact personally and keep telling them this is an outlyer. Some get it, some don't. Since the Kickstarter, Tom has supported our tournament, the Empire Cup. Now, this is all prepackaged stuff I believe, so the effort I assume was very small. It came about 2 weeks before the tournament so I was quite pleased. I did let everyone in the league know how well we did and that helped somewhat. I am continuing to give updates and let everyone know what's going on. Some are losing confidence though.

Tom, my heart goes out to you. This is the worst situation to be in. The fact that it has had a profoundly negative hit on you personally (finances especially) is such a tragedy. Know that I will continue to purchase from Impact in the future and will encourage others to do so as well.